[R]UTLAND — Gov. Phil Scott took to the road with his cabinet Monday to put a spotlight on Rutland County, hearing concerns about what people wanted more of from state government and — in some cases — what they wanted less of.
The road trip was the first in what is expected to be a series of similar “Capitol for a Day” events held by the governor through the coming weeks and months in the state’s other 13 counties.
“You’re the epicenter of the challenges we’re facing as a state,” the governor said during an afternoon session in Rutland on jobs and workforce development efforts across the county.
“It’s even more highlighted right here in Rutland County,” Scott added. “That’s why we have to pay attention; we have to fix this.”
Stops on the countywide tour Monday included the state airport in North Clarendon, Otter Valley Union High School in Brandon, a jobs talk in Rutland and a visit to the firefighters training academy in Pittsford. The governor also took in a discussion about affordable energy at Green Mountain Power’s Energy Innovation Center in downtown Rutland.
Joining Scott on Monday in Rutland County were a host of agency secretaries and department commissioners.
Scott, who holds weekly cabinet meetings, said, “I thought why are we just meeting in Montpelier. We should be getting out to talk to people around the state.”
A look at a some of the numbers for the county, which is made up 27 towns and anchored by one city, Rutland, shows some of the challenges.
As compiled by the governor’s office, the county numbers show:
• the population is 59,087, making it the second most populous county in the state, trailing Chittenden County.
• the median household income is $50,029, about $6,000 below the statewide average of $56,104.
• the percentage of people living in poverty is 13.3 percent, a little above the statewide average of 11.9 percent.
• the labor force totals 30,794, with an unemployment rate of 3.5 percent, above the statewide rate of about 3 percent.
Also, the population in Rutland County is declining and aging, Scott said.
A major concern raised in several of the sessions held throughout the day was the need to boost the number of people in the workforce, and better train those who already here.
Employers talked of the open jobs they have and the difficulties they face in filling those positions.
“Demographics is our challenge,” the governor said. “Everyone is trying to attract the same people and there’s competition outside our borders.”
He talked of initiatives underway to boost affordable housing in the state to make it more attractive to people to move to the states, as well as efforts that are being offered for out-of-state workers to come and live and work in Vermont.
One of those that has made headlines recently is part of legislation recently signed into law that involves the offer of up to $10,000 over a two-year period to move and work in the state.
One session Monday that attracted about 70 people, including a host of businesspeople, social service providers as well as government employees and officials, centered on the possibility of creating a “one-stop” job center in the Rutland region.
That initiative would involve better linking the various entities that work at enhancing job skills and providing employment services to people in the region. A similar program currently exists in Chittenden County.
“If we ever say an acronym to someone, we are failing,” Agency of Human Services Secretary Al Gobeille said during that session.
“If the answer is, ‘Hey we can do this, but DOL is upstairs,’ that isn’t what human beings want to hear” he added, referencing the initials for the state Department of Labor.
“You’ve never told an acronym in your life and felt really good about it, right,” Gobeille said. “I mean, you basically think, ‘Oh God, it’s a bureaucracy that’s not really going to help and in the end I may not get what I need.’”
Gobeille said the concept of bringing different entities together to help address people’s needs is about simplifying and streamlining the process for those seeking services.
“We’ve got to figure out a way, in a more meaningful way, to serve people that have co-occurring conditions of poverty, illness and all of the things that travel together with those things,” he said. “To the extent we can do this in Rutland, Rutland will be a much better county.”
Many voiced support for the effort, terming it “one-stop shopping’ for people in need of services. However, some cautioned that making a “one-size-fits-all system” may result in the loss of “individualized” services that can be provided.
Several talked of the need to make sure employers are part of developing such a “one-stop” job center, because they know the types of jobs they are looking to fill.
Earlier in the day, city leaders, including Mayor David Allaire, several members of city’s Board of Aldermen and Brennan Duffy, executive director of the Rutland Redevelopment Authority, took a tour of the city’s downtown.
That tour included a stop at a property known as “the Pit,” a sunken dirt parking lot on the corner of Center and Wales streets in the heart of the city. The property has been vacant since a fire in the 1970s destroyed the Berwick, a hotel that had stood at the site.
Duffy said Monday a development group is working on a hotel and conference center for that property. He also talked of efforts to expand commercial development to the undeveloped northeast section of the downtown Rutland Shopping Plaza.
They also stopped to view a more than $1 million project that’s been about 10 years in the making that is nearly complete, known as the Center Street Marketplace project.
An opening ceremony for the park space located between a series of downtown buildings, including the Paramount Theatre, is set for a grand opening in August, Duffy said.
All the initiatives are aimed at attracting more people, as well as businesses downtown, he said.
Allaire, Rutland’s mayor, said when talking to state officials Monday he highlighted the needed for funding for infrastructure improvement in the city and across the region, to ensure safety on roads and bridges.
He also spoke to administration leaders of the continuing challenges the city faces with the opioid crisis and workforce demands.
“I got to talk to all of them in one day,” the mayor said of the various agency and department heads in state government. “It’s good for us and I think it’s good for them coming down from Montpelier.”
Rutland City Police Commander Matthew Prouty hit on the infrastructure theme at a later session with state officials.
He said while he supported the efforts to attract more people to live and work in the region, having them drive on a beaten-up state road leading into the city that would send them to a chiropractor wasn’t helping.
Rep. Thomas Terenzini, R-Rutland Town, also addressed the governor during the jobs session. Instead of seeking more of something, Terenzini asked the governor for less, asking Scott to “loosen” permitting hurdles he said were hurting growth of businesses and development in the county.
A session on affordable energy that took place during the morning spurred ideas ranging from increasing conservation efforts to embracing new technologies that help residences and businesses store energy for use at peak times when demand and cost for power is at its highest.
Annette Smith, executive director of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, said another area that deserved scrutiny was the administrative cost of providing power, pointing to the six- and, in some cases, seven-figure pay packages for workers and executives.
“I think this is the beginning of the discussion,” Smith said of the session on energy. “It’s the type of thing we should have been doing years ago because what we’ve got now is just helter-skelter development not only in Vermont, but all over New England.”
Bill Ackerman, president of the Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce, said a main message he wanted to get across to the governor’s cabinet, and the public in general, is that there are “good-paying” available jobs in Rutland County.
“There is a myth that there is no jobs,” he said. “There is opportunity here.”
