Happy Mother’s Day, everyone! I moved to Pownal in 2006 and one of my first experiences here was participating in the Vermont Council on Rural Development’s community visit at the American Legion. VCRD is a nonprofit that works with rural VT communities to develop goals for community and economic development. I was excited to engage with so many of my neighbors and talk about Pownal’s future at these events. Here’s a report that came from that community visit: http://vtrural.org/sites/default/files/content/reports/community%20visits/Pownal_community_v[...]pdf
Some good projects developed from these meetings (a map of Pownal, my neighbor Ray Rodrigues' Pownal wiki site, improved broadband coverage, and more).

When I heard about a new climate economy project from the Vermont Council on Rural Development, I talked with the Pownal Planning Commission, Pownal Select Board and Representative Botzow about applying. We put together a grant application and the Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) chose Pownal as the first community. The name of our project will be Empower Pownal. This project will be led by the Pownal community and everyone is invited to attend the community kick-off at the American Legion on Saturday, June 24th. We’ll start with a community lunch at 11:30, then VCRD will facilitate community discussions from 1:00-5:30 on the following topics:

- Home Energy Efficiency
- Local Agriculture and Forestry
- Small Business Development
- Getting Around Pownal and Connecting to Other Communities
- Recreation, Trails, Health and Wellness
- Local Grid Resilience and Residential Renewable Energy

Efficiency VT and Green Mountain Power are partnering with VCRD on the home and small business energy piece, but this project is not about bringing any industrial scale wind or solar projects to Pownal. It’s a great opportunity for us to share our ideas and learn about more resources for our town. I hope you all can come and join in the discussion.