The Legislature is preparing to redistrict senate and house districts in response to the 2020 Census. According to Balint, it’s possible Windham County’s population has dropped enough that it risks losing representation.
That loss will directly impact Windham County’s voice in Montpelier, she said.
Representative Laura Sibilia, I-Dover, said Balint’s concerns are real.
One of the question marks, however, is how many new Vermonters will stay in Windham County after the pandemic ends, Sibilia said. Even if the census shows a drop in population, those who moved to the state in late 2020 could tip the scales.
“Right now we’re on the cusp of: Did we or didn’t we lose population?” Sibilia said. “We shall see.”
For Sibilia, broadband is the big issue that impacts current and future Vermonters.
During the cleanup from Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, Sibilia witnessed how the lack of internet and outdated telephone lines left many remote towns isolated and vulnerable.
People couldn’t even call for an ambulance, she said.
Since then, Sibilia has led the charge on bringing high speed internet to the last mile.
In 2015, the Legislature authorized the creation of Communications Union Districts, or CUDs.
Similar to a school supervisory union or a solid waste district, CUDs allow multiple towns to form a public internet company. Local residents, or ratepayers, who join the district help finance it.
Hello COVID-19, and the need for high speed internet in Windham County took center stage again as students and workers signed on to remote schooling and work.
Sibilia expects significant federal money to buoy the CUD roll out.
One such CUD, DVFiber, is a volunteer-led project that began with five Deerfield Valley towns. It has since expanded to 25 towns across three counties.
According to Sibilia, DVFiber has identified six underserved priority towns including Halifax and Readsboro. As of April, the CUD is ready to send its project out to bid.
Within 15 months, these priority towns could have broadband, she said.
“Regular Vermonters did that,” she said. “It’s a super sunny side of COVID.”
In an effort to attract new residents, the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC) is launching Welcoming Communities. The five-year program aims to increase immigration to Windham County.
According to Executive Director Adam Grinold, last fall the organization connected with multiple entities who work with new residents to learn why people make their relocation to Vermont permanent, or not.
BDCC received feedback that highlighted that the decision often revolved around how connected people felt to the community.
In an effort to build better connections between new Vermonters and their chosen community, BDCC collaborated with local organizations, Community Asylum Seekers (CASP) and The School for International Training.
The program’s goal is to make southeastern Vermont a “welcoming region” through implementing systems and services necessary for new residents, Grinold said.
“So people make sticky landings rather than bounce out because they can’t access the services they needed,” he said.
After initial grant applications went nowhere, the BDCC board agreed to provide seed funding.
Grinold said, “We are currently working to identify business support, philanthropic and grant source funding for this initial effort.”
BDCC hopes that immigration will increase the number of workers in the region, he said. Windham County businesses will eventually stop growing if they can’t find enough workers.
But, Grinold stressed, Welcoming Communities is also about building the region’s human collateral and therefore, community collateral.
Chris Campany, executive director of the Windham Regional Commission, has watched Windham County’s response to the pandemic with interest.
As the year progresses, he expects to see more data on how the pandemic has impacted Vermonters differently. It remains crucial that communities keep an eye out for anyone slipping through the cracks, he said.
At the same time, as Campany drives the Route 30 corridor between home and downtown Brattleboro, he sees evidence of an active community in the new, albeit small, businesses that have opened including a wine shop and a small sandwich shop. The local Newfane Market is under new management.
“We’re on the cusp of a new normal,” he said. “But what does that new normal look like?”
Communities have a lot of questions to ask themselves about where they want to go next and how they plan to emerge from the pandemic stronger, he said.
Campany advises towns to take advantage of the sense of abundance created by the influx of federal COVID relief funding.
Now is the time to review town plans, goals, infrastructure, and zoning, he said.
Are they taking communities in the direction people want to go? How well can they moderate potential increases in development, land use, or infrastructure needs?
“It’s always easier to test that stuff when you’re not feeling any development pressure,” he said.