50 Big Rich Town

[Micol Cohn]

ArtWoolf is a columnist for VTDigger. Woolf recently retired as an associate professor of economics at the University of Vermont. He served for three years as state economist for Gov. Madeleine Kunin beginning in 1988.

Chittenden County is home to eight of the 11 highest income towns in the state. Charlotte ranks just behind Shelburne, with a median family income of $126,000. Ten towns have median incomes of over $100,000, and all of them are in Chittenden County except for Norwich, Stowe and Stratton, and Stratton is a tiny town with only 63 families.

There are other pockets of relatively high-income towns, including in Addison County around Middlebury. Waltham, Weybridge and Cornwall all have family incomes of about $95,000 and Middlebury itself is $85,000.

Another high-income area is the Mad River Valley, with Fayston, Duxbury, Moretown and Waitsfield having incomes of around $90,000. And nearby Waterbury, although not in the valley, has a similar median income.

There is no magic bullet to raise the incomes of people in lower income towns, or, by that matter, to raise the incomes of low-income families in high-income towns. More job opportunities, better education and skill training for workers, and a more fertile environment for businesses and entrepreneurs to flourish are all important and widely recognized as such. But they are very hard to design and implement.

Another way to improve incomes for people is for those people to move to where incomes are higher and there are more opportunities. That seems to be happening in Vermont, and not just for low income Vermonters.

I hope this article was valuable to you. Before you leave, I want to ask you to support fair, open and independent news for Vermont. This election year, voters and communities are particularly vulnerable to polarization and misinformation. But trusted local news sources like VTDigger are the bulwarks of democracy.

Under Supervisor Schaffer's leadership, Quality of Life is Job #1 for the Town of Babylon. The Town's Quality of Life Task Force has resulted in a crackdown on businesses, homes and landlords that do not follow the Town Code. Other critical functions of the Task Force include eradicating abandoned homes and illegal activities such as drug use and alcohol sales to minors, as well as identifying and keeping tabs on sex offenders.

Supervisor Schaffer is also committed to protect taxpayers through fiscally responsible management. When Supervisor Schaffer was first elected, the Town of Babylon had the lowest bond rating on Long Island. Thanks to responsible leadership, Babylon recently earned its first AAA rating from Moody's Investment Services, the highest rating offered.

The foundation for the Town's turnaround was Supervisor Schaffer's efforts to create a commercial garbage district for the town. This initiative saved tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, eliminated corruption by garbage cartels, and created a revenue stream to invest into critical long-term projects. These include major overhauls in town parks and a focus in transit-oriented development.

The Town of Babylon has constructed important amenities for residents, including new marinas, spray parks and other outdoor facilities. The town is also working on revitalizing many of its downtown areas including creating transit oriented developments in Wyandanch, Copiague and East Farmingdale as well as identifying and planning mini main street improvements in Deer Park, West Babylon, North Lindenhurst, North Babylon, Wheatley Heights and North Amityville.

Born on November 19, 1963, Rich Schaffer graduated from North Babylon High School in 1981, attended SUNY Albany, where he earned a B.A. in Political Science, and attended Brooklyn Law School and passed the New York Bar Examination in 1992.

Professionally, Supervisor Schaffer was elected to the Suffolk County Legislature in 1988, 1989 and 1991, before resigning the office to become Town of Babylon Supervisor the following year. Schaffer was sworn into office on his 29th birthday in 1992, the youngest to serve as the town's executive in the twentieth century. His first term as Supervisor lasted through 2001.

When the position of Town Supervisor was made vacant in 2011 following then-Supervisor Steve Bellone's victory as Suffolk County Executive, Schaffer was unanimously appointed to fill the role by the Town Board. He won re-election in 2012, 2013, 2017 and most recently 2021. Supervisor Schaffer is the longest-serving Town Supervisor in Babylon's history with his most recent stint.

Within months of returning to Town Hall, the South Shore was devastated by Superstorm Sandy. Assisting residents in rebuilding their homes and businesses was one of Supervisor Schaffer's earliest tasks, which he continues to do to this day. In doing so, Supervisor Schaffer has created lasting partnerships with the Lindenhurst, Amityville and Babylon Village governments to better serve constituents in those areas.

