2008 Annual Report Executive Summary

Northeast Kingdom REAP Zone

2008 was certainly a year for change in the Northeast Kingdom REAP Zone, notably to the REAP Zone leadership; REAP responsibilities, and a unified commitment by partners to move in a new direction. The Northeast Kingdom Collaborative, under new leadership and formerly responsible for most REAP Zone activities, will continue updating and implementing the required strategic work plan, a process currently under way.

The Collaborative partners, with many new members, have committed to focus their efforts on economic development within the region. The Northeastern Vermont Development Association, the regional planning commission, is now responsible for the required REAP Zone benchmarking and reporting activities. Last, but certainly not least, Lyndon State College is leading the effort to update and improve the Collaborative website to make it a better information and communications tool. Combined, all of these changes will hopefully lead to greater REAP Zone successes over the coming years.

The Northeast Kingdom Collaborative was formed over a decade ago to encourage the exchange of information, ideas, and opportunities to improve the quality of life in the local region. The Collaborative has done this through conversations about strategic planning and community action at public informational forums in the three rural counties in northeast corner of Vermont. Partners working together to implement Collaborative strategies have been able to stimulate millions of dollars in federal, state, private, and non-profit investment in the region. Collaborative strategies will continue to address regional and local priorities, but what the Collaborative does best is provide a neutral ground for the exploration, expansion, and leveraging of ideas and resources. Importantly, the Collaborative is moving forward under new leadership with a reinvigorated focus on coordinated economic development planning and implementation.

The Northeastern Vermont Development Association (NVDA), the combined regional planning commission and development authority for Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom region, applied for and received USDA funding to assume the benchmarking and reporting activities formerly handled by the Collaborative. NVDA, with its intimate knowledge of planning and development activities occurring within the REAP Zone area, was a good fit to assume these tasks and will do so until the REAP designation expires Sept. 30, 2012. NVDA intends to incorporate REAP Zone responsibilities into its normal functions.

LSC Lyndon State College, the region’s pre-eminent four-year institution for higher learning, is actively working to strengthen its regional presence to improve local communities, businesses, and the region’s workforce. Through the college’s department of Digital Media, the Collaborative website will be updated to provide the tools needed to meet the goals and objectives of the Collaborative.

Best Practice
The Collaborative’s plan is to host another series of public forums/workshops around the region on topics such as telecommunications, tourism, municipal infrastructure, education, economic development, housing and others. This will be extremely valuable for updating the strategic work plan and setting goals, objectives, and strategies for the region over the next few years.

Plans/Prospects for the Future
An updated strategic work plan for the Collaborative that will link (and hopefully, unify) the work plans of the Collaborative’s member organizations. There is currently significant interest and planning to develop the regional workforce to take advantage of new opportunities in the region. It is expected that some of the renewable energy projects being planned for the region will be up and running. These include wind, hydro-electric, and biomass facilities. With the expectation of federal stimulus funds coming to states, there is an expectation that local infrastructure will be upgraded or created.