2024 was a pretty amazing year for Newport Downtown Development! Here’s a quick summary of all the things we’ve been working on this year. Maybe reading about some of these projects will inspire you to join us as a volunteer.
Our Events Crew, co-led by Colin Matthews and Felicia Updyke, was hard at work throughout the year, starting with the “Winter Saturdays in Newport” dances in January and February culminating with the Winter Festival and Winter Swim, supporting the Tipsy Talks, adding on the new Forage Fest with the Dandelion Run in the spring, and welcoming 20,000 plus visitors who came to experience picture perfect conditions for the Total Eclipse in April (Yup – we all got mooned in Newport, VT). Last summer we supported the Pride Parade, Weds on the Waterfront and the Food Trucks on Main, and the Memphremagog Festival/Kingdom Swim. As usual, we partnered with the City Rec Dept for the Fall Festival and Pumpkin Palooza, and added Newport Daily Express and Goodrich Library as partners for the first ever “Hometown Holidays” series in December. Phew!
Our primary beautification effort was led by Amanda Bauscher, who worked with the Advanced Art class students from the High School to design a dozen sculptures that are almost ready to be mounted. You will definitely see those downtown by early spring. Also this year, Stan Chop created an energetic “Trees Committee” that has generated a Request for Proposals to design a new treescape for downtown Newport and Gardner Park. Stay tuned for news about that throughout 2025.
Dave Laforce and the Economic Development Task Force, along with critical help offered by our volunteer ED coordinator Brian Gray, met twice a month all year long in order to learn everything we could about long-term economic development strategies. Empowered by an MOU with the City Council, that group oversaw the creation of the Detailed Master Plan, unanimously approved by the Council in December, to guide the long-term development of Newport’s Downtown over the coming decade. That work continues into 2025 as the team moves on to explore strategies for public infrastructure development to enable the ambitious plans we’ve laid out.
The Housing Team, led by co-chairs Dr. Umair Malik and Andrea Carbine, met monthly beginning in July to try to get a handle on the housing shortage that Newport is facing. The group brought in experts with experience from sister communities, and they also have agreed to continue to meet as we start the New Year. There are several new efforts to rehab and build housing that have grown directly out of that committee’s work.
Along the way, we supported ten partners in the Newport Outdoor Recreation Collaborative as they took on ambitious projects funded by a $200,000 VOREC grant we received in 2024. NDD continued to support the “Live” learning project with NCC Building Trades students on the corner of E Main and Union. This year we contracted with Lynn Rublee as a part-time coordinator to help give birth to the new CanUSA 360 Arts Collaborative – an effort to create a vibrant, international micro-region for the arts.
A year ago, our Board recognized that we needed to create a far more comprehensive communications strategy. The Comms Team, led by Emily Smartt, has overseen the redevelopment of our website (to roll out later this month), energized our social media strategy, and created these weekly updates in the Newport Daily Express and twice a month “Newport Connects” videos in partnership with NEKTV. Felicia Updyke, who joined our staff as a full-time Associate Director in August, has her fingerprints everywhere in the organization, but she is the primary energy behind our much more vibrant social media presence!
Our Board of Directors, led by Sarah Chadburn from Community National Bank, held an annual retreat in December and is planning an equally ambitious 2025. We know that we can’t do any of it without the remarkable energy, passion and gumption – the drive to just gut it out and make it happen – evidenced by nearly 100 active volunteers. Finally, all of this is possible because of the strong support we receive from The Pomerleau Foundation and our Lead Sponsors: Galvion, Community National Bank, Built By Newport, The Work Commons, Orion Global Talent, Spates Family LLC, Passumpsic Bank, Blue Spruce Healthcare, Green Mountain Natural Foods, Century 21 Farm and Forest, and Pick and Shovel.
Thanks for a great year, Newport!