November 25, 2025 • 48 mins
Mark Rosalbo - CONNECTING COMMUNITY in Randolph and beyond
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
All right, it's Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
We've got Sweethearts and Heroes Day. Tomorrow Patfish is gonna
be in here for the aired Out Podcast. I think
this will be his second time, and I'm so excited.
I can't can't wait. Can be wearing my free hug shirt.
It's gonna be fun. Flying the Wall Productions bringing you
the aired Out Podcast this morning on the web at
(02:17):
aired out vt dot com and you can find it
of course everywhere you get your podcasts. Listen while you're
on the go. Man, we got some some clouds, maybe
some range, well not maybe it's one hundred percent. The
rain comes in tonight. We'll get down around forty degrees
fifty today for the high with the clouds in the sun.
(02:39):
And then tomorrow is it looks like the rain for
the most part, is gonna be moving out Tomorrow it'll
remain cloudy, fifty degrees and then Turkey Day on Thursday,
upper thirties, clouds and sun. So there you have it.
I gotta say happy birthday to a few people this morning.
There was some name in there that that I reckon.
(03:01):
Cody Copeland. There's a big dog right there, pat Riley,
another one, Joey Buttendorf, Great Gray Lady Glenn Wright. We
have Maggie Dexter faith Hall. Happy birthday to each of you.
The president and the board of directors at the Chandler
for the Center of Arts, and the Economic Development director
(03:25):
for the town of Randolph. Mark and I am I
saying this, rosalbo Am, I getting it right.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
You are.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
That's not often that I get that stuff right. Man. Welcome.
I'm happy to meet you. I think i've met you before.
I think at some point somewhere we may have cross paths.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I think you're a very, very busy guy. I was
reading the article that the World published on you and
everything that you've just taken on more and more things here.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah, I get in trouble with my wife sometimes.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I'm sure. Tell me a little bit about what's going
on in in Randolph and what you do. I mean, you're,
as I said, you're you're wearing a couple of different hats.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Well, we're small town. You know where we've been. We've
been just under that five thousand resident number for a
long time. Although I think we're gonna like we're finally
gonna bust up through it, probably in the next year.
So yeah. Uh, we we have uh we have a
standard uh select board, five members. We have a town manager.
(04:28):
About five years ago, uh, we had an organization that
got together and decided.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
That Randolph needed an economic development director.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
So uh they hired As a matter of fact, they
hired Joshua Jerome.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Josh was like, what an amazing guy. Yeah, he's awesome.
You guys are really.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Lucky to have him.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Josh took the reins uh and you know, he started
twenty nineteen maybe two thousand, just before, just before the pandemic.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
The way they structured the job back then was kind
of a shit show. You know, they didn't have enough
money per se to do it on its own, so
so they ended up they they they did a combination
of zoning and economic development work. So it was a
good start, but uh, it was a lot of It
was a lot of work for for Josh to do both.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
And it was uh it.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I think everybody knew that it wasn't wouldn't work in
the long term, but Josh did it, and he did
a great job and so uh so, Yeah, so Josh
did it for a few years, did it through the pandemic. Uh,
he he moved on to different pastors. The position was
open for a while, and uh I I jumped in Wow,
and I uh, I've got a long history in Randolph.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I've got five kids.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
I uh yeah, they've all went through the school system
in Randolph. They went to Chandler. They did various things
in Chandler over the years. I studied acting in college.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
I was gonna say, you've you've been up on stage plenty.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, So I studied.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I went to the American Academy of Stomatic Arts out
in La I. So I love performing arts, you know,
I love it, and so you know, it just made
sense to to take on the role, to see what
I could do to help make a difference.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
And yeah, you still get up on stage at the
Chandler I do.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
I do just in the in the spring, we did
Our Town, Yeah, and I played the newspaper man in
our Town and we had such.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
A ball with a long coat there.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we had such a good time. And
as a matter of fact, I think you might have
heard of Noah Khan. Yes, he the director was able
to sort of finagle a few to sing a few
of his songs for the show, and at the last
show he showed up, He showed up, he watched the show,
came backstage afterwards, and the whole casket to meet him.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
And I was reading that in the paper.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
It was absolutely fantastic. We had super you know, on
the board, we knew we wanted to build more community theater.
Back over the years, there's been beautiful theater or yeah,
it's well known for its summer musical the programs that
they've had, but the summer camps, yeah, but the community
theater program sort of it has been fits and starts.
So right now we're on some really good momentum. We
(07:14):
had close to I think we sold over two thousand
tickets for for the for the for the show over
two weekends, and so yeah, I mean it was it
was awesome.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
The community loved it.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
And and the web for that to see the complete schedule.
