Many of you have voted already, but my wife Naomi and I are still catching up after returning from our first international trip in a number of years.

We took the time Sat. eve to watch the BCTV recording of the Feb. 12 Brattleboro Selectboard candidate debate. IMHO this is a strong and likable slate of candidates!

I will definitely be voting for Oscar Heller for the open 3-year seat. Though from what I know of Jill Stahl Tyler, she is a smart and capable person, getting the town budget in order is of highest importance, and Oscar’s skills and experience through his years on (and chairing of) the Representative Town Meeting Finance Committee make him the ideal candidate to match this need. There are also the great pluses that he lives and is a landlord downtown and oversees two businesses, and has taken pains in his outreach to listen and be fair.

For me the choices for the open 1-year seats are tougher ones. Again going back to the need to get the town budget in order, I believe Franz Reichsman’s experience actually on the Selectboard – and his sometimes lonely caution about spending more than townspeople can afford – will continue to make him well-suited to this job. I also greatly appreciate that he has taken pains to make himself available to anyone wanting to talk directly to him about his views, which I took advantage of a couple times.

Regarding my second choice for the open 1-year seats, I am torn. Through watching the BCTV recording, however, I have come to believe that Amanda Ellis-Thurber is the best of the other candidates for this opening, with her experiences as a business owner as well as with drug rehab programs in Greenfield. She also made a great point, that she’d like to see Brattleboro be a place where her own three maturing kids want to come back and settle.

If you haven’t already made them, good luck with your own choices!