Latest / Aired Out / Josh Jerome - Barre Area Development Executive Director

Transcript

Josh Jerome - Barre Area Development Executive Director · Aired Out

• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Batt the bastand the bastant story spots.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Muster all right, top of the morning, and welcome to
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: a brand new day, a new week. What a weekend
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: it was. We have six days to go before Father's Day. Wow,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Happy birthday today to SHANEA. Williams. Let's see Heidi pass Alaqua, Wow,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Sandy Rooss. We got some big hitters here. Pat Covey
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: is on the list. Britney Thayer, Eric Wright, Deb Sullivan,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: all celebrating birthdays today on this fifteenth day of the month.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Thunderstorms in heavy rain last night. I just loved it.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: I love listening to thunder and hearing a rain on
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: the roof. It was amazing. Middle sixties right now, partly cloudy.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: We're looking at highs around seventy today tonight, partly cloudy,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: in fifty Tuesday, tomorrow partly cloudy. That cool front's going
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: to be staying with us around seventy five degrees. Great
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: outdoor project weather tomorrow, rain on Wednesday, rain on Thursday,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: seventies and yeah, I know here's the thing though, I
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: don't know about your garden, but my needs it and
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: it's just got to happen. It is going to be
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: an incredible week here on out. I am so excited.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: I have a a mystery guest tomorrow, and I've been
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: asked to just kind of keep it under wraps until
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: he's here with me. So that's exactly what I'm gonna do.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: But just trust me, you don't want to miss tomorrow morning.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, so much happening. Congratulations to all of
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: the students who graduated this weekend. Be safe, have fun,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: enjoy this moment, this big milestone in your life. Celebrate it,
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: be with your family, and just enjoy this time. UFC
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: fights last night on the White House lawn. I don't
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: know if you stayed up for him. We did for
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: as long as we could. It was incredible. Uh to
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: see Wednesday. Josh Parker from Gosh Chevrolet is going to
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: be in here Thursday, Vinnie Arbusio returns to the airwaves,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: and then on Friday, your weekend kickoff with a dose
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: of mental floss from g I'm telling you it's gonna
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: be a great week, very very good. Welcome this morning
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: to the guy on the couch right next to me,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Josh Jerome, the executive director of b A DC Barry
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: Area Development Corporation, that's amazing that it is a corporation too.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Yeah, good morning. How are you So? What
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: does that mean? Is it a nonprofit?
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: It is a nonprofit so five three, you know, standalone nonprofit.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: That's been around since I want to say, like nineteen.
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: Sixty nineteen sixty one, sixty one.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Okay, wow, that's a long time, dude.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: Yes. Yeah, formed in nineteen sixty one by the business
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: community in Barry City, in Barry Town to affect economic
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: development in the community.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have a lot to talk about this morning,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: and I'm sure we're going to get some questions. Where
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: do we start. First of all, welcome, You've been at
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: the post now for a year, about a year and
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: a half.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: Just about a year, just over a year, Okay, yep.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Here's the deal. Everybody knows you. You've been around for
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: a long time. I was thrilled to see that you
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: were literally, I'll say these words, coming back coming back
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: home to be the executive director of this. I was like,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: they've made the right decision. That guy knows you've been
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: in this bus, you note this this city so well.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I've worked in Barry City for quite a few
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: years with the Community Capital Vermont right here in downtown
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: and then with the Barry Partnership as executive director. So
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: you know, I love I love Barry, I love the town,
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: I love the city. It is a special place in
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: Vermont for sure.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: You you ran the Heritage Festival. How many years were
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: you doing that? Yeah?
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: When I was at the Partnership for four festivals?
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Four of them?
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Did that? Did that put any gray hair on the head?
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: I lost hair. My hair turned gray.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: I didn't even think about loss.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm definitely at that age. It doesn't take that much.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: That's a lot of work. It's a lot of work.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: It is, and I'm you know, I'm glad to see
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: how it's evolved since I left. I think Tracy has
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: done an incredible job and it's a it's a great
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: time to celebrate the community and have a good time downtown.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have, we have. I'm kind of on the
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: on the front line here of getting a lot of
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: questions about the city and what's going on in and
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: around Barry. There's there's so many great positive things to
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: talk about, and there's also some negative things to talk about.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: And I think that a lot of us kind of unfortunately,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: kind of gravitate toward the negative. Just by posting a question,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: it can have a negative connotation to it, absolutely, which
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: is unfortunate, but it's it's a legitimate question. You know.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: For example, it wasn't that long ago that I took
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: some photos just in passing of the old Salvation Army
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: building up in the North End which has been vacant.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: You can see see the black mold on the walls
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: just driving by. I'm glad they have a new location,
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: which is absolutely fantastic, the old computer barn. But what's
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: you know, there's some properties that people want to know.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: What's the what's the plan here? I mean, my god,
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: I've been I've been talking about the dugout restaurant for
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: a long time. You know, what's the plan? Is there
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: a plan? And you know it's it's it's fine if
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: to say, hey, right now we just don't have a plan. Respectfully,
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: we will have a plan, but right now we don't
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: do you know what what the deal is on on that?
