Northeast Kingdom - page 2

NEWPORT – The Northeast Kingdom Young Professionals Network has launched a number of new initiatives and hosted a number of successful events this past year, significantly increasing the numbers of its organization region-wide.

The board reflects the geographic diversity of the region, with Maire Folan, the program manager of the Green Mountain Farm-to-School office in Newport, serving as committee chair.

Patrick Sodums, the YPN vice chair, brings a hospitality background to the group, as he works as the conference and corporate sales manager of the Burke Mountain Hotel & Conference Center in East Burke.

Rounding out the board is Sarah Chadburn, the group’s treasurer, who serves as a credit analyst at Community National Bank in Newport.

“The vision of the NEK YPN is to be a network for young professionals living and working in and around Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom,” Folan states. “We hope to provide valuable leadership, relationship, and education opportunities through collaboration with community partners.”

The group has held successful social events, or mixers, to bring people together.

It hopes to soon roll out some new programs that will welcome new folks to the area and provide more leadership opportunities.

The Northeast Kingdom Young Professionals Network was re-energized two years ago by Geoffrey Sewake after having been established by then-Northeast Kingdom Chamber President Hannah Manley in 2011.

The main purpose of the group is to serve the needs of young professionals, employees, leaders, and entrepreneurs of the tri-county region, who are hoping to find networking and social opportunities with others in their area.

“We recognize the word ‘young’ to be dynamic, not static, and ‘professional’ to be inclusive, not exclusive,” Folan noted. “We welcome all to this group.”

In the past two years, the NEK YPN has sponsored a number of events in the Northeast Kingdom and partnered with similar groups in northern New Hampshire in an attempt to reach out to more young professionals throughout the North Country.

Such meetings have not only allowed more professionals to network with each other but also helped the committee determine what the needs of young professionals are in the Kingdom.

“An important priority of the NEK YPN is to reach every corner of the Kingdom and help and assist young professionals, as they are not only the leaders of tomorrow, but, in many cases, today’s leaders as well,” said Darcie McCann, executive director of the Northeast Kingdom Chamber. “We as a chamber, as well as other chambers throughout the Kingdom, are striving to work as closely with the group as possible to ensure we give them the support and skills they need to succeed.”

NEWPORT — Orleans County Conservation District, in cooperation with Natural Resources Conservation Service, is hosting a meeting to receive input from the public and our partners regarding natural resource priorities in the area.

NRCS administers several programs funded through the Federal Farm Bill.

These programs are designed to assist farmers, forest owners, and other landowners implement projects that benefit soil health, water quality, wildlife habitat, and other natural resource concerns.

The meeting will be held on Friday, March 15, from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. at the USDA Service Center Conference Room at 59 Waterfront Plaza in Newport.

The public is welcome and strongly encouraged to attend this meeting.

Organizers ask that anyone interested RSVP by March 8.

To RSVP, or for further information, contact the Orleans Conservation District at 802-334-6090 x 7008.

NEWPORT — More than two-dozen leaders and experts from across Caledonia, Essex and Orleans counties are sharing their recommendations for progress in the region, after six months of discussion and deliberation.

Two task forces convened by the nonprofit Northeast Kingdom Collaborative have each released a plan detailing projects that they believe can be started in 2019 and will have a measurable impact in areas crucial to the future of the Northeast Kingdom.

These areas include developing a generation of local leaders and supporting economic growth at the intersection of the creative, recreational and food sectors.

“We brought together a diverse set of people who really know these topics to dig in and develop their best ideas,” said Katherine Sims, Director of the Northeast Kingdom Collaborative. “We’re very excited about the creativity and specificity of the vision that came out of both of the groups.”

The release of these two plans represents a new phase for the revamped Northeast Kingdom Collaborative.

The organization has been working to increase coordination and communication among NEK businesses and nonprofits for more than 20 years.

During that time, it has assisted the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Rural Economic Advancement Program (REAP) in identifying priorities for investment in the region.

In 2018, it launched a new strategy involving a reformatted governing board, a new paid director, as well as closer ties with private funders and the task force process.

“With these recommendations in hand, the next stage for the new year will be working with Task Force members and other organizations to bring that vision to life,” Sims said. “These plans are a blueprint for our work together over the next year and beyond.”

The Leadership Development Task Force put its weight behind six initiatives in its plan, “Grow Your Own,” after seeking public input through three Leadership Summits last summer.

One is to empower emerging local leaders by launching an intensive NEK leadership institute and a more informal women’s leadership learning circle.

Another is to offer more affordable and accessible professional development opportunities through a new series of classes, as well as a new NEK Training Scholarship Fund.

Other initiatives are to connect current and emerging leaders via a new mentor network and integrate new community members through a new outreach program.

Among the organizations taking the lead in pursuing these projects are Northwoods Stewardship Center, NEK Young Professionals Network, Northern Vermont University, and the Northeastern Vermont Development Association.

This tri-sector task force focused on how to advance economic development at the intersection of the region’s three most dynamic sectors, which includes the creative, recreation, and food sectors.

In a report, the collaborative prioritizes five initiatives.

One is to coordinate and expand marketing the region by establishing an NEK Regional Marketing Partnership Advisory Group with several specific priorities.

Another is to sustain and grow place-based events by formalizing an “NEK Event Backbone” program run by a regional event assistance provider.

Other initiatives put forward are to enhance economic growth through rural community hubs with new investments in infrastructure that would connect outdoor recreation assets to the creative and food sectors, as well as to expand access to tri-sector experiences for kids, by starting an NEK Kids Program Fund.

