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Construction Update Brattleboro-Hinsdale Bridge – August 9, 2024

by Not Signed In | Hinsdale

Concrete for the last two bridge deck sections and the Vermont approach slab has been placed. Work on removing the last treatment tank from the Pier 1 site should be completed this week. The new traffic pattern is in place on the new alignment on NH 119 as of this week as well.

For the next couple of weeks, placement of concrete for the sidewalks and curbs will continue to advance from east to west. Work on the approach to the bridge from VT 142 will ramp up – including placing the moment slabs/sidewalk, installing the expansion joint at that end of the bridge, raising the approach to grade, installing the traffic signals, and final paving.

Safety Is Elusive

by RDavis | Op/Ed

When I came to this area 45 years ago Brattleboro felt like a quiet but vibrant and peaceful town where all kinds of odd personalities were on display. Local people seemed to be very tolerant and we all took pride in our little corner of the world.

No town is free of crime or people displaying bad behavior. Human nature can be ugly at times and we hope that ugliness is minimal and that is does not have a big impact on other people. But the world has changed a lot since those more peaceful days of the 1970’s and 80’s.

I can mark a big change in Brattleboro around 1995 when I was serving on the Morningside Shelter board. We started to see syringes behind the shelter on a daily basis and although the shelter was supposed to be substance free we only had the ability to test for alcohol use. We knew heroin had come to our community and we knew the world was changing.

Cris Ericson is Approved as a Virtual Correspondent for the DNC

by CrisEricson2016 | Politics

I am very excited that I have been approved as a Virtual Correspondent for the DNC. I need to get hold of CCTV.org in Burlington, Vermont and BCTV https://www.brattleborotv.org/ and see what assistance I can possibly get from them
as well as someone to work alongside me, since it may be a lot of hours for 4 days.

Another person who likes to interview people would be a huge help, to sit side by side in my kitchen and do this, and it would be a huge help to have a technical expert to volunteer to help out.

In Need of Volunteer Host Families for High School Exchange Students

by Keckhardt | Education

We are looking for folks to step up to volunteer for international exchange students for the high school for the upcoming school year.  Students hope to arrive later this month, so they need someone to volunteer for them today,

What does hosting entail?  Students need a bed (they can share a room), a place to study and access to three meals a day.   Program support includes full health insurance, spending money, access to quarterly group trips, school support, and ongoing support of both the student and host family, too.

Ice Cream with Democratic Candidate Amanda Ellis-Thurber On Sunday, August 11

by JillStahlTyler | Politics

Windham District 7 Democratic candidate Amanda Ellis-Thurber will host an old fashioned ice cream social on Sunday, August 11th between 5 and 7 PM at Lilac Ridge Farm, 264 Ames Hill Road.

On the menu are organic maple creemees, a special ice cream toppings bar—and answers to any of your remaining questions about Ellis-Thurber’s positions.

“I’ve so enjoyed all the conversations I’ve had with my neighbors in District 7 during this campaign for the state house. My aim is to listen to all the residents of our large and rural slice of Brattleboro, so that I can represent this neighborhood well in Montpelier,” Ellis-Thurber said.

WSESD Board Meeting Agenda – Aug 13, 2024

by Not Signed In | Education

-If appropriate, agenda items are subject to Potential Action.
-If any Board Member feels that an item on the Consent Agenda warrants discussion, that item will be removed from the Consent Agenda and will be set aside for discussion. In this way, the Consent Agenda will be approved in one motion. That request should be made now – or before the vote on the Consent Agenda.

Selectboard Meeting Notes – Public Says Downtown Brattleboro Has Never Been This Bad

by cgrotke | Town News
youth council map of brattleboro hot spots

The Brattleboro Selectboard got an earful from people in town that definitely do not feel safe downtown. Things have reached new levels of awfulness for people of all ages. The board is considering making downtown a “safety zone” to take care of this problem once and for all. What that means exactly remains to be determined. But progress is being made! And the Youth Council created a cool map.

The board also learned that come September, people in the hotel and motel program will begin to be kicked out of their lodgings and will require sheltering of some sort.

Brattleboro Property Taxes and Utility Bills Due Aug. 15

by Not Signed In | Town News

The first installment of the 2024 Brattleboro Real Estate and Personal Property Taxes will be due by 5 p.m. on August 15, 2024. Payments made after August 15, 2024 will have an additional 1% interest added to the unpaid balance.

The Town of Brattleboro utility bills are also due by 5 p.m. on August 15, 2024. Payments made after August 15, 2024 will have an additional 1% interest, as well as an 8% penalty added to the unpaid balance.

Payments can be mailed to the Town of Brattleboro, 230 Main Street, Suite 111, Brattleboro, VT 05301. An official postmark of August 15, 2024 will be considered as an on-time payment.

