Here at The Hardwick Gazette, we are so very grateful to the more than 300 of our readers who have contributed a total of more than $50,000 in matching funds and funds to match them during our end-of-year fund drive.
In reaching for a seemingly impossible fundraising goal, and now being close to reaching it thanks to a community that values the work we’ve done over the last two years, we find ourselves well on the way to achieving it.
We’re less than $10,000 from meeting our goal.
In that same vein, and continuing a tradition for The Hardwick Gazette, we’ve compiled a list of aspirational goals for the New Year.
For Opie, I wish funding for a new sewage treatment plant well above the flood plain.
I wish for Kristen Leahy smooth sailing with the remaining buyouts of properties hit by recurrent flooding, improvements to town infrastructure and enough new floodplain for Cooper Brook and the Lamoille River that future flooding becomes less damaging.
May Hardwick Police Chief Michael Henry get upgrades to the emergency services repeater that will allow clear communication between dispatchers and police patrols throughout the area.
I wish for Shari Cornish, Tracy Martin and the Hardwick Downtown Partnership, a new Main Street retaining wall and pedestrian bridge, along with a long-term plan for safety measures that make walking and driving safer on Wolcott and S. Main Streets.
For the Greensboro Select Board, I wish a crew of volunteers find the missing community vision to rehabilitate the former high school, now the town hall, in a way that meets the future needs of the community.
And may that town find a workable solution to managing wastewater in both villages and developing housing for the many employees in town who must find housing elsewhere.
May the evaluation of small rural schools’ value include more than the direct costs of education, valuing their economic and social impact on their communities too.
For Craftsbury, I wish the elementary, high school and Sterling College remain in a way that continues to benefit community life in its unique way.
I hope for Lakeview School, that the current collaboration between Head Start and the public school system thrives.
May the state of Vermont find the will to solve the problem of medical costs that are rising faster than inflation, affecting education and general human affordability.
As the state takes steps to make it easier for new homes to be developed in cities and towns throughout the state, may those responsible for implementing the Act 181 revisions to Act 250 not impose more onerous restrictions than Act 250 had already imposed on Tier 3 lands.
While Stannard seems to be flying well below the radar of Vermont’s Open Meeting laws, I wish select board meeting minutes and recordings would become publicly available.
I wish Vermont residents would allow beavers to do their jobs, by damming upland streams to disperse increasingly heavy rainfall before it devastates the many stream and riverside towns.
For the federal government, I wish for the realization that citizen well-being is at the core of having a thriving nation, leading to tax measures that begin to close the income inequality gap.
I wish for the former Hardwick Gazette and Civic Standard building on S. Main Street, an organization or individual to rehabilitate it before it washes down the Lamoille River, or succumbs to the wrecking ball, allowing it to support the town’s civic life as it has for more than 100 years.
And finally, I wish for The Hardwick Gazette, a sustainable future with reporters and community journalists allowing us to cover every school and select board meeting in our 11 towns in a timely way.
Paul Fixx, editor
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