Organizations leading these projects include Catamount Arts, Northern Forest Center and the Northern Community Investment Corporation.

Both task forces focused in on the importance of increasing connectivity in the region by expanding access to business-class high-speed broadband in community hubs and true high-speed broadband to residences.

Both recommended working with stakeholders to develop another detailed action plan for specific work in this area.

Greater details on the proposed programs, the Task Force process and the NEK Collaborative are available in the reports.

“We want these reports read by everyone who cares about making this region flourish over the long term,” Sims said. “We’re going to need everyone pitching in to help.”

NEWPORT — Waterfront Cinema will be showing two videos from the Faces of Vermont Agriculture series, which is a collection of eight short video profiles that highlight outstanding stewards of the land who live and farm in the Green Mountain State.

These dedicated farmers tell viewers in their own words, why conservation matters to their bottom line, to the health and sustainability of the resources on and around their farm, and to the future of farming.

Two local farmers, Merle Young III, and Paul Lisai, are highlighted in the series and their video profiles will be featured as opening trailers to every movie at Waterfront Cinema in Newport for the next three months.

Merle Young III, is a fifth-generation farmer who understands and believes in the importance of maintaining good soil health.

He and his family have been working for many years to improve the farm’s soil health by seeding cover crops in the fall on their silage corn fields, following crop rotations, expanding their vegetative buffers and understanding the farms nutrient management plan, all of which reduce soil loss and protect water quality.

The Young farm also has the only NRCS funded strip cropped fields in Orleans County.

Strip cropping is the practice of growing planned rotations of row crops, forages, small grains, or fallow in a systematic arrangement of equal width strips across a field to reduce soil erosion from water and transport of sediment.

Paul Lisai, former Orleans County NRCD board member, is doing a great deal of work to protect and improve his farm’s natural resources, including installing pasture infrastructure and implementing an intensive grazing system to improve the farms forages, soil health, milk production, and climate resiliency.

“The short but powerful messages in the videos help the public better understand the efforts that many of our cherished NEK farmers are making to ensure that their impact on natural resources is beneficial.” Sarah Damsell, the Orleans County NRCD Manager said.

You can view the videos below:

NEWPORT — The snowstorm today had police responding to multiple slide-offs and crashes on Interstate 91, including a tour bus that police say was driving too fast for conditions, and was even seen passing vehicles before sliding into the median.

At 3:00 p.m. a tractor-trailer unit slid into a guardrail and subsequently jack-knifed across the southbound lanes of I-91.

The cab of the truck was stuck in the ditch while the trailer extended onto the roadway, blocking traffic. The Interstate needed to be closed from Exit 28 to 27 southbound for 2.5 hours.

At 5:40 p.m. a tour bus was traveling southbound and spun around before sliding into the median and partially overturning.

Witnesses reported the bus had been passing vehicles prior to the crash.

There were 14 people on board the bus at the time, and many reported minor injuries. All injured parties were checked on the scene and none required hospitalization.

The driver was ticketed for traveling too fast for conditions.

Interstate 91 south was again closed for a short period of time for the removal of the bus, however, one lane of traffic remained open for the majority of the crash investigation.

At around 5:00 p.m., a tractor-trailer unit jackknifed near mile-marker 153.

The cab and trailer slid off the roadway and into the median.

Removal efforts required the passing lane of the interstate to be closed for a short period of time.

The driver and sole occupant of the tractor-trailer were not injured.

Police say all incidents were caused by a result of the operators traveling too fast for existing road conditions.

NEWPORT — At the Vermont Association of Snow Travelers (VAST) annual meeting, Orleans County Trails Coordinator Raymond Rodrigue received County Trails Coordinator of the Year.

This prestigious award is given out annually to the county trails coordinator who best exemplifies the hard work and dedication needed to keep Vermont’s trail system open and viable on a year to year basis.

There are 14 county trails coordinators in Vermont.

Rodrigue became county trails coordinator in 2014 but has been involved in his local club, Orleans Snowstormers for 22 years, 19 of which was in an officers position.

In 1999, he undertook the task of completely redesigning all of the junction signs for his club.

When he’s not riding his snowmobile or grooming in the winter, he’s attending VAST meetings and working behind the scenes to keep Vermont’s trails open.

Rodrigue’s work does not end when the snow melts.

He remains busy throughout the summer overseeing and approving all of the projects throughout Orleans County.

This Summer and Fall, $44,000 worth of construction projects are being proposed for Orleans County snowmobile trails, most of which will be done by local contractors with locally purchased supplies.

Orleans county snowmobile clubs always have been and will continue to be an economic boost for the Northeast Kingdom.

NEWPORT — The Orleans County State’s Attorney’s Office, partnering with the Advocacy Program at Umbrella and the Newport City Police Department, recently announced that they have been awarded a STOP Grant through the Department of Justice.

The STOP Grant in Orleans County will fund a legal advocate that will be housed at Umbrella and an investigator from the Newport Police Department that will be housed at the State’s Attorney’s Office.

The majority of the homicides in Orleans County have been domestic violence related.

The goal is to increase survivor safety by providing victims with appropriate and necessary assistance throughout the court process, increasing offender accountability, and aiding in domestic violence homicide prevention.

The group says these goals will be met with a collaboration of advocate services, prosecution of offenders, increased training related to domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual abuse.

Orleans County will now be implementing a lethality assessment on the scene at all domestic violence-related calls for service.

“Domestic violence continues to be a significant problem in Orleans County,” State’s Attorney Jennifer Barrett said. “I am confident this grant will positively impact Orleans County.”