 Okay good morning committee. We're on the record. First thought this morning is we have North East Kingdom Day and we have a lot of my fellow people from the Kingdom in with us this morning to talk to us about what's going on in the Kingdom and I'm really pleased to return now. I just said we don't get out much so when we do get out we go en masse. We want to make sure people hear what we have to say so I appreciate everyone coming down tonight and Jody, your first up and thank you for coming down. It's always a pleasure to hear from you. Alright well thank you very much. My name is Jody Fried. I'm Executive Director of Catamount Film and Arts and I'm also the President of the Northeast Kingdom Collaboratives. So I wanted to kick off today by just a general introduction to the day and what we're trying to accomplish and an introduction to our organization. So thank you to again to the committee for having us. We as Mike said look forward to the opportunity to make the trip over here and for our voice to be heard which often I think it's lost in a rural mountain in the Northeast Kingdom. So N-E-K Day is an opportunity for all of us to celebrate the innovation and all the exciting work that we're doing over in the Northeast Kingdom. We're doing that in the context of a declining workforce and some real challenges but we're working really hard and this is the second Northeast Kingdom day and last year we came here for the first time for the inaugural event and we laid out for you some very specific focal points. One was around the intersection of the creative recreational and local food and beverage economy and that being a place for us to find synergy and for us to leverage economically and as a community and to create vibrancy. And then the second piece was for us to work on leadership and that in the Northeast Kingdom as in much of Vermont and across rural America there is a void that needs to be filled as the experienced leaders are aging out of their positions and we need to make sure that we have a strong group of leaders to step in and take that torch forward for us in the Northeast Kingdom and we recognize that. And so we have done a lot of work in the past year I'll report to you. I'm not going to go into all the specifics but on those initiatives we raised a significant amount of money and funding and resources that we brought to bear through the institutions in the Northeast Kingdom and we've moved forward on those initiatives and made a lot of progress and you're going to hear from different people over the course of the day in regards to those specific projects but we have made a lot of progress. So the NEK Collaborative just to give you a review of that it's a convening organization for the Northeast Kingdom. I've been involved since 1999. It's well over 20 years old. It's an organization that's made up of sector leaders so we have CEOs of hospitals, presidents of banks, presidents of university right across the board, municipalities, health and human services, all of those different sectors are represented by the NEK Collaborative and then we have an advisory group which is made up of philanthropy and government agencies that also has a non-voting role in that. And we're led by Catherine Sims, our dynamic and awesome executive director. And that organization works to convene and facilitate solutions in the Northeast Kingdom. We do not implement them ourselves and that's a really important clarification. We bring people together and from all of those different sectors, we facilitate conversation and connection and then we create a strategic framework that then the individual institutions and organizations within the region move forward in terms of the implementation. So that's a very important clarification in terms of what we do. We brought today to this room a group of witnesses that you're going to have the pleasure to listen to. We have Sean Tester, CEO of Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital. We have Nick McClure, owner, broker from Century 21 Farm and Forest. We have Evan Carlson, entrepreneur in residence at Dunworth Co-working Space at Northern Vermont University. We have Joe Kasperzak, town manager or assistant town manager at St. John'sbury, the town of St. John'sbury. Brian Cain, sales marketing director at the Capital Plaza Hotel and an MVU alum. Luke Sustorf, manager of special events at J. Peek Resort, also an MVU alum and Molly Vessey from the Old Stone House Museum and Historic Village. Each of them will give testimony to you regarding the initiatives and the work that they're doing in the Northeast Kingdom along these lines. So now I'm going to pivot really quickly and talk to you about the creative sector because that's the hat that I wear. And I spoke to you guys what a week and a half ago at the Travel and Tourism Day. So I'm not going to bore you with the same presentation and the same stuff, but I just want to highlight a couple of different areas. One is that the creative sector is extremely important and in addition to the role that play in the Northeast Kingdom at Catamount Film and Arts, like chair of the Vermont Creative Network and in the Northeast Kingdom almost 9% of our workforce is somehow involved in the creative sector. That's over 3,000 jobs. Statewide, it's similar numbers over 40,000 jobs. It is a significant contributor to our economy. But I think even more importantly what has come up and we've done a bunch of research in the past two years that I referenced to you guys when we met, whether that's the studies we did through the collaborative, the white paper we did with these nationally known consultants in terms of the creative economy or even the research that came out through the National Governors Association and if you guys haven't read this, you should. It's online. But it's the rural prosperity through the arts and creative sector and this is a guide to this on a more macro level. And so what has come out and is very clear from all of that research is that as we move forward into the next generation, as we move forward into the future and we look at workforce development and economic development, that there's what I call the special sauce, right? And that recipe is, I brought it up before, it's creativity, recreation and food and beverage, those three in that intersection. But then there's the other