Dear Martin Langeveld: I just read your rebuttal to Howard Fairman's letter [“Are SeVEDS board members up to the task at hand?,” Letters, Mar. 5].
My first reaction was to take issue with your aggressive tone with Mr. Fairman, someone who is trying to figure this out (as we all are) and who has every right to be concerned in light of the track record of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC), with which the Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS) group is legally affiliated.
Brattleboro would not be suffering the way it is if BDCC had done its job correctly over the many years the organization has had to do so. BDCC has had its day and has not delivered.
There's nothing radical or innovative about the SeVEDS/BDCC approach; it's exactly the same-old-same-old that got the town and regional economy into a mess in the first place. It sounds like you and SeVEDS have no new ideas or approaches.