Brattleboro has thousands of rental housing units and hundreds of housing providers.
The providers who bought their units as investments are overwhelmingly local people — middle-class people — who generally own one, two, four, maybe six, units in a building or two. They often depend on the rents as their means of livelihood or as supplements to their Social Security.
The recent publicity about the Westbrook apartment complex, purchased by a Boston-based corporation, in West Brattleboro is an anomaly. While some in town are distraught over the prospect of big corporations coming here and buying all the rental housing, that is not the case, nor will it ever be. Big corporations are not interested in small buildings. Money driven, they only want larger complexes, where they can benefit from economies of scale.
The proposed Article 2 to be voted by the town on Tuesday, March 7 is geared toward the Westbrook development. It is a direct reaction about the people who are being asked to leave Westbrook, but this change in the town charter would ban no-cause evictions townwide. It would punish innocent housing providers because of one bad apple, so to speak.
The world needs a new New World Order. There is something fundamentally and drastically wrong with a world that tolerates one man who kills thousands, injures thousands more, destroys a country, and harms millions through food and energy deprivation. Perhaps the United Nations should change its governance to eliminate...
It was gratifying to learn that federal, state, and town authorities succeeded in apprehending drug dealers at 33 Oak St. and 48-50 Central St. as well as the Black Mountain Inn on Putney Road. Drug activity poses all sorts of problems for our community. Thank you to the officials...
What a loss to the people of Brattleboro that Dr. Cheri Brodhurst has decided to discontinue the obstetric portion of her practice. I feel this loss, a sense of wonder, a huge admiration, and an infinite gratitude for this woman. Cheri came to us from St. Croix, where she was one of two girls to be the first to join her high-school band. That accomplishment led her to play at the New York World's Fair, where the bigger world opened...
I thank all of you who voted for and approved our operating budget for the coming school year. For those who did not vote for the budget, I promise to do all I can so that our school earns your trust and confidence so that in the future you will feel compelled to support us. Besides their rigorous academics and participation in sports, theater, and arts, our students contribute to the community in numerous ways, from shoveling snow (not as...