The Newfane Selectboard is beginning a series of conversations with planners and others regarding the use of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. These conversations will be a part of the town’s regular Selectboard meetings and all Newfane residents are encouraged to attend via Zoom or in person. (Please note: all those attending in person are required to be masked.)

The Newfane Planning Commission conducted a town-wide survey in the fall of 2021 asking residents to select their top priorities for development. The Commission then worked through the survey findings to summarize six recommendations that reflected the town’s key requests and presented those to the Selectboard. In response to those recommendations, the Selectboard is scheduling a series of conversations with a variety of experts to understand what the next steps would be if we were to implement them.

The schedule is as follows:

On March 21 at 6:00pm we have invited JB Hinds from Birchline Planning and Chris Campany from the Windham Regional Commission (WRC) to discuss how to implement a water/sewer project in the town. These speakers will be responding to two recommendations from the Planning Commission:

• Provide funding for renovating or upgrading septic systems for homeowners who want to create long term housing units in their homes or as accessory dwelling units.
• Implement a water/septic study to assess opportunities or obstacles to economic, business, and housing opportunities.

Juli Beth Hinds is the President of Birchline Planning and is originally from Vermont; her expertise is on water resource management, wastewater and stormwater utility and program development. She has successfully overseen multiple water/sewer projects across the state of Vermont. Chris Campany is Executive Director of the Windham Regional Commission and a former Newfane resident. He will explore how a water/sewer project for Newfane could increase economic opportunities for the town.

On April 4 at 6:00pm we have invited Chris Campany from WRC to return to talk to three Planning Commission recommendations:

• Purchase and/or renovate a building or buildings in Newfane to develop a multi-use center for housing and to promote businesses & provide multi-generational community space.
• Partner with neighboring towns to create a multi-use center providing multi-generational community space and create a shuttle service between Newfane and neighboring towns. This space could include food service, entertainment and recreation such as a skate park, swimming pool or skating rink.
• Support residents’ health by establishing bicycle and walking infrastructure.

Campany will discuss why he suggests that Newfane apply for a Municipal Planning Grant from the State as a way to address these recommendations.

Additionally, the Selectboard has invited planner Maxwell Vandervliet, Associate Principal of Main Street Group and a recently arrived resident to Newfane, to join us. In his professional capacity as a town planner, he has completed a housing analysis for Waterbury, VT. While Waterbury is a very different town from Newfane, the issues they are facing are similar in many ways to ours. The Selectboard thought it would be helpful to understand the research process, how the data is gathered and how the conclusions are drawn. A housing study similar to the one completed for Waterbury is something that can be included in a Municipal Planning Grant, if the town chooses to do so.

On April 18 at 6:00pm we have invited Steven John, Vice Chairman of the Deerfield Valley Communications Union District (DVCUD) governing board and Jane Douglas, Newfane representative to the board. They will talk about the broadband rollout. This is in response to the Planning Commission recommendation:

• Allocate funding for broadband drop costs and possible underground connection costs to residents when not affordable.

The presentations and discussions at each meeting are anticipated to last one hour and there will be time for questions and comments from town residents.