pieces of it which to me all kind of evolve around connectivity. So that could be the broadband connection and having internet connectivity. It can be housing and transportation. The next generation of workers are not as interested in owning cars and they want to live in it closer together. And as you read through this, this idea of connectivity is really, really important that we need to be considering as we look at housing, as we look at transportation, as we look at our basic infrastructure needs, we need to be considering this in order to complete that recipe. We're very well positioned and I think that that's the exciting news because we have strong creative arts and culture, we have strong recreation with our mountain biking, our skiing, our hiking and everything and we have perhaps the best local food scene in the whole country if not in some places of the world. So we are well positioned for that and if we can add those other ingredients then based on all this research we'll be in a position to not only be competitive but I think to be a leader throughout the country. With that said there's three focal points for today specifically I'd like to mention. One is the importance of NVU, Northern Vermont University in London for us specifically although Johnson as well with their combined campuses and the importance that the university plays specifically through the lens of the creative economy, we need that university in the Northeast Kingdom. It is interwoven into everything we do. We on the catamount specifically we have anywhere from 10 to 12 interns over the course of the year that are working for us through their business industry program, learning sound and lights, they're the kind of roadies that allow us to do the shows that we do. They're working in our business office and our box office through their business administration program. They're doing our graphic design through their advanced graphic design classes. There's satellite galleries that are being set up. There's co-working spaces. Northern Vermont University is interwoven into the basic fabric of the Northeast Kingdom and as we've looked at what's happened with the small colleges throughout the rest of Vermont and some of the grease enclosures and the impact that is had on very specific towns. What I would suggest to you is just realize that this is an entire region and that for our rural area the footprint of NVU is 30 miles in all directions and it is playing a tremendous role in our ability to compete. The most creative individuals are the individuals that are of college age. We need them there. If we're going to move forward with this prescription as laid out for rural prosperity. The second piece I bring up is the working lands and vibrant downtowns. I was really happy to see and you guys have probably seen ACCD's community investment package that they put out and some of the place making stuff. I think this is a nice framework and anything we can do to invest in the vibrancy of our downtowns again because the co-workers in the future are going to want to be close to their villages. We have to have vibrant downtowns and housing down there and amenities for them. So these investments in vibrant downtowns are critical. And then the second piece of that is as we look at the working lands I know this session we're going to have some conversation around Act 250 and that is a very significant issue for us and I'm telling you that through the creative lens and while it may not impact our projects directly the indirect impact could be huge and by that we work with Kingdom Trails, Burk Mountain and Jay Peak, all of those are our recreational partners. They are the ones that are critical for us in terms of audience development and they bring that to the special sauce, right? And if in the Act 250 conversations we're not sensitive to the issues that those specific rural entities bring to the table I think we could really put ourselves in jeopardy. And so I would ask of this committee that as those conversations move forward that we make sure specifically those recreational entities that are in those rural towns that their voice gets to be heard and that the unique chemistry and ecology of private landowners and the fragility of that is part of the conversation as we have those Act 250 conversations. And then the last piece is along the line of just a change in paradigm and I'll just throw this out to you as the traditional way people have looked at arts, culture and creativity has been through the lens of amenity, right? It's something that compliments tourism. It's a nice thing, it's an amenity. And I would challenge you as we move forward into this new world that we're headed towards we need to start thinking about creativity from the standpoint of basic infrastructure and investment and basic infrastructure. So the one great thing about creativity is you can sprinkle it on any other sector and it's a fertilizer, it helps it grow, it helps it thrive. And so as we think about return on investment, as we think about what we can do within our communities we should be looking for ways to build out that basic infrastructure and go away from it being siloed as an amenity to this is a basic infrastructure that makes all of the other things in our community better and more vibrant. And I play a game sometimes with our staff and sometimes when we meet with your community engagement exercises where you ask people to just throw out ideas, you know, manufacturing this, that and we'll tell you how we'll throw out a way that we could make that better, more vibrant. And it's amazing, we never get stumped. You can go through a list and you can say, okay, manufacturer, I want an engineer to come to town. Well, have them attend first night when you're recruiting and let them see, you know, 250 musicians playing in 18 venues over the course of eight hours with the best possible artistic quality that you can imagine. And let me tell you, they're going to look at moving to that area a little differently. That's a real life example, by the way. I know of two individuals that were doctors and engineers that moved to this area because they attended first night. And I can go line by line and you guys could throw examples at me and that basic fertilization process is the same. It makes it better. So as you think about from a commerce and