BRATTLEBORO-Facing a 22% municipal property tax hike this coming fiscal year, town leaders have suggested lowering expenses through everything from curbing office-supply purchases to closing the public pool.
But the eight-resident Representative Town Meeting Finance Committee is questioning why officials aren't slicing into the biggest percentage of the budget pie: personnel.
Municipal leaders in Vermont's 247 cities and towns, now drafting 2025-26 budget proposals for March Town Meeting consideration, are reporting challenges with costlier health insurance, continuing 2023 and 2024 flood cleanup, and the need to mitigate projected school property tax increases averaging 5.9%.
Amid the struggle to balance local wants and wallets before this month's submission deadline, officials in Brattleboro are receiving public pushback.
BRATTLEBORO-When the first train steamed into town in 1849, a regional newspaper reported how "exhilaration of the moment burst forth" as residents celebrated the arrival of an easy route to seemingly everywhere in the world. Everywhere except neighboring New Hampshire, that is. The new rails ran beside the Connecticut...
BRATTLEBORO-A group of residents has successfully petitioned for a special Town Meeting to debate whether to rescind new municipal rules against such public offenses as drug use and dealing, physical threats and property damage. The local selectboard voted 3-2 for an "acceptable community conduct" ordinance in September after hearing...
BRATTLEBORO-A century after becoming the first English-language author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, the late Rudyard Kipling has gone from being one of the world's most widely read names to, in the charitable words of his latest biographer, a "complex historical figure" tied to the exploitative era of British colonialism. But Kipling's reputation isn't the only remnant of his life facing a shifting climate. Born in India and raised in England, the Victorian-era writer was 26 when, traveling...
BRATTLEBORO-Three months since fully taking over local ambulance services, the town's fire department has spent 90% of its annual overtime budget as it struggles to hire enough staffers to handle calls. "Our challenges are multifaceted," department officials wrote Oct. 4 in their first quarterly report since assuming emergency medical services on July 1. A year ago, critics of the municipal takeover asked how the department could add to its responsibilities when two-thirds of its members - 16 of 23 -
BRATTLEBORO-Amid rising reports of drug dealing and related crime, the town is considering an "acceptable community conduct campaign" in hopes of educating both public rule breakers and residents who are increasingly complaining about feeling unsafe. "The goal is to influence behavior," Municipal Manager John Potter told the Selectboard, "to encourage everyone in town to be nice to each other." So far, the yet-drafted proposal is sparking less decorum than debate. "Decent messaging will define what we're looking for," Selectboard member...
BRATTLEBORO-When local police studied the nearly 29,000 calls they've received in the past three years, they discovered the 20 people most cited for problems accounted for 1,700 - or 6% - of all complaints. That was only the first surprise. Most calls about the top 20 didn't involve criminal behavior, but disorderly conduct, disputes, and disturbances often linked to alcohol and drug use or mental health issues, municipal statistics show. But when authorities identified the offenders to area social service...
BRATTLEBORO-Amid a crescendo of complaints about drug dealing and related illegal acts, local leaders are seeking to add more police staff and space to fight a community-wide rise in crime. The Brattleboro Selectboard, facing a standing-room-only crowd, voted unanimously on Aug. 20 to explore cost estimates for boosting its budgeted count of police officers from 27 to 30 and open a satellite station at downtown's problem-plagued Transportation Center parking garage. "We want to be empathetic," Police Chief Norma Hardy said...