BELLOWS FALLS — An effort that began in 2010 to lure green sustainable businesses to the Island has gained traction, following the combined efforts of volunteers at the local level and allies in the Legislature.
The Green Island Project has received the funding to get started with $226,242 in financing from the Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) that will be used to lease and renovate a vacant 19th-century factory building on 30 Island St.
The 6,000-square-foot building was once home to the Vermont Farm Machine Co., one of the leading producers of butter churns and cream separators in the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Sustainable Valley Group (SVG), the nonprofit that is the main organizer behind the Green Island development push, celebrated the funding with a groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday. A backhoe tore off the porch, symbolizing the start of the project's next phase.
Its founders see the economic development demonstration project as one that will deliver on its mission statement of “delivering a sustainable local economy through education and training, job expansion, and sustainable business development.”
SVG tried to start a similar project in Springfield but it soon found that Bellows Falls already had the infrastructure in place for innovative businesses. As a plus, businesses on the Island would be located alongside a transportation hub.
SVG launched the Green Island Project in 2011 to put into practice the ideas it set out several years earlier.
Initially, the Robertson Paper Co. mill was seen as an ideal site, and with the support of 350.org volunteers, a site cleanup took place a little over a year ago in the hope of getting it ready for renovation.
However, the project was soon abandoned following a burst sprinkler system and a series of roof collapses.
“We bit off more than we could chew, and were overly ambitious,” said Gary Fox of SVG.
The project eventually received a powerful backer in state Sen. Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex/Orleans, who serves as chair of Senate Committee on Economic Development.
Illuzzi became an advocate for the new 30 Island St. project after hearing details about it from Fox and other SVG members at a special hearing of his Senate committee in Brattleboro on March 30.
Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA) agreed to be the fiscal agent for SVG, which would allow charitable donations and grants for the project. Illuzzi said that commitment, along with the testimony that his committee heard about the viability and long-term benefits to the region and community development, “was the tipping point.”
“I thought what a great job creator this will be,” Illuzzi said, describing the project as “right in line with what we are trying to do here in Vermont with renewable energy, sustainability, reducing carbon footprints, and creating jobs.”
With attention now focused on 30 Island St., SVG's groundbreaking marks the next step - the development of three new green and sustainable commercial businesses: RReal Warm, which will manufacture solar powered space heaters; SEVCA, which will do textile recycling; and Green Island Bio Fuels, which will produce biodiesel.
Fox said SVG is also playing with the idea of housing a small museum that will display some of the old Vermont Farm Machine Co. machinery, now on view in the Bellows Falls rail depot.
He said that he and other project organizers also want to get the factory designated as a historical building.
“Some of the old brick [from the Vermont Farm Machine Company] is still under there,” he said, and while nothing is definite yet, the dream is to expose those walls so people actually see the historical footprint.
During the groundbreaking ceremony, state Rep. Matt Trieber, D-Bellows Falls, noted that Bellows Falls is the second-most heavily populated area in Windham County.
“It's exciting to see economic development happening here, and with the job development [inherent in the businesses] and green energy focus, [the Green Island Project] will be bringing [the Village] forward into the 21st century,” Trieber said.
Rep. Carolyn Partridge, D-Windham, said she saw the development project as a “positive step for Rockingham and the village of Bellows Falls. I'm ready to help in any way I can.”
Dave Bonta, the original founder of the first version of SVG in Springfield, noted that when he first started talking in 2003 about bringing sustainable businesses based on green energy to the area, he was met with skepticism.
“No one believed it was possible,” he said, adding it was really difficult to get people involved.
When Bonta started talking to the Green Island Project people a couple of years ago, he saw fertile ground for his ideas and decided to get behind their efforts. But he said “there were still people [in Bellows Falls] who didn't believe it could happen.”
SEVCA Executive Director Steve Geller agreed.
“Nothing could happen without the dreamers to first envision the dream,” he said. “SVG sustained the dream even when the community wasn't behind it.”
Bonta was thrilled to note to those gathered that one of his dreams of green energy would be put into effect at 30 Island St.
“The RReal Warm solar collectors on the walls will help to heat the place,” he announced.
Then he smiled, quoting John Lennon's “Imagine,” not a little emotionally.
“You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one,” he said.
SVG Vice President Hal Wilkins said the project leaders hope to have the building open, with businesses running, in two months. He admitted that goal was ambitious.
“Nothing ever goes exactly the way you want it to,” he said with a smile, “but I'm optimistic.”
Tonia White of SEVCA, who directs the thrift store project of the anti-poverty nonprofit, will be opening the textile recycling center, which is now in White River Junction.
“It will be nice to be back in the area with a local office,” she said, noting that her drivers will appreciate not having to drive to and from White River Junction each week.
Of the move-in date, she said that she'll be ready “whenever it happens. We're patient.”
Of the groundbreaking, Fox said, “Now [the Green Island Project] is real to people. Now people can see it's really going to happen. Now we are really moving forward.”