I see a long-term economic development strategy for Newport that is proactive about building a vibrant downtown to make this a great place to live, work and play for everyone:

• Folks like my family who have oriented toward Newport for generations and who will clearly benefit from a thriving local economy driven by Newport as an economic and social hub.

• Long-time Newport residents who remember a time when Main Street was full of thriving businesses.

• New residents who need to find comfortable, affordable, energy efficient homes in the City and especially in Newport’s downtown where there must be a combination of market-rate and affordable housing.

• Our businesses, including both small businesses and larger manufacturers, that must have what they need to do their work, starting with a labor pool of residents who come to Newport or choose to stay here because it’s such a great place to live.

• Our kids who choose to stay here or return here to raise their own families because there is meaningful work and a vibrant community atmosphere that attracts and supports them.

• Making Newport the center of community life in the Northern NEK: Downtown Newport must become a vibrant social and economic center again. Though this won’t look exactly like it did fifty years ago, we can follow the lead of sister cities like St Johnsbury and St. Albans to recreate a vibrant center. To do so, our community will need to be proactive and visionary, and our city government will need to do the same.

• Building Up the Grand List: Taxes must be stable and affordable for the people who live in Newport, and the only way to make that happen is to increase the number of thriving businesses on the Grand List. Downtown Newport offers all kinds of opportunity to do so, with the “Development Opportunity” of the former Spates Block on Main Street, and the old JJ Newberry Department Store as lead contenders.

• Building More Market-Rate and Affordable Housing: The plans Rural Edge has made for the old Sacred Heart Convent and High School are a huge move in the right direction, but we also need market rate housing on our Main Street. We can start new businesses on Main Street all day long, but they will not thrive until there is a downtown population all year long to frequent them. Those businesses cannot survive on just the four beautiful months when summer visitors are attracted to the Lake.

• Becoming the Center of the Four-Season, Outdoor Recreation Economy: Community residents and City leaders agreed some years ago that a big part of Newport’s economy must be driven by becoming a four-season, outdoor recreation hub in the Northern NEK. The purchase of Bluffside Farm by the VT Land Trust and the completion of the Downtown Waterfront Path to connect to the Beebe Spur Rail Trail were big steps in the right direction. Recently, NCDD helped to bring together 11 different businesses, non-profits and the City of Newport to create the Newport Outdoor Recreation Collaborative. Together, we will support one another by coordinating our efforts, building capacity to expand our efforts, steward the natural resource of the Lake and surrounding area, and promote the region to potential visitors from across New England and around the world.

• Whatever happens next for Newport’s long-term economic development, it will have to include developing the incredible resource we have in our local airport. There are great people working on this, and I look forward to supporting their efforts.

• Working proactively to support our hospital and all its related businesses that are such a crucial part of the quality of life in our community.

• Developing Long-Term Infrastructure to Support a Growing City: This includes continuing the important work Newport has already been doing to build a new water tower and being proactive about building out our public works infrastructure. It also is likely to mean being proactive about creating other industrial space in the City so that we can attract more businesses like Poulin Grain, Pick and Shovel, Built By Newport, Columbia Forest Products, Galvion, Nevtec, etc. Because my focus has been so intent on downtown Newport for the last two and a half years, I know less about what it will take to build out this important part of Newport’s future, but I understand how important it is and I am anxious to learn.

I can remember a time when people came from all over the Northern part of Vermont to dance with the Warner family band (cousins on my dad’s side) at the Missisquoi Manor in Lowell, and the bowling alley the Warners built in the basement is still a hotspot today. Though I’m too young to have been a part of it, I’ve seen the pictures from the time when Newport itself supported two, 400-capacity dance halls. Whatever Newport’s future may look like, it must include creating ways for the people of the Northern NEK to gather and have fun at a reasonable cost. The rebirth of NCDD over the last two years was built on Winter Saturdays in Newport, when we take over the Gateway Center to offer great local bands and local food, a cash bar, and kids’ Disney movies upstairs for $15 buck tickets. The goal is to give families an affordable way to get out of the house and to make our own fun the Vermont way.

People who say “no one will come out because of the cold” are dead wrong: my family’s been doing it for generations. We prove it when we fun together on snowmobiles in the middle of the night, ice-fishing, or traipsing through the woods before sun up on snow shoes - these are all examples of ways that Northern Vermonters enjoy our environment. Phil White has built Newport’s reputation as the Center of open-water swimming that includes cutting a two-lane competition length pool out of the ice on Memphremagog for the Winter Swim. If we cater first to the spirit and the needs of our own community, others will come here because - even though we’re a little crazy - they are drawn to the community values that have endured in the NEK for generations.

I know some folks complain about the cost of the flowers in Newport, but I’m a huge fan. The City of Newport – and in particular Robert Gosselin and his crew - do an amazing job of making our community beautiful. Our willingness to work together to bring Newport back to life begins with a sense of pride in the beauty of this remarkable place where we all live, and the more beautiful it becomes, the more others see and want to stay in Newport, move to Newport, or visit Newport – all things that are foundational to our city’s future.

That’s why we’re working with advanced art students from North Country to develop sculptures that you’ll begin to see by springtime. It’s why we have a group of volunteers making plans for creating murals in our downtown next summer. It’s why we need to think about our streetscape and planting trees in our downtown area in a way that they will be able to thrive. It’s why the long-term plans for Gardner Park, including the Grandstand, must be accelerated. Finally, it’s why the Northern Star, the proposed Memphremagog Science and Education Center at the Gateway, Memphremagog Trails, the Newport Community Sailing Center and the City of Newport’s Recreation Department are all so important to our community. They’re all about helping both local residents and visitors to experience the beauty of this amazing spot in the world.

Newport City Council must be proactive for any of this vision of Newport’s revitalization to come to be. When I have asked colleagues from other cities like St Johnsbury and St Albans what happened to make their transformation possible, they are clear that there were two things that were critically important.

1. They had residents who committed to building up their downtowns to make them a useful, vibrant and fun place to be. This included, especially in St J’s case, people who have grown up there but left the area who committed to return to make a difference in bringing their community back to life. It also included long-timers in the community who recognized the new energy that could help transform their downtown areas. And, it included new folks who chose to come to the community for quality of life, and who understood that in order to continue to enjoy that quality of life they had to embrace the community values that were the bedrock of their communities.

2. They had a change in City Council to allow for new energy and fresh ideas to take hold. The transformations of these two cities from largely abandoned city centers that even the locals avoided to become vibrant centers of community life and economic activity happened because city leaders could see the change they wanted and they were willing to be proactive to make that change happen.

City Council members have a fiduciary obligation and a responsibility to the community to assure that the City of Newport has a future. EB-5 was real. Covid was real. The development opportunities that exist in downtown Newport are daunting, but they are not insurmountable. All of the indicators suggest that this is Newport’s moment! Let’s create a City Council that wants to lead us into that moment.

It is the obligation of every member of Council to be vigilant about any potential conflict of interest in matters before the City of Newport, or even the appearance of such conflict of interest. As the Director of Newport City Downtown Development, which is a non-profit tasked with supporting the City to develop our State-Designated Downtown, I will be in a unique position to understand and interpret the costs and benefits of potential economic and community development initiatives. However, there will likely be moments when my role with NCDD will require that I disclose a potential conflict of interest and recuse myself from a decision before the Council. I pledge to be personally vigilant and to respond with openness when these questions arise. Other cities have navigated similar challenges well, and I fully expect to work to do the same in Newport.