To The Editor:
After only a dozen years here, my wife and I are moving out of The Valley pretty soon. I wanted to say a couple things in The Valley Reporter.
First, we are so glad you are here providing good local news about the unique Mad River Valley community. The local news business is a major task – balancing viewpoints, getting to the bottom of things which is every bit as hard as covering national news, operating on a shoestring. You do a great job.
Second, The Valley is so lucky to have engaged local organizations and leadership in the form of the Rotary (raising funds for local projects such as families in need, child care, and our seniors), the Friends of the Mad River (so ably led for 30 years by Kinny Perot and others on the board and staff), and the Mad River Path (helping residents and visitors get into The Valley's great outdoors).
Further, local businesses and the Mad River Valley Chamber of Commerce have always, including recently, raised awareness of how we benefit from special places like Bisbee's Hardware, Mehuron's, the Taste Place, The Warren Store, and Lawson's. Despite my own challenge to Sugarbush's snowmaking plan as originally conceived several decades ago, I recognize that the company has done great things in the past 20-30 years and is an important mainstay of the state's economy and ski industry, as is Mad River Glen. Thanks to Win Smith and the late Betsy Pratt for their vision.
The faith institutions, particularly the Waitsfield United Church under Mark Wilson's leadership, do energetic work for all of us. There are citizens out there who never stop working on everyone's behalf, such as Charlie Hosford, always out building, maintaining, restoring. Many of the political leaders give everything they have; in the context of this letter I don't want to distract by naming particular select board members and legislators. They all work hard and care lots.
I could go on and on and I am tempted to. This is a really beautiful area with some great people and many unique features. When I first came through 45-plus years ago, I knew it would be a beautiful and wonderful place to live, and that assessment proved correct. Hope it will remain prosperous, comfortable, and engaged despite the challenges ahead and the inevitable concerns and complaints that every resident could harbor in any place on earth. Retirement, and costs, take me elsewhere, with The Valley forever in my heart.
Ned Farquhar
Waitsfield
