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Brattleboro’s skate park is on its way
Editor of the Reformer:
The skate park is on its way. Hopefully, construction for the skate park at the Crowell lot should be able to commence next summer. A skate park designer is in place and plans for the park’s features are already taking shape. Brattleboro Area Skatepark Is Coming (BASIC) has reached approximately one-third of its fundraising goal and more money is on the way. I want to thank those in Brattleboro who recognize what a tremendous recreational opportunity this skate park will be for all ages.
I was at Gallery Walk skateboarding for the Flat Street celebration last Friday and the outpouring of support and recognition for our efforts means so much. Skateboard enthusiasts and BASIC tried numerous locations for the park over many years, and each time it didn’t work out. The Crowell Lot is the result of thousands of hours of volunteer time and effort in securing this ideal location. I am thankful at the large volume of people who recognize that this skate park will be a much needed improvement to the Crowell Lot.
This skate park facility will be a state-of-the-art park, a safe space for participants to maximize their talents. It will also serve as a much needed recreation home for skateboarders who have gone without one for so many years. Everything we have worked so hard for, for so many years, is in place and the creation of the skate park is
Spencer Crispe,
Brattleboro Area Skatepark is Coming (BASIC),
Wilmington, Sept. 8
An epidemic of fatheadedness
Editor of the Reformer:
Regarding your "Less is Not More" editorial (Sept. 3), I was surprised at the Reformer’s tone in admonishing the overweight against "overindulgence." As I read farther I hoped for some explanation of this simplistic and insensitive attitude. But no: At the end, you knocked the foundations out from under your "new research" story, deriding science in general and expert advice in particular for two paragraphs.
If I’m obese, I may feel ashamed for being overweight, hopeful for new breakthroughs, but let down because -- Oops! -- it doesn’t turn out as expected, and cynical about so-called Research. Or, if I’m "normal," I may feel superior to those poor weak-willed, "overindulgent" lesser beings and self-righteous about co-workers whose weight problems are pushing up healthcare costs (profits).
This got me thinking about current politics, and maybe this explains such a non-committal but un-informative polemic: it’s something in the air. One party wants us to believe that anybody who is filthy rich could only have got that way through hard work, self reliance and fair play. Oh, and faith. Or if you are poor, you made your bed and you by gosh have to lie in it. And, if you’re fat, it’s probably because you aren’t trying hard enough to get rich, because you have been made dependent on (Democrat) government handouts. The other party wants us to believe that "We’re all in this together," and if you got rich, your community helped a whole lot, nobody is "self-made." And if you are fat, it’s probably because you can’t find any healthy food to eat at these "one-percenter" prices, after the Republicans forced all the ill-paid and ill-treated migrant workers off the factory farms and denied global warming till the droughts destroyed all the crops in America. Meanwhile, both parties are up to their eyebrows in corporate cash -- much of it foreign, and most of it from a very small number of people who do not have our best interests at heart.
Now wait a second -- isn’t that kind of like what’s happening in the food industry? Where it’s more profitable to mix up a batch of hormone-disrupting chemicals and extrude them into food-shaped gobs of fat and sugar? And one thing that both political operatives and Big Ag lobbyists love is an unhappy bunch of citizens, because we get disgusted and don’t vote, but more because it makes us hungry. We get fed a lot of political junk-food, too, have you noticed? And we eat it all up.
We’ve got an epidemic all right, an epidemic of fatheadedness. And the monkey experiments on this won’t be completed until 2055 or so, but we all know, from this editorial, what they will reveal.
Peter Barus,
Whitingham, Sept. 6
Downtown signs
are a good start
Editor of the Reformer:
Hooray to the town of Brattleboro and the Chamber for signs directing visitor traffic downtown instead of onto our residential streets. Cedar and Spruce streets get so much out-of-town traffic as people head to Route 30 from I-91. Wouldn’t it be great if people drove through downtown for some shopping and a meal instead of racing past our children and gardens and homes?
Thanks for the terrific signs, and please keep up the good work. Let’s figure out a lasting solution that will benefit both our neighborhoods and our downtown. This is a great start.
Rachel Zamore,
Brattleboro, Sept. 7
O’Connor thanks voters
Editor of the Reformer:
I’d like to publicly thank my family, friends, neighbors and fellow townspeople for their support in my recent campaign to represent Brattleboro’s District 3.
I spent the summer knocking on doors and talking with hundreds of residents. I learned that while we may differ on specific opinions, we share a mutual desire to make our town a great place to live.
Kate O’Connor,
Brattleboro, Sept. 3
Dunbar thanks voters
Editor of the Reformer:
I would like to thanks the voters in Jamaica, Stratton, Winhall, Londonderry and Weston for coming out to vote on Tuesday, Aug. 28, in the Primary. I am truly honored to have received such strong and far reaching support from all of you who wrote me in as a Republican or a Democratic candidate for State Representative. I appreciate your vote of confidence. I especially want to thank those of you that wrote letters, made phone calls, sent emails, liked us on Facebook, put up signs, contributed money, and gave votes of encouragement for the success of this campaign.
I will be listed as an Independent Candidate on the Ballot of the General Election on Nov. 6, and would like everyone to know that I hear your concerns whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Progressive or any other party -- your concern is my concern. Over the next couple of months, I will continue to go door to door and look forward to meeting those of you I don’t know -- and reconnecting with friends. There are many critical issues that need to be addressed by the legislature this coming year -- property taxes, affordable health care, education, post Irene road and bridge repair, growing local economies and working to improve the state of family farms to name a few. With your help in getting elected as State Representative, we can work on all these issues and more to help make our District an even better place to live, work, raise and educate our families.
If you would like to get in touch with me about any concern you have, please feel free to call or e-mail me: 802-824-4658; emmettforhouse@gmail.com. I look forward to speaking with you.
Emmett Dunbar,
Independent candidate,
State Representative
Windham-Bennington-Windsor District,
Sept. 6
