As a longtime vacation resident and landowner (since 1972) and now a permanent resident (2012), I have some thoughts on Act 46 and how our towns need to react. As I write this I am planning to attend the Economic Summit at Gate House Lodge December 17 and await to hear some of the ideas and conclusions from the efforts of so many people over the last months discussing our future economic vitality (or not!).
What comes to mind are a few of my observations that help provide the foundation for businesses to come to The Valley or to expand their business in The Valley. These observations are based in part from 50 years of business experience all over the U.S.
1. High-speed Internet: We are not where we need to be in this regard. The Waitsfield-Fayston Telephone Company needs to ramp up their schedule to convert The Valley towns to fiber optic as quickly as possible. Because we are not an over the road/rail transportation hub we must partially offset this disadvantage with high-speed Internet.
2. Cost of living both for residents and businesses: Our cost structure in Vermont is one of the highest in the nation. When businesses expand they must prudently look to the "cost to do business" in the regions under consideration. They not only must consider the immediate cost to their business but also must consider the cost of living for their present and future employees. A high cost environment like we have throughout the state of Vermont restricts companies from seriously considering our region for new business location or business expansion.
3. Our town governments often act immature and anti-business: So often we read about squabbles and conflict at the town level that any businessperson considering a new business in The Valley or expansion of her/his existing business will pause and wonder whether it is worth the "fight" to try to create a new business in any of our towns versus looking elsewhere in the state or out of state.
4. Our environment, our mountains, our rural beauty are second to none when compared to anywhere else in our country (I am biased of course!) But: We cannot expect this beauty to offset poor Internet, high cost and an often anti-business sentiment.
All of which brings me back to Act 46: I bristle when I hear initial and immediate comments from those talking about Act 46 like: We need local control; we are afraid we may have to consolidate schools; we don't want to give up local control. With our well-documented declining student enrollment we cannot run our schools like we did in 1900, 1940, 1960s.
We must, as residents and families with children in school, be willing to look at all options relative to schools and accept the real fact that we must reduce our school costs or The Valley will not survive economically and we will all lose the reason we moved here in the first place: the beauty, the mountains, the community. I have been asking myself for years every time I see the Fayston school buses drive by the Waitsfield school on the way to Route 17. Why? Have we ever, as a town of Fayston, seriously looked at consolidating our little school into the Waitsfield system?
How about Warren? Maybe we could, as three towns, purchase some land (maybe across from Hap’s Service Station) and build a new regional elementary school for all three towns (Waitsfield, Fayston and Warren)? Wouldn't this be better than an ever-increasing tax rate because of inefficient use of tax dollars to fund a declining enrollment in all three schools?
And maybe eliminate the need for Warren residents to float a bond for a new school. Yes, it will mean some percent of students will ride the bus for an additional 10 to15 minutes each way back and forth to school, but wouldn't a lower tax structure due to potentially decreased school costs be better for all in the long term? Wouldn't a larger regional elementary school potentially offer advantages for the students in languages, science, computers, special education and the creative arts versus funding these things at each local school as we do now?
I don't know the answer to questions, but I do know we need an honest look at everything and not allow ourselves to fall back on "the way it has always been done!" I know these kinds of comments and potential proposals make many people react negatively. Rather than discard any ideas "out of hand" we need to sincerely look at all options without any preconceived biases. Unless we are willing to watch our communities slowly die from lower and lower economic growth, higher taxes, declining populations and the departure of our young people in their 20s to 30s seeking better, life-sustaining careers, we need to, as a community, look at Act 46 and seize the potential moment no matter what the final potential outcome may be as long as the final outcome can move our economic well-being forward and not backward.
Simonini lives in Fayston.
