I-91 Bridge Ribbon Cutting Celebrates New Gateway to Southeastern Vermont

Thank you to everyone who played a part in making the replacement I-91 bridge over the West River and Route 30 a truly special bridge and a gateway to southeastern Vermont! The WRC helped to communicate to VTrans local concerns that the bridge should be more than just an interstate bridge, and VTrans was very receptive. We organized a public forum to solicit input on the design of the bridge and its character, and VTrans supported the creation of an Aesthetic Evaluation Committee, which participated in the selection of the bridge design and contractors. That committee went on to advise PCL-Figg and VTrans throughout the construction process. Everyone involved was great to work with. It was a beautiful day for the ribbon cutting ceremony for this new bridge that is designed for service of at least 100 years.

Button Up VT Campaign Open for Registration

Community groups are now welcome to sign up to participate in the 2017 Button Up Vermont campaign.  Sign up here.

 

There are a lot of reasons why your community group should participate:

Button Up Vermont is a community-based, public outreach campaign to promote home energy efficiency improvements - particularly helping people reduce heating and cooling costs.  Efficiency Vermont, in partnership with a broad group of statewide and regional organizations, is planning to work with at least 25 Vermont communities to engage their residents around thermal efficiency.  The campaign will focus on all Vermonters and is designed to provide opportunities for all individuals to take actions - from simple weather stripping to comprehensive home efficiency improvements. 

 

Efficiency Vermont will provide free LEDs to community partners working at the local level to engage residents in the Button Up Vermont campaign. We will also provide educational materials, media and social media support, and guidance and training to local energy committees. In exchange, energy committees will be asked to commit to implementing at least two community engagement activities of their choosing, such as organizing home energy parties, workshops, or tabling events.  Residents will be asked to commit to undertaking one or more measures to reduce their heating load and then record their actions on Energy Action Network's Community Energy Dashboard. In addition, Efficiency Vermont and partners will place newspaper, digital, and social ads to reach all Vermonters - with the majority of the paid media aimed toward directly supporting participating communities.  

 

Sign up today. Questions?  Community partner registration closes on September 30, 2017.  Please contact Paul Markowitz at Efficiency Vermont at  [email protected] or 802 540 7608 with questions or more information.

Grants in Aid Pilot Program Funds Water Quality Improvements on Local Roads

 

With the start of road erosion inventories in the Region and state-wide, which document the standards determined by the Municipal Roads General Permit (MRGP), the VT ANR has acknowledged the need for funding assistance to towns to address road erosion that contributes to water quality impairments.

 

The MRGP is intended to achieve significant reductions in storm water-related erosion from municipal roads, both paved and unpaved. Over time, municipalities will implement a customized, multi-year plan to stabilize their road drainage system. This Grants in Aid Pilot Program is a way for towns to begin pro-actively addressing MRGP standards on their hydrologically-connected road segments.

 

Beginning in July 2017, 18 towns in the Windham Region had enrolled in this reimbursement program, and had therefore committed to installing best management practices on selected road segments to reduce sedimentation into our waterways. Through July and August, WRC planners have been conducting site visits with road and highway foreman and other town officials to identify road segments that currently do not meet MRGP standards, and whose improvement would help keep our streams clean and hopefully help maintain the roads in increasingly strong storm events.

 

Overall, the VT ANR has awarded up to $251,200 in reimbursements to enrolled Windham Region towns who will bring identified roads segments up to MRGP standards. These funds will go towards reshaping and stabilizing ditches, establishing filtered sheet flow away from the road, replacing undersized culverts, and establishing filtered and stabilized flow from the right of way and into stream or brooks. Thus far, the WRC along with road foreman have identified about 9.5 linear miles of drainage improvements over the Region, and many other upgrades to culvert infrastructure.

 

As the work season progresses, the WRC looks forward to documenting post-construction conditions on these roads, and confirming MRGP compliance. The before/after photos below show how some of the road foremen have been progressing thus far.

