Selectboard campaigns ‘Shelburne Forward Together’

Amid controversy over the past few weeks stemming from proposed changes to the Parade Ground, the Shelburne Selectboard announced a three-month community-building initiative in partnership with the Vermont Council on Rural Development under the tagline “Shelburne Forward Together.”

The Vermont Council on Rural Development is a neutral, independent, nonprofit organization that works with communities around the state to help them set priorities and connect to resources governing the future of their towns. The organization’s community visits program is a way for towns to engage and bring together residents, set common goals and directions in a neutral and facilitated structure all while accessing resources that will help turn goals into action.

“We’ve worked with almost 90 communities in the last 25 years with this same process. The idea is to really go from full community brainstorming to prioritization and then to action planning and resource connection,” Jenna Koloski, the organization’s community engagement and policy director, said. “We have staff that help with follow-up and support in the long term as well.”

For Shelburne Selectboard members, the hope is to hear from a broader range of residents regarding what they feel is important as the town anticipates big changes within the coming months.

“We have new town leadership and — in this political climate where people can be very separated in terms of their viewpoints — to come together as a town and decide on a direction really seems like something that will strengthen the community,” selectboard member Cate Cross said.

The initial meeting with various community leaders in town forged the name “Shelburne Forward Together” while also narrowing down a few discussion points for the following community forums: infrastructure; housing; family and community connections; climate resilience and natural resources; local economy; and accessibility and transportation.

“So that committee has no official say or control over the outcomes of the process. They just helped to frame the conversation with those topics. They help us to build an effective outreach strategy,” said Koloski.

The kick-off event will be Thursday, July 27, beginning at 4:30 p.m. Breakout groups will meet at the town offices, town hall or town gym to discuss the given topics before convening all together at the fire station at 6 p.m. for a free community dinner and live music. Breakout groups will split again from 7 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.

“I would love to see 300 people there,” selectboard chair Michael Ashooh. “I want to see this thing packed.”

This will be the first community meeting in a series of three, followed by events in August and September that focus more on priority setting and action planning.

“August will be that priority setting meeting and then September serves as like a first action planning meeting,” Koloski said. “People sign up for task forces, they break out into those groups, and we facilitate a conversation to help them plan action steps. We also bring in a resource team of people that can bring funding and technical assistance expertise that can help them think about action and resources.”

The community visits initiative was spearheaded over a year ago by the town’s former town manager Lee Krohn after questions of development, expensive capital improvements and other changes to the town began to take shape.

“There’s been a lot of talk just generally on the board about trying to cast our gaze a little further down the road to think and plan for some of these longer-term issues that we know we have,” Ashooh said. “I think the general consensus has been we need to get off our butts basically and start preparing for what we know is coming. From very general things like climate change to the wastewater treatment facility and growth.”