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: On the part I know the North End is going
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: to be digging out for a long time from the
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: two floods.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well I'll touch based on the North End. But
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: in terms of like the dugout. You know, I did
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: catch an update last week about that property, and so
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: what I was told was is that the situation is
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: where the town I think it's I think it could
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: be going to tax sale, and but there's a question
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: of the deed and and who actually might have a
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: deed out there. So there seems to be a claim
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: that there is a deed, but a deed was not
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: recorded in the land records, and so I think where
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: we are at is trying to get the town is
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: trying to get some verification of that. But if there,
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: if there is no legitimate claim to the deed, then
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: I think that it can go to tax sale and
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: hopefully uh it can be acquired by the town and
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: then that whole site get cleaned up. That would be
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: that would be the best.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: We had an incredible amount of response on aired out
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: about that when I was talking about it, and I've
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: been talking about it for years, but I mean Tom
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: and I were talking about the dugout back in the
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: early days of Frocky Yep, I mean way back. I
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: mean something really needs to be well. I think most
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: of us would agree something needs to be done. It's
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: just getting worse and worse and worse.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So you know, at least what I heard last
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: week was was positive in that regards because it moves
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: and moves everybody closer to actually being able to do
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: something with the property.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Sure, you know, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So that's that I think things are moving positively forward.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: There's there's also been talk from environmentalists of what the
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: hell's going on there with with runoff water coming off
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: that steep bank. It's more than a bank, it's a
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: freaking ridge. Water coming off runoff and coming through the
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: property and going right into that little tributary which is
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: straight shot into the jail branch.
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: Right right, Yeah, I mean I'm sure there's some there's
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: there's probably some funky stuff going on there. Yeah, hopefully
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: it's not Elvily is not too bad. I mean yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I mean in essence, like that's just like a junk yard, right,
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: So whatever is there's leeching into the water, and hopefully
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: that's not toxic.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Right. I'm seeing you guys are all over Facebook. Your
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: your presence is strong. You've been on w C A X.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: You're running some great, great promotional material for for B
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: A DC. You guys are doing a great job. It's
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: a ton of work, man, I know, but there's so
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: and I'm going to ask you about a few other
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: properties here too, But first let's just touch quickly some
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: of the positive things. And here here's the thing. Anytime
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: we say on the air, isn't this great, there's always
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: going to be a little bit of pushback, there's listen,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: but it's okay that we all have opinions though, absolutely,
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: you know, I mean, but some of our opinions are
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: are founded on misinformation or not having the right information
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: that come from.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, and I see a lot of that on social media. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: people don't understand all of the facts. Sure, and so
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: you know, part of what I'd like to try to
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: do is engage with people on social media to give
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: them factual information, right, because a lot of people don't
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  Speaker 3: have it.
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  Speaker 2: Sure, boy, it wasn't it wasn't a long ago. I
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: just had Kevin Ellis on the air here, of course,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: are our former board chair of down Street, and you know,
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: we're we're banging the drum on all of the great
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: things that Downstreet has been doing, has been doing just
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: in the last couple of years, trying to chip away
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  Speaker 2: at our housing crisis. And yes, I'm saying, crisis doing
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: great things, and you know, it's a it's an act
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: of bravery in my opinion for any organization to agree
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: to paddle against a pretty good moving current, and housing
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  Speaker 2: is one of them. So big, big kudos to Downstreet
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  Speaker 2: for trying to bring some housing to our area. Yeah,
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: they do a good job, but there's a lot of butts,
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: but this and well what about that, and this and
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: that and you know, what is this going to do
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: to our You know, the last thing we need is
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: more Section eight housing. Well, you know, you and I
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: both hear that.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: Yes, Oh no, I see that a lot, and I
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  Speaker 3: think that is one of the misinformation pieces out there, right.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: You know, Downstreet does affordable housing, and that's not Section
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: eight housing. It's different, and so a lot of people
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: believe that it is Section eight and so I'm constantly
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: trying to inform people what Downstreet does is not Section
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: eight housing, although they might have a Section eight voucher
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: holder who maybe is in their unit. What they are,
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: you know, what they do is they develop housing units
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: for individuals whose household income is no greater than eighty
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  Speaker 3: percent of the area median income. And in this area,
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: that equates to around a household income of around seventy
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  Speaker 3: two or seventy three thousand dollars or less.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: You know, and there's so many people that are like,
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: that's not realistic, and then there's others that are like, Yeah,
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: that's realistic. I'm gonna I'm gonna i I'm I'm a
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: candidate for this. I'm gonna fill out the paperwork. I'm
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: going to get an application going and look at look
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: at what the fox run.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yep, Stephens Stevens Branch.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Stevens Branch.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's going to be which.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: A lot of people say Seminary Street, Seminary Street, but
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: it is Stevens Brand, It's Stevens Branch, Stephen's Branch.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: River Apartments, Yeah, right there on St.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Behind you, kind of exactly.
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  Speaker 3: And that's going to be a that's going to be
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: a great addition to the downtown. Thirty one units of
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: affordable housing right in the downtown. People can access businesses
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: from there, and so then they're going to start. The
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: city is going to start with the infrastructure this summer
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: very soon.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: You're a smart guy. You understand that you could sit
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: and talk about great businesses up and down Main Street here,
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: new businesses up and down North Main Street. We could
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: talk about the Wilson and Industrial Park, which we will
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: this morning. We could talk about all of these positive things,
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: but if we don't have workforce housing, we're screwed.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, it's important. I mean, we need housing for
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: everybody along the socioeconomic ladder, but we specifically need a
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: lot of workforce housing. Yeah, you know, because the market
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: is crazy, and it has been crazy. You know, single
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: family homes in Barry City, the median last year was
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: right around two hundred and eighty thousand, which is fairly
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: affordable compared to the state. Barrytown was higher about three
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: hundred and sixty thousand. So a lot of people are
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: priced out of single families and we just simply don't
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: have enough rental units. So we you know, so the
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: work that Downstreet doing is great, but we need to
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: be focused on creating additional units, both ownership and rental.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: And that's why Prospect Heights.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: I was just going to say example there.
