Kevin O'Connor
Questions of policing, taxes entangle Brattleboro
BRATTLEBORO-Back in 1960, when the town decided to manage capacity Town Meeting crowds by becoming the only community in the state to elect a set number of citizen participants, residents never imagined that subsequent decades would bring more open seats than candidates willing to fill them.
Then social media sparked a recent firestorm of questions about policing and a proposed 12% municipal tax hike.
Storm packs annual ski jump weekend into four hours
Brattleboro’s Harris Hill introduced a new women’s trophy, only to see a snowstorm condense the annual two-day event into a dizzying four-hour flurry of competition
BRATTLEBORO-Upon the advent of the airplane at the turn of the 20th century, locals with an eye on the sky didn't need a 1919 front-page headline to see that Evelyn Harris was the "First Woman to Fly Over Brattleboro." But unbeknownst to many, the late pioneer also made history...
Tom Salmon, former governor, dies at 92
The Rockingham Democrat shocked the state in 1972 when he was elected to the first of two gubernatorial terms in ‘the biggest political upset in Vermont history’
BRATTLEBORO-When Vermont Democrats lacked a gubernatorial candidate the afternoon of the primary deadline in August 1972, Rockingham lawyer Tom Salmon, in the most last-minute of Hail Mary passes, threw his hat in the ring. "There could be a whale of a big surprise," Salmon was quoted as saying by...
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Brattleboro residents call for municipal staff cuts
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...
A new bridge to the Granite State opens to traffic
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 River and a wooden covered bridge that carried horse-drawn buggies across to the Granite State, local historians recount. Transportation morphed into a steel span, and automobiles with the start of the...
Petition brings new public conduct code to Town Meeting
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 community complaints about a 16% increase in police calls. In response, petitioners who charge the new conduct code is "criminalizing poverty and addiction" have collected signatures from 5% of Brattleboro's more...
For Naulakha, a plan to weather changing times
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 struggles with firefighter staffing, budget
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 -