[T]he Upper Valley Land Trust has filed a lawsuit against Vermont Technical College over the purchase of a dairy farm in Norwich used by a cheesemaker who refuses to leave.
The lawsuit alleges the college breached a purchase and sales agreement by allowing Chris Gray and his wife Laura Brown to live there and produce cheese and other dairy products for their private business, Norwich Farm Creamery.
The sales contract for six acres of land, a house and farm buildings, was signed in 2015 and requires the land to be “free of all tenants” and “free and clear of encumbrances.”
The lawsuit says Gray has “refused to leave” and “will resist all reasonable attempts” to end his lease.
“Our demand of the school is to be compensated by the damage they’ve caused,” said Upper Valley Land Trust Executive Director Jeanie McIntyre. “We expected them to follow through with the contract.”
The coveted property up a quiet road in Norwich was gifted to Vermont Technical College by Andrew Sigler, the former chief executive of the paper company Champion International. Sigler gave away his 358-acre property, valued at $2.5 million, so the college could start an educational program.
Vermont Tech then sold 352 acres of Sigler’s property to the Upper Valley Land Trust for a discounted price of $300,000 in 2015 and formed a deal, allowing the land trust to purchase the remaining six acres where the farm is located, worth $1.7 million, for just $50,000, if the educational program failed.
The college’s intent was to create a hands-on learning experience, allowing students to live on the Norwich farm and be part of cheesemaking production, from start to finish, VTC President Pat Moulton said. A dairy farmer brought his cows for milk and Gray brought his expertise in cheesemaking.
“It sounded good at the time,” said Moulton. “The reality is it hasn’t worked out the way we had hoped.”
There was a change in leadership at the college. The dairy farmer and his cows left the program and Vermont Tech shut the Norwich campus down after a year. Now, there are no students and no cows— just Gray, his chickens, his dog, cat and family.
Gray said he has the right to stay there.
Gray signed a five-year lease agreement with the college in 2016, allowing him to stay and work on the land. The agreement gives Gray rights to renew his lease for up to 20 years after that.
Vermont Tech mows the fields, heats the empty barns in the winter and plows the snow while Gray pays the college about $500 a month for rent and uses $400,000 worth of creamery equipment purchased by a federal grant to operate his private business.
Vermont Tech received the $4 million United States Department of Labor grant in 2016. The college used about $800,000 of that to update the Norwich farm, Moulton said. A house on an adjacent property was converted to a dormitory for 12 students and new dairy equipment was purchased for the creamery.
Gray said he invested about $150,000 of his own money into the creamery. Gray helped design the facility and he selected the high-end equipment he wanted.
Gray sells milk, beef, pork, eggs, ice cream, yogurt and cheese in a small shop at the farm. Many community members have come to Gray’s support. When the college tried to terminate Gray’s lease last February, Gray launched a “Bring the Cows Back” marketing campaign with posters and signs. Several residents wrote letters to the Select Board in support of Gray.
“At a time when Vermont is losing farms so rapidly, I am shocked to hear that this small business may not be able to stay on the Turnpike Road property,” resident Jen Shepherd wrote to the board last March. “Their presence has improved Norwich’s working landscape, they have value-added dairy products, and are a major asset in our community.”
Residents also helped Gray put together a 60-page proposal to turn the farm into a nonprofit.
“It’s not just the creamery, but Norwich Farm overall—that’s one of the last parcels in town where there are agricultural uses,” said Town Manager Herbert Durfee.
The proposal was presented to the land trust and college last June, but Gray said he never heard back.
The land trust instead said Gray could stay if he agrees to increase his rent to $2,500 a month—a price Gray said no farmer can afford.
“The only way value added dairy farming will continue on this historic dairy farm is if we’re allowed to stay at a reasonable rate and bring the cows back,” Gray said in a statement.
Gray said farmers everywhere are envious of the facility, which features six red farm buildings constructed in the late 1990s.
“It’s a legend,” Gray said. “There’s not another one of these in the Northeast.”
Gray said the facilities and the town, one the state’s wealthiest, is the ideal place for his business. The residents have the salaries to support his premium-priced Grade A dairy products.
“This should be a working farm,” he said. “We’re going to exhaust every opportunity to make that happen.”
The land trust has been in negotiations with Vermont Tech for about a year. The lawsuit says Vermont Tech further violated the sales contract by constructing a sewer mound, which connects to the adjacent dorm building. The lawsuit says VTC has refused to remove the septic system from the farm land.
“We couldn’t wait for them any longer,” McIntyre said.
McIntyre said the land trust originally wanted to buy the buildings and use them for various nonprofits.
“At this point there’s not any evidence we’re going to be acquiring the property in the foreseeable future,” McIntyre said.
Moulton, the president of VTC, said she was “surprised” by the lawsuit. She said the college had agreed to the terms of a settlement with the land trust just weeks before the lawsuit was filed.
“There are clear pathways to resolving these issues, and we remain open to discussing all of them,” Moulton said in a statement.
Moulton said the college intends to honor Gray’s lease until it expires in 2021.
“We’ve indicated to him that we will not be extending the lease beyond that,” she said.
Moulton said the college wants to sell the farm as soon as it can.
“We want to stick to what’s core to us,” she said. “Being a landlord isn’t core.”
While the lawsuit gets settled, Gray, who started cheesemaking in West Pawlet 15 years ago, continues his business. He recently formed a partnership with Billings Farm in Woodstock to use the farm’s milk in his dairy products.
Gray said he wants to expand.
“I’ve put everything into it,” Gray said one evening at the farm. His wife and daughter collected eggs from the chickens outside the farm house. “Why would I leave my business? Why would I leave my community?”
