WILMINGTON — With not even a full year having passed since the flooding and catastrophic destruction of so many lives and livelihoods from Tropical Storm Irene, the annual Historic Preservation and Downtown Conference plans to honor the quality that has proved so essential to so many Vermonters.
The one-day conference, “Resiliency,” will focus not only on the resources, programs, and practices that downtowns can put to practical use to rebuild.
“Downtowns in the general sense remain the financial engine,” said Anne Cousins, special gift officer with the nonprofit Preservation Trust of Vermont (PTOV), who is organizing the conference with the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation and the Vermont Downtown Program, and the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, the state agency responsible for both.
She said the conference will explore what communities can do “to keep downtowns vital.”
According to a PTOV press release, the conference will “pay tribute to community organization, altruism, and the ingenuity of adaptation that help historic places survive in the face of overwhelming obstacles.”
And in a gesture of powerful symbolism of “overwhelming obstacles,” the conference will take place in Wilmington, one of the historic villages hit the hardest by the flooding.
The PTOV hopes to bring a bit of an economic boost, with an estimated 275 conference attendees coming into town for a day.
Property owners are still struggling to restore the 19th-century storefronts on the banks of the Deerfield River and to rebuild the businesses that were washed away by the surging waters.
As described by the town's long-term recovery plan, “The deluge from Tropical Storm Irene tore through the center of the Wilmington Village, taking buildings off their foundations and flooding the streets to a height of seven feet. All the buildings in the designated Historic District were inundated.
“Two buildings on West Main Street were swept downstream. Streets, sidewalks, and landscaping were heavily damaged as well. Business was effectively destroyed for the remainder of the summer and the foliage season,” the report continues. “Following a lackluster winter, several businesses remain closed and several more are for sale.”
Yet, Cousins said, “so many heroes have come out of the tragedy of Wilmington.”
She described a conversation with Steve Butler, owner of North Star Bowl & Video, on Route 100, a business that was hit hard by the flood and needed to replace the hardwood floors of the bowling alley.
The urgency: “He was hosting a fundraiser for Dot's,” the downtown restaurant that was moved from its foundation, Cousins said. “He was trying to get his floors in so he could help someone else.”
Residents interested in attending the conference may do so at reduced cost.
Stuart Comstock-Gay, president and CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation, will offer a keynote address - “Thanks, Irene: How We're Rediscovering the Essence of Vermont” - which will offer “stories from this challenging time [that] give a human face to the essence of Vermont.” Gov. Peter Shumlin will speak briefly at noon.
In “What's a Tax Credit,” Chris Cochran of the Vermont Downtown Program will describe how federal and state tax credits - including the state's new disaster-relief credits - can be used to finance major work on historic buildings, whether ravaged by floods or in need of elevators or sprinkler systems.
A number of the conference leaders come from Windham County.
Wilmington architect Joseph Cincotta will lead a session on recycling old buildings, which will discuss “the tension between historic preservation and energy-saving retrofits” and show how the “reconciliation of those interests is bringing new life to beautiful old buildings.”
Robert McBride of Bellows Falls, executive director of Rockingham Arts and Museum Project (RAMP), will lead a discussion on arts and the economy. Joining him will be Sara Coffey, founder/director of Vermont Performance Lab of Brattleboro and Dale Doucette, lighting and set designer, producer, and special consultant to Memorial Hall in Wilmington, a downtown performance arts venue that has undergone tremendous volunteer restoration efforts in the aftermath of the flood.
And Alex Wilson, founder of BuildingGreen and executive editor of Environmental Building News, a Brattleboro-based media company specializing in environmentally conscious building news and information, will speak on “Achieving Resilience in the Restoration of Existing Buildings.”
Other sessions include:
• “Downtown Vermont: Why Main Street Still Matters”
• “Preservation in Pink (Flamingos): How Historic Preservation Involves You”
• “We Dig Vermont” (downtown streetscape and road-improvement programs)
• “The Place Is the Hero: Celebrations of Community Identity in the Early 20th Century.”