To the Editor:
On March 16, the Mad River Valley Chamber of Commerce members got together at the Waitsfield United Church’s Village Meeting House to discuss the chamber's focus on business services and promoting our unique Valley to new and returning visitors, businesses and families. Let's face it, we love our Valley. If we can preserve what is wonderful and unique about it and at the same time keep it vital for our children and grandchildren, we should do that.
At this meeting we also discussed the Economic and Community Development Committee (ECDC), the same folks who organized the Economic Vitality Workshop and two Economic Summits, the latter held at the Valley House at Sugarbush in December.
The ECDC was organized not long after Tropical Storm Irene, then called the Vision and Vitality Steering Committee by the chamber and the Mad River Valley Planning District. These two groups came together to discuss whether we could make The Valley more vital and resilient to the vagaries of weather and other variables outside our local control.
The planning district and chamber formed the ECDC with two representatives from each and a handful of other interested parties. The group is still meeting regularly in pursuit of the core mission, economic vitality for The Valley.
For The Valley to be truly vital it needs to attract visitors irrespective of weather and at the same time facilitate creative entrepreneurial ventures like Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Mad River Canoe and Lawson's Finest Liquids.
In the discussions on how to facilitate economic activity, public works – projects that facilitate transportation and commerce – and marketing came up early on. This is what business owners and engaged residents and second-home owners have told us. Ensuring these things are done consistently over time as well as executed effectively will require funding. Funding options, from property taxes to bake sales (including grants and a local option tax along the way), have been put on the table.
Ultimately, it would be voters who decide on what, if any, long-term funding mechanisms are put in place. It is not the chamber’s role to advocate for any particular funding model prematurely. Rather, it is to pursue rigorous analysis of needs as well as all reasonable funding options so that we can provide data and information to the community and to our members so that an informed dialogue can follow.
Peter Hans, chair
Mad River Valley Chamber of Commerce
board of directors
