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Monis, Wahlstrom to head Tri-Town Economic Development Committee

Monis, Wahlstrom to head Tri-Town Economic Development Committee

Deerfield Valley - Nona Monis, Administrative Assistant to the Dover Selectboard, was voted in as Chair of the Tri-Town Economic Development Committee at their reorganizational meeting on March 5^th.  Monis replaces two term Chair Bruce Korb of the Nordic Hills in Wilmington. Todd Wahlstrom, co-owner of Town Hill Pottery in Whitingham was voted in as Vice-Chair.  Wahlstrom replaces two term Vice Chair Ally Libby of Deerfield Valley Energy in Wilmington. Laura Sibilia, Executive Director of the Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce will serve a third term as Clerk.

The Tri Town Economic Development Committee was formed in the spring of 2007 by the Dover, Whitingham and Wilmington Selectboards and the Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors who voted to approve creation of a committee to address economic development in the Dover/Whitingham/Wilmington area.

Divided into long and short term focus groups, the group created a community wide online calendar, organized the plantings of lupines in all three towns, created uniform signage for wireless hot spots, overseen the creation of a unifying logo, and hosted a series of community forums to look at long term strategies.

In 2009/10 the short term group will expand the calendar and lupine projects, create and sell oval car stickers promoting the area, look to take on small quickly implementable “90 Day” projects, and serve as facilitators to organize existing redundant groups in the three towns. 

The long term group will be developing sustainable and likely to be successful tourism and non tourism strategies to implement which will result in an increase of the economic viability of the valley and positively impact the wages, jobs, and quality of life of valley residents.

This will require a number of tasks and will be undertaken by teams of interested citizens overseen by the Tri Town Committee.  An economic development planner will facilitate the work and will be hired through a Request for Proposal process.

Voters in the towns of Whitingham, Wilmington and Dover have appropriated a total of $7500 for 2009/10 short term goals.  Wilmington and Dover have committed a total of $35,000 for the long term study and strategic planning effort.

The short and long term sub-committees welcome participation of interested residents.  Residents interested in working on either subcommittee please contact Ally Libby at 464-1520 for short term meeting dates, and Bob Rusten, Wilmington Town Manager, at wilmbob@sover.net (454-8591) for long term.

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