Few increases - and no surprises - have shown up in the proposed budgets for the town's Public Works and Recreation & Parks departments.
The Selectboard, Town Manager staff, and municipal department heads are engaged in the budget process for fiscal year 2020, meeting nearly every week to hammer out the projected expenses and revenues.
Once the hearings are complete, the board will approve the budget, then send it over to Representative Town Meeting for members' final adjustments, if any, and their approval.
At the Nov. 27 special Selectboard meeting, Department of Public Works Director Steve Barrett and Recreation & Parks Department Director Carol Lolatte presented their respective numbers.
The State Board of Education announced its decision on Nov. 30 to create two new Windham County modified unified union school districts (MUUSD), supplanting seven town school districts. An eighth town district was ordered to merge with a recently established MUUSD. According to the BOE's Final Report of Decisions...
DPW to trim bushes, overhanging branches BRATTLEBORO - Beginning Wednesday, Dec. 5, the Department of Public Works's Highway Division will be cutting bushes and overhanging limbs along the sidewalk tractor route and along several other snowplow routes throughout town. This work is being done in an effort to reduce...
Obituaries • Robert E Brooks, 80, of Rockingham. Died Nov. 23 at his home. He was born in Lisbon, N.H. on Sept. 4, 1938, the son of William and Marion (Durant) Brooks. He served in the National Guard and was called to active duty during the Berlin Crisis in 1961-62. He was an avid outdoorsman who loved hunting and fishing, and who achieved great success at it. He enjoyed helping people and was well known for his yard sales. Surviving...
Friends of Music at Guilford (FOMAG) presents “Joyeux Noël,” its 46th Christmas at Christ Church program on Friday, Dec. 7, at 7:30 p.m., and again at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 8. Traditional elements will include music of the season, a story with a holiday or winter theme, and a short carol sing. This year's program is dedicated in memory of Neil Quinn, who died in mid-September. He served as Guilford's town moderator for many years and was a longtime...
Is the cost of housing putting or keeping locals in poverty? Is it driving young adults and elders away? Is a housing shortage hindering economic development because new business owners and employees have nowhere to live? And, if all this is so, is there anything the town can do about it? Selectboard members discussed affordable housing, and what role town government can possibly play in it, at the Nov. 20 regular board meeting. Board member David Schoales, who introduced the...
The Brattleboro Music Center's Music School presents its annual Winter Orchestras Concert Tuesday, Dec. 11. The free concert, set for 7 p.m. at the BMC, will include performances by the Music in the Schools Partnership strings students, the Tigers Beginning String Ensemble class, the Adult Beginner class, the String Beings adult strings class, and the Youth String Ensemble. The program will wrap up with the BMC Music School String Orchestra playing selections from Telemann's Overture from Suite in A minor...
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music will present award-winning contemporary folk singer/songwriter Antje Duvekot and Americana, roots, and acoustic blues singer/songwriter Brooks Williams on Friday, Dec. 7, at 7:30 p.m. Duvekot is a German-born, American-raised singer/songwriter whose songs have been, according to her press materials, “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...
The winter high school season in Vermont officially begins on Dec. 7 with the first varsity girls' basketball games. That night, Brattleboro will take on Burr & Burton in the Leland & Gray Booster Club tournament in Townshend at 6 p.m. Host team Leland & Gray will play at 8 p.m against Arlington. Twin Valley also opens on Dec. 7 with a 6 p.m. game against the Poultney girls, while the Bellows Falls girls open at West Rutland on Dec.
I am surprised frequently when Republicans decry cooperative and supportive government as a “nanny state” and Democrats do not respond with resonant language. This has not always been the case. Theodore Roosevelt was unafraid to call out captains of capitalism as “malefactors of great wealth,” and his cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, lambasted the “economic royalists” of his day. It would be fair to say the ideal of our Republican brethren today is a “predatory society.” The economic guiding principle of...
The Parking Department notes that the municipal winter parking ban has been in effect since Nov. 15. Overnight parking is forbidden on all streets in the town. Vehicles parked for longer than one hour between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. may be ticketed and towed at the owner's expense. The town's flashing light system and signboard program alerts citizens when plowing will take place. A flashing amber light designates the need to remove snow from parking lots. A flashing purple...