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: It is Prospect, Yeah, which is a huge project and
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: BADC has been sort of leading that charge really since
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: resurrecting that that development project in twenty twenty two. You know,
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: and then we were able to apply for Northern Borders
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: Regional Commission funding back in twenty twenty four and we
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: got that first grant. We got an award in twenty
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: twenty four which started everything and the project has continued
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: to move forward and we've secured additional funding through the
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: Community Development Block Grants Disaster Recovery program with the State
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: and so we have commitments of around nine million dollars
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: right now and we are partnering with the city and
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: additional project partners at the State and working with the
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: city's consultant, VHb who's doing the redesign of that because
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: the original site plan was done in nineteen ninety one
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: and obviously, you know, there's spent some wetlands delineated up there,
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: so we need to redesign it around the wetlands and
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: that and that is ongoing right now, so you know,
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: we are moving at a snail's pace. Some would say, however,
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: there are certain things that we have to do bat
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: surveys and you can only do it certain times of
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: the year, right Archaeological you know, findings, you know, because
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: that's part of the process. It's these large projects take
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: takes some time.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: But you just said bat surveys, Yeah, bat surveys.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: Yep, you can't. You can't do it between I think
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: it's at April fifteen to October fifteen or something like that.
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: You can't do you can't, you can't do bat surveys
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: during that time.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: But at the in the same breath, uh, we need
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: the housing. We need to get this ball roll in.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: You know, it's like and vermontitors are are in some respect,
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: many are getting a little impatient, Yeah, because we've been
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: hearing the words prospect height for a long heights for
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: a long time.
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And and you know, the reality is is that,
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: you know, a plan can only move move forward once
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: it's achieved a certain level of review to determine the
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: buildable areas, right, and and so we are still in
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: that in that phase, however, we are transitioning into the
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: next phase, which is going to be a schematic design
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: that is focused on the buildable areas. And then once
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: we get a developer, you know, with the city on board,
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: because that process is concurrent right now. And so once
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: we get a developer, then we'll all work together to
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: design the final site plan so that it's something that
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: the developer wants, and it's something that the city wants,
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: and it's something that is going to benefit the community.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: I know that you've got a great rapport with with
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Tom Lolson. Yeah you got you Ever thought about running
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: up against him? No, no way, his mayor.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: I don't live in Bear City, so I couldn't. I
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: couldn't consider that anyway. But I don't. I don't know
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: if politics is for me. I just like to be
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: in the trenches and just working, grinding it out every day.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: What's going on with our city manager, with Nicholas Strelli Castro.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: Yep, Well, I was certainly, you know, sad to hear
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: that he was going to go, because he's a big
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: part of the prospectit's team and just moving things forward
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: in the city. And I happened to be a member
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: of the city manager shirts committee and we've we've already
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: begun that process and you know, we're actually we're going
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: to be starting to get some feedback, soliciting feedback from
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: Berry City residents here as soon as this week. Our
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: search committee is in this first phase, is going to
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: be utilizing the concerts in the Park this Wednesday to
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: to solicit some feedback. We're Also there's a there's going
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: to be a zoom option only and I think a
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: noon time on Thursday for people to zoom in and
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: provide feedback. There's also going to be an in person
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: opportunity on Thursday in the evening, right, because not everybody
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: can make evening, so we make something virtual during the
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: noon hour. And this is and this is just to
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: get feedback based on you know, about ten questions that
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: our consultant has crafted for us, and just because we want,
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: we want to know, we want to help, We want
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: the citizen residents of Barracated to help us create the
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: community profile for this job description.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I've been in touch with Steve McKenzie. What a
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: great guy, and he's aware that there's plenty of folks
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: out there that are just sitting in their chair going
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: bring Steve.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: I don't think he wants to. Yeah, yeah, he was
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: my board president up until just last week actually, when
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: his term expired and we have a new board president now.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I think he wants to kind of really
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: get fully integrated into retirement.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah you just mentioned Currier Park. Yeah, what a what
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: a hub. I mean, we've got an anti bullying rally
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: that's going to be taking place tonight five point thirty.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: We've got our concerts in the park, We've got our
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: our farmers markets, we've got our food trucks. I mean,
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: it is just such. It's a it's a great place
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: for our community.
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: It's walking distance, it's walking distance.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: Absolutely I used to love. It's always nerve wracking because
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: of the weather, right, you never know what's going to happen.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: And and I know, I know Tracy had to deal
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: with that last last Wednesday, and she made the right
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: call because we had a huge storm that came from
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: But it's always it's always nervous, you know, because because
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: everybody loves it. It's such a great community, family experience.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: Hundreds of people go there and what Tracy did you
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: know was the food trucks and the farmer's market and
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: the like it. It definitely works.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it really does. Especially if the weather's good. You
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: bring a blanket, you bring your your your lawn chair,
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: bring the kids, maybe toss a frisbee around. What's going
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: on with I have to I have to ask you
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: main Street because people are asking. Yeah.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: So again that's another another project that I know people
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: are are really interested in and so where we are now, right,
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: So the city owns the property now right. We raised
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: all of the funds to match the city's contribution for
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: the city to purchase it. So the city owns it,
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: and we were able to secure some grant funding to
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: complete the environmental assessment. Right, it's called the Phase two
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: Environmental Site Assessment.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: And so that's good to know.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the funding is through the EPA, and so that's
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: all grant funded. Right, nothing's gonna come out and the
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: city does not have to pay for it. But it's
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: a process. And so what that process is going to
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: do is going to be a little bit deeper dive
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: into the actual building. They'll do some materials inspection, they'll
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: test it. They'll figure out like where's the lead, where's
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: the asbestos, where's the mercury.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: Where's where's the water coming from? Because we've all heard
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: that there's a that you can go white water rafting under.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: There's like a trench. There's a trench down there, Yeah,
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: from the old well from the brook podash Brook, I
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: think that's what it's called. And so they're gonna do
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: all this testing and they're going to figure out what
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: are all the toxics materials in there and what needs
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: to be remediated. And so that's that's where we're at.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: That will that will happen sometime in the next six
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: months and then once that's done, you know then and
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: again like concurrently, the city is is working with their
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: consultant White and Burke, Stephanie Clark from White and Burke
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: Real Estate Advisors, on strategies to secure a developer to
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: redevelop that site. And part of the goal is to
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: identify and secure a developer who can create a development
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: plan so that you need a development plan in order
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: to use TIFF funding to then remediate and or demolish
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: the structure and prepare for rehab.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: So so those are things are happening concurrently.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: That's uh, that's the kind of information we're looking for.