an investment perspective on the state start thinking about creativity and the creative infrastructure through the infrastructure lens. That's what I got for you. Thank you, Jody. If you could, if you have links to those reports. Absolutely. Could you send them to Amy and she'll place them on our webpage? I will give you a lot of information. Thank you. So next up, I'm going to pass the torch off to Sean Tester, CEO of MBRH and I'm going to excuse myself, I apologize, but I'm headed to Los Angeles to meet with the Levitt Foundation about our dog mountain music series and I have to be on the plane at one o'clock. So I would like to, my perspective is really coming at you from the lens of workforce and the challenges and opportunities we have around workforce. And I know that this is not a new subject for all of you but I thought I would start, you guys may have received a handout. I don't have copies but it's just to help frame the conversation. I'm looking at this through the lens of healthcare as the leader of Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital and my four years experience at Northern County's healthcare, the network of FQHCs serving the Northeast Kingdom. And to just put it in perspective. So these are stats from 2019. In 2019, MBRH used 23 traveling nurses. Do you all know what a traveling nurse is? Which is a very expensive solution to a workforce challenge. We used 11 locum providers. So those are physicians, NPs, PAs who we bring in to fill critical positions when we lose a provider or have struggled to fill a position. The good news is over the last year we filled 119 new positions at the hospital. But with the retirements that we're struggling with and just normal attrition and turnover in our workforce at the end of December we had 64 open positions. To put that in perspective we have a workforce at NBRH of about 640 people. That's 10% open positions, right? And that moves a little bit throughout the year. May have had a low of about 45 and then it climbs back up and we're averaging around maybe 50 throughout the year. 35% of my nursing workforce are baby boomers. 35%. 24% of them are millennials. That's the wrong, our millennials. That's the wrong ratio, right? When I stepped into the role as the leader of NBRH last year people asked me, boy, what do you think your big challenges are? Three big challenges. Number one is navigating health care reform. We are in the midst of a massive transformation of how we pay for and deliver health care services nationally and at the state level and that trickles down to this hard work we're doing locally. We're going from a fee-for-service model that is very transactional to a value-based payment model where we're paid for taking care of the population. Number one. Number two is our demographic challenge. We're getting older. I used to tell people, I think Vermont is the second or third oldest state in the union. Does that sound good? Second. Well, I've heard it's moved, hasn't it? No, no, no. Yeah, thank you. And the Northeast Kingdom is the oldest region of the state of Vermont. I've heard it's one of them counties. That may shift around too. I've been using these stats for a while. I just say we're old and we're tired and we don't have time to check the math. But the reality is when people get older, they need more health care. And what we're seeing at NVRH is that people are coming to us, they're older, they're sicker, and they're more complex. The good news is we've done a very good job of helping people stay alive longer. But when they come to us, they need more care and it's more challenging to care for them. At the same time, we have a declining workforce. And that's reflected in these numbers. And that's the third challenge that I want to say. It's the workforce. It's really hard to do health care reform when you don't have the workforce to do that hard work. It's really hard to shift to the evolving payment model. It's really hard to refocus on the social determinants of health. The things that we know, and start affecting them, housing, financial security, access to nutritious foods, mental and physical well-being, it's hard to focus on those if we don't have the workforce to do it. Of those three challenges, the one that keeps me awake at night, is the workforce. Now, I do feel like we are really pushing hard, we're pushing the envelope within our ability at the hospital to address those challenges, right? Over the last couple of years, we've held steady on our employee contribution to benefits. Right? Over the last two years, we raised nursing pay by an average of 13%. Okay? We are trying to be very innovative in how we reach outside our borders to attract new people here. We have a partnership with NCIC. They got a grant to go out and attend job fairs at military bases outside of New England to try to tell them the great story about the Northeast Kingdom and the great opportunities that we have here. We have also dramatically expanded our own loan repayment programs and reimbursement programs. Part of that is to say, hey, we have amazing staff. We want to grow that talent. How can we grow them professionally employed at NBRH? We're doing some really great things there. The challenge is also, you know, I'm speaking through the lens of healthcare, but these same challenges are reflected in many of our colleagues in other industries throughout the area, whether it's manufacturing. My friends in the banking industry are looking at the very same challenges. This goes beyond just healthcare. Education. I just saw Brian Carroll in the hallway outside, and he was talking about the challenges of finding and retaining talented teachers to meet the evolving needs of the education system. And I'd like to just touch on why this is connected to these big issues that the Northeast Kingdom is facing. So, NVU. NVU does play, as Jody said, a critical role in the fabric of our community. About half of my IS staff are NVU graduates. That has been a tremendously valuable pipeline for us. We have people who come join NBRH, who are not yet going to college. They can work at NBRH and take classes at NVU to further their career and to build their ability to contribute economically to their own families as well as to the community in serving the patient population as well. Jody talked about the value of the arts. There