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WSESD Committee Meeting Agendas

The WSESD Programmatic & Performance Equity Committee will meet from 2:00-3:00pm on Sunday, October 1, 2023.  The meeting will take place in the Conference Room of Putney Central School, 182 Westminster West Road, Putney. Access the building via the side entrance (glass hallway).


Union Hill Road Closure

On Sunday September 24, a large oak tree fell on Union Hill near the intersection of Beech Street. Crews from the Highway division of Public Works identified that a second tree was damaged when the first tree came down. The second tree is a hazard to anyone traveling on Union Hill and the road is now closed.  

On Monday September 25, Crews from Public Works, Renaud Tree Service, Green Mountain Power, Consolidated Communication, and Xfinity will be working on to remove the tree and repair wires. Union Hill will remain closed throughout the day.


Hey Poet!

Hey Poet!

You don’t understand metaphors?
And you love walls,
Where you can take refuge,
And write of your unremitting pain,
Over rejection and separation?


Brattleboro Committee Meeting Agendas

The Citizens Police Communications Committee will meet on Wednesday, September 27, 2023 at 5:30pm at the Brooks Memorial Library (224 Main Street).

The RTM Human Services Committee will meet on Thursday, September 28, 2023 at 4:00pm in the Selectboard Meeting Room (230 Main Street) and over Zoom.

Jessica Sticklor (she/her/hers)

Executive Assistant

Town of Brattleboro


Lunar New Year of China, Vietnam, and Korea

Asian Cultural Center of Vermont (ACCVT) presents the 23nd annual Mid-Autumn Moon Festival (Zhongqiu Jie) which is celebrated in China, Korea, Vietnam and other places around the world. Celebrate the Autumn Moon Festival with crafts, songs, food, taiji, paper lanterns, Chinese exercises, the Korean rope tug and more. Hear the story of The Goddess of the Moon, Chang’e; the great archer Hou-Yi; and the Elixir of Immortality. Then watch the harvest moon rise. The celebration will start with a pot-luck (bring a dish to share).


Construction Update Brattleboro-Hinsdale Bridge – September 22, 2023

Fine grading the new slopes on either side of the road continues. Seeding and mulching of those slopes is set to be completed this week, allowing grass to grow this season. Fine grading of ditches will be done after the granite curbing is installed the first week of October. Fence and guardrail installation is also on hold pending the installation of the curbing.

Moment slab work has been paused to allow this work to be done without congesting the corridor further now that traffic is moving through, and to allow crews to focus on critical tasks that prepare the area for winter.


Brattleboro Discolored Water

On Wednesday, September 20 there was a structure fire in Vernon that drew a large response from area fire departments.  Fire apparatus drew a large amount of water from one of the hydrants on Route 142.  This stirred up sediment in the water mains and has resulted in discolored water in several areas throughout Brattleboro.  Residents experiencing discolored water are advised to run the cold water faucet until the water clears.

Bi-annual water main flushing is scheduled to start tomorrow, Friday, September 22.  


WSESD Board Meeting Minutes

KY announced that a third Executive Session is being added for 1 VSA §313(a)(1)(F), confidential attorney-client communications. It will happen in-between the two Executive Sessions on the agenda.


WSESD Finance Committee Meeting Minutes

Business Administrator Frank Rucker shared and reviewed a document, “WSESD FY2023 Expense Summary, dated 9/11/23”, for the twelve month period ending June 30, 2023. Highlights included:

• There are many transactions this time of year, and most of them are things that happen beyond the District’s control, such as government receivables. These receivables are reconciled before presenting the final document to the auditors at the end of September.


Brattleboro EMS, RTM and ARPA

At its 2023 meeting, RTM approved a motion calling on “the Selectboard to develop and implement a dedicated community engagement process for allocating [ARPA} funds before any further funds are spent.” Before that meeting and since, and during Selectboard meetings, members of the public have asked—really, begged—the board not to obligate ARPA funds until there was a systematic effort to ascertain public preferences for the spending of those monies, and we were given assurances that such a public process would occur before drawing on ARPA funds. The Selectboard’s vote last night to draw on 51% of the ARPA balance, without promised public deliberation, can only be seen as evidence of its bad faith.


Selectboard Meeting Notes – Brattleboro Fire Department Gets Their EMS Service

selectboard sept 19 2023

The Brattleboro Selectboard will be using $1.3+ million of ARPA funds to set up a municipal EMS system. The vote was unanimous to give the emergency medical services ‘contract’ to the Brattleboro Fire Department.

The Town Manager told the board why municipal EMS would be best, the board told the public their decisions as to why they would vote in favor, and then the public was allowed to weigh in with comments.


Bullock Street Closure

On Wednesday, September 20, Utilities Crews will be working to repair a road box at the intersection of High ST and Bullock ST.  The work will take place between 7:00am and 11:00am.  During this time, Bullock ST will be closed and motorists should plan to use alternate routes.


High Grove Parking Lot Light Poles

One of the light poles on the back side of the HighGrove lot was struck by a vehicle and had to be removed.  Due to this damage all lights along the back wall of the lot are out of order. Local electricians will be working to secure and install replacement parts. Expect the lights to be out and the lot to be unlit until further notice.


Antje Duvekot and Pete Bernhard at Next Stage

Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present an evening of contemporary folk music with Antje Duvekot and Pete Bernhard at Next Stage on Sunday, October 22 at 7:00 pm.

Antje Duvekot is a German-born, American-raised singer/songwriter whose songs have been critically praised for their hard-won wisdom, dark-eyed realism, and street-smart romanticism. Her bicultural upbringing and relative newness to English have helped shape her unique way with a song, giving her a startlingly original poetic palette. They are the keys to the powerful, even revolutionary, empathy that informs everything she writes. She has won some of the top songwriting awards including the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, the Kerrville Folk Festival Best New Folk Award, and the Boston Music Award for Outstanding Folk Act.

Since the release of her debut studio CD “Big Dream Boulevard,” which was voted #1 Folk Release of 2006 by the Boston Globe and was named to the Top 10 Releases of the Year by National Public Radio’s Folk Alley, Antje has been touring extensively, criss-crossing the US and Europe. She is a compelling live performer and has played at major festivals, including Newport, Mountain Stage, Philadelphia, Falcon Ridge, Great Waters, and Kerrville. This fall, Antje celebrates the September 15th release of her fifth album “New Wild West.”


Next Stage Bandwagon Summer Series – Burlington Taiko

The Next Stage Bandwagon Summer Series presents a concert of traditional Japanese taiko drumming with Burlington Taiko, on Saturday, October 21 at 3:00 pm at Cooper Field, 41 Sand Hill Rd, in Putney.

For more than thirty years, Burlington Taiko has educated New England communities about Japanese culture and entertained them with traditional Taiko drumming.

Honored three times by the International Taiko community, the group has been invited to perform in Japan. With hundreds of performances under their belt, they’ve performed for an estimated half a million people.