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: It's all positive. Things don't happen overnight with this kind
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: of stuff. It takes some time.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: Is one of the questions that I've been asked, is
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: it I get asked a lot of stuff. When are
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: they going to be taking the sign down off the
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: window with the thermometer?
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: Well, I think actually we are. We're talking about that.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: We don't have keys of the building, right the city does, so,
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: I know I talked to Tracy about it. We're trying
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: to get that done here in the next couple of weeks.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah. That's exciting though. And Nicholas has been in here
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: saying that the likelihood that it's going to be a
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: green space for an unknown amount of time is pretty likely.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that might be the case for sure,
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: of a lot better than what we're looking at.
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: Definitely, Definitely, perception is reality.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, whether it's the dugout when you're coming into town
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: or going out of town on this main artery, or
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: slowing down coming through North Main Street, stop that the
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: light heading yeast, perception is reality. Absolutely, and long time overdue.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Here, long time. The property owners of that building did
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: nothing to it for the last fifteen seventeen years and
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: way too long, way too long. And it's it's going
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: to be a good thing for the downtown when it's removed.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Some of the I promise you we're going to move
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: on here, but some of the and I said this
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: to Nicholas, some of the conversations that I've had with
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: some of my listeners are there's frustration that that our
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: citizens had to step up and foot this Bill. I
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: know there was some and Mackenzie was in here too,
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: talking about some of the the fundraising efforts that and
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: and Steve basically kind of said, look, should these guys
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: Jeff Jacobs and the other guy can't think of Steve,
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: Steve lewins Steve Lewinstein. Should they have sold the building
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: to Bury for a dollar? Yes, but they didn't. And
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: the bottom line is we just have to do what
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: we have to do or it's gonna sit like there
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: like this for another fifteen twenty years.
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: That's I mean, that's that's we've got to suck it up.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: That's yeah, we have to suck it up. And that's
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: sort of like the robe when when you're a private
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: property owner, you have certain rights in this country to
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: do what you want with your property. Yeah, and and
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: sometimes that goes against what the community might want, right
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: and and and and so you know, sometimes you just
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: need to pay the price, hold your nose and get
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: it done, get the problem out of the you know,
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: the situation, get them out of the community. And we've
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: done that now, yeah, and and so here's an opportunity
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: for us to do something positive with that, saye, and
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: that's what that's what needed to happen because we couldn't
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: go any other way. Imminent domain has been mentioned that
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: was a losing battle and because it, for one, the
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: public benefit case really was really weak, and the wealth
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: of their property owners, particularly Steve Lewinstein, was so great
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: that it would have bled the city completely dry of
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: hundreds of thousands of dollars. And so people were like,
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: they wanted us to do anent domain, but they were
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: not aware of how much in legal fees that would
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: have actually cost the city. So with the city just
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: putting up fourn to one thousand, chances are they probably
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: would have paid more than that if they had chosen
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: to go through litigation.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and Steve was like, look, we've got this. Unfortunately,
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: they want some money, and we've got this down to
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: a price where we feel that they're not going to
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: go a dime lower. We just need to do it, yes,
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: and secure this, acquire it. And we did.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: And so you know, it's sixteen thousand square feet of
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: downtown real estate now that we're going to clean up.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: We're going to remediate all of that toxic materials in
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: the building, you know it, and whatever happens in the
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: redevelopment it's going to be much better. That building was
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: only generating about thirteen thousand dollars a year in tax
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: revenue for the city. Once that site is completely redeveloped,
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: that is going to generate tens of thousands of dollars,
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue to the
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: city once it's all fully developed.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Okay, wow, by lot a lot to be a lot?
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: Said there. I didn't. I didn't realize it was that
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: much space. So maybe, according to Nicholas, maybe some retail,
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: maybe some housing, maybe both.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, I mean the very city zoning ordinance requires
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: commercial space to be on the ground floor on Main Street, right,
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: and so those don't have to be big spaces, right,
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: they can be they can be fairly small commercial spaces.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: But then the rest of it can all be anything.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: It could be offices, it could be apartments.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: What about some of these properties that are they're so
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: beautiful And I know that you probably can't speak to
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: to all of these because there could be something going
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: on that that's just not privy to the public. But
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: I mean, look at this delicate decadence spot. Look at
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: that prime real estate. Yes, yes, is Mark is he
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: getting any traction on that space, do you know.
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean if you've walked past the windows in
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: the last like two weeks, you would you would see
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: some some things happening in that space.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: Haven't noticed what's happening, So.