What's coming to the.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Chandler Just Chandler chann for the arts. Yeah, just pull
up Chandler. You should find it.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah. Yeah, we've got a pretty good website. It's constantly changing.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Beautiful theater, man, it is it. It's it is a
lot of work. It goes back over one hundred years,
it's twenty twenty two thousand square feet.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, so the town.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
It's a partnership with the town. Actually probably the town's
biggest asset. That so the town owns it and Chandler
is its tenant and the only Yeah, so it goes,
it goes back many many years. The town has its
uh annual meeting every year at Chandler, and so the
(08:12):
town can use it for as much as you know,
it's it's really an open space for the community to
use as much.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Talking to Rest yesterday and he was telling me off
the air, He's like, man, I love the Chandler. I
love to go in there. You don't need a microphone
at all. Yeah, I mean, the acoustics are just fantastic.
It is.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
It's uh we have are.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
When the the classical composers or the musicians come, they
all comment on how insanely beautiful the acoustics are. And
of course someone like Rusty could he could perform anywhere.
He's got such a powerful voice. He but but when
he's there he does fill it up. Like yeah, yeah,
Noody's business. Yet people love you know, we're blue collar town,
(08:55):
you know, so people like Rusty, Uh, you know, people love.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
To and I think you guys have had some tribute
acts in there too, didn't you. Yeah, isn't there an.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
We've had?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
You know, I feel like we need to do it more. Yeah,
you guys have the Uh. You guys do a good
job here with tribute acts. Down south of us, they
do a good good job with tribute acts. Uh So
we yeah, we need to we need to do a
little bit more. People love them.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Tell me, uh, what what a typical day is like
for you? And then I want to I want to
kind of shine the spotlight a little bit on Randow.
But what's typical day when you get up?
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Man, Yeah, well I still have We have one kid
left at home, so make sure his his asses out
of bed about seven thirty. Uh and he's he's an
amazing young man. He's his name is George. Uh so, yeah,
we make sure he's up.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
My wife, uh she works at Dartmouth, so we uh,
we were both pretty busy. So we uh you know,
we get up, we make breakfast, we have coffee.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
We bond uh. Guy.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
Yeah, we maybe we spend an hour before we before
we get ready for the day. Sometimes we go for
a walk, not as often as we should and so
we get ourselves ready, we get you know, George out
the door.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
She heads down to Dartmouth and I, uh, she's a
little bit she's she's a little bit jealous in my commute.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah yeah, sure, yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I I open the door, head out and it's about,
you know, about a five minute walk to the town hall.
Yeah yeah, yeah, it's like not even a tenth of
a mile. It is amazing. I mean, I'm incredibly lucky.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Uh yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
I usually I head down. Oftentimes I'll see people. I
head to the bagel shop. Uh, or I'll go to
to Wit and Grit. We've got a number of local
businesses that are open for breakfast, so you know, I
often frequent them as much as I can.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Yeah, go in there. You brought I did, I did
give a plug?
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Yeah so so uh wee bird bagel there. They've been
around for probably three three years now, fantastic bagels. It's
owned by Chelsea.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Her name is Chelsea.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
She her partner does Bent Hill Brewery. Just amazing entrepreneurs,
great folks. And the bagels are sick.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
They open at seven thirty in the morning. Usually by
now the bagels are sold out.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Really yeah, they know what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah, they do so.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Yeah, I'll go in there cats and bagels and meander
my way over to the town hall and try to
try to start my day in a healthy way, like
not looking at emails. Yeah, reaching out to people. Uh,
we have a lot of interest in our community, a
lot of phone calls, a lot of people asking what's
up with Randolph.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
It's it's on the radar.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Yeah, there's a I think I think people are interested
in Central for mom because it's that it's that high
brown notion.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Of living a better life.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
You've got, uh, our history with agriculture, the farming community,
but you also have uh, you know, you've got this
really fun downtown. Yeah, we've got this this beautiful hospital
that's been around for one hundred years. It's the largest
I know you asked me about me, but let's focus
(12:12):
on the town a little bit. It's the largest employer
in Orange County. Yeah, they've got five hundred and fifty
or six hundred people there that work for Gifford and
these are really good quality jobs. We've got VTSU Randolph,
which is the second largest employer in in in Central
in Orange County.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
So we've got you know, we've got these amazing organizations.
I'm constantly trying to uh to build collaborative relationships with them.
Our relationship with Gifford is incredibly important.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
The town.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
The town wants to support the institution anyway we can.
