Starksboro, Vermont Turns to Middlebury College in Bid to Guide Change Thanks to the Orton Family Foundation and the Vermont Land Trust

Old-timers in this hill town remember when a car driving through at night would draw residents to their windows. Now headlights routinely gleam on the narrow roads well past dark, as people who commute to jobs in Burlington and Montpelier come home to a place where the prospect of change looms larger each year.

Starksboro asked students from nearby Middlebury College http://www.middlebury.edu/ to spend the semester interviewing its residents to document what they value most about the place. It intends to use their thoughts to influence decisions about its future.

Along with the Orton Family Foundation http://www.orton.org/ and the Vermont Land Trust http://www.vlt.org/ — two nonprofit groups that are giving Starksboro up to $25,000 to engage residents in conversations about the town’s future — Middlebury is hoping the collaboration could be a model for planning in rural towns around the country.

By ABBY GOODNOUGH

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/us/04middlebury.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&th&emc=th

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(Thanks to Sabrina Matteson – Director, Rural Affairs, American Farm Bureau Federation® http://www.fb.org for passing this along. Russ)