BRATTLEBORO — The budget that Building a Better Brattleboro has submitted to the Selectboard “assumes” that BaBB will “divest” itself of the Robert Gibson River Garden by the summer of 2013.
While it is reportedly stipulated that the budget fairly passed a membership vote, the decision to “divest” the River Garden was made by a much smaller number of Board members.
This point is important because the $36,000 left “floating in the budget” will now be “reallocated” into lines that were presumably funded at appropriate levels the first time around.
Since we are talking about taxpayer money, that $36,000 at least should be set aside to ensure a healthy future for the River Garden, an iconic building located at the main intersection of the Downtown Improvement District and one that was purchased and renovated with taxpayer money.
BaBB owns the River Garden or - to put it more appropriately - BaBB holds it in the public trust. One ought not to “divest” a public trust.