are some great resources in our community that really help us when we try to attract talented people from out of the area. So, his example of the first night experience for a physician is one example of that. With the rich experience people have with the arts here. Kingdom trails, incredibly important. Our second best right behind St. John'sbury Academy is our second best recruiting tool in the area. People loved those resources. They give you a lot of business with injuries. Well, that might be true. And then the third thing is around Act 250 for us it really ties back for our workforce. Housing is a real challenge in our area. And anything we can do to encourage development of workforce housing will help us when we attract people to the area to find housing that meets their needs at all levels. We need higher end housing for providers, physicians, people who can afford that but we also need great workforce housing for the nursing staff we hope to bring for the lab technicians for the diagnostic imaging professionals all the people that are the lifeblood of the hospital that help the hospital run. So there are some things that we could use some help on and these are just some ideas. Like I said, I think we're looking at this okay what can we do ourselves and then what can we look to our partners to help with. You may have heard talk about a potential tax credit for healthcare professionals. You know that's one tool that may help us better recruit. Another one is just the continued support for loan repayment programs through AHEC. Unfortunately the state of Vermont is one of the lowest has the lowest amount of money provided through those programs. I got to tell you my years recruiting you know as the leader of an organization when you're recruiting especially physicians you're intimately involved in those conversations so there are a few questions that come right off the top of the hat. Number one is what's the quality of life there? Notice it's not what do you pay? And number two is what's your loan repayment program? And if the answer to number two is well you know it's okay or you don't have a good answer to that the next thing that happens on that phone conversation is a hang up, right? These people are coming out of school medical school, professional school that they need the help and they're looking for employers who can provide resources to help them pay off that debt. There is a and I'm not sure where this sits right now but it's S-125 it's the interstate nurse licensure compact anything we can do to make it reduce the barriers make it easier for licensed professionals in health care or other industries to work in Vermont where they're licensed elsewhere to help smooth the path to their employment there, right? So that type of legislation is critically important and it's low cost, right? That's just that kind of for me it's a no brainer. And finally we could use continued help to attract foreign born workers. So we've partnered with a company called Avant and what they do is they bring in nursing staff from other countries I think we have four on staff right now I know two of them are from the Philippines I think one is from Puerto Rico I can't remember where the fourth one is from and the way their program works it's kind of like a long-term temp the perms so they're like two and three year positions they come into our community they really establish roots and the goal is for them to then become permanently employed at our institutions it's a little bit less expensive than a traveler they establish long-term relationships which is much better for patient care but the goal is that they then transition into full-time employment so they help address our workforce needs. We could use help the problem with bringing in foreign born workers is it's legally it's a web it takes a long time and it's expensive to navigate anything we can do to help ease that process of bringing foreign born workers into our workforce I think there has been talk about establishing like a statewide hub to help with that and that would go a long way so I know I'm way over my time I'm sorry I'm going to tee up Nick I did talk a little bit about workforce and I mean housing and maybe you can pick up from there great just so you know we are zeroed in on workforce we were at the Greenmount Care Board's panel discussion on workforce and primarily primary care dogs but also nurses last year we passed a bill out of here that required OPR to do a study on the issues with getting nurses getting clinicians in the clinician part of nursing to get more availability of those nurses to be able to teach and so we did receive that report back and it's on our website might invite you to look at it if you haven't but pretty much says that we've over-regulated and so we're hoping that we're going to bring the licensing board in and just have that discussion with them so we can get more nurses into the pipeline that's great that's what we need it's really about building the pipeline it really is a real quick thing what about reciprocity for nurses don't you have reciprocity with other states I have to double check let me look into that I think that's that's 125 I think that's what with that one too okay thank you understand how are you so Nick McClure, broker owner Century 21, Farman Forest up in Derby happy to be here happy to be present with all you guys that are doing hard work to support the Northeast Kingdom I've been in the real estate industry for 20 years excited to be here we're having great Northeast Kingdom but we're also having some struggles so here to kind of share some of those in general the real estate market's been fairly strong nationally it's been amazing strong sellers market in the Northeast Kingdom we kind of have three segments each of which has a different market so what I would say the lower end market up to I would say 150 for in town high quality homes in 200 for country homes is definitely a sellers market we're lacking that supply when we get into the middle range I would say you know the two to 300 range it's a fairly stable market when we get in the upper range 300 plus it's definitely a pretty strong buyers market I seem to focus most of that on lack of high paying jobs but Sean's telling me very differently so it's kind of nice to see that we do have that and maybe the jobs are there