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Brattleboro 2024 Dog and Wolf-Hybrid Licenses Due

The Brattleboro Town Clerks office is working on a new portal that will streamline the dog licensing process for dog owners, making it quicker and more efficient. Unfortunately, that launch of that portal has been delayed. Once the portal is ready, dog owners will receive renewal paperwork in the mail with instructions on how to access and use the new portal through our website.

If a dog owner needs to license their dog(s) prior to the launch of this portal, they may do so in the same ways that they have license in the past: by visiting the Town Clerk’s office, paying the fee online, or by submitting a check through the mail or the drop-box (please include a note indicating the name of the owner(s) and dog(s) that are being licensed). These methods will remain available after the launch of the portal.


Time Bomb

As I entered the cafe a cat, completely camouflaged crossed my path, calico of course. Speechless, I went inside, got in line where it was impossible to not overhear a conversation well underway. “…it’s a campaign of grievance driven by brainwashing and sleepwalking… how is it not mass psychosis, Nazi Germany in the thirties?”  

I couldn’t tell if the two were a couple or some configuration less tested, but the man spoke with a heft of tone that said, “I know I’ve beaten this drum before.” His partner was sort of drifting off too, looking at me for rescue or corroboration, I couldn’t tell which.


Richard Davis To Run For One Year Brattleboro Selectboard Seat

Richard Davis, a 74 year old semi-retired nurse, writer and political activist has announced his intention to run for a one year seat on the Brattleboro selectboard.

A Boston area native, Davis has lived in Windham County for the past 45 years, 41 of those years in Guilford and for the past 2 ½ years in Brattleboro with his wife Roberta Levy.

He feels that the current board needs new blood to provide a different perspective on issues important to the people of Brattleboro.

Many people have been frustrated at the appearance of a lack of transparency that has surrounded the actions of the current board, especially in relation to the decision to end a long-standing relationship with Rescue Inc.


Le Patin Libre Returns to Brattleboro with Threshold

Next Stage Arts presents Montreal-based contemporary ice skating company Le Patin Libre, performing their work Threshold at the Nelson Withington Skating Facility on Friday, February 16 at 6:00 and 8:00 pm. Le Patin Libre performed to a sold-out audience at the rink last winter. A second show has been added this year to accommodate what is sure to be an enthusiastic response to the company’s return.

A contemporary reinvention of the show on ice, Le Patin Libre company is once again sharpening its blades for a new frozen opus. Dazzlement assured.

Le Patin Libre, whose members are all highly trained skaters, caused a sensation in 2014 with Vertical Influences, a revolutionary display of contemporary dance on ice. “We take full advantage of what makes skating a unique and legitimate art form: the glide”, explains Alexandre Hamel. “The glide allows the disconnection of the body’s displacement in space from its physical movement.” A Le Patin Libre performance is an adrenalin-laced experience. “We use that rush to fuel our choreographic poetry.” The same artistic team—skaters Pascale Jodoin, Jasmin Boivin, Taylor Dilley, Samory Ba and Alexandre Hamel, joined by dramaturge Ruth Little—brings us another gravity-defying show. “Dancers and acrobats have to walk, run, flip, leap, and so on. We, on the other hand, can zoom around without moving a muscle!”


BCTV Schedules – Week of January 22, 2024

Monday, January 22, 2024

5:55 am At BMAC – 16th Annual Domino Toppling Extravaganza

6:00 am Around Town with Maria – Jonas Fricke’s Friends Remember Him 12/12/23

7:25 am Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce – BACC Annual Members Meeting 1/16/24

8:00 am Democracy Now! – Democracy Now! Daily Broadcast

9:00 am Energy Week with George Harvey – Energy Week #555 – 1/11/2024


Kevin O’Keefe on “Here We Are”

You don’t have to run away to join the Circus, it can come to you! Kevin creates original productions with kids, does Circus Yoga with all ages, and makes everything fun. He shows how anyone can be part of Circus. Kevin is also a writer of essays, poems and memoir.  His Circus work has been featured twice in The New Yorker magazine.


Lunar New Year of China, Vietnam, and Korea

Asian Cultural Center of Vermont (ACCVT) celebrates the Lunar New Year Festival of China, Korea and Vietnam Saturday, February 10th, 1-3pm. You don’t have to be Asian or know anything about Asia to participate! Join us at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center to usher in the year of the Green Wood Dragon. With this rare combination of the Dragon’s power and Wood’s creativity, 2024 brings a year of innovation, vision and growth. The Wood Dragon year promises to be dynamic and unpredictable.

We will start our celebration with a potluck: bring a dish to share. Then join us for traditional Chinese Dance with Nan Jiang Hyde, group Taiji and Qigong, Korean Tug-of-War, and New Year crafts featuring make-your-own dragon puppets. We end our celebration with a Dragon parade from the Museum up Main Street to bring us luck for the coming year. Don’t miss the chance to dance with the 30-foot dragon. This extraordinary dragon was created by an accomplished Vietnamese craftsman.