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: There is there is some work being done. They do
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: have a tenant coming in. I I do know who
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: it is. I don't think it's public information yet, sure,
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: so I won't mention who they are, but it is
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: somebody who is going to be taking over that former
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: delicate decade in space. Not the entire thing. There's still
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: going to be some space towards the enterprise alley piece
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: that will still be a little bit there for somebody.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: So it is possible that another tenant could fit in
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: there in the back. Yeah, maybe have access to the
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: former kitchen. But yes, that is that's in the works.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: All of it is. That's just such a beautiful space.
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: It's great, it's a great it's a great building. Of course,
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: that's where my office is, so lanter block and there
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: are other office spaces available in that building. But it's
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: good to see something happening in that space.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: For sure. Everybody and their brother wants to know what's
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: going On in with the Orange Space building. Yep.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well obviously you know Tom owns that mayor. Mails
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: On owns that building, and he, you know, with any
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: any building that the mayor owns, you know, uh, he
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: and his wife Karen, they do an incredible job rehabbing
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: and making it look a lot better. Yeah, and so
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: you know, I can see that they've done a lot
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: of work on the windows and that and a lot
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: of work on the exterior. Looks wonderful. And like I
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: said before, there's going to be some commercial space on
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: the ground floor facing Main Street that's going to be available,
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: but then the rest of it is going to be apartments.
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, what kind of what kind of apartments? You know?
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: I think what Tom and Karen kind of focus on
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: is that workforce slash market rate apartments. So you know,
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: they did that with the Cornerstone building. They have apartments
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: amazing and and and and they've said been a really
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: good job of filling those apartments. So I think it's
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: gonna be something very similar. And uh, you know, the
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: ceilings in that building are really high, so they're going
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: to be really awesome apartments, really awesome spaces.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: What's what's uh and I I've also been asked to
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: ask you, pushing out of town just a little bit
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: right next to over near Bamboo Gardens, do you know
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: do you know anything about that that space over there.
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: I don't know a whole lot about what's going on
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: and what the opportunities are.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: I think it's available, but I don't know what's what's
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: what's going on.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: I've also been asked to ask you have you heard
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: and I'm not I'm not creating a rumor here. I'm
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: just asking you a question. Uh that that area, that
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: intersection air Street and all that, anything about a possible roundabout?
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh, we all know, we all know that's a
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: horrible intersection.
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: It's it's not the greatest. I don't know if a
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: roundabout could work there, you would probably have to acquire
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: some of the some of the properties. But I have
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: not heard that. I've not heard that anybody mentioned that
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: as part of any sort of long term planning.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: Okay, what about across the street from Chinatown? Those are
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: some really nice spaces in there, and I've seen some
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: signage in the window.
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: Those there are some there are some commercial spaces over
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: there available. I believe Pat Malone is the owner of
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: those spaces. I don't know exactly how many are available,
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: you know, but I know there are some. And you know,
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: Mike Fosters is pets right hand man, and he usually
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: you know, has all the details on those. But you know,
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: Pat owns a lot of properties all over central Vermont
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: and and so, but those there's an opportunity there.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna go for the jugular. Now, you go ahead,
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: take a sip at your water because you can need
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: it for this one. Soups and Greens. You know, if
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: I had a buck for every time I was asked
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: a JD. You know what's going on with the old
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: Soups and Greens building?
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I miss Soups and Greens.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: Everybody does.
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, you know, Palmerlow real Estate owns that complex.
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: And you know, you might remember last year as part
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: of the Community Development Block grant disaster recovery applications, how
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: did the city.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: How did you memorize that? Uh?
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: I uh we put forward an application in partnership with
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: D E. W. Construction because they had been talking with
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: Palmerlows and they were they wanted to acquire that Soups
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: and Green section going all the way to the to
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: the pharmacy. Uh, they would demolish it and then build
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: an apartment building there that was that was closer towards
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: Main Street. Obviously, that project didn't get funded and it
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: has not gone forward. So you know, Uh, anybody can
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: anybody can that that space, the former soups and green space.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: Anybody can lease that out. It's through Palmerlow. It's available.
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: If somebody has an idea for a restaurant, somebody has
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: an idea for any commercial activity, it could be theirs.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: And there was a business in there for a little while.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: I can't remember who it was.
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: I don't remember either. I think that was before I
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: came back.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: But she did a great job for a short period
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: of time. The price tack on on some of these
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: some of these rents is pretty high.
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: It's pretty high, you know.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: And based on visibility too.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: Man visibility, you know. And again Palmerlow. They own a
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: lot of real estate, right, and so there's sort of
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: like a game that a lot of large real estate
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: holders play, which is they determine what they think it's
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: valued at on a square footage basis, right, and they
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: kind of stick to their guns. And yeah, they might
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: be able to fill it up and get had less. However,
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: you know, they're not willing to go less. Yeah, so
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: that's unfortunate. However, you know, I did read an article
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: recently about Chitten County and specifically Burlington, regarding apartment rentals
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: and actually how the pricing has been trending down now
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: because they developed so many apartments over the last three
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: four years that now it's it's the vacancy rates starting
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: to get a little bit higher, and so people who
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: own units, they're starting to compete against one another, so
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: they're having to lower their rents a little bit. I
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: thought that was really interesting.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: That is interesting.
