WILMINGTON- Nearly 50 valley residents turned out to participate in a meeting regarding the community’s economic future Saturday morning.

John Mullin, dean of the graduate school at UMass Amherst and president of Mullin & Associates economic development specialists, and the Tri-town Economic Development Committee offered a brief presentation of their draft economic development plan. The plan, and the supporting data, available at www.wilmingtonvermont.us or www.visitvermont.com, includes a detailed analysis of the valley’s current economic situation, and offers a step-by-step program to improve the valley’s economy. Mullin confirmed what many residents suspect, that the valley’s economy is headed for a period of decline. “If the towns do nothing, it’s likely they will stagnate and move into a period of decline,” he said. “Each time there’s a recession the area will recover, but not to the previous level. It will be a gentle decline, you won’t even know it’s happening. But you will be earning far less than your peers.”

According to data contained in the report, Deerfield Valley wages are already substantially lower than other areas in southern Vermont.

But Mullin said the valley had a number of unique attributes, from its unspoiled beauty to the creativity and work ethic of the residents. The plan offers several economic development goals that Mullin said would accomplish the vision valley residents expressed in four forums last year. “If you embrace the recommendations, you will accomplish your vision of stimulating the creation of well-paying jobs, quality of life, protecting the environment, and providing economic opportunity for your children.”

Tri-town Economic Development Committee member Jeff Lewis, executive director of Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, spoke about the need to take advantage of the “Vermont brand.” Although it may come as news to those who live here, Vermont has a reputation for quality, purity, and character, Lewis said. He noted that a yogurt company was currently considering the construction of a $30 million plant in southern Vermont to take advantage of the marketing advantage Vermont products have. “They can put ‘made in Vermont’ on the carton, and that sells,” he said.

“When Kelly (Pawlak, Mount Snow General Manager) skis in other places and says she’s from Vermont, that means something to people,” Lewis said, gesturing to Pawlak. “That is power, and it’s worth something.”

Lewis also told valley residents that their regional approach to economic development was groundbreaking and forward-looking. “When we talk to people in Montpelier and other parts of the state and mention that the two towns are engaged in long-term economic development planning, eyebrows go up,” he said. “Town boundaries in Vermont tend to be sacred.”

Local resident Alan Greenspan, a business counselor with the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) described the plan and the meeting as “a wonderful thing. I wish there were as many people here as attended the Australian ballot meeting.”

Greenspan noted that the economic development plan didn’t address the impact of taxation on the community, and suggested that no economic gains could be realized without a change in taxation, including property and sales tax. “Vermont has the highest per-capita tax in the U.S., and our legislators don’t seem to be able to do anything about it,” he said. “We’re still considered a gold town.”

But committee members said they intentionally focused on things that were under local control – things that people in the valley could accomplish without seeking a wholesale change in Montpelier. “I’m approaching this with the idea that nothing is going to change with the state, and we have to do something to get control of our destiny,” said Bob Rusten. “We have to focus on the things we have control over.”

Representative Ann Manwaring suggested that, although local residents are burdened by taxes, they should seize the opportunity to capitalize on the “Vermont” their taxes purchase. “The burden of taxes is real and it is painful, but we have to turn it around and not just talk about the tax, but about what it is buying. Our taxes are buying the best education in the country and the healthiest population in the country,” Manwaring said, referring to recent statistics showing Vermont leading the nation in education and health. “Taxes are buying part of this ‘Vermont cachet.’”

Dick Joyce said obtaining state permits was one of the major obstacles to economic growth in the area. “If someone wants to build a facility in the area, they’re going to get bogged down in state permitting,” he said. “How do we get beyond the state on these things?”

Mullin said one of the recommendations in the report was to see what could be done about “fast-tracking” certain types of low-impact development. He said the towns need to look at “fast-tracking” low-impact development to get permitting within 150 days – the average in the rest of New England.

But Eithne Eldred said the challenges of obtaining state permits wasn’t an excuse for doing nothing. “It’s not a reason to be stagnant,” she said. “There are existing things that can move forward that don’t need permitting. It’s a good idea to progress rather than stay where we are.”

One of the chief recommendations in the plan is that the communities hire a planner who would work to implement the goals of the plan. One of the planner’s duties would be to seek grants. “It’s the idea of investing versus spending,” Rusten said. “One of the planners we talked to for this study brought in a million dollars in grants.”

Committee member Bruce Mullen said Wilmington and Dover selectboards have already started to talk about the cost of hiring a planner. “Hopefully, this position could more than pay for itself,” Mullen said.

Wilmington resident Fred Skwirut urged the committee and the towns to “move forward aggressively.” He said hiring a professional planner was a key to successful grant implementation. Noting that he had been part of a volunteer effort to identify grants for the town of Wilmington, Skwirut said it was possible to get grants without a dedicated grant writer, but managing them was a different story. “The problem is what do you do once you get the grant,” Skwirut said. “Nobody working on a volunteer basis has the time to pursue that.”

“We found that there is an immense amount of volunteerism in the valley,” Mullin agreed. “But there are limits. The grant writer also has to be a doer. What we’re talking about is not just someone who gets the grant, but someone who knows how to work with it.”

Chuck Clerici, who worked with Skwirut on the grant committee, said he has written $45,000 in grants for the town, and was working on another $55,000 in grants. He agreed that a full-time planner could be an investment for the towns. “If a good planner’s salary is $60,000, I think we can get that money back in a short amount of time.”

Mullin said Lenox, MA hired a planner and broke even in the first year. “By the third year, they had $300,000 in grants coming in.”

Sarah Shippee said the most important thing, from her experience with similar efforts, was what will the towns actually do. “If nothing happens within 90 days, this is a failure,” she said, of the economic development effort. “There has to be some kind of action.”