Community Events

Public Sewer Meeting
Monday, 7pm
Fairfield Community Center

Learn about the existing conditions in our town regarding sewer and wastewater. Ask questions to clarify next steps!

On Monday, September 19th, Aldrich and Elliot is coming back to present the needs assessment on the Fairfield wastewater. Kevin Camera and Wayne Elliot will be here to educate the community on potential residential and municipal systems on Fairfield Pond, in East Fairfield and Fairfield Center.

Join us to contribute to the discussion on the current status. This discussion needs to happen with residents in the project areas, as well as those who use the municipal services in the project areas (school, community center, library, town clerk, etc)

A&E has done a numbers of studies throughout the state. Part of this study is also to determine funding sources to help pay for a project if we decide to move forward. This study will help to determine what is currently happening and what our choices are. This will then help determine potential costs and funding.

Missisquoi River Basin Association (MRBA) Public Forum

MRBA’s annual public forum will take place at 7 pm. on Thu., Mar. 24 in Montgomery Center (emergency services building on Route 242) with presentations on our 2010 water sampling program and a geomorphic assessment of the Upper Missisquoi River. Hope you can make it.

Cynthia Scott
933-9009

Front Porch Forum

Fairfielders!

Join Your Fairfield Neighbors on Front Porch Forum!

Throughout the Community Visit process, Fairfielders continually commented on how much they enjoyed the quarterly Rec Committee Newsletter. However, we also heard that you wanted more! One of the benefits of being chosen an EVermont Town is the Front Porch Forum. This forum lets you and your neighbors to share comments, announcements, requests for help, and other information with neighbors. FPF can serve as an informal directory of local services (post a message seeking a carpenter), and advertisement of events, and an internal Craig’s List – just to name a few! Join the forum, spread the word, and let’s see if we can connect our community digitally!

Info from the FPF!

Sign up for Fairfield’s e-newsletter today. Hear from your neighbors and post messages yourself. Each town has its own forum… check it out at FrontPorchForum.com. Front Porch Forum is available across 60 Vermont towns, now including Fairfield!

No fees. No spam. Local. Won’t overflow your inbox. Online conversations help neighbors connect and build community.

Sample Messages
• Group rate for fuel oil • Seeking reliable plumber • Break-in report • Free bookcase and table • Childcare available • Keys found • Community supper in the works • School board member responds • Casseroles for sick neighbor

Neighbors Love It
“As a 43-year resident, I believe the forum is one of the best things to happen to bring neighbors together.”
“I sold my car on the forum. And now I know another neighbor!”
“It’s the thing I always read.”
“We asked the neighbors to help us move and 36 people showed up! Incredible! The whole job was done in an hour and a half.”

Already, 20,000 Vermont homes have joined, including half of many rural towns.
Special thanks to the e-Vermont team!

VCRD Task Force

At the “Fairfield Community Meeting” on November 4, over 80 residents worked to consider key priorities for the future of Fairfield. The priorities that residents identified include:

* Advance Community Communications and Coordinate Fairfield Volunteerism
* Implement a School Enrichment Program
* Advance Agriculture Development in Fairfield

Now residents should join Task Forces to help take action on the priorities! On December 15th at 6:30 in the Fairfield School, VCRD will bring a team of facilitators to help each Task Force build a concrete list of action steps and identify the resources—both human and financial—available to support their efforts in each of the priority areas. Everyone in Fairfield is invited to join a task force and come to the meeting. Contact margaret@vtrural.org to add your name to the email list for more information or to join a task force.

See you Wednesday!

***CHILDCARE WILL BE PROVIDED IN THE LIBRARY! PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A DONATION TO THE EIGHTH GRADERS FOR THEIR FIELD TRIP!

Three Great Parent Workshops

Fairfielders!
Great Free Parent Workshops in our area!

Scott Noyes’

POSITIVE DISCIPLINE – That Works!

Workshop for Parents and Providers

Wednesday, November 17^th

6:00-8:00pm

Bakersfield Elementary Middle School

This program is free, preregistration is not required, and professional development is available.

Teaching children how to behave rather than reinforcing inappropriate choices is the focus of this entertaining session.

This energetic workshop on helping children learn appropriate behavior includes:

why not use punishment,
humorous vignettes illustrating eight management techniques, and
discussion of the challenges in implementing the philosophy.

Fairfield Resource Meeting

Come to the next meeting in the Community Visit process on Wednesday, December 15 from 6:30 to 9:00 at the Fairfield Center School. We’ll be looking at these 3 priorities:

- Advance Agricultural Development in Fairfield

- Advance Community Communications and Coordinate Fairfield Volunteerism

- Implement a School Enrichment Program

VCRD will bring a new “Visiting Team” of state, federal, regional and non-profit leaders to Fairfield to develop task force work plans with action steps and resource lists that will help the town move forward.

Now we need your help! Task force groups are being formed to help address these key priorities. Community members who attended the meeting on November 4th had the opportunity to sign up. We hope more members of the Fairfield community will volunteer to join one or more task force groups. No need to sign up in advance of the December 15th meeting — just come and join in. And spread the word by forwarding this email along to others in the community. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend the formation of the task forces at this meeting on December 15th!!

