BRATTLEBORO — RE: “The River Garden's $64,000 question,” Letters, Feb. 6:
I have spoken with principals of Building a Better Brattleboro (BaBB) about exactly this question raised by Jim Verzino, “How do we develop a viable financial plan so that whoever is managing the building (BaBB or another entity) can run the building without going five figures in debt every year?”
They are keeping their options open, including the option of retaining ownership of the River Garden, which might not make much sense since they have been talking a lot about selling it lately.
I think the eventual outcome might be that BaBB cooperates heavily with a group of local people to form a new board for a new non-profit legal entity, one that would have as its mission running the River Garden for public benefit.
I feel very strongly that this idea could work, and I have offered repeatedly to BaBB to help them organize this sort of outcome. I get nothing but yeses from these folks, saying they would be happy to work on this sort of a solution.
I have an MBA in nonprofit business administration and have raised tens of millions of dollars for charitable organizations, so you - and BaBB - ought to take my advice seriously.