2007 Prescription

The best New Year's reflection we can think of for Randolph—and other White River Valley towns as well—is to repeat some of the thoughtful observations that were shared in the Dec. 7 Herald by Jeremy Ingpen as he left his development job in Randolph.

Ingpen based his comments on acute and sensitive observation in that job, as well as on an earlier life here in the 1970s and a wide variety of positions and locations in the interim.

His long period of absence allowed him to see clearly what some of us long-term residents miss—that despite a slow-growing population, Randolph and Central Vermont are changing significantly—and that the change is largely for the better.

Randolph now is a far more diverse and interesting place than the one he remembers from the 1970s, Ingpen says. It has suffered the loss of significant manufacturing jobs—Ethan Allen, Waterbury Co., Merrimaids—and the fiery destruction of important Main Street buildings. Yet industry has rebounded—the manufacturing buildings are again full of tenants—and the downtown fires led to a significant physical rebuilding and a new spirit as well.

Ingpen is particularly impressed with the growth of what he calls "clusters" of economic activity. These include a new emphasis on environmental and outdoor pursuits, a dramatic increase in the arts, a continued growth of the professional community—Gifford Medical Center, VTC, DuBois & King, and others. Most surprisingly, perhaps, he found that Randolph is becoming an attractive mecca for retired people and even may be developing its first hints of a tourist industry.

"You see the whole community changing very significantly," he told The Herald. And the change is toward more energy, more diversity even while traditional occupations, including dairy farming, continue to play important roles.

Virtually everything Ingpen said applies to the other communities in the White River Valley as well. There are such a lot of interesting people and thriving companies here. We make horse buggies and plastics and gels and cable and keys and LED lights and wooden boxes and wooden bowls and greeting cards. We have the world's biggest cast iron stovemaker and the biggest distributor of luxury linens. We publish books and compose music. We quarry beautiful marble and granite and bottle our pure water.

In fact, the main danger of starting a list like this is that we'll leave somebody out.

So economically and socially, Central Vermont is becoming a more interesting place to live—just south of prosperous, perhaps, but well north of viable.

The problem that needs to be solved, Ingpen said in that interview, is to provide housing for the people who might like to come here to live. It's very difficult now, as the housing stock, for a variety of reasons, has been slow to grow. Making room for affordable housing, in both our villages and in the countryside, is surely the key task in continuing along the same progressive direction in which we're headed.