Bridget Howrigan Rivet, Fairfield Community Visit Chair

Paul Costello, VCRD Executive Director

Executive Director

Fairfield Community Meeting

Vermont Council on Rural Development presents:
Fairfield Community Meeting
Thursday, November 4th 2010
6:30-9 pm
Fairfield Center School Gym

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend! Childcare will be available at the library!

This meeting will build ideas, challenges and opportunities presented at the October Community Visit Forums.

Join us and help shape Fairfield’s Future!

Consider Challenges and Opportunities
Discuss and Prioritize them
Vote
And Take Steps Toward Action

This is the second event in the 3 month Community Visit process of building priorities and assessing resources to help Fairfield take action on common goals. VCRD serves as a neutral facilitator. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to come!

For more information about Fairfield’s Community Meeting call Amanda Forbes, Town Clerk @ 827.3261 or VCRD @ 802.223.6091 www.vtrural.org www.vtrural.org

Join the discussion at the Fairfield Community Visit

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

You are Invited…

…to join your neighbors and discuss your vision for Fairfield. A Visiting Resource Team of State, Federal, business, and non-profit leaders will also be on hand to listen to out opportunities and challenges and then help to identify resources later on. The Community Visit Day will be the first step in the process of building priorities and addressing critically important challenges before the community.

A Community Visit is a chance for a town to discuss the challenges, opportunities, and issues they have on the table and learn from the Visiting Resource Team about best practices and opportunities around the state. This first event gives all Fairfield residents the opportunity to add their ideas and concerns to the table.

After October 6th, there will be two more community meetings to narrow down goals and priorities and set action plans to help advance them. The Vermont Council on Rural Development will serve as a neutral facilitator throughout the process.

Attend the sessions most important to you and meet the visiting team at the Community Potluck Dinner!

	*Municipal Building* *(Chester A. Arthur Rm.)*		*The Community Center, East Fairfield*	*Municipal Building* *(The Basement)*
2:30‐4:00 pm	Communications		The Aging Population	Community Integration, Recreation, and Events
4:15‐5:45 pm	Vision for Fairfield’s Future		Engaging Youth	Water, Wastewater, and Infrastructure
6:00‐7:00 pm	- – Community Potluck Dinner – - *Fairfield Center School Gym**Lasagna and beverages will be provided. Please bring a dish to share according to your last name. A-L: veggie side dish, M-O: bread, P-T: salad, U-Z: dessert
	*Municipal Building (Chester A. Arthur Rm.)*	*Bent Northrop Memorial Library, Fairfield School*		*Fairfield Center School Gym*
7:00-8:30 pm	Economic Development	Fairfield School		The Future of Agriculture in Fairfield

For more information about the Fairfield Community Visit contact

Town Clerk Amanda Forbes at 802-827-3261 or VCRD at 802-223-6091.

Produced by the Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD), a non-profit organization supporting the locally-defined progress of Vermont’s rural communities. For more information about the Community Visit process visit vtrural.org/programs/community-programs or call us at 802-223-6091.

David Shultz: September 9

Vermont State Curator David Schutz speaks about one of the nation’s best-preserved historic state capitols. For over 150 years the Vermont State House has served as the center of the state’s political world, and as one of the most-visited statehouses in the country, Schutz will celebrate its 25-year restoration—the subject of his new book, “Intimate Grandeur: Vermont’s State House at 150”, written with Nancy Price Graff and soon to appear early in 2011.

Chester Arthur Room, Fairfield Town Clerk

NRPC Stormwater Workshops

The Unknown Rockwell: Thursday, August 12th at 7pm in the Fairfield Town Clerk Building

James “Buddy” Edgerton presents – The Unknown Rockwell: A Portrait of Two American Families – ABOUT the artist you thought you knew, told by the man who knew him best…

You’ve seen his face a million times; now – for the first time – meet the man who inspired Norman Rockwell: Rockwell’s most illustrated Boy Scout, next door neighbor, and dear friend. Hear stories about Norman Rockwell, the private man, you’ve never heard before from the one man who knew him in a way no one else could – James A. “Buddy” Edgerton. And, for the first time, see an unknown Rockwell portrait that hung on his family’s wall for almost sixty years, a portrait Rockwell gave to the family personally, upon the death of Buddy’s young cousin.

In today’s times of economic hardship and electronic disjointedness in families, we long for core values, even as the pace of our lives pulls us apart. The need and desire to connect is important; but yet somewhere along the way, caught up in our laptops and texts, touch screens and Twitter accounts, we have lost touch with what really matters: Family, community, hard work, and simply sharing face-to-face time with one another.