it's just getting the people here to support those jobs since 2016 our inventory sub 200,000 has been reduced by 50% so that's been a huge reduction in inventory part of what has made our market strong and we've had a lot of transactions because we've had inventory in other areas haven't but that's certainly getting absorbed we've got a few projects in Newport which certainly could use support I was happy to hear that part of Governor Scott's budget plan was a million and a half dollars allocated to downtown Newport I think that could be huge in positively impacting downtown Newport I've worked with the receiver Michael Goldberg and I understand at one point there was a trade proposal to trade that downtown property for some other properties that the state had control over it seems like a great solution to me that's not out of pocket for the state the receiver can then sell those other properties but it would put that staple down piece of downtown Newport in the state's hands and hopefully they could leverage that into an opportunity to grow the downtown Newport so I would love to see all of you participating and encouraging conversation you know I don't know the inner details of it but I think it on the surface seems like a really good solution we also have the former Bognar facility what was going to be the ANC biotech facility which is vacant would love to see a new company in there bringing jobs bringing workforce new company or a growing local company so anything that you folks can do to support those endeavors would be awesome different topic but often times when we get people moving from outside the area the question is how's the internet you know if you're in a downtown area it's generally pretty strong but when you start to get out of these country locations they can be quite poor and when we're trying to bring people that are maybe working remotely it's been difficult to get those people into a country location so we might have a family from Boston that's fed up with city life they can work remotely so they can be in Vermont they want a country home but when they get up here and their speeds are you know five megabits per second and they just can't work remotely it impacts their decision so it would be great to see some some resources brought to increasing the internet capability of the area I understand the NEK collaborative is working to address that through a communication union district so I think that's wonderful so the NEK is many things but one thing it certainly not is Chittenden County while some regulations fees, processes might make sense in Chittenden County they're not all economical in the northeast kingdom so you know when you're looking at offsetting the cost of permits, engineering, wetlands delineation, energy audits, stormwater retention to your average home price of $350,000 in Chittenden County it's doable but when we're dealing with an average home price of $160,000 it's just not economical to add all those things on top we know you all know that and appreciate your support in trying to make things as efficient streamlined and inexpensive we're seeing very little new land development just because of the high costs of developing there's been a few properties in the northeast kingdom that they've been developed developers spend a few hundred thousand dollars getting them ready to build on and end up getting frustrated with the state and selling them for half of what they've invested there's less and less ready to build land available so seeing some investment in infrastructure whether it's downtown or outside would certainly be instrumental to help promote those avenues I also, just last night received the community investment package which Jody referenced which I think is a great start to addressing many of these issues so hopefully people are looking at that and considering some of those solutions questions I wish we had time for that but I appreciate you coming thank you very much so good morning everyone of course I want to thank you all for taking the time to meet with us I'm Evan Carlson, I'm an entrepreneur in residence at due north co-working in northern Vermont University due north co-working is an office space resource hub and a community for remote workers startups and small businesses in our rural pocket in Vermont the northeast kingdom 200 square feet in the old bag bomb building in the city center and we opened our doors just over a year ago on November 15th 2018 as a venture of the center for professional studies at northern Vermont University our space is excellent for professional development and we do a lot of promotion of the different type of programming that can be offered to our co-working members but also to the broader community to serve those types of programs but in addition we're also a conduit for introducing students to the concept of remote working and our space university as well as the businesses working at due north create this ideal intersection for career opportunities this is for example two recent graduates of NVU were hired on by north view weather they're working out of due north and are now at the space every single day so having that direct pipeline of talent is a really unique feature of the space that we're offering and we expect to see more of that trend over the next couple of years at the core due north co-working co-working spaces in general rent space nice spaces with amenities that are hard for workers and a lot of small businesses to justify paying for as a small business owner we can be that one stop shop for the rent for one payment for rent internet utilities, coffee printing and that allows them to really focus on the business at the core not focusing on the actual facilities that they're trying to manage at due north we have two primary focuses one is making remote working possible and an option in rural as Nick pointed out it's very difficult to find high speed internet and a lot of the rural households especially in the ones that are ideal today we have 25 members that are actively working out of the space and for these members we are access to high speed internet we are at the 17th building in Caledonia County to have 2 megabit per second symmetrical internet service and that comes with a pretty hefty price tag we're paying $640 a month for that internet service that same internet service is