The town wants to support Chandler anyway we can. The VTSU,
They're all going through their own morphing, through their own
kind of growing challenges between the broken healthcare system in Vermont.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Fuck, it is a shit show.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
And you know, we've got a new Michael Costa's just
let's talk about Gifford for a minute. You know Michael
Costa is is He's absolutely amazing. The outgoing CEO, Dan Bennett,
he came in to Gifford when it just had become
a furtherly qualified health center and hadn't been operationalized yet,
so he had all this work to kind of operationalize
(13:32):
that aspect and bring all this The technology had been dated,
so he had some really big jobs to do. I
don't think he was fully aware of some of the
challenges that he was facing. And then the pandemic and
then the money started going out the door. I mean
Gifford had I mean, if you look at Gifford on paper,
it's not a healthy story, but there's so much more
(13:52):
to it than just the numbers. Over the last ten years,
I think they've lost money eight out of ten years.
But Dan had Dan did some really amazing work, and
when he left, they had to figure out who to
who to get in that could actually kind of help
navigate through the broken system in Montpellier. And and and
so he's doing it. He's doing an amazing job. The
(14:14):
Oliver Wyman report you probably heard that, Yeah, that came out,
and it was a it was a huge blow to
to Vermont in the system. And we have fourteen hospitals
and four of them were basically I mean one could
say on the chopping block and uh and Gifford was
one of those.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
And he took that ye he he that rattled the
cage around Jesus.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
It was huge and we h he just it was
like his first week when the Wyman report came out.
He hadn't even started yet. And talk about a test,
you know, you you uh uh, anyone can do a
good job in a company or something that's running really well,
you know, for someone to actually come in and do
a good job where there's huge amount of challenge and
(14:55):
disarray and quicksand everywhere.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Like he came in and totally picked up the ball
in a.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Place where it was just a shit show, and he
used it as an opportunity to start start implementing change
and making some big shifts. And he was very thoughtful
about it, and so he he got ahead.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Of the curb.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
I think a while other institutions were still kind of
contemplating what do we do and.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
How do we know?
Speaker 4 (15:22):
What is the stake going to do and what are
our partners Like he just said, no, we are moving
and he started making big shifts and he started cutting
the fat. He started making changes where the organization didn't
need to be anymore. He started partnering with other hospitals,
working with Dartmouth, and you know, the number of beds
that was empty at Gifford when he started it was crazy,
(15:43):
like you know, they have I think twenty five or
thirty beds and it was like seventy percent empty and
now it's like almost that capacity. Yeah, Like he's like
people are coming back. When when when people are looking
for primary care physicians, they're going you know, they're going
to they're going to Gifford, and there's no way to
find new primary care physicians. And I mean, don't get
(16:03):
me wrong, there's still challenges, but but he has it
was a listing ship and he has uh you know,
it's it's it's come up right and it's moving. And
he got a huge settlement on an ARPA pending some
litigation or something for eight million dollars.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
You know, that just goes right into the reserves.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
So that hospital is not going anywhere.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
There's no way, no way. He made it crystal clear.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I interviewed him U a couple of months ago, and
he's to folks that are worried that Gifferd's going to
go somewhere, He's like, don't it's not going anywhere. And
he was crystal clear about it. And and that's what's awesome.
Like he's controlled, He controls the narrative, you know, he's
he he the hospital is out in front of it
and uh and and I think that's how it's going
to stay.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
It's beautiful campus. It's not all you know, big skyline stuff.
I mean, it's just it's just nice. It's cozy. You
don't even realize here, you can't believe here come out
of this quaint little town and you're in this incredible
hospital like that.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Right, like you get like the pediatrics hospital is in
a house that's connected. Like you walk in, it's a house,
it's you can see like you could see where there
was a kitchen one day, you know, and and uh
and yeah, so it's it is. It's very Vermont. It's
quintessential Vermont. And uh, yeah, man, we're pretty lucky.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Mark Grosalbo is the Economic Development director for the Tone
of Randoff and the president of the Board of Directors
for the Chandler Center of the Arts. We you know,
we were saying off the air just before we went live. Man,
it's like that exit for either way, either direction you go. Uh,
(17:38):
there's so much history, there's so much heritage. But that's
a it's a long run, uh, to get down into Randolph,
like off the beaten path, a little bit for for Pope,
for for people.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah, look that's a really good point. So so it's
really not. It's about two miles, yes, a couple of miles.
