I participated in a Maker Faire on Cape Cod this weekend – wondering if anyone has tried to get a group going in Brattleboro? Seems like we have a lot of people around here who could contribute awesome exhibits and it’s a nice family-friendly attraction. The small Faire last weekend drew about 1000 people.
Anyone know a place, preferably in town or not very far off, to pick unsprayed dandelion leaves? Thanks!
May Day Celebration
May 1, 2014 marks the 128th anniversary of a rally for the eight-hour day in Chicago’s Haymarket Square that ended with a police riot that left over a dozen dead. The political trial and hanging of four anarchists that followed sparked protests around the world and the designation by the Second International of May 1 as International Workers’ Day, more commonly known as May Day.
There is a health care records concern I have about “global consent” — whereby your records are stored in one big state file, to which, if you sign a release, any health care provider may have access. This story was on Vermont Public Radio — link to it http://digital.vpr.net/post/new-patient-information-system-sparks-privacy-debate . For information on the information exchange, see vitl.net .
This is what I sent to my legislators regarding this issue:
The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, April 29, 2014 at 6:30 pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center.
Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100
Legislation increases tax credit and removes barrier for purchasers
Montpelier, VT (April 28th) – At a charging station in Montpelier this morning, Rep. Peter Welch unveiled new legislation that makes electric vehicles more affordable for middle-income Vermonters and easier to purchase. Welch arrived at a Statehouse electric vehicle charging station driving a 2014 Ford Fusion Hybrid Energi provided by Lamoille Valley Ford.
BCTV Ch.8 Schedule for the week of 4/28/14
Monday April 28
1:00 am The Climate Show – Vermont Gas Pipline 3/6/14
2:00 am FSTV Overnight
4:00 am Organic Politics – The Answer is Blowing in the Wind
5:00 am Green Mtn. Vets for Peace – Ep.131 – Military Sexual Harrassment
6:05 am The Folklorist – Ep.7
In reviewing the vote at Representative Town Meeting, the results of the Australian ballot and the April 22 Selectboard meeting, a fair conclusion so far might be that there needs be a process to ensure the broadest possible input on those budget items on which there is some discretionary judgment.
To that end, I propose to the Selectboard that, in drafting the the Article for the the next Representative Town Meeting, that information be inserted in the warned Article which lists:
The amount of the budget that constitutes other than fixed expenditures (i.e. negotiated items, debt service, etc.)
The Administration of our town presented the Town Meeting Reps with a very large project. The Reps accepted the project, in 2012, though for many Reps it never sat well. There are more than a few reasons for that. Since that time the economy and financial problems of the town have continued to worsen. Many Town Reps, talking to friends and neighbors, came to believe that that the town as a whole was not in favor of this project. 56 Town Reps signed a petition to allow the citizens themselves to weigh in. More might have signed had they all been contacted. Only four days were left when organizing began.
I taught my child, who is 7, how to take pictures of UFOs, or UFAUXs. Get them started early, and they will have a craft that can support them for a lifetime.
Anyways, I did teach him this week, and he took this photo today. What more can I say ?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/88361661@N00/14016111666/
Dear Library User: As many of you heard or read last week, because of the Town-wide vote rejecting the Representative Town Meeting approved budget, the Selectboard has directed the Interim Town Manager and staff to provide impacts of various budget reduction scenarios affecting each Town department. The Library Board of Trustees will consider the impacts of these historic budget reductions at a meeting on Tuesday, April 29, 5:30 PM, in the Library’s meeting room on the 2nd floor. The meeting is open to the public.The Selectboard will meet at 6:30 PM in the Municipal Center’s Selectboard meeting room to consider the impacts. If you are interested in the outcome for the future of library services to the Brattleboro community, you should plan to attend these meetings.
