Town staff have estimated the startup costs for a Brattleboro Fire Department municipal ambulance service to be between $1.3 million and $1.9 million. The Selectboard would like to use one-time ARPA funds to pay for these costs.
I want to say at the start that I deeply appreciate our BFD. They are skilled, they are very hard-working, and they risk their lives for us when they fight fires. They have also been skilled EMS first responders when Rescue was last contracted to do the ambulance transport for $285,000 a year.
If, in the future, the town were to hire an independent contractor for ambulances, the BFD would probably continue to be the EMS first responders, as this is a service that most fire departments provide to the community since there are many fewer fire calls now throughout Vermont.
So, my question for Brattleboro taxpayers is: Do we need the BFD to become an ambulance provider or would it be better for the town to use the ARPA funds for other needed capital projects?...
Recently, on BCTV, I watched the candidates forum for those persons running for the merged Windham Southeast Supervisory District Board. I was pleased to see so many people who value our children's education enough to run. It is a huge commitment of time, so thanks to all of you.
Recently, I learned that the Brattleboro Food Co-op is facing some financial challenges, including perhaps staff layoffs. Revenues are down because many people have decided not to shop there because of being asked for money in an aggressive way in the Flat Street parking lot, on the Whetstone pathway,
On Tuesday, May 21, there will be voting in the towns of Brattleboro, Putney, Dummerston, and Guilford for the school board of the merged Windham Southeast School District. Unless the courts rule against this forced merger, this board will set the tone and create the management structure (e.g., how many representatives from each town for the new merged district). Thus, this will be a very important board with significant responsibilities to fulfill in a very short time period. People in...
I encourage Brattleboro voters to vote for Andy Davis for the Brattleboro Town School Board. Andy is extremely well-qualified to be on the school board because he brings the perspectives both of a teacher for 25 years and of a parent who had two children who went through the Brattleboro schools. Also, as a Town Meeting representative for many years, he has participated in numerous meetings and discussions about school programs and budgets. I have attended many public meetings at...
Dear Legislators, Recently, the acting secretary of education, Heather Bouchey, ignored the majority of voters in the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union who emphatically rejected a merger and is now imposing that same merger plan on us. In her recommendation, she claims that the Legislature “did not contemplate a departure from the goal of a preferred merger based upon community sentiment” and makes assumptions that the voters who rejected the merger did so because of “a lack of information, misinformation, or...
Voters in Brattleboro need to know that, on Dec. 20, the Brattleboro School Board ignored the will of the voters and voted 3–2 against the Alternative Governance Structure application and instead asked the State Board of Education to impose the defeated school merger proposal on our community. I was not able to attend the meeting but watched most of it on BCTV. What was most disturbing about the meeting was the way the chair of the School Board ran the...
I believe strongly that an Act 46 merger will negatively affect the children and the teachers in the Brattleboro schools. As we all know, Brattleboro has a much higher rate of poverty than other towns in the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, and we also have many families who have been negatively disrupted by the opioid epidemic. Brattleboro's school board, supported by our Town Meeting representatives, has implemented many programs to help these children, and other children who have learning and...