WINDHAM-Approximately 40 people gathered at the Windham Meeting House on June 17 for "What's Possible, Windham?," a community vision discussion hosted by the Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD), who came at the invitation of the Selectboard.
In his introduction, Selectboard member Michael Pelton said that the town is at a crossroads.
The town manages several properties, including the Windham Meeting House (where the discussion was held), the town offices, and the town shed. In addition, Pelton said, the town is likely acquiring the former Windham Elementary School building and a 70-acre former Hamm Mine, also known as the Vermont Talc Company Mine.
"We don't know what to do with these properties and buildings, and we as a selectboard think that it's best to reach out to the community to see what the vision is for these properties and for the future," Pelton said.
In addition, the Selectboard is looking to expand the Windham Meeting House Committee to increase oversight on capital planning, operations and maintenance, and community spaces/activities.
The first portion of the meeting focused on residents' vision for Windham in years to come and what action items they would like to see take place. Residents were also asked what they felt was or was not working in town.
Several residents seemed to want to preserve the bucolic nature of the town while adding more community events and places to socialize, connect and grow closer as a community.
As for what was not working well in the town, residents pointed out a certain level of division. Some felt that having more events, such as dinners or concerts, could help connect the community.
Residents also named affordable housing - an action item identified in almost all of the towns in southern Vermont where VCRD has visited in the past couple of years, including Rockingham, Putney, Londonderry, and Dorset - as a priority.
Other priorities that residents envisioned included attracting more young people in the community, having it be a learning environment for all ages, and sustainability.
For aspects of town that are working well, residents listed the modifications to the Meeting House, the maintenance of the buildings and cemetery, and the atmosphere in the town office.
One resident also pointed to the turnout at the meeting - almost 9% of townspeople - as an indicator of how much the residents care about the community.
The flip side of that was noted by another resident, who acknowledged the turnout but also acknowledged the absence of the rest of the community and wondered how to rectify that.
For other aspects of town that are not working, residents also noted people who do not see the best in one another as human beings during a disagreement, as well as a lack of civility toward one another.
Pelton also said he would like to see a larger number of people get involved in town government by sitting on committees, to help spread the workload beyond the people who always volunteer.
The loss of Windham Elementary School was another topic that came up repeatedly throughout the evening.
What's next?
The goal of the evening was to generate a number of ideas for potential action.
Members of VCRD will review the meeting suggestions as well as ideas generated by a survey that is available at the Town Offices through Friday, July 11.
A subsequent meeting will be held on Thursday, July 24 for members of the community to identify two actions that Windham should take, based on the responses from the meeting and the survey.
In a June 20 interview, VCRD Executive Director Denise Smith said that communities typically find anywhere from 10 to 15 items to prioritize during the second meeting.
Members of the community would then form committees, one for each of the selected ideas.
Each committee would work with a resource team, "people that we bring back to the community based on what we've heard and what the action items are," Smith said, describing them as representatives of regional, state and local nonprofits "that can help the community in achieving the goals that they've outlined for themselves."
The action items a community identifies can take anywhere from months to years to complete, depending on their complexity, Smith said - for example, a wastewater project would take a lot longer than establishing recreation programming.
In VCRD's recent visits to southern Vermont towns this year, the organization found that while some of the goals differed, there were also some commonalities. All of the towns except for Rockingham chose to focus on creating more housing options.
Londonderry and Putney residents each wanted to focus on building a community center in their respective towns, and Rockingham chose to focus on building a youth center.
The two-month process is provided at no cost to Windham through the state Agency of Administration's Municipal Technical Assistance Program (MTAP) funding.
According to the What's Possible, Windham? website, VCRD "provides the overall structure and neutral facilitation each step of the way, and manages an extensive invitation process to ensure that all members of the community are welcomed, encouraged to attend, and are heard."
VCRD, based in Montpelier, has led these processes in more than 90 towns over the past 20 years. For more information, visit vtrural.org.
This News item by Brandon Canevari was written for The Commons.