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Business accelerator plan generates praise Rutland Herald | January 03, 2018 By SUSAN SMALLHEER STAFF WRITER Caroline Cannon of the Center on Rural Innovation and Bob Flint of Springfield Regional Development Corp. give Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., center, a tour of the former Park Street School in Springfield. SUSAN SMALLHEER / STAFF PHOTO Caroline Cannon of the Center on Rural Innovation and Bob Flint of Springfield Regional Development Corp. give Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., center, a tour of the former Park Street School in Springfield. SUSAN SMALLHEER / STAFF PHOTO SPRINGFIELD — An innovative plan to convert the former Park Street School into a digital-oriented high-tech business accelerator won praise Tuesday from Vermont’s sole congressman. The plan, the brainchild of Matt Dunne, a former Windsor County state senator, would redevelop the former school building, which has been both Springfield’s high school until the late 1960s, and an elementary school until six years ago. One of the major motivating factors for the project is the “blazing fast” internet offered in Springfield by Vermont Telephone Co., or Vtel, which is headquartered in Springfield. Dunne, who works for the Center on Rural Innovation, and the Springfield Regional Development Corp. have a purchase agreement with the Springfield schools. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., was given a tour of the building Tuesday by the project’s key players. “The gigabit is a great thing to rally around,” said Caroline Cannon, who works with Dunne on the project. Bob Flint, executive director of SRDC, cautioned the project was far from a definite thing. But he said he and Dunne had met with people interested in the project on the day after Christmas. If anything, Flint told Welch, it has brought more new and innovative developers to Springfield than in the past several years. “ Matt would say he doesn’t want to over-promise,” Flint cautioned. “It’s not real yet.” Welch, a longtime Windsor County state senator before being elected to Congress, said it may have been the first time he was in Park Street School, and he was impressed with what he saw. “I’m inspired,” he said. “This is really exciting.” Cannon, who works for Dunne’s organization, explained the project for Welch during a tour of the historic old school building, which still houses administrative offices of the Springfield school system. Cannon said portions of the building could be converted to a combination work/living space, and the auditorium could be used for a streaming-friendly performance space. “We started with a kernel,” she said. “And the kernel is a full-fledged thing.” Cannon said the group already has attracted between $ 400,000 and $450,000 from foundations and nonprofit groups to study the concept, and architects so far have come away impressed with the building itself. She said Springfield recently had become the first school district in the state to require computer coding education as a graduation requirement. Cannon said there was the “potential to create something really strong,” not just for Springfield, but the region. While the building needs upgrades, she said, it is structurally sound and has many impressive historic features.
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RE: The plan, the brainchild of Matt Dunne,.......
ReplyDeleteThat in and of itself tells the reader everything they need to know. The twin state valley area and particularly Springfield is awash in vacant, professional, office space. Most priced absurdity cheap relative to the Burlington and Hanover-Leb areas. With more available space added to local inventory year after year. And what do these two morons, (Dunn and Flint) see as a solution? Let's spend a shedload of money to add even more inventory!
What these idiots should be doing is promoting awareness of why prosperous, high tech businesses refuse to locate here and then, address those issues.
At least someone around here is doing SOMETHING to solve the problems. I've been here over three years now, and I haven't seen ANYTHING that I would call high-tech office space; just a few crumbling old factories and empty storefronts downtown. (Unless the laptop in cousin Bubba's garage counts!) Some people around here remind me of the "Pickers" TV show; they think the rusted crap in their yard is worth a fortune, but nobody's buying it. Once this town is cleaned up, (starting with downtown) tech businesses will come here, but not likely before!
ReplyDeleteBoth comments above are on target. We need to shed ourselves of old, tired, representatives (at all levels) and let the bulldozers roll over the old, tire infrastructure. Park Street school should be gone along with many other structures in town. I'm thinking high tech will want something newer than a building from the 1800's to call home.
ReplyDeleteI do not see anything tangible in the article to explain what would be created? This sounds like vapor ware to me. What the heck is a "business accelerator" .. and "streaming-friendly performance space." .. as i read further i was expecting someone to say they wanted to create a bitcoin server mining farm.
ReplyDeleteVermont has to stop raping every business that tries to move there. It is considered the worst state to run a business in.
ReplyDeleteThat would depend on who you ask. I looked up Vermont's ranking on several business websites. NONE of them ranked Vermont the worst, although it did rank low on a couple of them. New Hampshire was ranked one of the best on one, and one of the worst on another! So were several other states, which leads me to believe it's all a matter of opinion, anyway. One reason for Vermont getting a low rating was lack of available employees; more populous states tended to do better. I lived in Florida (one of the higher ranked states) and most of the business owners I knew were struggling. The biggest complaints? High taxes, fees, and complex regulations; not at the Federal level, but at the state and local level, where the GOP dominated! So, the Democrats aren't the only ones making things tough for businesses, the GOP is equally adept at screwing things up!
Deletehttp://www.ronhorton.info/business-incentive-plans.html
DeleteUmm, yeah. Another politician with "bright ideas." A Vermont state airline? "Assistance provided by seniors?" WOW! Spending insane amounts of money and socking people on fixed incomes with the bill is a non-starter! Sounds like a wish list to me. Ron Horton's opinion is worthless on this one; I looked at ACTUAL business organizations, not some guy looking to make a fast buck off me!
DeleteWhat's the significance of the fact that corporate tax revenues in Vermont are only one-third of household income tax revenues? And what's significant about the fact that while you can see what tax breaks households in the several income categories get, you can find NOTHING about how corporate gross, adjusted gross, state adjusted gross, etc. income plays out?
ReplyDeleteI'd say Vermont is a VERY "business-friendly" state if it considers, unlike Citizens United, corporations to be better than just "people."
I doubt many, if any, of those espousing the consevative point of view know ANYTHING about tax structure, or what businesses actually look for in a location. It's all just the same knee-jerk, talk radio repetition about "Big Gum-mint." Some of the most highly taxed, heavily regulated states are also meccas for business!
DeleteOh,7:41, I don't know.
DeleteGovernment has been VERY "business-friendly" to Wall Street, and Wall Street as a direct result loves it very much and has prospered enormously!
Could someone tell me again what happened in 2008 in that "business-friendly" situation? I get confused.....
Hot air and posturing don't get the job done. The cheerleaders have been cheering their decades of perpetual failures. Like Springfield on the Dole, they scam the taxpayers with catchy names and phrases in hopes that they can slide by for another period of time without producing any significant results.
ReplyDelete