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Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce Column 020409

Well, these certainly are interesting times for the valley, Vermont and the nation. But, there are things to be grateful for:  Snow is plentiful, ideas abound and Vermonters time honored traditional Town Meeting Day approaches (February 25th last day to register to vote!).

Some of the best news in a long time came on Tuesday, when newly elected Vermont Speaker of the House Shap Smith announced the House will send members to work on the Governors call to replace the states broken education funding mechanism and Acts 60/68.  The chamber encourages you to write to Senator’s Sears and Hartwell (Wilmington) or Senator’s Shumlin and White (Dover, Whitingham) in support of the Senates participation in this long overdue education finance discussion.

The chamber will be holding a Legislative Breakfast on Monday February 23^rd at 8 am at the Horizon Inn.  All area legislators have been invited to attend.  A full hot breakfast will be served.  The cost is $10.50 for chamber members and Friends of the chamber and $15.00 for non-chamber members.  We encourage all to attend and to RSVP with Megan at the chamber by Thursday February 19^th.

All valley residents and property owners are invited to participate in the chamber’s 2009 Economic Development Survey.  The goal of the survey is to measure understanding, participation and support of the economic development efforts of the Dover Economic Development committee, Tri-Town Economic Development committee and the Chamber.  Questions regarding town meeting day votes in Dover, Whitingham and Wilmington are also included.  The survey can be accessed on the front page of the chamber website www.VisitVermont.com.

Are you on Facebook or Twitter?  The chamber is, and we’ll be bringing more information on the benefits of these rapidly growing social and business networking tools to a chamber social this spring – stay tuned.

The 5k Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament at Mount Snow February 21^st.

Limited seats are still available for the 3rd Annual Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce Texas Hold ‘Em Benefit Poker Tournament on February 21^st at the Grand Summit Resort and Conference Center at Mount Snow Vermont.

The Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce continues to work towards increased efficiency, action and responsiveness with local, regional, state and national partners and bodies on a host of projects.  We need only look at the Deerfield Valley’s relatively small and isolated voice (part of the Southern Vermont “Forgotten Kingdom” according to Senator Dick Sears) to understand, if we want to get things done, we need cooperation and collaboration with other groups, towns and regions.  We also need an active and engaged business and residential community.

The most recent fruits of our collaborative efforts are coming from a Windham County group’s discussions with Fairpoint, Comcast and Duncan Cable regarding high speed internet expansion.  Brattleboro Development Credit Corp, Windham Regional Planning Commission, the town of Brattleboro, a representive from Marlboro and myself have been meeting for the better part of a year trying to see if we collectively we could have a greater impact on advocating for broadband expansion. The chamber has also involved representatives from the Dover Economic Development Committee and the Tri-Town Economic Development committee in these discussions. We know that group has impacted decisions on the ground, and there have been expansions into the valley and Brattleboro due to this effort.  Look for a broader column on these efforts in early March after the Fairpoint/Verizon systems switchover has been completed.