The Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategy (SeVEDS) group sees three priorities for Windham County's economic future - reduce the region's population loss, increase the region's average wage, and increase the regional gross domestic product.
All are worthy goals. Unfortunately, too many of the new jobs in Windham County are not paying a living wage. That simple fact leads to population flight, which leads to more economic troubles.
Economic development consultant Mark Madsen has said that, while Windham County has a highly educated population - a characteristic of a demographic market that usually indicates high-wage employment - our region also has the lowest average wage in the state.
At the same time, Madsen has downplayed the role that manufacturing can fill in the Brattleboro-area economy, saying that trying to get a big factory into the region would ruin its sense of place.
But that sentiment overlooks the fact that long before tourism and “the knowledge economy” became industries in Vermont, Brattleboro built a legacy as a place that made things.
Maybe it's worth revisiting the strategies of Elbert “Al” Moulton - the man they called “Mr. Vermont” for the considerable amount of economic development that he brought to the state.
In a 2006 interview with Vermont Business Magazine, Moulton outlined his economic development philosophy and the ways in which he had put it into play.
“Try and put the jobs where the people are, in the smaller towns,” Moulton said. “Put them there instead of trying to bring everybody into the city, where we would just be creating other problems. If we create 25 jobs in Townshend, it's better than 250 jobs in South Burlington.
“That was my overall plan, and that's why we were continually trying to get the smaller towns to take advantage of state financing to get industrial parks and get themselves ready.
“I wanted to keep Vermont as it was. I didn't want to have big industrial centers. If people can work in their own towns, they're better off.”
Bringing jobs to the places that people live was the philosophy behind the decision of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corp. (BDCC), in the mid-1950s, to build the structure that ultimately housed The Book Press, one of the largest employers in Brattleboro.
That's why the BDCC, under Moulton's leadership, built the Exit One Industrial Park and created the industrial district on Old Ferry Road that today houses the Windham Solid Waste Management District, a lumber mill, the administrative headquarters of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee, and a C&S Wholesale Grocers warehouse.
Moulton built on the legacy of Brattleboro as a manufacturing town. From shoes to organs, from printing to paper making, from textiles to precision optics, manufacturing played a major role in the economic health of the town for decades. American Optical, Estey Organ Co., E.L. Hildreth & Co., H. Margolin, Crosby Milling, Dunham Brothers, and Berkshire Fine Spinning were just some of the town's major employers in the mid-20th century.
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While none of those companies exists today, the buildings that once housed them remain and have been reused.
In a deal that Moulton brokered, the American Optical building became the home of Fulflex. Berkshire Fine Spinning became the Cotton Mill, the BDCC's small-business incubator. The Book Press became another BDCC incubator space, with the Vermont Foodbank and several other entities now calling it home.
The town's oldest industrial spaces, such as Hildreth's plant in the Harmony Lot and the Estey Organ buildings on Birge Street, were early examples of the creative reuse of historic factories. Newer industrial buildings around town that now lie fallow await a similar rebirth.
Make no mistake: There is still manufacturing in Brattleboro. From precision tool and die work at Bradford Machine Co., to aircraft parts at G.S. Precision, to optical filters at Omega, to papermaking at FiberMark, to quality wood products at Cersosimo Lumber and Allard Lumber, Brattleboro is still a place that makes things.
The manufacturing businesses that have survived have prospered because of their ability to do something specialized, to do it well, and to do it at a competitive cost.
And these businesses have prospered because Vermonters possess ingenuity and creativity, two things that are critical to survival in a changing world.
Given the rising cost and growing scarcity of fossil fuels, shipping goods from China will soon no longer be economical or practical. Manufacturing jobs will eventually have to return to the United States, and a place that possesses a skilled, educated, and industrious workforce like Vermont can thrive.
We're realistic enough to know that the age of the Vermont factory town is gone. But there is room in Vermont for small businesses and entrepreneurs who recognize the strengths of the people in this state and want to make the best use of their abilities.
Brattleboro has always been economically vibrant because it has a diversified economy that doesn't rely on just one sector. Our county's geographic hub can't survive solely as an “arts town,” or as a retail center and tourist playground, or as a supporter of value-added agriculture. It also needs manufacturing.