New executive director has big ideas for Springfield nonprofit

Stephen Plunkard recalled the day he first drove into Springfield in 1978 with his wife and young son. “I saw the church steeple and I thought, this is Mayberry R.F.D.!” he said.

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The Citizen Argus Champion Message for the Week 2016-10-29 / Front Page New executive director has big ideas for Springfield nonprofit By TORY JONES BONENFANT toryb@eagletimes.com New Springfield on the Move Executive Director Stephen Plunkard takes a brief break from working on downtown development on Friday morning, Oct. 28 in downtown Springfield. — TORY JONES BONENFANT New Springfield on the Move Executive Director Stephen Plunkard takes a brief break from working on downtown development on Friday morning, Oct. 28 in downtown Springfield. — TORY JONES BONENFANT SPRINGFIELD — Stephen Plunkard recalled the day he first drove into Springfield in 1978 with his wife and young son. “I saw the church steeple and I thought, this is Mayberry R.F.D.!” he said. He had been working in Philadelphia, he said in an interview on Friday, Oct. 28 at his office at Springfield on the Move’s downtown headquarters. He began serving as the new executive director for SOM two weeks ago, replacing Carol Lighthall, who has gone on to work in small business lending. Plunkard said he had initially chosen the southeastern Vermont area by looking at three general locations in the U.S. when he was first looking for a new job, and then putting his finger down on a map. Not long afterward, he received a job offer, and the family packed up and moved to the Ludlow area. Nearly 40 years later, Plunkard, a Cavendish resident and former small business owner with 30 employees, has plans to boost tourism, partner with the state, and bring in new business opportunities to downtown Springfield. “I really appreciate small business in town,” he said. Plunkard said in a candid interview on Friday, Oct. 28 that he has lived in the region since 1978, with the exception of four years living in Calgary, Alberta for work. He works as a landscape architect and consultant, and works part-time, weekday mornings, at SOM. Plunkard has worked in a multitude of downtown projects, including in 22 towns and cities in Vermont, seven in New Hampshire, six in Maine, and many more in Massachusetts, New York, Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, Texas and Canada. The family moved to Cavendish in 1980. His wife of 44 years, Lindsay, taught school in Cavendish and both have been involved in volunteerism. She developed the “Respect Club” several years ago that has since won students gubernatorial awards, he said. The couple has two sons, one in Calgary and one in Cavendish, and four grandchildren. Plunkard said that in the past four decades, he has seen a great deal of change. For example, he said he could recall when Penelope’s — now an accountant’s office — had people “lined up outside,” and Springfield had the highest per-capita income in the state. Plunkard said that his job as SOM’s executive director includes business promotion, assistance with permitting and buildings, funding, helping business owners network with other people in the community, and regional marketing. “Overall, I just want to grow the community,” he said. Plunkard said he feels Springfield has “kind of lost” the regional market with the development of “big box” stores, and that it may be difficult to bring back. Downtown revitalization and local, small business economic development can help provide people with more disposable income and a place to spend that income, he said. Springfield has gone through a sort of rebranding starting a few years ago, promoting the phrase “Springfield Reinvented,” which is still on promotional and tourism materials. “We need to put our heads together and reinvent things that are happening to the town,” he said. That reinvention, and aspects to focus on, will include education, housing, the needs of workers, and open and green spaces around restaurants and businesses, he said. Plans include focusing on people that live out of town and on the “travel market,” because with tourist destinations, people tend to stay an average of four hours and then move on, he said. Plunkard said he envisions new tourism and economic development initiatives that include partnerships with the state, and links to other nearby towns. One of his goals is to “link together” Springfield with Bellows Falls, Chester, White River Junction and other nearby historical communities, “so we’re not cannibalizing each other.” He also wants nearby communities to work together to look at “the whole experience,” he said. He also wants to look into job-sharing, where local merchants get together and pitch in to help one another so employees can take holidays off or cover each other for a few hours. Joint marketing existed much more in past years than it does now, and he hopes to bring it back as storefronts start to fill up, he said. Part of his plans include a proposed tourism donation-ticket system in which a donor to a museum or historical society would receive a ticket to visit a large circuit of historical museums in the Connecticut River Valley. Another idea he has is to bring a tourism focus to local waterfalls by purchasing laser light show equipment that could potentially draw tourists to shows with seasonally changing production themes such as Christmas, Disney characters, and holidays. Though Plunkard has only been in office for two weeks, he said he hopes to meet with an architect next week on the Woolson Block and other downtown projects and retail ideas. He is also looking into developing the River Walk pathway through the downtown, possibly with a cantilevering “overlook” walkway over the river, to tie it in with the falls as a tourist destination. Plunkard’s office hours will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday through Friday, and by appointment.