And but it can seem like that.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Because when you're driving on on on on the highway
and you see exit four, there's nothing around, but I know,
it's just it's Wales agriculture, the whales tilS. Jim sardonas
is whales tails. Uh, you know Jim Is. He's a
very active person in her town. He's you could always
see him at the coffee shops, you know, you walk
in and there's.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I've always wanted to have him on the air.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Oh, I'm sure you can. He's awesome.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
He's he's very open. He's uh. And the whales, Yeah,
he did the whaltales and Randolph did the whales tales
up here and procted.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I gotta talk to him.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
He just had a huge exhibit at Chandler a few
months ago. Hundreds of people came and uh, it was
what do you call it when it's a over the
course of your life. Uh, there's a name for that,
when you do a show and it's like with the
workover a span of multi decades. Anyway, I can't think
of it. Haven't enough coffee yet.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
But he did it.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
People came every from everywhere and uh to see him.
And but but it's only a couple of miles down downtown. However,
you have seen in many cases in towns where a
highway has come through that's that's killed the downtown, and
it hasn't been the case for Randolph And and we
have a new hospit I mean a new hotel. I
(19:15):
don't know if you've heard of that. So we have
a sixty four room hotel that is just off the
highway heading up towards Randolph's Center and it was completed.
It just opened a year ago September, and it's been
a it's a huge success. They have partnerships with the
academic institutions, the manufacturing sector, the hospital, and it's we
(19:40):
were so in desperate need of it. And imagine that
in redoff a sixty four room hotel.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I had no idea.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Yeah, yeah, and it was it wasn't easy for the
investors to do it. It was a twelve or thirteen
million dollar project. It started again, started before the pandemic,
and then the shit hit the fan with the pandemic
and then the cop Then everything reopened at the same time,
and you had this just temporary inflation that just blew
up prices, so everyone had to go back to the
(20:09):
table and figure out costs and a lot of these
projects got destroyed. We had so many projects in the
works during the pandemic. We had a thirteen million dollar
hotel project, we had a nine million dollar childcare project,
we had a fifteen million dollar housing project downtown. Yeah,
it's going to open in January. It's an amazing story.
(20:32):
You're going to hear more about it. That was that
was actually Josh was a part of that when Josh
was at the when when Josh was working for Randolph,
he was working with GMBDC Erica Hoffman Kais and figuring
out how to make that work. Originally it was going
to be a little bit smaller, and then they did
a deal with the college to buy a property and
(20:53):
it'll open in January and eventually they'll have I think
eighty five children are going to be looked after there.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
And it's a huge win for us.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
And somebody just walked by and gave us the finger
just kind of you get a lot of that here.
I don't think he was like looking at us.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
He just happened to you. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
So it's it's gonna be the huge need. The biggest
challenge is that we face not unlike here is childcare,
housing and quality jobs. And we have the facility, the facility.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Up on it.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
So it's on Route sixty six, just as you're heading
down into town. That will that's gonna totally support the
need for childcare. We've got another one that opened just
a year prior that was for eighteen kids, and we
have another one opening that's going to serve forty. So
that issue, I think we're going to we've satisfied the
demand at least in the short term. But housing is
(21:53):
still the challenge. It's a shit show. And our downtown
housing Authority render very Communit Development Corporation has been working
on two big projects and they've come up with some snags.
They you know, they they they promised the community fifty
new housing units and it looks like we're getting twelve.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And so it's I'm not going to say it's their fault.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
It's just it's a hard business the whole. I'll talk
about a healthcare system that's broken, like the the housing,
the way housing is built in Vermont. I was I
had breakfast or lunch yesterday with the Josh Hanford. So
Josh Hanford has been around for a long time. He's
he's very politically involved and like he he he had
(22:38):
his commentary was, it's just a system that is you know,
the it. We can't build these, we can't build houses,
and we can't focus only on on on low income
houses without focusing on the middle market of housing. We
can't do this without having some of the private sector
involved and have some sort of incentive for them to
be able to make a little money in the process.
(22:59):
You know, this project cost nine million dollars and we
have twelve rental units that are that that we're that
we're that we're getting to the public and it's been
you know, that is not enough.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
You know, it's unacceptable. And but so many it's.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
A ship show. So that the childcare stuff we're doing good.
The housing we're still we're still in trouble. We have
a lot of work to do there. But the quality
jobs we have with.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Workforce development seems like it's generally okay.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Yeah, it's really good. We've got probably we have the
largest uh again, if you're tired of talking to Randolph.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
You just say so now you're here, man, Yeah, all right, good.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
So we have we have the largest engineering firm in
the state housed in Randolph. D. Bois and King fantastic company.
They employ one hundred and fifty people and these are
really good jobs. These are smart engineers.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
They they recruit wisely, very uh smart upper management in
the C suite, always thinking about ways to keep their
employees happy. You know, they'll get people that come in
and they're in Randolph for a while and they're young,
and they'll be like, ah, you know, I need more,
and they'll they'll move them that relocate them up in
Burlington for a while. But it's great because they can
(24:14):
hire people and offer lifestyle choices that they're looking for.