I posted on ibratt, a couple days ago under the title “Taking a Deep Breath” a recommendation to the Selectboard that it might be wiser and simpler, and probably get their budget passed at this point, to remove the $261,000 for the project and let it go at that. Altho, to be sure, it is the project that has pushed the budget over the top and catalyzed the vote the overarching issue is the full spectrum of low income, high taxes, insufficient livable wage jobs…the stress and strains of a bad economy with a bleak future. Slicing and dicing the budget may save a hundred or hundred and fifty bucks a year but worsens our daily living experience without at all addressing the underlying causes. The defeat of the first budget has made a very loud noise.
Is there any way to remove stuff that other people put on your Facebook page?
It does not seem right that someone else can fill your page with tasteless material.
This week we set the time machine to Christmas 1980 at the Dominion Theatre to catch a show by Ian Dury and the Blockheads. As is often the case with the Weekend Concert Series, this is not for everyone, but for those who like Mr. Dury it is sure to be a treat.
Ian Dury was king of naughty new wave. His songs praised sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and frequently took a form similar to dirty limericks you might hear at the pub. The music is often very danceable and had a funky, soulful element. (He worked with Chas Jankel, a british keyboard player who had nightclub hits of his own.)
A new Six-Week Bereavement Support Group for adults begins on Tuesday May 6th and will meet each Tuesday from 4:30-6:00 pm, ending June 10th. The group is free of charge and open to anyone in the community grieving the death loss of a loved one, no matter where you are on your journey of grief.
Bereavement Support Groups offer a safe, mutually supportive environment for sharing experiences, insight and encouragement, through discussion, handouts, and suggestions for moving through grief. This group is sponsored by Brattleboro Area Hospice (BAH) and will meet at the hospice office at 191 Canal St. in Brattleboro. No prior connection with BAH is required in order to participate.
Come hear about the proposed new regulations that will protect our rural countryside by:
1. Permitting flexible lot sizes
2. Changing how we calculate the number of lots in a subdivision
3. Utilizing a 4-step design process that accounts for natural features
4. There will be time for Q&A and feedback.
I have worked at Brooks Memorial Library for 7 years and these are my own observations about the value I see in this local library and the undermining of that value by the current town budget discussion.
The most dramatic library cuts are up for discussion this week but my whole tenure at the library has been under level funding at the best points and cuts at the worst. The current proposal is to cut two full time positions from the library, a ⅓ of library staffing reduction.
I am not going to go into detail about the general value and history of public libraries. I will just mention that I got a Master’s in Library and Information Science because I believe that the cornerstone to a functioning democracy is an informed and empowered citizenry, regardless of money, race, religion, gender, or location, and free public libraries are the providers of that cornerstone.
The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, April 29, 2014. Executive Session at 6:00pm and Special Meeting at 6:30pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center.
Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100
BRATTLEBORO – On Friday, May 9 the Brattleboro Area Drop-In Center and Morningside Shelter will host the second annual Camp for a Common Cause on the Brattleboro Common. The collaborative fund- and awareness-raising event was a great success last year, with roughly $10,000 raised and evenly split between the two organizations working to alleviate homelessness in the greater Brattleboro area. Most importantly, last year’s participants and the community gained valuable awareness and perspective on homelessness in our community.
“It was chilly overnight – in the 30’s,” said Heidi Risner, a participant who raised almost $300 from family and friends to support last year’s event. “Luckily, I was warm in my tent and sleeping bag, realizing that these are not luxuries often afforded to the homeless. It was definitely a meaningful reminder of what some in our community experience on a daily basis.”
I’m in another town as I read the Reformer article about the skatepark being on the chopping block, again. This town I’m in, no less hilly, and more trafficked, offers something of a feeling of salvation to me as a longboarder with this as my primary way of getting around.
Here, people in cars yield. They seem to be in less of a hurry. Whether that’s true or not, the prevailing attitude, which is so firmly in place as to be the norm, is to fully allow ALL elements of the road- pedestrians, skateboarders, bicyclists, et. al. – to exist, and move at their own pace.