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's what we kind of want to do
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: here in central Vermont. Yeah, right, we want to build
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: more apartments so that rents come down a little bit.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: We you and I have had conversations. You know. The
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: last time that I heard you speak publicly was over
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: at one of the Lions Club meetings, and we've had
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: conversations about that. Barry is a great place to live,
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: to work, to play. It's a tight knit community. We
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: have great things going on in our community, Courier Park,
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: at the Heritage Festival, which is going to be amazing
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: this year the parade, the list goes on. We've got
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: a lot of great stuff that's happening the farmers markets,
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: but we also have some really big challenges in front
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: of us as a place to be attracted to. Where
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: do you think we stand not just to come here
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: and live, but also to come here and work or
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: maybe start up your own business. The Wilson Industrial Park
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: is in some regard. I think I think it's forgotten.
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, people do forget about the Wilson Industrial
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: Park and.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: We're not all pulling in there.
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: I know, I know, and I want to first touch
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: based on the quality of life stuff. You know, we
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: do have a lot of awesome community focused events conscience
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: in the par Heritage Festival, but we also have other
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: amenities like the Millstone Trails, right, you know, that's thirty
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: plus miles of trail network up in bury Town. Is
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: one of the greatest trail networks in the entire state,
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: and it's one of the draws for a lot of
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: people that come into the community. For sure, right, they're
• 42:40
  Speaker 3: going to go to the trail system and then they
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: go out to eat downtown, right, And a lot of
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: people who are moving to the community see that as
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: a community asset. So I just want to I just
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: want to highlight that because it is one of the
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: things that makes Bury the entire community a high quality
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: place to live year round.
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: Yes, snowshoeing, cross country.
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: Skiing, skiking, fat biking.
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: Fat biking, hold on, I got it, disc golf.
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: Yes, it's got everything for a lot of different people.
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: So I love it up there, and and it's it's
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: one of the things. So like when we talk when
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: we're promoting Wilson Industrial Park, which is right across the
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: road from the Berrytown Middle School, which you can access
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: the Mill Millstone trail system from that right, so if
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: you're working at Wilson Industrial Park, you can get hop
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: on your bike after work and go take a spin
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: on the trails. It's that quickly. So that's one of
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: the things that we try to highlight when we're promoting
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: the Wilson Industrial Park. And by the way, that park
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: is the third largest traditional industrial park in the entire state, right,
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: third largest entire.
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: State in the entire state, up against Burlington.
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: Wow, I don't I don't remember the two largest ones,
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: but it is the third as on an acreage basis,
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: is the third lar just in the state. And we
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: have about fifty around fifty acres of greenfield up there
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: that is ready for development. You know, we have municipal
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: wastewater and water up there, and and so again, you know,
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: we try to push that out there. We don't know
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: what's going to happen with on a federal level, and
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: we're hoping that some of this reshoring and manufacturing that
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: we can take advantage of and maybe land you know,
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: a company or two up there that would be fantastic.
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: But it's a great opportunity. And Berrytown is a good
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: municipal partner. They're good to work with, They've been this
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: friendly and so you know, that's a huge asset for
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: the community.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: Sure it is. I mean big companies have been in
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: there too, real Vermont Creamery.
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Vermont Creamery. They're doing a great job up there,
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: you know. And I was just up there not that
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: long ago, a few weeks ago, and you know, they
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: would love love to expand their production. Right really, what
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: what the what the what the challenge is is, you know,
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: they do goat cheese, right there's they can't get enough
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: goat milk. There's not enough farmers, you know, uh, raising
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: goats right now, so they could take on extra goat
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: milk if there was more goat farms. And I think
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: that's one of their goals, is to help incentivize some
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: of these other you know, maybe Holstein or dairy cows
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: who do that, and maybe convert them over to goat
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: milk because there's a market out there for sure.
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: I love goat cheese, do do?
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah? I love the one with the blueberry in it. Yes, unbelievable. Yes,
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: I like that one too.
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: And you know, there are some other cool companies up
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: there people might not be familiar with. One of them
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: is called Filibot. They they do, uh manufacture three D
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: printing devices and and and and they're they're based on
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: a user being able to take plastic, you know, recycled
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: plastic and then reuse that to create three D uh
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: film that they can use in their machines. And they
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: have a spinoff company called Massive Dimension, and that company
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: is really cool, and they manufacture larger three D printing
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: machines that companies are using to prototype whatever it is
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: that they're that they're making. Right, So, one time I
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: was up there and they were testing their three D
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: printing machine was doing a prototype of a dashboard for
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: a camper and and so this is this company who
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: who produces campers. They they wanted to see what this
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: dashboard would look like and they were printing it for
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: him as a model. So it's really cool. I Dry
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: Systems is up there also. I Dry Systems. They they're
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: a manufacturer of of kiln dried wood systems. Right, and
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: so uh, why would why do we need kill and
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: dried wood? Well, I mean you you need killed and
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: dried wood for a lot of different applications. For one,
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: if you if you explore anything overseas, you need to
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: use kiln.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: Dried palettes before it moves.
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: Before it moves, right, kiln dried firewood, right, those are
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: those are all high high demand, value added products. And
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: and so you know they they produce these up there
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: and they ship them around the country.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: That's amazing. You know, we go from some of these
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: really big businesses. You remember when what was it Bombardier
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: used to be used to be up there. It's such
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: a gem. It's such a great place for companies to
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: start up.
• 48:06
  Speaker 3: It's a great place. You know, Barry's centrally located right
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: central Vermont, We're on the three to two eighty nine
• 48:14
  Speaker 3: sort of corridor, right, so you can go east, west,
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: north south pretty easily. We're only two and a half
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: hours away from Montreal, three and a half hours away
• 48:25
  Speaker 3: from Boston, five and a half hours away from New
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: York City, right, and so we're pretty well situated, and
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: we can reach the entire state of Vermont. Yeah, pretty easily.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: Right, what forty five minutes from from Burlington, maybe fifty
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: rents hell of a lot cheaper. Absolutely, But we go
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: from these huge businesses that need all of this commercial space,
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: and then we go to these small, locally owned, organically
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: created businesses like the weathered barn that just opened up
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: right here, local family, not a franchise. Yeah, that's exciting
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: as hell, Josh.