Gallup-Before

Gallup - After

 

For more information about this program, please contact Emily Davis at 257-4547 x 116 or  [email protected].

Registration for 2017 Vermont Financing Working Landscapes Conference
is now open!

All-day conference will provide resources for farm, food, and forest industry.

 

Registration for the 2017 Vermont Financing Working Landscapes conference is now open.  The event is on Friday, October 20th starting at 9 am at the brand-new Weston Playhouse at Walker Farm in Weston, Vermont. The conference will connect Vermont's entrepreneurs and small businesses in the food, agriculture, and forestry sectors to financial and technical resources and assistance.  Current conference sponsors include USDA Rural Development, Vermont Farm & Forest Viability Program, Vermont Agriculture Credit Corporation, Yankee Farm Credit, Vermont Community Loan Fund, Community Capital of Vermont and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

 

Secretary Anson Tebbetts of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture has been invited to open the conference.   Attendees will have access to a wide range of capital partners: Vermont Agriculture Credit Corp, Vermont Farm Fund, Yankee Farm Credit, Vermont Community Loan Fund, Community Capital of Vermont, Working Lands Enterprise Initiative, and Farm and Forest Viability Program of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board.

 

This all-day conference will include a panel discussion and breakout sessions with financial lenders as well as focusing on the question, "What does your business want to be when it grows up?" Afternoon sessions will follow the structure of the business life cycle (development, startup, growth, expansion, succession), providing attendees resources and programs at each level of the cycle.

 

 

BDCC's Southern Vermont Economy Project will host the 2017 event with our Conference Partners: Windham Regional Commission, FoodConnects,  Strolling of the Heifers, Bennington County Regional Commission, Bennington County Industrial Corporation

Sponsorship opportunities are still available! Visit www.brattleborodevelopment.com/2017fwl/ for information on both sponsorships and registration.

 

ABOUT: SOUTHERN VERMONT ECONOMY PROJECT

The Southern Vermont Economy Project (SVEP) will stabilize, improve and expand the rural economic and workforce development network in Southern Vermont. SVEP is funded by the USDA Rural Community Development Initiative. Our partners are Bellows Falls Area Development Corporation, Rockingham Arts and Museum Project, Great Falls Regional Chamber of Commerce, Windham Regional Commission, Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategy, Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce, Strolling of the Heifers, Readsboro Hometown Redevelopment Inc., Bennington Area Chamber of Commerce, Bennington County Regional Commission, Bennington County Industrial Corporation, Town of Bennington, and the Bennington Downtown Alliance.

Algiers Village Explores Living Community Challenge Master Planning

 

 

The four community organizations had applied to the Windham Regional Commission, in partnership with Building Green, to have technical assistance in pursuing a visioning study to determine whether or not the Village would like to take on the Living Community Challenge (LCC). The LCC is a set of criteria that serves as a framework for community planning and organization, and was developed by the International Living Future Institute. The criteria addresses community-scale sustainability through focusing on a sense of place within the environment, water resources, net-zero energy, human health and happiness,  building resources, equity and beauty within the community.

 

Residents and community members who showed up to the planning meeting were asked to be a part of five groups, and were given maps of Algiers Village. They were all began the planning exercise by marking down aspects about their community that they liked and disliked, in an effort to gain local insights into the more subtle aspects of their community and the physical space. Then, residents marked down things they'd like to see in the Village in the future. Some of the ideas discussed were a small business incubator space, conservation areas, pedestrian safety infrastructure, gathering areas by Broad Brook, and play spaces, among many others. Also up for discussion was the role of community services in the Village, and where they could be located.

 

Using the information gleaned during this community meeting, the partnering organizations will dive in deeper to the requirements of the LCC over the upcoming months, and along with the WRC will begin to develop schematic design alternatives for Algiers Village. Based on the turnout of this community meeting, the partners agree that there is strong community interest in this LCC vision plan, and will host more community meetings in the future.

 

For more information contact Emily Davis or Susan McMahon at WRC.