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Brattleboro Selectboard 2015 Town Report

Brattleboro’s Selectboard continued its busy schedule in 2015, convening 39 meetings and focusing on a wide range of projects. Following 1½ years with an interim Town Manager at the helm, 2015 marked the beginning of the tenure of Town Manager Peter Elwell, who transitioned effectively into the Town Manager’s role in January 2015 and has been dedicating himself tirelessly to ensure that the work needed to provide services in Brattleboro is being handled in a professional and efficient manner.

Adoption of new land use regulations is a significant landmark in the life of a town, and Selectboard participated in and developed a comprehensive, inclusive, and transparent process that led to adoption of Brattleboro’s new Zoning and Subdivision regulations in November 2015. This project spanned multiple years and relied on countless hours spent by members of the Planning Department and Planning Commission. It was supported by grant and taxpayer funding, drew on significant work with an outside consultant, and was strengthened by broad input from diverse members of the community. Multiple public meetings and hearings provided extensive information to the public about the new Ordinance. Our new Land Use Regulations should provide the foundation for continued and orderly land use and development that serves the public interest and the public good in Brattleboro during the next generation.


A Weird Winter

This has been a weird winter. We saw a few snow flakes in October, a bit of snow around the end of December and early January, then almost nothing. Relatives down south are still digging out, though, from their big snow storm.

The temperatures have been relatively mild. As I type it is about 40 degrees out. What little snow was there is turning to water and evaporating.


BCTV Schedules For The Week Of 2/1/2016

BCTV channel 8 schedule for the week of 2/1/16

Monday, February 1, 2016

12:00 am Expanding Educational Opportunities During Tough Economic Times

1:30 am Bennington Marijuana Forum: A Public Discussion on the Topic of Marijuana 1/18/16

3:00 am Racial Profiling – A Community Response

5:00 am The Root: Mass Incarceration and Vermont: 1/17/15 Forum

6:14 am SAFSTOR: 1/26/16 – Joe Lynch


5:45 Live: 1/29/16

Get footage from the Townshend Gazebo crash, the latest figures on the VT Yankee Decommissioning Trust Fund, a fraud case spanning from Utah to Brattleboro, and much much more.


Weekend Creativity Series – Star Wars Special Effects

This week we take a look at special effects for motion pictures, using the recent Star Wars release as our example.

One of the big lessons of media literacy is that things are not always what they appear. That is, anything can be convincingly faked, and what you think you are looking at may not exist. National Geographic famously moved pyramids to new locations to make a better cover photo, and some news outlets have erased people from images or coverage of events.

So, it is important to know that we are being fooled, and fooled often. Knowing this doesn’t take the fun away when the tricks are used to entertain, but it should help sharpen critical viewing skills.


Brattleboro Selectboard Agenda & Notes – February 2, 2016

Police and Fire facilities debt, scheduling of special meetings and informational sessions, an ordinance change for animals and fowl, and committee adjustments will be before the Brattleboro Selectboard at their next regular Tuesday meeting. You can attend in person and participate!

Watch on BCTV and discuss it here after it’s over.


Japanese or Asian Language Groups Around Brattleboro?

Are there any groups in this area who get together to talk in Japanese?  I know there’s a Spanish group, so it occurred to me there might be an Asian group of some sort.  On behalf of a college-age relative who is extremely into Japanese (incuding anime, manga, foods), so I’m looking for possible social outlets.


Youth Services RAMP Program Seeks High School Participants for Career Mentoring

As students get into high gear during their second semester, Youth Services Workforce Development staff are busy seeking referrals of youth, ages 13-17, in need of extra support and career mentoring at Brattleboro Union High School and Bellows Falls Union High.

Now in its fifth year, Youth Services’ Ready-to-Achieve Mentoring Program (RAMP) meets once a week after school to connect students with professionals for career-focused mentoring and to encourage them to remain in school. Adult mentors join students on site tours to businesses and colleges, serve on occasion as guest speakers, and help participants work on their personal career plans, according to Susan Lawson-Kelleher, the organization’s Workforce Development Coordinator.


Town of Brattleboro – Notice of Availability of Auditors’ Reports

NOTICE is hereby given that the Brattleboro Town and Town School District Auditors’ Reports for fiscal year ending June 30, 2015, are available upon request and may be picked up at the Brattleboro Town Clerk’s office, 230 Main Street, Brattleboro, Vermont.

