In response to last week’s editorial, re: the Town Manager position and town priorities, here are some thoughts and concerns.

I hope someone (that is, the selectboard chair) is having Kathleen Ramsay update the current Town Manager job description and, as well, offer her recommendations as to what should be changed for smoother operations. Perhaps more importantly, someone needs to get her “off the record” and get her candid perspective on Middlebury’s issues and needs.

Re: priorities for Middlebury — We believe the overarching priority for the “real Middlebury” is increased low- to moderate-income housing.  Nominees for 2nd and 3rd priorities are public safety throughout the area and improved integration of Middlebury College students and faculty with the town.

I’ll open with two cautions:

1. Setting priorities is a good thing, but unless they are actionable it’s only a feel-good exercise.
2. Setting actionable priorities is very different than what passes for “planning” as practiced in Vermont municipal affairs. The state requires a “town plan” by statue with all the accompanying bureaucratic grandeur. Consequently, municipalities periodically produce “Town Plans.” Their principal benefit is to provide employment for planners and typically are called to their highest service as doorstops.

The 2017 Middlebury Town Plan is 231 pages long and includes 37 pages on “implementation,” best characterized as blather. Another example, the “2020 Middlebury Downtown Master Plan,” doesn’t even pretend to be a plan. In its own words it is at best a “vision.” It claims to be a “playbook,” but it offers no more than an earnest “wish list,” a catalog of aspirations. Glaringly absent is any attention to the resources — financial, human, legislative, etc. — required for action to realize the vision.

Now, two questions:

• Appropriately, you invited “Middlebury-area residents” to offer their priorities. When we talk about “Middlebury” what do we really mean?

Apropos your question, we need an actionable definition of where we expect the priorities to be acted upon. The Town of Middlebury is a bounded piece of land defined more than 250 years ago, together with its inhabitants. However, in the real world of 2024, “Middlebury” is an economic/market area centered on that original town plus some portion of the adjoining communities’ residents who work, shop and travel through. And we can’t forget the part-time but large population of Middlebury College students. It seems to me that the 2024 definition is the only sensible one.

• Who will be responsible for acting on the priorities and what authority(ies) will be attached?

To complicate action on priorities, each town has its own government structure (and, in a sense, Middlebury College as well). A core problem is the silo effect. Those multiple town governments are each required to honor their original boundaries and, in my experience, there’s precious little communication/coordination between/among the Town of Middlebury’s government and its neighbors.

Further, my sense is that the Town of Middlebury’s government has a tradition of passivity and parochialism. At best, only lip service is paid to the whole of modern “Middlebury” and then typically left to non-government entities for action. While there appears to be no near-term solution to the archaic governance structure, the constituent towns’ leaders could and should think and act in the context of today’s reality. How about if a “new Middlebury commission” is formed for coherent, coordinated action on housing?

And now to end with some good news.

• I’ve conducted an absolutely unscientific survey of perhaps a dozen non-resident/occasional visitors asking, “How does Middlebury look to you?” With one exception, all gave positive answers. (The one remembered how “quaint” the town was 40 years ago!)
• I’m impressed by the encouragement being provided to Midd students to innovate. That’s real progress for the College. Heretofore the posture appeared to be to look down on anything like “career” education. I hope that suggests a subtle and positive directional change.
• Assuming our nation survives this election cycle, I think there will be an upsurge in interest in healthy communities as places to live and work. The community that “new Middlebury” offers is quite special. I think the “Profiles in Community” section in last week’s Indy should be transformed into a magazine and a website then distributed to every household in “Middlebury” and stacked in entries to real estate offices, hotels and motels. That compilation of people, businesses, services and stories is a compelling testament to the spirit of community we enjoy.

Bruce Hiland

Middlebury