Example of Social Media Banning My Posts

by CrisEricson2016 | Politics

In response to the reader’s comment, have attached here one of many examples of Facebook banning a post of mine. What they do is circle it in red ink and then delete it, as if they have a person who has nothing to do all day but follow me around on the internet. Every post they ban is perfectly innocent and nice. It is pure harassment by Facebook.

Eileen Christelow on “Here We Are”

by Wendy O'Connell | Entertainment

“Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed”! A very fun show with Eileen Christelow, author & illustrator of that perennial fave and many more – Tune in for a look into her long career of delighting kids and adults alike with her stories of mischief and mayhem.

Brattleboro Mentioned in the New York Times 8/2/24 Edition

by PeterW | Media

In an article about the growing popularity of sandals…..:

“Let us pause for a moment to consider again the astonishing transformation of what was, at one time in the not-so-distant past, a niche hippie staple, mostly popular among commune dwellers and people who shopped in the Brattleboro Food Co-Op. Now, it’s the Type O blood of footwear, a fashion universal. Judging from my walking tour of Harlem, Midtown Manhattan, Greenwich Village and SoHo over several sweltering summer days, the sandal of the season is, without any doubt, the Birkenstock Arizona (or, for the more fashion forward, the big-buckle Madrid). Both models were so ubiquitous on city streets that it’s clear why the 250-year-old company reported revenues of nearly $1.6 billion last year.”

Guilford Chamber Singers Seeking Voices for December Christmas Concert

by fomag | Music

Calling all singers!

Enrollment in the Guilford Chamber Singers is now open to all choral singers for our Christmas concert, December 13 and 14 at Broad Brook Community Center in Guilford, Vermont. All voices are welcome, with the repertoire being several settings of O Magnum Mysterium (O Great Mystery). The text describes the animals’ wonderment as they look upon Christ in the manger.

Guilford Chamber Singers have been together for more than 50 years, and are essentially an a cappella group. We give two concerts a year, in June and December. Rehearsals are on Monday evenings from 7 to 9 at the West Village Meeting House in West Brattleboro, Vermont, starting on September 9.

Brattleboro Selectboard Meeting Agenda and Notes – August 6, 2025

by cgrotke | Town News

Brattleboro will take possession of the new park at 250 Birge Street during their first regular meeting in August. The floodplain has been restored and the work is complete.

Emergency housing, water treatment plant construction, and “safety zones” will also be discussed. You can bring up other items not on the agenda during public participation.

Brattleboro and VT COVID-19 Regional Dashboard Summary – August 2024

by cgrotke | Health

Here’s the August 2024 dashboard summary. We continue semi-regular COVID-19 dashboard numbers from the Vermont Department of Health, and MA and NH counties that surround Brattleboro, as long as they continue providing them. Scroll down the new comments for the latest.

VT, NH and MA do weekly updates, near the end of the week, so we update on Fridays usually. All three have changed their dashboards since the start, so it is now tough to easily compare how things have changed. Variant updates are every two weeks.

Soles of Duende on the Bandwagon Summer Stage

by hahrenholz | Entertainment

The Next Stage Bandwagon Summer Series presents dance trio Soles of Duende, on Saturday, August 24 at 6:00 pm.

A Brooklyn-born Puerto-Rican from New Haven, a Mexican Puerto-Rican Jew from the Lower East Side, and a Bengali Indian from Jersey walked on to the wooden floor & the rest? History. Bonded by their deep love of music, their crafts, and true connection, Soles of Duende is on a lifelong mission to elevate the joy and music of true collaboration across disciplines and the celebration of the forms they practice. Based in the sounds of Tap (Amanda Castro), Flamenco (Arielle Rosales) and Kathak (Brinda Guha) , Soles of Duende’s fire is the spirit that lives within each of these women to celebrate their connection given their beautiful differences and to uplift the forms that made them.

“Live music meets dance from three different ethnic traditions sounds like a perfect way of exploring culture while seeing virtuosic talent,” says Keith Marks, Executive Director of Next Stage Arts. “This group has been getting a lot of attention in New York, and while they’re on the rise, we wanted to bring them to southern Vermont. There is so much about Soles of Duende that deserves attention – talent, merging of dance and live music, and the fact that these women are exploring connections of culture through dance is worth noting.”

Construction Update Brattleboro-Hinsdale Bridge Update – August 1, 2024

by Not Signed In | Hinsdale

Multiple concrete placements are scheduled for the next 3 weeks for the bridge approach from VT 142 as well as the sidewalks and rail copings. A placement for sidewalk and curb is scheduled for Monday, and the Vermont approach slab is to be placed Wednesday. Both will require multiple truckloads of concrete.

Work on cleaning and removing the remaining two tanks from the Pier 1 dewatering treatment system will resume next week. Finish work of berm repair, grading, and paving in the Barrows and Fisher yard around Pier 1 also remains.