Editor’s note: This article is by Michael Faher, of the Brattleboro Reformer, in which it was first published March 11, 2015.
[V]ERNON — Vermont Lt. Gov. Phil Scott makes a point of going on โeveryday jobs tours,โ and theyโve taken him into a wide variety of workplaces including classrooms, an emergency room, a distillery and a large-animal veterinarianโs office.
But Scott said a few common themes have emerged: There is a โcrisis of affordabilityโ in Vermont, he believes, as well as a โfeeling of disconnect between the business community, at times, and the Legislature.โ
โWe need to listen to our businesses. We need to get out and actually see whatโs going on in Vermont and ask for ideas,โ Scott said, โbecause ideas arenโt exclusive to the Legislature. Itโs all of us here.โ
By โhere,โ Scott was referring to Vernon Elementary Schoolโs cafeteria, where he hosted the latest in a series of โeconomy pitchโ forums Monday. Scott is a business owner himself, and he asked the crowd for โproactive approaches and some common-sense solutions for what we can do to help ourselves.โ
Over the course of two hours, he heard a long list of pitches that touched on manufacturing, education, the environment, infrastructure and the arts. Some examples:
โข Jeff Higgins of Vermont Technical College wants more investment in apprenticeship programs and labs/learning spaces. Many manufacturers struggle to find the right employees and are too small to engage in their own workforce development, Higgins said.
Without state help, โtheyโll continue to struggle to find their workforce,โ he said. โTheyโll have to look outside the state to find those workers. Or perhaps, worse, they will move themselves closer to those workers.โ
โข Ed Metcalfe founded Vermont Distillers in Marlboro a few years ago. He wants to add staff, manufacturing space and maybe a retail operation.
โOur business is up to about a quarter of a million (dollars) in sales already, and I think we can get to three-quarters of a million or a million in a couple years,โ Metcalfe said. โBut to do so, I need to expand my production facility. I need help in finding either low-interest money or equity money.โ
โข Joann Erenhouse, director of Bennington Area Chamber of Commerce, pitched a plan to make better use of state-operated airports in Vermont.
โBy taking advantage of developing land available to the airports, warehouses can be built. The state can then lease out space to the surrounding manufacturers and assemblers,โ Erenhouse said. โThe leases will pay for maintenance and airport improvements, ensuring sustainability for those facilities.โ
โข Julie Davenson, executive director of Youth Services in Brattleboro, said youth unemployment is a big problem nationally and locally. But she pointed to the success of a national initiative called โPay for Success,โ which mobilizes private investment to expand social programs that have proven effective in combating such problems.
Based on the Pay for Success model, Davenson asked for a southern Vermont pilot program โfor disconnected youth, to get them connected to jobs, to get them successfully engaged in the local economy โฆ Letโs give youth who are already living here in Windham County the opportunity for success.โ
โข Munson Hicks is a Vernon resident who is advocating for expansion of high-speed broadband. If the major communications providers wonโt do it, he says, municipalities can take the lead โ if they get some backing from the state.
Broadband โwill not be a luxury, but it will be a necessity for communities if theyโre going to attract people to live here and new businesses,โ Hicks said. โPeople will say itโs too expensive. But in reality, it is too expensive for communities not to have it.โ
โข Michael Knapp, founder of Green River, a software company in Brattleboro, urged creation of a โVermont Green Valleyโ campaign that he believes could attract โbusinesses that are interested in promoting sustainability, in promoting environmental protection, in doing the kind of work that weโre seeing in more and more businesses in this state already.โ
โข Natalie Blake of Fulcrum Arts in Brattleboro made a simple pitch: Relaunch southernvermont.com, a marketing website that was developed a few years ago but has gone dormant.
โWe all see that weโre all spending our dollars on advertising to try to get all these people โ all those folks coming up from the cities โ to come to us,โ Blake said. โBut why donโt we pool our funds and do all that marketing together?โ
โข Richard Foley, representing the Sustainable Energy Outreach Network, argued for creation of a โHousing Firstโ initiative that would use the momentum created by the local green-building industry to create jobs and affordable housing.
โMy dream is this: That our area will ship out 10 complete, beautiful tiny homes โ affordable housing structures โ every day,โ Foley said, adding that โmanufacturing jobs create between seven and 17 other jobs.โ
Scott said he will take the ideas he heard at Mondayโs forum back to Montpelier.
โWe need you to participate in government,โ Scott said as the forum wrapped up. โWe donโt have all the answers.โ
