Around Town with the Town Manager

Colchester Heritage Project

A major event or “happening” is about to occur which will affect the future of Colchester for
years to come. This column is a “call to action” – for your insight on how to secure Colchester’s
future. It is time for all citizens to voice their vision for this town.

The Heritage Steering Committee has established two dates for townspeople to gather to discuss
and formulate a vision for Colchester.

• The first meeting will be held at the Colchester High School on Thursday, December 2
with registration beginning at 6:30 PM and the forum beginning at 7:00 PM and lasting
until 9:00 PM.
• The second meeting, identical to the first, will be held at the Elley-Long Music Center,
Ethan Allen Avenue, Fort Ethan Allen, on Saturday, December 4th with registration
beginning at 9:30 AM and the forum beginning at 10:00 AM and lasting until Noon.

How is a vision formulated? To create and maintain a sustainable town the citizens need to
identify the community’s needs for education, social equity, the environment and the economy
(the four “e’s”). As of 2006, this community was composed of 17,180 people of whom 8,485 are
male and 8,843 are female. Their median age is 32.6 years. These people compose 6,144
households and 4,184 families. The median household income was $51,429 and the median
family income was $58,358. There are approximately 2,200 children enrolled as K-12 students.

To get real, this vision is looking out ten (10) years. Theoretically, if nobody moves in or out of
Colchester during the next ten years and no children are born by 2021 the median age of will
advance to 42.6 years. Today’s kindergartners will be 16 years old and high school seniors will
be 28 years old – and no longer able to be a dependent on a parent’s health insurance and seeing
their parents “as over the hill”.

That “theoretical” has no possibility because during the next ten years children will be born,
people will die, some citizens will leave and other people will move to Colchester. But for those
people who see Colchester as being a part of the continuity of their lives they have the
responsibility to attend one of these community forums to set the stage for the Town’s future.
The task is to envision what today’s children will need to stay in the community in order to lead
productive lives and what will tomorrow’s “over the hill” adults need to remain fruitful and
happy in Colchester. For those of us who are two times the median age we know ten years is not
a long time. It will be here too soon.

What are today’s problems? They consist of issues involving environmental quality, waste water
and water consumption, affordable housing, community health, public safety, employment
opportunities, broadband communications, and transportation and very limited taxability to
address each of these problems adequately unless we prioritize our efforts and energies through
visioning.
These considerations are not easy because of Colchester’s historical evolution that fostered the
creation of a number of separate and not necessarily equal neighborhoods. Those neighborhoods
have created and are served by five retail water enterprises, one very small waste water system,
and two fire companies. Looking at the task of designing a community for the future, people
need to assess if Colchester as one community can be greater than the sum of its individual
neighborhoods.

The Heritage Steering Committee is looking for several hundred people from all parts of town to
attend one of these two meetings. It is your future that includes personal as well as community
sustainable wellbeing in a time of threatening global and national change. Please go
immediately go to your i-pods, PDA’s, wall calendars and enter Town Vision Forum, Dec. 2,
Colchester High School, 6:30 PM or Town Vision Forum, Dec. 4, Elley-Long Music Center,
Fort Ethan Allen, 9:30 AM. The future of Colchester is in your hands. Don’t neglect this
responsibility to yourself and your fellow citizens. The town needs your vision.

Al Voegele
Town Manager