available in Chitton County for $55 that is our second highest line item aside from urban but this story is not unique just to the building this is the same for rural co-working spaces across the state aside from that we find our space as a productive work environment that can be difficult to find at home and we're also a community for people that are working remotely if you're a traveling spouse new to the region it can be hard to kind of meet a great in addition we have had we had a recipient of one of the remote workers grants take advantage of our space and they're new to the area didn't have a ton of friends and so this was a way for them to be able to have a soft landing coming into the community in most cases these rural workers are bringing in higher wages sometimes significantly more than what the median household income is for the region and that means more tax dollars this has a direct economic impact not just in our community but at the state level so the second thing that we're focused on is building a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Northeast Kingdom for most entrepreneurs time is one of their most valuable commodities and while Vermont has amazing resources for small businesses it can be a pretty daunting task for a small business in time consuming to determine where to go to get help when they need it due north and other rural co-working spaces across the state are aiming to be the on-ramp for these small businesses not only do we have not only are we building communities entrepreneurs that can share stories and talk through challenges that they have for their small business and also be a resource to help them navigate the different resources available for small businesses in the state so in addition to being an on-ramp we also facilitate a lot of entrepreneurship programming in 2019 we hosted 72 hours of programming with amazing partners like Vermont SBDC the Center for Women in Enterprise and LaunchVT in 2020 we have another calendar stacked full of different programming community-focused stuff as well as entrepreneurship stuff and we really have a bunch of other ambitious goals in the next couple of years to hopefully move the needle on our rural economy this includes some things like collaborating with local high schools to introduce entrepreneurship programming in the CTE programs as well as the development of industry specific business accelerator programs looking at accelerator programs for the forestry industry for the ag industry accelerator programs for outdoor recreation and we really see rural co-working spaces adding this energy to communities where as needed most and to move the needle in the long term we need to ensure these spaces can be rooted for a foreseeable future so I guess the one ask I had to the committee is I would encourage you to look at why other states are doing to support co-working spaces and also I would invite you all to take a tour of spaces across the state specifically rural co-working spaces and we would be happy to help set up an opportunity for you to visit these different places I want to make sure to leave time for NVU to testify here especially as a graduate and I certainly know how important that is to our area so I'm Joe Kasper-Zack I'm the assistant town manager of the town of St. Johnsbury and I want to start with the good what's going on in St. Johnsbury what's helped us get where we are now and then talk about our challenges and I'll comment briefly on the connectivity that Jody mentioned because I think as a representative of municipality that's part of the work that we do and that's the arena that we live in when it comes to infrastructure development and providing services right now we have about 18 million dollars of development going on in our downtown much thanks to the designated downtown program operated through the CCD who leveraged 800 plus thousand dollars to help make that go that development includes the iconic downtown new avenue a hotel that's being renovated by housing Vermont a great partner and their partners and they're starting construction they're underway actually and remediation will start construction this spring so that's an iconic structure for us and really a benchmark development project we also have a new distillery in town we've got three new restaurants we've got the old blow factory at the St. Johnsbury development fund is sinking close to a million dollars we've finalized that building and we've got a new brewery opening any day now so there's a lot of optimism there's investment we're pleased about that on the flip side you hear this all the time I'm sure an aging declining population with declining household average incomes we have got increased costs of essential services so when you graph that we're basically a collision course here that we need to deal with hence our discussions about regionalization which is new and as we try to solve our problems we're embarking on a discussion with our outlying communities about fire services we'll discuss dispatch services and no challenging discussions that we feel that are really important and need to happen and when we say regionalization we've seen education try to consolidate the expenses it's a tough challenging topic people are proud of their independence in their communities but we look forward to the discussion it's a hard problem and we're going to roll up our sleeves and we're going to work on it together and thanks to NVDA who's taken the lead northeastern Vermont Development Association on facilitating those discussions with other fire departments Jody mentioned the creative economy and the outdoor creation economy they are definitely demand generators these are economic drivers for our community these are things that we need to focus on we need to really turn our community into a destination for this experiential tourism piece we believe that that's the new opportunity and of course that restaurant and food industry sector is so supportive to that outdoor recreation and creative economy piece so we work collaboratively with many on that topic we're working with the collaborative and other communities on procuring grant funding at a larger scale for a larger regional piece that's another important piece of what we think will be the success of our region we just entered into the communication junior district