Business View Civil and Municipal | February 2021

89 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL FEBRUARY 2021 286 Route 7 South, Rutland 802-747-5000 92 Woodstock Ave, Rutland 802-747-6984 CBMuni@cbna.com 802-773-4627 cbna.com Working together to make life better. We deliver the industry experience and knowledge necessary to work with cities, towns, villages, and school districts of all shapes and sizes. RUTLAND , VERMONT city because they sit on the western edge of the Green Mountains in close proximity to some of the best skiing and winter sports in the New England area. Cyclists, and hikers are drawn from far and wide to test the trails and boaters are smitten with the beautiful lakes. Duffy hopes that the current COVID-19 pandemic will help spur some population growth, as people realize the places they love to visit aren’t out of reach as a place to call home, especially when employees of so many knowledge-based companies are now working remotely. He notes, “If that COVID-mandated trend keeps up they can bring their work with them and live in a place they enjoy. The state of Vermont is well positioned; we’ve had a very low number of cases of COVID here, much lower than in other states around us and in other parts of the country. So I think that will resonate... and as a small community with a great quality of life and quality of place, we will start to see the benefits of that remote worker migration here in the near future.” Housing prices in Rutland are affordable and inventory is abundant with Realtor.com placing the median home price at only $150,000. The municipality has worked hard in recent years to perk up neighborhoods with a program tailored to homeowners. They purchased rundown and vacant homes, rehabilitated them, and sold them to residents at affordable prices. All of those homes and neighbourhoods are now thriving. The municipality has also worked hard to become a more business- friendly location by creating many incentive programs to make it easier for businesses both small and large to thrive. Tax stabilization programs were established at the municipal level that would work for people making an investment in a commercial property, whether that’s as a real estate investment property or investing in machinery and equipment for their personal property. One of the more innovative programs for vacant and blighted commercial properties that are about to be purchased with a