Bennington receives several accolades

The Town of Bennington has received awards from the New England Waterworks Association, the New England Developers Association and Efficiency Vermont’s Energy Leadership Challenge. These acknowledgements are for the Town’s work following Tropical Storm Irene, the implementation of a new municipal website, and the reduction of overall electricity usage by the municipality respectively.
The Bennington Water Department, which is a part of the Water Resources Department, received the ‘Utility of the Year’ award from the New England Waterworks Association this month in recognition of its work following Tropical Storm Irene. During the storm Bennington lost the use of its main water source for the 15,000 person community, and was forced to rely on its secondary source to service the Town for more than a month. Through the hard work of the Town’s Water Department, a majority of residents saw no appreciable difference in their service during that period. It was more than a year before the municipal water system would be back to pre-Irene condition. ‘We learned a lot about our water system, and a lot about ourselves, following Irene. This award represents the efforts of the entire department and the work they put in every day,’ shared Terry Morse, Water Resources Superintendent for Bennington.
The new municipal website won two awards this month, the ‘Best in Show’ and ‘President’s’ awards from the New England Developers Association at the organization’s annual conference. The Town’s website, which was redesigned this past year and utilizes a new URL [www.benningtonvt.org], was highlighted for its ease of use, customer focus and information sharing capabilities. ‘It was a really fun project with a lot of possibilities. We were able to use a lot of information that already existed and put a new, user-friendly face on it,’ stated Michael Harrington, Bennington’s Economic and Community Development Director, and the head of the redesign. The Town site was constructed by Spectrum Design, a local media company, which built an earlier version of the site back in 2005. ‘By having Spectrum continue their work with this new site, we were able to minimize the cost and maximize effectiveness. They already knew so much about the community that we didn’t need to coach them along,’ Harrington continued.
Bennington was also recognized for its efforts to effectively reduce its electricity usage by more than 363,000 kWh annually, placing it among the top communities in Vermont to meet Efficiency Vermont’s Energy Leadership Challenge. The main drivers in this reduction were the implementation of LED (light emitting diode) lights in all of the more than 500 street lights in the Town and efficiency work at each of the municipal buildings. Championing this effort was the Town’s Assistant Manager Daniel Monks, Facilities Director Larry McLeod, and Working Foreman Mark Sawyer. ‘We are constantly looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint,’ stated McLeod, ‘and this opportunity allowed us to take a giant leap forward.’
The municipal staff for Bennington has a long history of receiving recognition for their work. In addition to those noted above, recent accolades have been given to the Town’s Economic and Community Development Director Michael Harrington who was name a 2013 Vermont Rising Star, which is Vermont’s top 40 individuals under the age of 40. In addition, the Town’s Fire Chief Steven Crawford, who was recognized this past year as Vermont Fire Chief of the year, and the Town’s Chief of Police Paul Doucette, who was honored in 2012 as National Law Enforcement Official of the Year by the American Legion.
Bennington was chartered in 1749, making it the first chartered community in the State of Vermont. Located in the southwesternmost corner of the state, Bennington is home to a number of cutting-edge manufacturing businesses that specialize in the production of various composite compounds, earning the area the moniker ‘Composites Valley.’ In addition, the Town is nestled in the Green Mountain National Forest and sought after by outdoor recreation enthusiasts.
For more information regarding this release, contact Michael Harrington, Economic and Community Development Director for the Town of Bennington at 802-447-9710 or [email protected].