as we look to help solve these issues of broadband access this connectivity piece we're going nowhere without working together to solve some of these big issues here clearly the workforce piece the housing piece I work daily on housing topics in fact we have embarked on our own code compliance and inspection program for rental housing I'll be interested as the state reviews some of the legislative language that they're working on there's a bill about the state operating a registration a housing registration and inspection process how that impacts communities that already have that in place in fact we've taken revenues from that housing registration and develop programming to provide grants to landlords and property managers to reinvest into their properties which is an important step for us I'm very curious about how that piece of legislation goes through and lastly we work with partners on a daily basis USDA Vermont Community Development Program I mentioned USDA Vermont Housing Conservation Board there's too many to even name NVDA, NCIC, USDA and ACCD these are all important partners for rural communities and I ask when we pass legislation that we use our lens on this rural community piece because it's really a challenge good morning everybody thanks for having me my name is Luke Sustworth I'm the manager of special events at JP and I graduated from NVU Linden in 2012 I first discovered NVU Linden through my father William Sustworth who, like me, is a Linden State College alumnus I worked as a certified snowboard instructor for a number of years and attended Adirondack Community College near my hometown of Diamond Point, New York where I graduated with an associate's degree in liberal arts and I had an interest in learning more about an industry that had already had such a positive impact on my life and I wanted to see if I could turn that into a career and NVU Linden was the vessel that was available to me from studying general resort operations to more specialized programs like lift maintenance, grooming risk management, each class that I studied while at NVU Linden flowed from one to the next it was a great small classroom learning experience that offered so much insight into all the intricacies that go into operating a successful ski resort frankly I couldn't get enough while at NVU Linden I had the opportunity as a student to intern at a number of different resort properties in New England, shadowing frontline employees, supervisors managers, directors and even in some cases resort general managers I now manage JP Resorts internship program with NVU Linden and it feels great to give back to an institution that helped kickstart my career as a resort operator it's also been a great opportunity for the resort to recruit new employees from NVU Linden as a final requirement to graduate with a bachelor's degree in science in the field of ski resort management I had to complete a summer long internship at a resort property and I chose JP as the JP intern I worked in a variety of departments you name it I likely did it the front desk, food and beverage parking and security, the pump house indoor water park housekeeping even and eventually the events and marketing team where I've been since the fall of 2012 I've been the manager of special events at JP since the fall of 2014 so I direct the year round on and off snow event series for the resort and I also coordinate the JP music series and much more anything else our general manager wants to throw on our plate I found a second home in the J area and I'm forever indebted to NVU Linden and to JP for helping make that possible I mean the opportunity that I had it's opened doors in my life that frankly I never knew existed not to mention lifelong friendships and countless great days playing outside JP is also where I met my now wife a fellow JP employee, a native from Monter and an NVU Linden alumnus my sister-in-law has this plaque in her living room that reads if you're lucky enough to live in the northeast kingdom you are lucky enough and now officially living in Vermont full-time for almost a decade I honestly couldn't see myself anywhere else especially living in the northeast kingdom the quality of life that we as Vermonters possess is something very special and in my case of being a native New Yorker and now being converted J I'll be forever indebted to NVU Linden and to JP for helping set the stage of a lifelong career doing what I love in an environment that I love you Joe it is snowing a little bit we believe we have no one at this Provost of NVU Good morning everyone Brian sends his regrets he is out sick so I'm stepping in to share I think broadly what NVU is attempting to accomplish in our region my name is Nolan Atkins I'm the academic officer at the institution and so I'm going to actually share just an excerpt of the written testimony that I provided the committee and will be very very brief NVU combines nationally recognized liberal arts and professional programs with hands-on high impact experience tailored to the working world students participate in internships and you've heard examples from NVRH co-working and catamount arts this morning they participate in travel collaborative research throughout their college career at NVU a couple other examples include conducting research to understand how ski areas are adapting their services to reduce their environmental impact our atmospheric science students provide weather forecast information to the Vermont agency of transportation or v-trans to help maintain safe roadways throughout Vermont and have done so for the past 15 years we really value the hands-on experiential piece 95% of our seniors participate in an internship or practicum as part of their studies and the feedback from our community partners and you've heard it this morning it's been very positive we really value the combination of liberal arts and high impact or practical experience and it results in success for our students as they begin their careers they have developed the essential soft skills that employers demand the critical thinking, the creative thinking communication, problem solving, teamwork and collaboration and research these are all transferable as they move from one career to the next as employers are able to hire the staff they need for their local businesses whether it's the bank, resorts