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About 40 people turned out for the annual meeting of the Randolph Area Community Development Corp. Monday night at VTC’s Old Dorm, perhaps lured by a spectacular collection of desserts arranged by Charlie Ballou and Sarah Isham, and Celtic music by Beth Telford and Jim Green. New Executive Director Julie Iffland, attending her first annual meeting in this capacity, listed RACDC’s accomplishments for the year, which included receiving the free gift of 4.4 acres of land from Ethan Allen, Inc., for the "Salisbury Square" housing project planned for the village. Action on cleaning up the area will be started soon with hoped-for help from "brownfield" funds being applied for this December, she said. Planning for Salisbury Square continued with the hiring of Hartland Group to come up with a financial plan for developing the area. The first findings have been presented, and the firm is now designing units and creating a financing package for the first phase, she said. Iffland also noted that the housing loan fund provided six new loans to area residents and saw three old ones paid off, leaving an outstanding portfolio of 19 loans totaling more than $130,000. RACDC also put up signage and is helping to maintain the floodplain forest behind Randolph House. Some 50 people explored the rare natural community of plants during the Fiddlehead Festival. RACDC also sponsored a Renewable Energy Information Fair that attracted about 40 people, she said, and the organization received an award from the Vermont Community Development Program for its role in constructing the energy efficient DuBois & King headquarters on Main Street. Treasurer John Hoyt reported the organization continues to operate in the black with assets of $3.4 million and net assets of $958,000, mostly in various properties. Peter Butterfield, Pat French, and Sarah Isham were re-appointed to the board of directors. Award to Pat French RACDC President Marty Strange then made a moving presentation of the organization’s Public Service Award to Patrick French, who has worked with the organization since its beginning and has been particularly active with the housing programs. "Here is a guy who rolls up his sleeves, stays in the background, and gets things done," Strange said. French receives much of the credit for the development of apartments in the Red Lion Inn and it was he who negotiated with Ethan Allen, Inc., to donate the land for Salisbury Square, Strange said. David Palmer, the first president of RACDC, chipped in. Pat French is the "center truss that supports all the rest of the organization," he opined, and French received a long ovation. "It just goes to show that if you stay around long enough, you may get an award," the awardee responded modestly. Dorn Is Speaker The evening’s speaker, Secretary of Commerce and Community Development Kevin Dorn, congratulated Randolph on its "community vitality" but said that the future holds dangers, here as well as in other Vermont communities. The dangers come from the "demographic challenge" faced by the state as its population ages, Dorn said, echoing an alarm cited regularly by the Douglas Administration. Vermont is 51st in the country in the percentage of its population in the 25-29 bracket, he said, and first in the 50-54 age bracket percentage. The state is scheduled to start losing population by 2013, he said. Who will take the mantle of community leadership so ably worn by today’s leaders in Randolph, he asked. "Who is going to coach the kids? Who is going to be on the school board? Who will be on the fire department?" Dorn noted that on Tuesday of this week, his agency is holding a jobs fair in Boston, carrying the message that there are good high-tech jobs in Vermont. He claimed that it’s the lack of affordability here that is driving young Vermonters out of state, especially the lack of affordable housing. He explained some details of the "New Neighborhoods" proposal made two years ago by the Douglas Administration, which would make it easier to build new housing that is adjacent to existing neighborhoods. "A town will be able to decide that the highest use of a particular parcel of land is housing," he explained, "and not go through 26 criteria." The legislature, Dorn complained, has given "zero consideration" to the administration’s proposals. |
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