Have you ever wanted to sing in a chorus, wished you could sing along with friends, wanted to feel more comfortable singing the Happy Birthday song, or even just get more out of singing by yourself? On Sunday, Dec. 9, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., join others who wish to sing better at Stone Church Center's Currier Hall for the Fear of Singing Breakthrough Workshop. According to instructor Nancy Salwen, the workshop will “help students learn in a way...
It's true. Good cheese is expensive. At least at first glance. What many of us pay, per pound, for cheese, we'd never pay for a nice, well-marbled, grass-fed steak. I could go on about why cheese is generally more expensive than a nice steak. I could tell you all about the immense amount of labor that goes into turning grass into cheese. I could talk about capitalism's disregard for the small and handmade. But how would my doing so help...
Opponents of Act 46 have long predicted that the day of forced school mergers would arrive. That day turned out to be Friday, Nov. 30, when, under the authority of the state education reform law, the State Board of Education released its final plan to consolidate 45 school districts into 11 new unified districts. “The Board supports the General Assembly's vision for consolidation of school governance as an essential (but not sole) strategy toward improving equity, excellence, and efficiency in...
I have been a bad sleeper my entire life. I can never remember a time when I did not sometimes have to toss and turn and use all the mental tricks in my bag to drift off: Counting to 100, forward, then backward. Reading boring books in bed. Focusing on breathing. As I grew up and meditation became a thing, I learned some techniques for personal body relaxation: Going to bed at the same time every night in a cool...
When Andrea Fontana set out to write a coming-of-age graphic novel set in the 1980s, he decided it would take place in Brattleboro - a place where, oddly, the writer, essayist, and lover of film and comic books from Genova, Italy, has never set foot. But with the electronic help of dozens of members of a local Facebook group, Clara and the Shadows, which will be published in Italy next year, will include some touches of local authenticity. For the...
Players of the tuba, euphonium, and baritone horn will gather for TubaChristmas - a treasured holiday tradition for many concertgoers - at First Congregational Church at 880 Western Ave. on Sunday, Dec. 16. The free concert starts at 3 p.m. A good-will offering will be collected and donated to the church. Since 1974, cities and towns throughout the world have adopted a tradition of bringing together musicians to play arrangements of sacred and secular Christmas carols set for a four-part...
The numbers are in: there's enough money in the budget to keep the Williamsville Hall open this winter. Even with spending money on repairs and paying a few outstanding bills, enough funds remain to keep the hall open for the rest of the fiscal year - and that includes heating the building during the winter. Since 2009, the Selectboard has voted annually to shut down the town-owned hall during winter months, citing the expense of keeping it open year-round and...
I feel that I am in the way that I should be, having Rich Holschuh's voice in the The Commons. I especially liked where he ended, on the importance of knowing a language to understand a culture, and the lessons for us there. I would love to read Rich's voice on a more regular basis in The Commons. We need to hear these lessons.
As one who was there - a volunteer at the entry point of the Dallas headquarters of Beto O'Rourke's campaign, I can appreciate Vincent Panella's reporting of his experience. I looked up from my desk one day and saw him standing there wondering what the first step was. I asked him to sign in and noticed he was from Vermont. We chatted and learned a common interest in good books. I saw him every day day for 10 days after...
Good day to you, fine people of southern Vermont! For the first time in many months, the week ahead looks primarily dry and should feature partly to mostly sunny skies. I think many of us will be delighted at this news, given how cloudy, rainy, and snowy it's been this year! There is a chance for a period of light snow Thursday night into Friday morning, and another chance at light snow early next week. However, these do not look...
In this past election here in the United States, Oprah Winfrey, in her support of Georgia's Democratic candidate for governor, Stacey Abrams, tells the story of a black man. Years ago, she said, this man, on Election Day, put on his suit and walked to the polling location. There, he was told that he needed to go to a different location to cast his vote. He walked there. They again told him he was in the wrong place, and sent...
All public schools in town now offer meals at no cost to families, thanks to a federal program that helps schools to maximize funds, reduce paperwork, improve nutrition and, ultimately, eliminate stigma. According to Hunger Free Vermont, 1 in 4 children in Windham County lives in a food-insecure household. For these children in particular, school meals are an important resource during the week. While many qualify for free or reduced-price meals at school, families don't always take advantage of this...
