Editor’s note: This op-ed is by state Rep. Tom Stevens of Waterbury, who has represented Waterbury, Duxbury, Huntington and Buelโs Gore in the Legislature since 2008.
Who knew that the daily exodus of vehicles at 4:30 on the afternoon of Aug, 26 would be the last โnormalโ trafรฏยฌยc jam in Waterbury Village? The sweeping waters of the Winooski River that poured through Waterbury on Aug. 28 changed not just the riverbed but our downtown landscape too.
The massive clean-up organized by our town and village governments, and a couple of rainstorms, have washed away the gray silt. You can drive down Main Street and think things are almost normal. But if you drive down Main Street at 4:30 on a weekday afternoon, you will most certainly notice the lack of a trafรฏยฌยc jam. The exodus of state employees has left our downtown strangely vacant.
Ireneโs impact has left us reeling, physically, รฏยฌยnancially and psychologically. There are hundreds of homes and businesses damaged, with a price tag for repairs that could reach millions. Some families are homeless, teetering on the edge of poverty; others are wondering whether theyโll be able to salvage their homes โ or their mortgages. Small businesses operating on slim margins โ but paying bills and employing people โ are wondering how long they can stay open, or if they can reopen. We, as a community, are faced with the equivalent of having a major corporation pull up stakes overnight.
We are all waking up to the reality that 1,500 regular customers are gone. They are no longer getting their dry cleaning done here, or buying books, or a hot dog to eat in the park. Our old normal is gone, and we donโt know if it will ever return.
The loss of 1,500 downtown visitors, anecdotally, has cut local business sales anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent. We have every reason to be stressed about the short- and long-term future of our village and town.
We understand that the state needs to examine its options. No one is expecting them to rebuild in a hasty way or invest in rebuilding without mitigating against future risk. We know that the state will determine the function of the buildings and the campus before deciding on its form, and we hope they will choose the smartest, most effective ways to rebuild. As challenged as we in Waterbury are by the รฏยฌยood, we are still Vermonters, and we want our collective tax dollars spent wisely and well.
The administration and Waterbury have this in common: neither of us has ever dealt with a natural disaster this large, and we are all learning to navigate the thickets of bureaucracy. We must be fair to the administration, and recognize their leadership and tremendous support for all Vermonters in this time of need โ even as we press them to think carefully with these critical decisions that will so deeply affect our economic development and survival plans for the future.
The right approach, we feel, is to focus on the partnership and the opportunities, while keeping in mind the effects that policy decisions will have on Waterbury and the surrounding area. This community has grown with the state presence, and the ecosystem of employees and services is rooted here. We are willing, and able, to work closely with the state to รฏยฌยnd the best ways to repair, redevelop and rebuild the complex. We are going to walk together with them along the high road to recovery โ and it may be a long one.
While rebuilding โ not only Waterbury but around Vermont โ we know the administration and the Legislature need to think for the long term. We simply ask that our long-term relationship with the state be valued in those calculations. Our community has been working with, and welcoming, the state for well over a century. โGoing to Waterburyโ used to be a negative for the rest of the state, and together weโve turned it into the strongest positive we know. We intend to keep doing so.
