Panel makes recommendations on distribution of Entergy funding

Editor’s note: This article is by Howard Weiss-Tisman, of the Brattleboro Reformer, in which it was first published Nov. 21, 2014.

BRATTLEBORO –The Vermont Economic Progress Council, or VEPC, has made its recommendations for the first installment of the $10 million Windham County Economic Development Program.

While the final decision about the economic development money will be up to Gov. Peter Shumlin, VEPC voted on Nov. 13 to divide the first installment of about $1.7 million among 10 organizations out of the 24 projects that applied for a portion of the funding.

If Shumlin follows the recommendations, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital will be the big winner of the first round with a $400,000 grant that the hospital said it will use to create 12 to 15 new jobs, and create a special training program for former Vermont Yankee workers who want to retrain in a new field.

Bellows Falls Area Development Corp. could get $300,000 to help Chroma Technology develop a new 60,000 square-foot facility in downtown Bellows Falls and Rich Earth Institute is in line to receive $257,500 to help the three-year nonprofit become self sustaining.

Other groups VEPC is asking the governor to consider for the economic development money include World Learning, Inc., Food Connects, Strolling of the Heifers, Windham Solid Waste Management District, Windham Windsor Housing Trust, United Way of Windham County and Brattleboro Development Credit Corp.

“The governor appreciates the process, and the work of the board,” said Shumlin Chief of Staff Liz Miller. “He will be looking at the recommendations with strong job creation and company growth in mind.”

The $10 million Windham County Economic Development Program was created after the state signed a memorandum of understanding with Entergy Vermont Yankee after the company announced that it would be closing the Vernon nuclear power plant at the end of 2014.

As part of the agreement the state said it would not contest the company’s application for a Certificate of Public Good and in return Entergy agreed to fund the economic development program with $2 million per year for five years.

Particia Moulton, Secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, said VEPC did its job in wading through the applications and coming up with recommendations, but she stressed that it will be up to the governor to decide if all of the money earmarked for the first round will be given out.

Moulton said the state was disappointed that more for-profit businesses and entrepreneurs did not apply for economic development money.

Moulton could not give a date for the start of the next round, but she said state officials would be looking at the entire application process in an attempt to get more private businesses to apply for the money to spur economic development in Windham County.

“There will definitely be some tweaking of the process,” she said. “The council did a good job, and they did what we asked of them. Now we are going to look at changes we have to make as we go forward.”

Prior to the Nov. 13 VEPC meeting each Development Credit Corporation application was reviewed and scored by a panel of staff from the Agency of Commerce and Community Development. Various state agencies weighed in when appropriate and the applications were also reviewed by the Vermont Economic Development Authority, Windham Regional Commission and Brattleboro Development Credit Corp.

The 11-member Vermont Economic Progress Council was created to consider the reviewed applications and allocate the funding.

“There was some lively discussions at our meeting. I think the VEPC process worked quite well,” said VEPC Chairman Stephan Morse, of Newfane. “The decisions were made with an emphasis on jobs and creating new employment opportunities. These are recommendations and it will now be up to the governor.”

The applications for the first round of funding were due on Sept. 23 and requests totaling $5.6 million were filed with the Agency of Commerce and Community Development.

According to notes from the Nov. 13 meeting, a few of the projects were rejected prior to the meeting because the applicants did not provide adequate documentation. Seven other projects, including proposals from the towns of Vernon and Grafton, scored low on the state’s evaluation criteria and were removed from consideration before VEPC held its final vote.

VEPC spent the rest of the morning discussing the projects that scored highest as well as those that were lower on the scale. After additional debate another four projects were eliminated, Projects in this second tier were proposed by River Gallery School, Holstein Association, Landmark College and Sustainable Energy Outreach Network.

VEPC also voted to use $25,000 for Vermont Economic Development Authority costs. VEDA is overseeing loans that are approved.

The VEPC members spent the rest of the meeting trying to allocate the money and ultimately projects received less than the applicants requested.

BMH requested $578,304 with VEPC recommending $400,000 while Bellows Falls Development Corp. was seeking $402,500 for the Chroma project and received a recommendation of $300,000.

Shumlin is expected to make his final decisions in the next few weeks.