The Auditors’ Reports will also be available as part of the Town and School District Annual Report which will be available at the Town Clerk’s office no later than February 19, 2016.

Based on vote at Representative Town Meeting, March 20, 2010, the Town will no longer mail the Auditors’ Reports to all voters of the Town.


Space Shuttle Memories

The Challenger disaster. What memories.

I have a long and odd relationship with the Space Shuttle. Living in Florida in the late 70’s and early 80’s, we were often able to see the shuttle go up even though it was hundreds of miles away on the opposite coast. You could see a trail of smoke trailing a tiny sliver of shininess, and watch the plume arc as the shuttle took off over the Atlantic Ocean.

This was pretty neat for me, having been a space-age kid raised on moon launches and Tang.


Inequality Survey and Free Coffee

On Saturday, Jan. 30 members of the Vermont Workers’ Center will be at The Restless Rooster, 134 Elliot St., surveying members of our community about how issues of inequality are affecting our lives– in healthcare, access to work, discrimination and other issues facing you and your family. Please join us to participate in the survey and enjoy some free coffee! If you’d like to schedule a specific time for the survey, please e-mail . Or simply show up!


Dear BFC

My Dear Bratt Foo Coo,

Thank you, ever so much, for the fresh, local, organic tortillas.  I walked into the store this evening and was truly delighted.  Dinner transported me back to a tortilla shop in a little village in Central México, an elderly woman in the background making them by hand.  A good tortilla has a taste like a drink of fresh water from a gurgling spring. 

And thank you, by the way, also goes out to the Supreme Court of México for continuing to ban genetically engineered corn from being grown in their country.  Not that this has anything to do with my dinner, just giving credit where credit is due here.


Brattleboro Union High School Board Meeting Agenda

BRATTLEBORO UNION HIGH SCHOOL BOARD
53 Green Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
www.wssu.k12.vt.us

NOTICE OF BOARD MEETING

The BUHS #6 Board of Directors will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, February 1 in the WRCC Cusick Conference Room.

AGENDA

I. CALL TO ORDER – 6:30 p.m. – Robert Woodworth, Board Chair

II. PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING – FY ’17 PROPOSED BUDGET


Redress – Not Amnesty for Wrongful Nonviolent Marijuana Incarcerations

Considering that consenting adult marijuana consumption is one of the definitive victimless crimes, where there is no apparent victim and no apparent serious pain or injury, it means it should never have been a crime to begin with.If anything, the history of marijuana laws and their application are arbitrary, irrational and draconian by any reasonable standards. Therefore, marijuana consumers are victims of the law, not offenders of the law.

Evidently, now that marijuana consumption is moving into the mainstream of legalization, it makes me wonder what the hell were we thinking of all those years of criminalization? Clearly, there was and is no good conscience behind criminalizing marijuana. Historically, the escalation of marijuana laws turned tens of millions of Americans into criminals who were not criminals before.


The Winston Prouty Center for Child Development Purchases Former Austine School for the Deaf Campus in Brattleboro

 (Jan. 25, 2016) — The US Bankruptcy Court accepted the bid by Winston Prouty Center for Child Development to purchase The Austine School for the Deaf campus in Brattleboro.

The Austine School, which was part of the Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (VCDHH), closed at the end of the 2014 school year. VCDHH, which included a number of support and educational programs, closed in September and the organization declared bankruptcy.

Rather than pursue a long-planned $2.4 million expansion of its facility, including an early education center and community-based services, which is located across from Living Memorial Park, Winston Prouty decided to use its financial resources to purchase the Austine campus. “It would be great to have space where we could not only meet our needs but also collaborate with other nonprofits that might need space,” Chloe Learey, Winston Prouty executive director, said, “This will create an exciting opportunity to work together in new ways.” Winston Prouty’s winning bid was $2.75M. It is anticipating a loan of about $500K, depending on the sale of the current building and capital campaign.


I-91 Brattleboro Bridge Replacement Project Update: Week of January 31

I-91

To reduce congestion on I-91, both Exit 3 on ramps will be closed on Sunday, January 31, from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm. I-91 will remain open.

Weekend closures of the Exit 3 on ramps will continue each weekend through the end of February. The closures will be on Sunday afternoons; except that on three-day weekends, closures will be on Mondays.

Northbound I-91 traffic has been relocated onto the southbound bridge. Traffic will remain reduced to one lane in each direction on I-91 until completion of the new bridge. The new bridge will be 104’ wide and is designed to carry all four lanes of traffic –two northbound and two southbound.