health and human services agencies, schools, law enforcement weather agencies and more we continue to work closely with local businesses to offer programs that meet their workforce development needs and let me just give you an example here we've recently created the center for professional studies and Evan referred to it earlier the center for professional studies delivers boot camp style training to meet the complex needs of adult learners and is a valuable option for mid-career professionals seeking additional training and certification classes like data analytics project management Microsoft skills provide workforce readiness that is in high demand by employers across all industries employers or employees really like the smaller the bite sized learning pieces so certificates, badges and so on in specific skill areas and the customization that we're able to provide through the center for professional studies institutions that have benefited from this training include Kingdom East Supervisory Union Mobile Medical Corporation Revision Military Mount Snow, Burke Mountain and Smuggler's Notch are all institutions that NBU has recently worked with to address workforce training needs and additionally we continue to work closely with local businesses to offer programs to meet their workforce development needs as well so again in the interest of being very brief that is where I will end and just thank you all for your continued support for NBU in the northeast thank you okay so my speech takes exactly three and a half minutes so we should be good my name is Molly Basie I'm the Executive Director of the Old Stone House in Brownington thank you all for hearing my testimony today a little interactive how many of you know about Alexander Twilight already show of hands that's a pretty good show of hands actually you may know that he was an educator through the mid-1800s in historic Brownington where the Old Stone House now stands you may have heard in fact that Alexander Twilight essentially built Athenian Hall the four-story granite building that would house both girls and boys from 1836 to 1858 you may even know that Alexander Twilight served in the Vermont State Legislature but what is all too little known was that Alexander Lucius Twilight was of African-American descent his father freed black man who fought in the Revolutionary War Alexander Twilight was the first African-American to graduate from West College Middlebury in fact and was certainly the first African-American to walk these very halls as an elected official Alexander Twilight was an impressive force of nature highly intelligent he was a powerful teacher and preacher at the Orleans County Grammar School and Brownington Church he employed what is modernly described as place-based or experiential education techniques Alexander Twilight was enigmatic and magnetic he was driven and visionary he manifested all of these attributes in his teaching and over the span of his educational career and I think this is especially fascinating Alexander Twilight taught almost 3,000 students nearly 1,000 of them women young women since 1829 the Old Stone House has been a positive economic force in northern Vermont as well Mr. Twilight himself attracted students from all over New England and southeast Canada as well we remain as a nonprofit ourselves an attraction to roughly 2,500 visitors per year through guided tours, school groups, events and programs at the Old Stone House Museum this year the 225th birthday of Alexander Lucius Twilight we are working to celebrate this outstanding Vermont human being Alexander Twilight is most definitely the hero of our story at the Old Stone House but he was also a major and prominent protagonist in our state's history as well with the continued support of funders like the USDA, the Vermont Division of Historic Preservation the Preservation Trust of Vermont the Vermont Humanities and Arts Council and partners with other cultural and recreational organizations like Northwoods and Catamount Arts as well as the Fairbanks Museum we hope that our celebration of this amazing man will establish a basis for residents in Orleans County to understand its diverse and complex history as well as instill a sense of pride a pride of place for all Vermonters visiting the Old Stone House our stories of success will hopefully provide a template for other historical museums as well and houses in Vermont who wish to more deeply explore the diverse history of which they may not have previously been aware please join us at the Old Stone House Museum this year recognizing one of Vermont's most compelling sons, Native sons on September 20th, 2020 and as Twilight himself said Onward is the great motto of the universe which extends to all parts and to every individual thank you so much thank you I just want to thank everyone I want to thank everyone for coming today it's always a pleasure to hear from you maybe next year we can set something up so that we can ask some questions too I have a very curious committee and they like to ask questions and I'm sure that they're not happy about having to be coy just to let you let you know a little bit about what we've done the Communications Union District actually came out of this committee years ago when we were charged with telecommunications also we don't do telecommunications anymore so that's upstairs in the new committee energy and technology but what we did swap forward was workforce so we are doing a lot of workforce now also I'll let you know that Representative Dickinson sits on, is a trustee on the state college board so I'm sure she's heard all the testimony about NVU and we'll take that with her back to the board also Act 250 upstairs that's taken care of in natural resources Fish and Wildlife they have purview on Act 250 so I hope I know that I think Abby is going up there today to testify about the issues with the Kingdom Trails and that they're having with Act 250 but I hope others like Nick have an opportunity to let them know the effects of Act 250 and how we need to try to get things straightened out there housing is in general housing military affairs that's their purview but we all work we work together because they're all commerce issues although they look at it we get a chance to generally look at things too so once again thank you for coming enjoy Kingdom Day