Newell Cady, an efficiency expert known for saving failing companies by reducing wasteful costs and staff while increasing productivity, has recently been hired as vice president of the Federal Apparatus Corporation and sent to Ilium, New York to oversee the construction of the new company headquarters. Cady has rented, with the option to buy, one of fifteen mansions built in nearby Spruce Falls during a 1920s housing boom. Nine more in disrepair are owned by locals and the town hopes Cady's arrival will spark a desire by other Federal Apparatus executives to live there. Fire Chief Stanley Atkins proposes that Cady be made a member of the volunteer fire department, waiving the usual three year residency requirement, as well as head judge at the annual Hobby Show to begin integrating him into the community. Upton Beaton, the wealthy, Harvard educated final descendant of Spruce Falls' first family for four generations, objects that bestowing such honors to newcomers cheapens them for those local citizens who have earned them. He warns the town against becoming obsessed with money. Despite this, Atkins' proposal passes without opposition. At that moment, Cady arrives at the post office next door and beings instructing Mrs. Dickie, the postmistress for twenty-five years since her husband died, on the proper way to hold and sort mail and suggests she moves her beloved plants which block easy access to the mailboxes. Atkins informs Cady of his new membership in the volunteer fire department and begins bragging about the new fire engine they plan to purchase. Cady quickly declares the current fire engine perfectly adequate and that the job of the fire department should simply be to put out fires as economically as possible without unnecessary show.

Three weeks later, Hal Brayton the grocer has decluttered his story layout and bought an adding machine instead of hand tabulating bills. Mrs. Dickie has moved her plants and raised the mailbox to eye level. The fire department voted down new uniforms for itself. At a school meeting, it's shown that it would be cheaper to bus all the grade school students to the centralized school in Ilium rather than maintain a separate one in Spruce Falls. Much of the population has begun moving at a faster pace, pushed by Cady with Beaton as his local advisor. The two of them along with Chief Atkins, are the judges at the annual Hobby Show with a large box of blue ribbons, since there are many classes of entries. Beaton bestows a ribbon on a four foot ball of string, which Ted Batsford has entered every year, while Atkins places one on Mrs. Dickie's haphazard flower arrangement. Cady is appalled to learn that there's virtually no competition in any class and everyone gets a blue ribbon, regardless of the "junk" they submit. Atkins timidly attempts to object but Cady tells him that he's standing in the way of progress and awards to only ribbon to a petit point replica of a women's magazine, whose creator is too embarrassed to take it.

Although bitter, news from the real estate agent that several executives are considering buying Spruce Falls mansions quickly dominates the increasingly money-focused town. Cady enters the post office and finds Mrs. Dickie unable to retrain herself in the new, efficient methods he's suggested. He casually mentions to Beaton and Atkins, who are trying to rush him out, that the town can in fact get rid of its own post office since Ilium can provide free rural delivery. Outside, Beaton chastises him, saying every resident knows they can get free delivery, but Mrs. Dickie's husband died in a fire, saving many people in the town. At a second meeting of the volunteer fire department in a month, Beaton makes a motion passed by all the membership save one, who is absent. Cady arrives at the post office, noticing Mrs. Dickie has returned her plants to their previous home, while Chief Atkins loudly declares from the other room that Beaton has been chosen to inform Cady that his membership violates the three year residency requirement of the bylaws. Beaton says he will explain to Cady that a town is not like a factory to be judged at a glance, but requires years to learn how to live together. Later the real estate agent from Ilium arrives to find the whole town out with their new fire engine except Beaton, who is minding the grocery store. He explains to the agent that no one wants to the sell their homes until they see how Cady settles in, although they're hopeful that in time he'll become part of the town.[1]

A picture shows the area around the Ain al-Fijeh water pumping station, in the countryside of Damascus, on January 29, 2017, after the Syrian army entered it for the first time in four years after a deal with rebels who first seized it in 2012. (AFP/Xinhua)

DAMASCUS, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- A first batch of 160 people, including rebels and their families, evacuated the water-rich town of Ain Fijeh northwest of the capital Damascus toward the northern city of Idlib on Sunday, as part of a deal with the government, after the Syrian forces captured the town to restore water to thirsty Damascus, a military source told Xinhua.

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