Authors Buddy Edgerton and Nan O’Brien remind us in their book “The Unknown Rockwell: A Portrait of Two American Families” of the courage that got our country through an incredibly tough time in the past, that of the Great Depression and World War II, and urge us to unpeel the distractions of our current lives so that we are empowered to embrace the challenges of our times instead of being defeated by them. The book resonates with the memories of our own family histories told around the dining room table, when families still gathered to share a meal

The book, told in anecdotal narratives, provides a first person account of two families who were unique because of both their disparity and their similarity. While they came from two economic ends of the spectrum – the Edgertons, poor dairy farmers/the Rockwells, successful due to Norman’s talents – they shared a love of family, a commitment to integrity, and a consideration of one another that created a closeness of friendship that mirrored the physical closeness of their two houses.

Don’t miss this great event on Thursday, August 12th at 7pm in the Fairfield Town Clerk Building. History comes alive through Buddy’s lively and vivid description of the friendship between the Edgerton and Rockwell families. Filled with great anecdotes, Buddy’s presentation also includes unpublished pictures and memorabilia from his private archives.

Mr. Edgerton is a seventh-generation Vermonter from West Arlington and is well-known as the face on millions of Boy Scout calendars illustrated by his neighbor and friend, Norman Rockwell. He also served as the model for the Lone Ranger comic books by Dell Comics. After receiving his Master’s Degree from the University of Vermont, Mr. Edgerton continued to work for the University of Vermont (Extension Service / College of Agriculture) for thirty years as County Agent and Lecturer, retiring as a Professor Emeritus in 1986. Mr. Edgerton was recently honored by Vermont’s Governor Jim Douglas with the proclamation of the James “Buddy’ Edgerton Day.

Nan O’Brien is an author of books, as well as magazine and newspaper articles. She also writes a daily syndicated blog and column for The Tribune Company that is published on the Tribune broadcast and news paper sites including LA Times and Chicago Tribune. Nan hosts her syndicated radio show “The Nan O’Brien Show” Saturday nights. She appears regularly on television shows and radio shows nationwide, and conducts speaking engagements throughout the US.

Join us afterwards for a book signing with the authors! Mark your calendars for Thursday, August 12th at 7pm in the Chester Arthur Room of the Fairfield Town Clerk Building. This program is brought to you by the Bent Northrop Memorial Library. Please contact the library with any questions at 827.3945 or bentnorthrop@gmail.com.

The Fairfield Community Center and The Vermont Arts Council present Storyteller, Stuntman and Magician PETER BURNS: Friday, August 13, at 3 p.m. At The Community Center, East Fairfield

A little history from Peter: “This program is inspired by my childhood in a working class neighborhood in Providence Rhode Island. Unusually for that time, my family had no TV, so we had to amuse ourselves. At home we read aloud, sang songs, told stories and played board games, just as New England families have been doing for hundreds of years. New England is a land of emigrants. Each ethnic group brought their own traditions, so the New England folk tradition is a rich stew of different cultures. Each of my Grandparents came from a different country – Italy, Ireland, England and Russia, and each of them contributed their unique traditions to our family entertainments.”

Peter has collected stories, games, riddles, magic tricks, poems and brain teasers from audiences throughout New England. The hour-long performance combines elements from his childhood, material collected from New England audiences as well as his current storytelling work. Vermonters are a part of a living folk tradition of informal fun and amusement that goes back to the dawn of time.

This highly interactive show features traditional New England family fun, including fantastic folk tales, stupendous stunts, brilliant brain teasers, polite (and not so polite) poems, ridiculous riddles and magnificent magic tricks. Think of Peter as an entertaining guest at a family gathering, leading fun for the whole family. You will learn the folk knowledge that entertained New Englanders before the days of computers and television. The program lasts about an hour, and is designed to be enjoyed by children as young as three and adults of any age. After this show you will be inspired to set up your own family fun time!

The performance is FREE and open to the public. Ice cream will be served afterwards.

River Festival 2010

Please join us!

Sat., August 28, 4-11 pm.

Recreation field

Route 118

Montgomery Center, VT

$5 per person cover charge

Live music – Food – Portage race – Beer tent – and more!

To benefit the Missisquoi River Basin Association (MRBA),

volunteers working for water quality improvement in the Missisquoi River watershed.

MRBA is holding its first annual River Festival, sure to be a fun-filled time for all! Come listen to live music provided by the Missisquoi River Band, Canyonero, Sweet Jayne, and more. Participate in our canoe portage race to be held at 4 pm. – test your skills and knowledge with this primitive mode of travel, race against the clock, get past the obstacles while demonstrating some finesse, and win a prize! Food available from Tosca’s at Trout River Traders, Snowshoe Lodge and Pub, and Montgomery Pizza & Subs. And quench your thirst with beer from RockArt brewery and soda courtesy of Hannaford’s.

MRBA is a group of volunteers working to improve water quality by reducing phosphorus inputs to the Missisquoi River and its tributaries. Planting trees for streambank stabilization, sampling the water for the presence of phosphorus, nitrogen and turbidity, collecting data to assess the condition of our waterways, teaching elementary students about water and bugs through Bugworks, and holding river clean-ups are some of the ways we put our concern into action.

Bent Northrop Memorial Library