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: It is very exciting. And I and I I love
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: what they're doing over there. They're providing goods that are
• 49:22
  Speaker 3: are in demand, right and and and they take an
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: approach that they want to source things that are made
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: locally but certainly in America. I love that, you know,
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: they can't get everything local or at a price point
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: that allows them to be able to offer it to
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: their customers, you know, reasonably. But you know, I love
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: the stuff that they have in there.
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well I went in there on on the ribbon
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: cutting day and got some stuff for my wife or
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: her birthday. Just where are you going to find that?
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: Right, it's another it's another draw. People can will come
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: into the downtown because of it, right and then hopefully
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: you know, they stop there, they get whatever they need
• 50:08
  Speaker 3: and then they hit one of the other businesses or
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: restaurants in.
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: The course of course. Absolutely, And for the folks that
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: are you know, anytime this is a new business that
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: opens up, where are they? Where? Where? Where? Where? Where?
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: It's it's just kind of easiest to say, directly across
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: the street from Ambishan.
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: Absolutely right across the street from Ambison's. Yeah, can't miss it.
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: Bobby Bartlett's old building from State Farm. Yes, and he's
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: up in the old Teamsters building now.
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes he is yep. Yeah, and that used to
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: be an old train station.
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: Really, I didn't know that, Yeah.
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: Somebody said that was an old trade stare.
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: It's the tracks run right behind that. Didn't know that. Interesting.
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: What other new businesses are open up? And we've got
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: a couple up in the central from Mount Marketplace.
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: Gosh, which ones are up there.
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: We we have a new salon up there. I know
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: they need and they need they need some work because
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: there's been a lot of concern about the inside of
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: of the Berlin Mall.
• 51:12
  Speaker 3: Oh. I don't see anything wrong in it. I mean
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: I go there because I go to Plant Fitness, Yeah,
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: and then I go to Walmart. Uh, but I don't
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: I'm not there all the time. And I think it
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: looks nice in the in the mall.
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: You know. I can't remember the name of the other
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: new business that that. It's right down down the road
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: from five below. I can't remember the name of it,
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: but they're just you know, and and listen, we got
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: the food trucks now on Sundays up at the up
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: at the Berlin Mall, in the back parking lot from
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: from noon noon to seven. So I mean we got
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: some we got some stuff to Listen. If you're gonna
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: uh sit around all summer and complain that there's nothing
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: to do nowhere to go, that's your own fault, man.
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: You know. Listen, the other the other day, on a Saturday,
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: I was in here a couple of weeks ago. I
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: had the door, been letting some fresh air in here.
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: And those are dad. Single, dad popped his head in
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: walking down the sidewalk here, had his seven year old
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: daughter with him. We got chatting, what are you doing?
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: We're just walking around. We're gonna walk to a restaurant.
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: Which restaurant, don't know yet. We haven't decided. That's the
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: kind of stuff we need. Bro right there.
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, you know. I keep track of tax re seats
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: in the in the Berry City, bared Town. You know,
• 52:34
  Speaker 3: the meals tax, alcohol tax, retail tax, you know, and
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: you know the meals tax and the alcohol tax. Those
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: those are things generated when people go to restaurants how
• 52:47
  Speaker 3: to eat right, and they've they've had steady growth, right,
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: not robust growth, but there it's steady. So I encourage
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: people to come downtown, you know, come downtown, hit the restaurants,
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: you know, because when you support downtown, you're supporting the community.
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: I can't remember what the stats were. Maybe you know,
• 53:12
  Speaker 2: Bob Nelson was in here and was speeling him off,
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: and it was just powerful about the percentage of your
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: dollar that stays here in the local community when you
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: buy local, and it's really high.
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: It's pretty high. I think I did. I did run
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: a Facebook post on Badc's Facebook page one point about
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: that last year, and I think it's something like right
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: around sixty five seventy cents of every dollar stays locally
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: when you spend it, as opposed to like one of
• 53:48
  Speaker 3: the big box stores, where maybe fifteen cents stays locally
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: right now, you know, And I know I hear it
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: from people I've engaged with people, you know, through social media,
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: that they shop online or they go to the big
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: box stores because local businesses don't have all the things
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: that they want right well, I mean what I say
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: is like, well, talk to the business owner exactly. Talk
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: to the business owner.
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: I really like this, is there a possibility that you
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: may carry this?
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, just because they don't have it on their shelf
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: doesn't mean that they're not willing to try to get
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: it for you.
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: Right you know. And an example of that is right
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: across the street from me, what they've done with the
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: old beauf Airs building Barry tobacco and beer. And a
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: lot of people have opinions about that, but that's an example.
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: There are brews that you've got to go to Montpellier
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: or Burlington to get. You want it, they're going to
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: get it for you right away. That's what they do.
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, it's beautiful in there. They've done a great job, amazing,
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: amazing job clean. It's so clean, so bright, you know.
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: And so I think that was a good use of
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: the space. And it again it fills up some of
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: the space downtown. It is an attraction. People are calming
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: downtown to go to the store, to go and get
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: the goods and so like, you know, those individuals stay
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: around hopefully.
