Northeast Kingdom residents celebrated the region’s resilience through the pandemic — but emphasized the continued need for broadband, housing and more — as part of NEK Day at the Statehouse on Friday.
About 130 people tuned in Friday to the third annual event hosted by the Northeast Kingdom Collaborative, which this year was held virtually via Zoom.
This year’s event was split between Monday and Friday. Experts presented the advocacy group’s recovery plan for the region earlier this week, and on Friday afternoon residents and officials discussed the successes of the last year and priorities for the future.
“What this pandemic has shown so many of us is what people, Vermonters in the Northeast Kingdom, have known for so long: which is that there is deep inequity in our state,” said Lt. Gov. Molly Gray in an opening address. “If we’re going to overcome that inequity and recover stronger from Covid-19, we have to make strategic investments.”
For an hour that afternoon, attendees were split up into small groups to discuss two topics: the greatest successes they had seen or experienced in the Kingdom last year and what issues they felt should be prioritized going forward. After a few minutes as groups, attendees would then reconvene and share their thoughts.
Numerous residents praised how communities in the Kingdom had worked together to make sure food was distributed to people in need throughout the pandemic.
Bethany Dunbar, who works for the Center for an Agricultural Economy in Hardwick, said the group’s work with the Everyone Eats initiative — a program funded by Covid-19 relief money — had been a highlight.
“People coming together, so many meals, help for restaurants and farms as well as individuals,” she wrote in the Zoom meeting’s text chat. “Also just really encouraging to see people coming together to help each other as neighbors.”
Some brought up strides made in broadband access, such as public WiFi hotspots that have been set up and the formation of a communications union district in the region.
“Our group talked about the CUDs that are bringing a hope of connectivity and the innovative way that towns and communities are staying connected during this time,” wrote Rep. Joe Parsons, R-Newbury, who represents the Orange-Caledonia House district.
Several also referenced the survival of Northern Vermont University’s campus in Lyndon; its closure had been proposed at one point, and it received bridge funding in October.
Participants nearly universally pointed to improved broadband access as one of their biggest priorities. The Kingdom’s three counties have long been among the worst-served in the state in terms of high-speed internet.
“The digital economy divide will only amplify without strong connectivity to the world,” wrote Jay Shafer, a Barton resident. “We can preserve our rural nature by connecting to distant economies.”
Many focused on finding ways to attract and retain residents, especially younger ones, in an aging area with a declining population. Those included more jobs, better cell coverage and boosting child care access.
“Meaningful youth connections/opportunities in the NEK,” wrote Dan Brogan with Northeast Kingdom Youth Services.
Rep. Marty Feltus, R-Lyndon, who represents the Caledonia-4 district, pointed to the area’s proximity to the closed-down Canadian border and the importance of reopening the border as a way to help local businesses that rely on tourists.
Several people, such as Rep. Katherine Sims, D-Craftsbury, also said more must be done to eliminate racism in Vermont and make it, and the Kingdom, a more welcoming place for nonwhite people to move to and live in.
“(There is a) challenge of creating a welcoming and safe community for BIPOC with such little racial diversity,” Gillian Sewake of Peacham wrote.
In one breakout group, Northeast Kingdom Community Action executive director Jenna O’Farrell spotlighted the lack of housing stock in the Kingdom.
Her agency runs homelessness services, and “we have people in hotels that we literally cannot get out of the hotels because there’s nowhere to go,” she said.
Sen. Russ Ingalls, R-Essex/Orleans, who was in the breakout group with O’Farrell, said transportation is another component of the homelessness issue in the Kingdom.
Developing reliable transportation in the Kingdom is in its infancy, he said. “(We need to) be able to get them to the grocery store without seeing them walking along the roadside,” he said.
Transportation as a way to obtain the Covid-19 vaccine came up as an issue, too.
“Elderly residents of the Canaan … area must not be made to drive an hour and 10 minutes one-way in the winter to get a vaccine appointment,” wrote Sharon Ellingwood in the Zoom chat. “Essex County vaccine sites need to be equitably placed in Essex County, not on the fringes of Caledonia and Orleans counties.”
