This nonprofit organization has been working for several years to boost Springfield in many ways and bring businesses to downtown. Vacant storefronts on Main Street are an embarrassment and SOM is doing all it can to attract the kind of merchants we need to revitalize the center of town. Its first steps have focused on beautification: Comtu Park, Town Hall Park, and the alleyway inprovments next to the Huber building have all been completed. Past community support has also enabled the formulation of a plan to improve and repaint several historic downtown buildings -- the Facade Project -- with work to begin in the spring. SOM is responsible for the new Springfield brand (logo) seen on flags on light poles downtown.
I see no reason that our downtown in southern Windsor County can't have the same appeal as certain (unnamed) towns in the county's north end, given community support. SOM has even been involved in the process to improve parking for both business employees and visitors in the downtown district. I hope you have stopped by the summer community markets in the Peoples United Bank (Chittenden) parking lot and patronized some of the vendors. These open-air markets were started by SOM and have had a good response from the community.
Having grown up in North Springfield, I have seen Springfield in times of boom and bust. The "bust" is over and our town is coming back to better times. SOM support is just one way citizens can help in the revitalization process and I urge your "yes" vote next month.
Please cast your vote for town support of Springfield On The Move!
Respectfully,
David King
HELL NO! I won't vote for SOM. Are you kidding me! Biomass coming in polluting the town water system with its leach fields.
ReplyDeleteYou should have been working on the town enacting an ordinance to restrict any building that did not meet a criteria of being asthetically period in appearance. Not one strip mall should have been allowed to go up that didnt match strict period look so that everything was uniform and looked like the old downtown. Second, the work you have done amounts to not a whole lot. It is not rocket science how to go out and attract large businesses with incentives to relocate to springfield. Nope NOT MY MONEY...VOTE NO ON SOM
Springfield On The Move Destroyed my Landlords Building and did absolutly nothing to help Him.
ReplyDeleteGo look at the Foundation to the Building Next to the Park.
WTF?
if you give Springfield On The Move Money.. PLEASE FIX THE FREAKIN PARK.
p.s. as of 3/5/2012 S.O.M. is yet to own up to their mistakes Not even an apology has been made.
My landlord was destroyed by this group. He still can't stop complaining.
SOM has done alot to keep the truth about this from you.
I cannot watch these lies go on and have this happen as a secret.
It isn't fair to my landlord. I want to help him after how good he and his wife have been to my family, year after year.
your landlord deserves citizen of the century awards for how he has endured SOMs attacks.
DeleteSOM, with one hand, has to offer new businesses money to come to town, while they work to ensure existing ones don't succeed with the other hand.
Your landlord did nothing wrong, some of the old women around here want to open up the view of the river, and his building is in their way.
They are desperate to bring life to this town and they think eliminating the riverside buildings might work.
They allowed major engineering mistakes when they built the Comtu Park due to lack of proper decision making. This led to damage at your landlords foundation level.
They not only choose to avoid the correction and conceal the ongoing issue, but rather forced your landlord, and my friend, to spend countless dollars to defend himself and protect his property. He even had to take them to court.
Why doesn't anyone talk about that when they ask you for your vote?
I will tell his story correctly and help you too.
I will not be supporting SOM with any vote and they should not recieve Springfield Town Tax Money
@ raccoon guy.
DeleteYour lanlord is the Poster Child for everything Springfield On The Move has done wrong.
They are not going to apologize.
You should rent a new storage unit and SOM should buy the property from your landlord.
Looking at how important being "on the move" is, they should offer your landlord 10x the assesment value and he should take it and move on.
I wish this town would work together for a change.
David King you are a greater fool than I
ReplyDeleteI just heard about this re-cycled news.
ReplyDeleteMaybe admin can re-post the article
anyone pick up the dead raccon in the comtu park yet?
ReplyDeleteSpringfield on the Dole is just another "pet project" organization that squanders taxpayers' dollars. A classic example is expenditures for a "parking study" for downtown Springfield. They're no different than most of our government apparatus that simply takes money that isn't theirs and redirects it to some worthless and senseless effort. Honestly, who does a traffic study in a ghost town? The answer: Anyone armed with someone else's money to throw away.
ReplyDeleteThe simple fact of the matter is that the downtown businesses should be funding these initiatives themselves. They were the ones that chose to locate their businesses on the main street of a community that is withering away from the combined stupidity of an ineffective government and do-gooders like SOD.
