[ back ]
Thank You, Legislators
Editor:
Washington County residents owe a great deal of gratitude to our state legislators for working hard on a state budget for 2010 that includes funds for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB). Vermont legislators wisely determined that while difficult economic times require serious belt-tightening, our strategic investments in safe, decent affordable housing and our working farms and forests must continue.
With relatively small state investment (less than one-tenth of one percent of total state funds) VHCB leverages huge sums of additional investments into our economy that produce incredible results.
In Washington County, since 1987 VHCB has provided $12.2 million in funding to support the development of 667 affordable homes and to conserve nearly 11,000 acres of land. Often people are aware of a new housing development, town park or conserved farm, but many are not aware that a common thread among these is likely to be funding from VHCB. Here are some examples:
• In Barre, VHCB support has been vital to the acquisition and preservation of the Old Labor Hall and the Highgate Apartments, conversion of the former Lincoln School to senior housing, creation of the Barre Granite Center, restoration of the Vermont History Center, and rehabilitation and expansion of the Good Samaritan Haven homeless shelter.
• VHCB supported Montpelier’s acquisition of the North Branch Park lands connecting the City Recreation Fields with the East Montpelier Trail system and assisted with the purchase of acreage to establish the North Branch Nature Center.
• VHCB will be a critical partner for the City of Montpelier and the Trust for Public Land as the community considers the mixture of conservation and affordable housing in Montpelier’s Sabin’s Pasture.
• With VHCB funding, the Central Vermont Community Land Trust has constructed new housing on Barre Street in Montpelier —the River Station apartments and condominiums—and rehabilitated the Bianchi Building, resulting in nearly 50 new affordable homes.
• VHCB funding is assisting with the historic restoration of the Jacob Davis Farmstead in Montpelier, where programs run by Two Rivers and Foodworks are teaching students to garden and growing produce for food shelves, senior centers and schools.
• In East Montpelier, conserved land helps to make up 14 miles of trails and a large block of farms, totaling nearly 2,000 acres, conserved with the help of the Vermont Land Trust and VHCB helps to maintain the town’s rural character.
Once again, a most sincere thank you to our area legislators who supported VHCB, a nationally recognized program that has brought millions in state and federal revenue to the Washington County economy over the past 22 years.
Elise Annes, Vermont Land Trust; Kris Hammer, Montpelier Conservation Commission; Chip Darmstadt, North Branch Nature Center; Brian Shupe, VNRC; David Thurlow, Vermont Foodbank; Eileen Peltier, Central VT Community Land Trust; Robin McDermott, Mad River Valley Localvore Project; Rodger Krussman, The Trust for Public Land; Emily Boedecker, The Nature Conservancy; Nona Estrin, East Montpelier Trail
[ back ]
