News
Can You Hear Me Now? O'Connor Rutland Herald Oct 11 2009
...Unlike more plugged-in places, Vermont has less than 200,000 high-speed Internet lines and cell phone service to only about 60 percent of its population, leaving many of the state's 621,000 residents feeling disconnected from the rest of the world.
"Many Vermonters believe universal access to affordable broadband Internet and cellular telephone communications networks is essential to realize new opportunities in commerce, arts and community," the Council on the Future of Vermont writes in its recent report, "Imagining Vermont: Values and Vision for the Future."...
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE BY CLICKING ON THE PDF LINKED BELOW.
Sept 15 Rutland Herald "Futuristic Visions"
Ah, the future. Until recently, typical futuristic scenarios in pop culture and art were ubiquitous and involved human-like robots serving us tea and then turning on us and wreaking murderous havoc, or intergalactic war-torn cities, or cars flying among the tops of skyscrapers. Since the early part of this decade, society's obsession with the future seems to have died down, as the current political landscape, state of perpetual war and economic fluctuations imbue the present with far too much immediate consequence to think about how our leisure time, work life, etc. may look a century or two down the line. Humans are thinking squarely about "us" and "now."
Sept 5 Bennington Banner McClaughry
John McClaughry, vice-president of the Ethan Allen Institute, writes a critique of the Council on the Future of Vermont process and results.
"Four months ago the Council on the Future of Vermont released its report, "Imagining Vermont: Values and Vision for the Future." The report culminated an 18-month, $400,000 process, during which some four thousand Vermonters attended over 100 meetings. Ably written and attractively produced, the report collected and transmitted the ideas and dreams of its participants of the possible Vermont of the future."
READ FULL TEXT IN PDF ARTICLE BELOW:
Aug 28 Art of Action Starts in Manchester
Over the next 10 months two concurrent exhibits, jointly known as "Art of Action"— one being held in traditional venues such as galleries and museums and the other being held in non-traditional venues such as car dealerships — will visit 24 towns throughout the state. The decision to hold the kick off one of the exhibits in the car dealership was done to attempt to reach a much broader audience, .... READ THE FULL ARTICLE BY CLICKING ON THE PDF below.
Times Argus Aug 23 "School Costs" O'Connor
Is Vermont’s ongoing fight over how to fund schools overshadowing gains in its classrooms? When the Council on the Future of Vermont asked residents about their most pressing concerns, it heard fury about property taxes for education.
“We can’t pay $1.7 million for less than 50 students,” one Champlain Islands resident said. The council heard fear about the fact the average college student-loan debt of $30,000 has leapt by more than 150 percent in the past 15 years. “Will my children’s children be able to afford to go?” one Northeast Kingdom parent asked.
"Balance Point" August 12, Times Argus Commentary
Excerpted from Commentary - "The degree to which Vermonters cherish the rural setting in which they live is no surprise. A high percentage of us live out in the midst of the woods and fields, and those who live in the towns appreciate the rural settings that enrich their lives just beyond the town line. Vermonters are active in the outdoors for recreation and spiritual renewal, but many also make their living on the land or in the woods. From the old-timer with a worm on the end of his hook to the young high-tech skier with the latest gear, Vermonters cherish what the natural world gives them.
Paving Paradise? Kevin O'Connor August 9 Rutland Herald/Times Argus
Is there an answer to the decades-long question of how to balance the state's environment and economy through land-use planning? ...."In testimony about land use and development, Vermonters focused on their desire for the continuity of the state's historic development pattern of tidy villages and cities surrounded by farms, fields, and forests," the council writes in its 112-page report, "Imagining Vermont: Values and Vision for the Future."
But as the nonprofit, nonpartisan study group held more than 100 meetings at downtown venues statewide, many of the almost 4,000 experts and everyday folk present didn't walk or bike from nearby, but drove from far and wide.
Times Argus O'Connor July 12 Too Reliant on Milk?
"The Council on the Future of Vermont knows the state treasures its farms and forests. So why is it asking if there's too much of a good thing?
Surveying almost 4,000 experts and everyday folk at more than 100 meetings, the nonprofit, nonpartisan study group heard more talk about the working landscape than any other topic. Nearly 98 percent of those surveyed, in fact, said they valued the fields, woods and pastures more than any other of the state's features.
Brattleboro Reformer - Audette Residents in Charge of State's Future - July 17
BRATTLEBORO -- What Vermonters are most concerned about is universal -- preserving the working landscape, fortifying the unity of their communities, retaining the Vermont "brand," creating local energy sources, making sure their children get the best education, keeping the costs of health care reasonable and being able to afford a home. While every resident of the Green Mountain State recognizes those challenges, many also ask what exactly can be done to address them?
Though the purpose of the Council on the Future of Vermont, a project of the Vermont Council on Rural Development, was to ask the question about what challenges the state faces, its next task is even harder -- finding solutions.
Bennington Banner - Council Studies VT Priorities - July 16
From the regional presentations to communities around the state comes this article by Dawson Raspuzzi about the Bennington meeting on July 14th. Click on the pdf below to read it!
