What’s next in Shelburne: change and conversation

As chair of the Shelburne Selectboard and with the start of new town manager Matt Lawless in June and other recent events, it seems to be a good time for an update. I am not speaking as the selectboard, but rather share my own perspective on where we are as a town and where we are headed.

When I took over as chair, I was struck by how much needed to be done. Our police department was in a freefall, our planning and zoning department was dysfunctional, and we are facing, as I hope all are aware, daunting capital and infrastructure needs, from the over $25 million wastewater treatment facility to a new $15 million fire and rescue facility, each within a five-year horizon.

We also have other capital needs — energy efficiency upgrades, a new roof for town offices, rescue facility needs, new cruisers, road crew vehicles, and more. Our town employees are overworked and underpaid, and there has been a lack of progress on pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, open-space protection, and many other items.

I do not know how Shelburne found itself in this position, and I point no fingers at anyone past or present, for this situation. Maybe this is just to be expected for small-town Vermont. Maybe we were burned by the salt-shed experience and are simply paralyzed. Maybe we have just been sitting on our laurels, in love with our town and all that it provides. I really don’t know, but we must get moving forward, not backwards.

I made it my job as chair to do something and have encouraged board members to take an activist approach to their job, and I believe this has paid dividends. Many people were rightly agitated by how the problems with the police department were addressed, but the board was convinced that the best path forward was the one we charted. And I can confidently say the department is a good example of how change can benefit all of us.

The department is now fully staffed, operating 24 hours a day, and is again something for Shelburne to be proud of. In addition to an excellent new town manager, we have a great new director of planning and zoning, and we are rewriting our entire zoning regulations after confirming that the current code is a disaster. I could go on.

This board is trying to nudge, cajole, drag, but mostly persuade the town of Shelburne to get moving, because risk aversion equals opportunity costs. I believe that good things are happening because of this approach, from the local option tax to generate the revenues needed to accomplish the many necessary goals, to addressing staffing needs so that we have a team in place that can help us create the town we want to live in.

Community participation in this process is increasing, which is essential. So, change is happening and that is a good thing. On that note, stay tuned for our Shelburne Forward Together community building events, with a Thursday, July 27, launch date.

Now, about the Parade Ground. I was honestly surprised this provoked a visceral response from some members of our community. The meeting at which this was discussed also included a 9 percent increase in our water rates which, by the way, is going to cost us much more than any upgrades to the Parade Ground, and I anticipated a lot of concern about that. But it was the Parade Ground project — we began discussions about the grant for it in April — that provoked a reaction. But what surprised me — and still does — is the lack of any clear argument for why this is a bad idea.

What I have heard essentially comes down to this: it is about change.

At our last meeting, the selectboard agreed to allow the process for reviewing the proposed changes to move forward, which I personally very much support. I support it for several reasons, but one is simply to exercise our grassroots democracy. We need to learn as a community how to have these kinds of conversations in a productive, constructive and respectful way.

I have read and heard a lot of hyperbole, rhetoric and indignation, but I have not heard many good reasons for not moving forward. I will say that I love the suggestion of a community yoga space. I can picture all of us on the town green in a calm, peaceful, therapeutic moment of downward facing dog!

But the proposed changes would, I believe, enhance the Parade Ground, and not detract from it. Each of its elements advances Shelburne’s stated goals in the town plan to increase pedestrian accessibility, enhance the town center and our sense of place and community. It is also very cost effective: for a $40,000 contribution from the town, we could reap an $80,000 grant-funded project.

So, I welcome this discussion, not because the Parade Ground is the most important issue in Shelburne, but rather because we have many much more important issues coming that we need to address, and we need to learn to address them well. We cannot protect and preserve our town by opposing change just because it is change.

We must get unstuck, get moving and take proactive steps toward gaining agency and control over the progress we make together. Doing nothing is not an option. And we need to do this in a civil, forward-looking, thoughtful and constructive way.

Michael Ashooh is chair of the Shelburne Selectboard.