Grow Killington
The Killington Economic Growth Initiative

Grow Killington
The Killington Economic Growth Initiative

In addition to various activities to promote our inn, like the video work from the last post, I have also gotten involved this summer on a start up project in the community dubbed the "Killington Economic Growth Initiative".

The initiative is actually an outgrowth of work developed by Bill Bauer of the Summit Lodge and Chris Karr of the Pickle Barrel night club. Back in March at the Killington Town Meeting, Bill and Chris were able to get an article placed on the town meeting ballot which, in it's simplest incarnation, was to hire an events planner for Killington and pay for this person with a 3 cent increase to local property taxes. The tax item basically made the article a non-starter, but with the sale of the resort by ASC looming in the background in March, the issue of economic development stuck in peoples minds.

In June, the local selectboard raised the issue again, this time calling for a 1% local option tax to be used to fund the initiative. Unfortunately, the initiative had not yet been born, and a group of local citizens, myself included, asked the selectboard to humbly refrain from discussions of taxes to fund development until a plan which required taxes surfaced. From those discussions, a group of citizens were pulled together into an ad-hoc town committee chaired by Bill and Chris to create a plan for economic growth in Killington.

From a simple beginning, the economic growth initiative is starting to take on a life of it's own. A full blown community effort is underway within the Killington Community to collect ideas about growing the local economy. Currently, there are 7 sub-committees formed to investigate various areas. At this point, about 40 people in Killington have gotten actively involved including many local residents, retirees, business owners, selectmen, Powdr Corporation (the new owners of the resort), and the Killington Chamber of Commerce.

I have gotten involved as the chair of the Communications Committee for the initiative. Much of my time has been spent creating a website for the initiative called growkillington.com, creating the "Grow Killington" watering can logo and setting up a chat room for the group to work collaboratively, called 'The Garden".

Oh... and incase you were wondering about the tax discussions, funding for the economic initiative is still an open question. Right now the group is researching various funding avenues including grants from federal, state, and county agencies. We are also looking at how other communities have funded similar initiatives through the creation of non profit foundations. While funding the initiative recommendations via tax mechanisms are not out of the question, the group is heavily invested to fund the initiative through other means. The good news in all of this is that a group of local people have been energized to get involved to help grow the local economy.

If you would like more information about the project, or would like to join the group working the initiative, the website is a good first place to stop to find out more information about what people are working on in town. Where we are still in the exploratory stages, if you are interested in coming on board, now is the time to bring your ideas to the table.

And while I still have your attention, Mary and I have also managed to squeeze in a round or two of golf between raindrops the last couple of days. After all, all work and no play is really not very much fun, especially when you live in the Green Mountains of Vermont at Killington.

Where ever you may be, just remember to keep it in the fairway, and don't forget your sunscreen.