BELLOWS FALLS — On May 3, through the hard work of Sen. Shumlin, Representatives Obuchowski and Partridge, and others, the Vermont legislature included language in the transportation bill to protect hand-painted murals relating to Vermont's Designated Downtowns.
The amendment was carefully crafted to allow only hand-painted murals, and then only directly on the sides of structures that have been located in the same spot for over 25 years. Any typography on the mural may refer "only to the direction, or distance to, and the name of the designated downtown."
The Designated Downtown program seeks to retain and encourage the unique character of Vermont's historic town centers, but in recent years, available grant monies have largely dried up, and the program has become more tenuous, even as our downtowns have struggled to remain vibrant. With this amendment, the legislature fosters two of the strongest drivers to Vermont's economic well-being: creativity, and healthy towns and villages.
The spokesperson from the Agency of Transportation has issued strangely alarmist statements that that Vermont's revered Billboard Law is endangered and that a plague of unsightly billboards might start popping up along roadsides like mushrooms after a rain.
A hand-painted mural on the side of a barn uses an entirely different artistic lexicon from modern commercial signage. The sad reality is that Vermont highways suffer enormous actual visual blight from strip development signage outside all the state's larger towns. The idea that Frank Hawkins's gorgeous nostalgic image on the barn along Route 5 outside Bellows Falls is more of a visual assault on the traveler, and more worthy of alarm, than a string of blaring plastic mass-produced signs for chain motels and fast-food restaurants outside Brattleboro or Rutland or Burlington beggars the imagination.
The mission of the Bellows Falls Downtown Development Alliance is to promote our downtown economy. If we can do so by encouraging hand-painted murals, and artistic expression, that's wonderful. We strongly support the Vermont Billboard Law.
Most Vermonters I know like hand-painted art, like their downtowns, and like economic development. We thank our legislative delegation for furthering all three.
We hope to see you in Bellows Falls soon.