The North Country Career Center and Newport City Downtown Development have embarked on a joint venture to renovate the vacant farmhouse on the corner of East Main and Union Streets.
“The project will begin as soon as my students are settled back into the school routine,” said Jeremy Broe, who is the instructor of the Building Trades program at NCCC. “We’ll start with a review of safety protocols with our second year students and begin setting up scaffolding by the middle of September to replace the roof. “The Building Trades Program Advisory Committee and alumni have been advocating for a return to home building and renovation,” added NCCC Director Gwen Bailey-Rowe. “This project is a return to our roots.”
Project Background
In Spring of 2022, Representative Mike Marcotte, Chair of the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development worked with stakeholders and legislators to creatively address two challenges that have been surfacing in Vermont: one, the lack of affordable housing, and two, supporting young Vermonters to enter a career in the trades.
Representative Marcotte consulted with Gwen Bailey-Rowe, the Director of North Country Career Center to learn whether the CTE center in his district and those around the state would be interested in accessing these funds to create live work for their students. CTE directors worked with Representative Marcotte and a committee to finalize language in Act 183, which passed through the House and the Senate, and was signed by Governor Scott on June 8, 2022.
In Act 183 Sec. 16 Representative Marcotte proposed funding for the “CTE Construction and Rehabilitation Experiential Learning Program and Revolving Loan Fund,” the purposes of which are to:
(1) expand the experiential and educational opportunities for high school and adult CTE students to work directly on construction projects;
(2) build community partnerships among CTE centers, housing organizations, government, and private businesses;
(3) beautify communities and rehabilitate buildings that are underperforming assets;
(4) expand housing access to Vermonters in communities throughout the State; and
(5) improve property values while teaching high school and adult students trade skills
To access funding to purchase the property at 23 East Main St in Newport, Newport City Downtown Development and North Country Career Center applied to the Vermont Community Loan Fund, the administrator of the no-interest loans for career centers in Vermont and their partners.
Will Begonia of the Vermont Community Loan Fund summed up the intention and the results of how this project will ultimately benefit CTE students and cities and towns like Newport, “We recognize the broader challenges Vermont faces. They’re often interconnected. Great jobs, access to housing, younger Vermonters’ ability to make a life here: we can identify the outcomes we want, but the challenge is in how we adapt, evolve and best apply our resources to get there. The new Career Technical Education program, promoting both workforce development and affordable housing, is an innovative approach leading to positive outcomes in both areas. The Loan Fund is glad to help make it happen!”
Since March 2023, NCDD’s Director Rick Ufford-Chase and Bailey-Rowe, along with NCDD’s Board President Sarah Chadburn and Newport resident David Kerr, who brings significant experience as a Design/Builder, have worked with the Vermont Community Loan Fund to close on 23 East Main Street.
On August 7, 2023 former owners Steve Mason and Patricia Sears handed the keys to Ufford-Chase. There were warm handshakes and smiles all around, as longtime Lowell and NCSU school board member and chair (Mason) and former Executive Director of Newport City Renaissance Corporation which now is doing business as Newport City Downtown Development (Sears), agreed that this is a terrific outcome for the family property and the NCCC school community,
Ufford-Chase described the venture as a match made in heaven. “This checks all our boxes as a non-profit community development organization committed to rejuvenating downtown Newport. It’s a visible property that has been tough to develop located on the edge of our downtown. This project is also about preparing the next generation of skilled building trades experts in our community; and it is going to add housing to a community that desperately needs it. Honestly, it doesn’t get any better than this.” NCDD holds title to the property and will manage the finances, while NCCC acts as the General Contractor with the students working and learning with their instructor and sub-contractors. The project will engage the students for at least two years, and is likely to be followed by building other residences on the same property.
The leadership team from NCCC/NCDD is planning for a groundbreaking ceremony on September 29th at 1 pm, to which Governor Scott and other leaders from the State Legislature as well as the Superintendent of Schools have been invited. Members of the press are invited and encouraged to attend.