WSESD Finance Committee Meeting Minutes – Jan 9, 2024

WSESU Business Administrator Frank Rucker shared and reviewed a document: “Windham Southeast School District FY25 Proposed Budget Summary.” Highlights included:

• The Finance office recently received some new statistics and information from the Agency of Education.
• There have been some updates Mr. Rucker has received since the prior draft:
◦ The state is essentially requiring the District to “pay itself,” by making Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS) pay the Windham Regional Career Center (WRCC) for the approximately 63 students that will attend. The Legislature is reviewing the funding formula.
◦ An addition of $150,000 for the Oak Grove capital project, due to bids being slightly higher than anticipated.
• The Common Level of Appraisal (CLA) statistics are fiscally unfavorable. If there are no changes, this will have a negative affect on the homestead tax rate.


Construction Update Brattleboro-Hinsdale Bridge – Jan 19, 2024

Additional steel deliveries to the Pier 1 site in Vermont are being scheduled with details to follow.

The delivery route will be along New Hampshire and Vermont Route 119 to Depot Street. This impact will include a short duration closure (approximately 10 minutes) of the twin bridges beginning at the intersection of Bridge Street to Canal Street, Main Street, and Vermont Route 142. Uniformed Traffic Officers will be located at the intersection’s entrance to Bridge Street during the closure period. While a time has not been set, all deliveries to Vermont will be off peak hours.


Windham Southeast School District Board Executive Session Minutes January 16, 2024

The board rose from Executive Session at 8:17.

Sherri Keefe commented that she is here to bear witness for all those who are waiting for the resolution to these issues and for the transparency that the board has promised. For healing for survivors, their family members, and all community members that have been affected, and have been waiting for answers, some for over 50 years. She expressed hope that we can achieve this through this process.


Windham Southeast School District Board Meeting Minutes – Jan 9 , 2024

Summary:
● Student representative concerns included a question of whether the compost materials are going into the trash and concerns about students feeling inhibited in expressing their identity and differences in learning styles.
● Administrators provided an update on Early Education Services and a proposed new public Pre-K classroom in Brattleboro at the Canal Street School
● The superintendent initiated the search process for two administrative positions, The Director of Curriculum and Principal of Brattleboro Union High School, by inviting board members to select representatives for the screening committees.
● The Board awarded a bid for the Oak Grove heat pump improvement project to BG Mechanical, for $2,453,438.
● The Board did a second review of the FY2025 draft budget. The budget is less than a 3% increase from the previous year but changes in the yield and the Common Level of Appraisal are projected to have a large impact on the tax rate for homeowners making more than $140,000 in annual income.


Low Income Senior Citizens Notified We Will Lose Program That Helps Pay For Internet In April!

Hello, I’m 71 going on 72 years old, I live alone with my dog, and I don’t know if I will be able to afford internet when this program ends in April. This email was sent to me by VTEL:

On Tuesday, January 16, 2024 at 04:06:05 PM EST, vermontel-no-reply@smarthub.coop wrote:

Dear Valued ACP Customer,

We regret to inform you that the FCC has advised us of the potential ending of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) in the very near future.


Selectboard Meeting Notes – We’ll See Your $80k, and Raise You $80k

selectoard jan 16 2024

The Brattleboro Selectboard heard a request from two organizations for an $80,000 a year part time position (and some data collection) and decided to double it. They gave them $160,000 and two years for a “proof of concept” showing that this investment attracts new businesses to Brattleboro.

The board went on to discuss their ARPA plans and FY25 budgets.


Reflections On Retirement

I have had over eight years to learn something about the stage of life that is called retirement. Sadly, in this country retirement is almost totally a financial issue and not everyone has the means to be able to set a date when they will no longer work for a living. The numbers have to work and living solely on Social Security is pretty close to impossible in today’s economy.

According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, half of all Americans would have to lower their standard of living in order to retire. That means that those 50% of Americans have no retirement savings and they face the prospect of having to have an income from work for the rest of their lives.


Guilford Center Stage 2024 Season

Guilford Center Stage will again this year be staging two productions, in the spring and fall of 2024, at Broad Brook Community Center in Guilford. These will be the 12th and 13th shows since the group was founded in 2015, and both feature the work of Vermont playwrights.

On the first weekend in May, Hardwick, Vt. playwright Marc Considine’s “Love Lost Diaries” will be staged, directed by Julie Holland of Guilford. Considine is a science teacher at Hazen Union School in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. He is coach of the school’s ambitious Drama Club. It was for his student actors that Marc Considine wrote this play, which was the ensemble’s entry in a regional drama festival in the late 1980’s.