[B]ENNINGTON — Wednesday started early for Vermont Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, who had to be to work at 4 a.m. to prepare the bagels.
For the past five years, Scott has been working for a day at random Vermont businesses. He’s worked with Green Mountain Power crews, at a distillery, as a beekeeper and as a violin maker. Wednesday, he was a baker at the Crazy Russian Girl’s Bakery at 443 Main St. in Bennington.
He worked until noon and bought coffee for anyone who came in.
“It’s a great way of staying connected with businesses, and communities as well,” he said. “What I’ve found is when you work a day in someone else’s shoes, you really get a feel for what they’re going through.”
Scott said people who came in and got a chance to speak with him asked about a proposed solar project in the process of being permitted near the Apple Hill neighborhood and Vermont 279, known locally as the Bennington Bypass.
Tourism traffic is up across the state, Scott said, but locally he’s hearing it’s slow in Bennington.
The bypass has been talked about as a factor, but, “You can only blame that for so long,” he said. “Some of it is how you come into the bypass, there are ways to make sure the bypass is the secondary route. Signage actually helps a lot.”
Communities need to let passersby know they are there, he said.
Scott said since he began doing the “Vermont Jobs Tour,” he has worked at about 40 places. Businesses now ask him to participate.
“They want us to understand what they’re going through and to see if there’s anything we can do,” he said. “I learn something on every single job. I don’t know what it’s going to be from here yet, but every time I do this I bring back something to tell the Legislature.”
He said he’s learned many practical lessons about baking, namely the difference between “T” and “t” for tablespoon and teaspoon, respectively.
Scott said Bennington has some unique advantages which double as challenges, one being its proximity to New York and Massachusetts. The state as a whole must find a way to compete with New York, which has done a good job of promoting itself, and New Hampshire, which lacks a sales tax, Scott says.
Scott said he hasn’t decided whether he will run for governor next year, though many people have asked hi to do so. He’s part owner of a construction company in Middlesex, which he said he would have to make a plan for were he to run and win.
“I have a lot of employees to think about and I want to make sure the business is on a solid foundation, that my employees are safe, that there’s something, if I was successful if I ran, that there’d be something to come back to,” he said.
It’s still early in the state’s political season, he said.
“He’s like a regular guy, he’s really down to earth,” said Natasha Littrell, owner of Crazy Russian Girl’s Bakery. “He’s done a little bit of everything we do in the morning.”
Much of that is producing bagels and rolls for wholesale accounts. Scott delivered an order to the Elm Street Market early in the morning. Shortly before noon he was scooping dough for cookies.
“That’s my favorite thing about Vermont, it’s always great to be able to talk to the people in charge that are making the policies that are affecting your business,” Littrell said. “It’s nice to be able to feel like you have that kind of communication. I grew up in New York City and I’ve been here 29 years, but in New York I’d never met anyone who was in government or politics. I never had anyone come in and ask ‘how are you doing, what can I do to help?’”