Not another red cent should be appropriated for this band of window dressers. What SOD and the few downtown businesses don't seem to realize or be able to admit is that if you removed the incredibly burdensome tax yoke from around the necks of Springfield's taxpayers, they might actually have a little more discretionary funds available to them to spend in the local economy as they see fit. That way the worthy commercial enterprises will survive and prosper while those that aren't viable and depend on the subsidy of the local government (the free riders) can either modify their business models to become profitable or close their doors.
VOTE NO ON SPRINGFIELD ON THE DOLE.
The parking study was a farce.
DeleteSpringfield On The Move and the Town of Springfield NEVER finished the sidewalk project from a couple of years ago. check out the sidewalks by People's bank.
Add the obvious, new lights and pavement, then finish the sidewalk project to the pre-existing parking lots and you get the recomended result of the survey.
Also, we a pay a parking officer. How come he was unable to count off a stud of his own for free. He has enough chalk.
Oh wait, the parking officer did do his own counting, and he too found the same conclusion at no cost.
Finish the OLD SIDEWALK PROJECT before you ask for any new money, SOM.
You are a twit ....while I do not support SOM the sidewalk project had nothing to do with them. That was earmark money from Leahy and Jeffords unteen years ago to buy votes in Springfield before there was even an SOM. So at least blame them for the right stuff.
DeleteUh... No.
DeleteS.O.M. piggy backed credit for this project
WE ALL can read several articles in which SOM takes credit for supporting the project.
Enough of us know this is true.
Just because someone tries to take credit for something does not mean that actually participated, just means they want people to THINK they amount to something. Get it.
Delete@ City Chick
DeleteNothing is free, these guys are all trading favors.
And we get it all to well.
Their favors, our money.
Springfield lost itself back in 1981 and will never revive unless they focus on big ticket items. Look at Ludlow back in the 60's and 70's, that town towers over Springfield as far as looking to the future goes.
ReplyDeleteHey David, if you and the other downtown property owners each agree to match a $20,000 appropriation to Springfield on the Dole, then perhaps folks would think about supporting it. But if you aren't willing to commit your own resources and instead keep looking to remain "on the dole" and have taxpayers carry you, theN FORGET ABOUT IT!
ReplyDeleteVOTE NO DOLES!!!
Reading the above posts, I don't think any one is going to match $20,000 to Springfield on the Dole.
DeletePerhaps the Town and the property owners can match up directly and cut out SOD.
Perhaps not even with money matched
but the Town could except "voted on qualified reciepts"
Get rid of the middle man SOD
Well, we all voted for S.O.M.
DeleteI hope that sends a clear message as to HOW they should spend their money.
They would not have gotten it without our help
Here is to hoping they remember the Golden Rule
Good bye.
They're doing such a great job, then why is ANOTHER business closing?
ReplyDeleteWhat business is closing?
DeleteI am guessing NOT David King's
DeleteReally, the sidewalks are slated to be improved on Valley Street, did you know DAVID KING owns the Tarro Block on Valley Street? Talk about being on the dole. Springfield on the Move is also located in DAVID KING'S building, the same aforementioned Tarro Block. I guess he likes patting his own back and by the by, HIS Building is slated for the facade to be replaced. ISN'T that TOUCHING?
ReplyDeleteThe parking study must have information in it that David King was privy to, and no one else. He is able to have his employee/maintenance man rent five permitted parking spaces, all under his own name. Other permitted parking spaces are rented, one per customer, a given location, and a specific license, make and model are required. How is it he is able to have five permitted parking spaces when no one else can? I have tenants, they have to buy their own permits for parking. I can't just buy three or two permits for random parking by my tenants. How is this fair? Why does David King have special rights? Is it because he rents to Springfield On The Move and therefore has special rights? What does he know about the new parking plans that other people don't know?
ReplyDeleteI seriously am disgusted.
DeleteIt was SOM that maded this place a "Historic Downtown"
now they are paying to re-facade our historic buildings. David King's building doesn't need any work.
Now SOM wants to re-design and change the exact same thing that they wanted to preserve?
I am heading for Shelburne Vt.
Good luck in Shelburne...
ReplyDeleteHave you been to their web site?
Deleteit says "re-inventing" downtown.
it has also spun the historic downtown program to be just a downtown program. No pride.
Shelburne has a Porsche dealership. This is easy for me. Sorry
thank you, for the good luck call.
I wish you the best of luck too.
I like Woodstock
DeleteI love Vermont also, I moved here, Springfield, from Brattleboro. Best choice I ever made in my life.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWhat are you comparing your experience to?
DeleteHaving been several different places I have seen alot worse than Springfield.
Maybe you, should take a vacation.