Windsor
Marsh and Selectboard Chairman Rich Thomas met with prison employees and officials from the state departments of corrections, labor, and buildings and general services to begin a discussion on how the Southeast State Correctional facility on County Road might be repurposed once it closes at the end of October.
When the Legislature voted earlier this year to close the prison as part of a cost-saving effort, Marsh said, it also wanted a report with a plan for reuse. That report must consider transitional housing, but also can consider any other ideas, Marsh said.
“We need to advocate for reuse but also a process that will pay for whatever that use will be,” Marsh told the Selectboard. “I think there was sincere interest in doing something good, but nobody in that room could make a decision to spend money. We need to make it clear this facility is a priority.”
Marsh told the board he is concerned that whatever ideas end up before the Legislature, there will be a lot of “hand-wringing” about spending money and nothing will get done in the next session.
“Our point was they can’t walk away and let it hang in limbo,” Marsh said.
In addition to transitional housing, some of the ideas for reuse were educational programs related to workforce training, from basic to advance skills and internships, or some sort of agricultural use that takes full advantage of the several hundred acres of fields and forest that surround the prison buildings.
With a new $2 million water tank, greenhouses, a solar array for prison use and water infrastructure, Marsh said all lawmakers, not just those from Windsor County, should have an interest in seeing the property be reused rather than letting that investment just sit there.
Resident John MacGovern told the board he views the closing of the prison as a golden opportunity for Windsor — if it is handled right.
“We as a town can change the direction of that place and change the image of Windsor,” MacGovern said.
The plan for a “halfway house,” or transitional housing, needs to be “strangled” and Windsor should set its sights a lot higher, MacGovern said. He strongly suggested looking into becoming an extension of the University of Vermont’s agricultural school, which might draw out-of-state tuition dollars from Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
“We would go from housing inmates to housing students,” MacGovern said. “The state will look at what Windsor says. We can have an effect. If Windsor wants that kind of thing, it could happen.”
The board said it wants to meet with area legislators and make it clear they don’t want a planned reuse proposal to languish in Montpelier. There will be additional meetings with state officials and the report is expected to be completed by late November or early December, ahead of the next legislative session.
“The Legislature will take it under advisement. The Legislature is where all the dirty work will get done,” Marsh said.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