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: And here's the thing. You know, it's like, oh, well,
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: you know, smoking and drinking. Here's the thing. I have
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: a friend who doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't vape, doesn't
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: do anything, but he goes in there and gets non
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: alcoholic stuff and seltzers and other drinks, energy drinks and whatnot.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: I mean there's all kinds of stuff.
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of stuff on there. And I mean,
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: like I don't smoke cigarettes, but I'll have a cigar occasionally, yeah,
• 55:46
  Speaker 3: you know, and they have a huge solution of cigars.
• 55:50
  Speaker 3: And I thought that that was great.
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's some really exciting things going on there.
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: There is some a lot of exciting things. Like you said,
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: like there's some challenges, right, but I think every community
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: is challenged. Sure, and you know, these are not challenges
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: that we cannot overcome, like we we can if we
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: if we decide that we are going to get over them,
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: we can get over them. And you know, there's a
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: lot of things that we can't control, right there's a
• 56:20
  Speaker 3: lot of macro economic forces that we can't control. But
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: like you mentioned earlier, like our strength is growing our
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: own businesses, supporting our own businesses, cultivating entrepreneurial spirits. Sure,
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: you know, and I think we just need to be
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: focused on doing that, trying to create incentives to help
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: with that, because that's how we're going to make it.
• 56:45
  Speaker 3: You know, in the future. Rural economic development in the
• 56:49
  Speaker 3: twenty first century is evolving, but it requires like that
• 56:54
  Speaker 3: homegrown business sort of approach layered with recreational outdoor activities,
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: you know, with some really good food options. That's that's
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: the ticket right there.
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: The stuff going on at the Burry Auditorium, we got
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: the Burry City w rec Department doing stuff. They're going
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: to be They got the pool opening up, They've got jobs,
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: summer jobs, lifeguard whatever whatever its summer camps that are happening.
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: The opera house. I mean, we could talk all day
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: about this stuff.
• 57:28
  Speaker 3: Man, there's a lot of good stuff happening. Like you said,
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: you said the odd there. The city's making some pretty
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: major investments the turf turf HVAC system, right, you know,
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: some pretty large investments over there. That's going to really
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: increase the value of that space. And so the city
• 57:47
  Speaker 3: has done a really good job trying, you know, securing
• 57:49
  Speaker 3: resources and they've done a good job programming that space also.
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and a lot of what we've got here in
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: the Granite City is proximity is key. I mean, you
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: can literally put one foot in front of the other
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: and get there.
• 58:08
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, ye. Walking downtowns, you know, you can. You can
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: walk from downtown to the adjacent neighborhoods, right, you don't
• 58:16
  Speaker 3: need to get.
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: Into a car, right.
• 58:18
  Speaker 3: That's I mean, that's that's the goal. That has been
• 58:20
  Speaker 3: the goal, you know, of the state, is to try
• 58:23
  Speaker 3: to focus development on our historically settled areas in downtown's
• 58:27
  Speaker 3: and our village centers.
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: Don't drive to Burlington to do your shopping, especially with
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: the price of gas, do it here right here in
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: the Granite City. There's so much to.
• 58:41
  Speaker 3: Offer, absolutely, really perc Yeah, there's so many businesses downtown.
• 58:47
  Speaker 3: You know, there's We've got a great bookstore right in
• 58:50
  Speaker 3: the Blanchard block. Yes, you know, and I try to
• 58:55
  Speaker 3: get as many books from them as possible. I stopped
• 58:59
  Speaker 3: buying stuff on Amazon. Yeah, probably like fifteen sixteen months ago. Yeah,
• 59:04
  Speaker 3: you know, I finally stopped.
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: You don't have to wait, you don't have the shipping.
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: You want a new book or whatever, you go over
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: to the next chapter bookstore. Bang, it's in your hand
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: in five minutes. Yep. Yeah.
• 59:16
  Speaker 3: And if they don't have it, she can order for you.
• 59:18
  Speaker 3: Of course, it might be a couple of days, but
• 59:20
  Speaker 3: you know what, I'm willing to wait.
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: Of course.
• 59:22
  Speaker 3: You know, I think Jeff Bezos has enough money.
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: He does, he does. I think he's doing just fine.
• 59:30
  Speaker 3: Sounds it seems like it, I mean.
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: Haven't I don't launched it. Rockets is a guy launching crazy?
• 59:36
  Speaker 3: Man, I don't really want to go to Mars, so no.
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And will we ever really go to Mars or
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: will we just stage it? That's a whole nother conversation. Man.
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: I thoroughly enjoyed having you on. You're doing a hell
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: of a job. You do you feel like final question
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: that there should be two Josh Jure rooms. Because you're
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: you're you're You're a one man band, bro, I mean,
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: you're you're. I don't know how you're doing it.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: I do the best that I can, and sometimes I
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: feel like like it's not enough.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, But you know, I work hard for all the
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: communities and I'm that I'm working for and I love Barry. Yeah,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: and I'm gonna work hard for Barry, you know, until
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 3: i can.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Get out tonight, uh five point thirty. Go to
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: the anti bullying rally that's happening in curR your Park.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: Get out Wednesday for the food trucks, the Farmer's market,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: live music in Curry your Park, get out in about
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: and do things. Put one foot, put one foot in
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: front of the other shop local. We have much more
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: to talk about. I hope you hope you come back soon, man,
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: I will. Thanks thanks for having me, Thanks for coming
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: in here. Don't forget tomorrow morning. Uh yeah, I'm not
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: going to tell you who it is for a couple
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: of different reasons, but I've got a surprise guest tomorrow morning,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: right here on the Air and Out podcast. It's going
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: to be amazing. Join us then,