Vermont is known as a progressive safe haven. However, some of our citizens struggle to connect personal experience to this sentiment. The purpose of publicizing these feelings is not to throw shade at the national progressive movement that Senator Bernie Sanders is trying to foster, but to point out that Vermonters in marginalized positions - be they poor, disabled, LGBTQ, people of color, indigenous, immigrant, or non-mainstream in other facets of identity - help to create this state and make...
The Vermont Public Utility Commission has approved the transfer of the closed Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Vernon to NorthStar, a national provider of large-scale demolition services. According a news release from the PUC, NorthStar has committed to an accelerated schedule for decommissioning the plant and restoring the Vermont Yankee site, beginning no later than 2021 and finishing no later than the end of 2030. The transfer avoids the alternative proposal offered by the current owner, Entergy, which would...
When President Donald J. Trump decided in May that the United States would walk away from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal), all eyes were on the Iranian government to see how it would react. But, as former ambassador and UN diplomat Peter Galbraith described the situation in the Middle East in a Nov. 30 talk to the Windham World Affairs Council at Centre Congregational Church, if the goal was to weaken...
To commemorate the career of Nicolas A. Apgar (1918-2011), the Catherine Dianich Gallery will open “Mid-Century Master,” a retrospective of the painter and teacher's work, on Dec. 7, during Gallery Walk, with a reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. As noted in the artist statement, Apgar transposed his inner thoughts to canvas. He intended his art to reflect his emotions. At the same time, he left room for viewers to help create the work, using their own perceptions. Apgar's idyllic...
The president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce made her annual visit to town, where she gave a fairly upbeat assessment of the year ahead in the state Legislature, as well as the state's economy. Speaking to members of the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce on Nov. 29, Betsy Bishop said she thought that this year's legislative session was not nearly as contentious as the press made it out to be. “Yes, there were some high-profile fights, but overall, the...
A film screening and dinner will benefit a group of orphans being supported by a small, grassroots non-profit based in Brattleboro known as Haiti Orphanage Sponsorship Trust (HOST). Windham World Affairs Council and 118 Elliot are joining with HOST to sponsor this event on Sunday, Dec. 9, at 5 p.m., at the community space at 118 Elliot St. Liberty in a Soup, a documentary by Haitian filmmaker Dudley Alexis, tells the story of the Haitian Revolution in 1804 and the...
When Kelly Ross stood outside her South Hill Road home in Jamaica on the night of Nov. 26, she saw something dramatic from the power lines. “It was a fireworks show,” she said as she prepared coffee for a steady stream of customers at D&K's Jamaica Grocery. It took four full days from that Monday night for Ross and her boyfriend, Raj Taylor, to get power restored - almost five days later, on Friday, Nov. 30. Ross and Taylor were...
I prepared the full Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve just once. This classic Italian meal was lots of fun to make, and everyone adored the food. But it required a great deal of work on a day when time tends to be quite limited. Our church has a beautiful candlelight service on Christmas Eve at 4:30 p.m. I'm usually attempting to sing in the choir, so that means early arrival and not returning home until it is...
In a recent creative non-fiction writing class, I had 14 male students, so I had the bright idea of asking students to consider this question as a writing prompt: “What does it mean to be a man?” Their eventual written responses were the usual college fare, but what fascinated me was the students' initial reaction to the prompt. It was as if I had asked them what it is like to live on Mars. They were all white males from...
If you are looking for a special appetizer that is quick, easy, and can be assembled the day before your holiday or event, a wheel of Camembert or Brie, baked in puff pastry and dressed up with any number of fruits and savories, fits the bill. You can assemble the entire dish the day before, tuck it in the refrigerator, and quickly bake it off just before your guests arrive. It makes a beautiful presentation, and rarely is there a...
The Commons presents some miscellany about winter squash, the Vermont Harvest of the Month for December. Thanks to Sophie Westover, ​Vermont Harvest of the Month coordinator at Green Mountain Farm to School, for permission to share these tips. Winter squash is true to its name: it stores well throughout the winter! The flesh of these fruits is yellow-orange, with variations in taste and texture. PureÌe it for a scrumptious soup or roast with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Cooking tips •