And if they're in Randolph, they want to have that
high brow notion again of living a better life, a
quiet life where there's little agriculture. You get some land,
you can build a garden and have some privacy. You
can live downtown. I mean we are truly a fifteen
minute community. And that that I mean you live. You
(24:35):
can walk to the grocery store, you can walk to
the schools, you can walk to culture. And that is
like there are very few towns in Vermont that are
truly a fifteen minute community. And so I lost my
train of thought.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
But that's.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
It's so quaint.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Oh d NK and the businesses sorry, I mean no, no,
go ahead.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Yeah, So before I forget. The manufacturing sector is very,
very hearty.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
We've got New England.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Precision is probably one of the more successful machine uh
fabricating companies in the state. They make tens of millions.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Of parts over the course of a year.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
You know, those the little metal component and when you
flyss you floss your your your teeth, that little thing
where you break the floss inside. They're all made there,
like tens of millions of them right there. Yeah, and
they ship them out to Jay and j and all
these other places. But they make they make components for
the health industry, they make components for the fire industry,
(25:36):
uh fire fire suppression stuff, and probably sixty percent of
their business comes from there. But you know, the company
makes tens of millions of dollars a year and the
town is also a big partner with them to make
sure that they have what they need to be able
to do there, because it's kind of a dirty job.
You know, after they make all the stuff, they have
to wash the parts and the components before that.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
So we uh.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
When I first started, as a matter of fact, just
as Josh Jerome was leaving the ARP fund, there were
a lot of ARP of funds available, and we did
a deal to secure a lot of money for them
to reduce the overall copper and lead content that was
going into the wastewater system because every town has sort
(26:20):
of a limited amount. If you have a system, a
wastewater system, you have a limited amount that you can
put in and we h that's probably kind of boring stuff,
but we so they were hitting our capacity that business alone,
and we figured out a way to lower what they're
bringing into our wastewater system by ninety percent. So now
we can have they can grow and their capacity can
(26:41):
go up enormously over the next few years, and we
can invite other manufacturers to come in. So yeah, we've
got we've got a handful of great manufacturers. And you know,
all these jobs are really good. You don't have to
You can work at the fabrication at a New England
Precision and not be you know, you don't have to
you know, you don't have to go to school for
(27:01):
twenty years to do it. You can start, you can
start slow, and you know, within a few years you're
making a fantastic living. And you know these are you know,
they're it may not be for everybody, but they're good jobs.
And we've got.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
We talked a lot about Gifford about the actual hospital.
I mean there's another big hitter, if not yeah, the
big hitter for randof But but you got the colleges too,
right there. You got the tech center.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Yep, Yeah, the Vet School yep. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
The tech center is is really important. I think we
need to focus more on that in the coming years.
It's right and connected right to the high school.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
I don't even fully understand how the academic institutions are
going to sort of fall into place in the coming years.
But I'm hoping that given the way Randolph is situated
that we are going to we'll be able to support
the communities that will perhaps be coming into into Randolph
(28:02):
to educate their kids. As this, you know, something has
to give the micro schools and all the stuff that
the smaller towns that you know, it's very difficult when
the cost of education is going this way and the
enrollment is going this way. And I've been here for
twenty years and those lines.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Have not changed. Yeah, you know, cost keeps going up.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
And the enrollment is just it's stable and it's falling
and or so it's falling and you know, that's not
a winning scenario.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
So it's hard.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
You know, it's very complicated, but the school system that
the tech program is is very important. The more and
more people are identifying with that kind of work as
being meaningful. You know, when we were kids, you know,
if you were you know, you don't know what to
do with yourself. You got into the trades, you know,
if you had parents that were paying attention, you're like, oh,
(28:54):
you're going to go to college, You're going to go
do this. But that's not how it is anymore. People
recognize these are good jobs.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Yeah, he's a good jobs. They're meaningful.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
You get up in the morning, you go out, you
bust your ass all day, you feel good. You can
quantify the result, and it's a good life.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Boy, what a concept.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
My son, my older son, he's a he's a sophomore
at UVM and he's a business major. But he works
for Chimney Savers. During the summer, he's out busting his ass.
He's out building chimneys. He loves it. He absolutely loves it.
He wakes up in the morning, he goes, he's outside,
he comes home, he's tired, but he just feels good.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
He loves the work.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
And you know what, the guy's at Chimney Savers. They
can make eighty ninety grand a year. Yeah right, that
is crazy, right, eighty ninety grand a year for working hard.
But still forty hours a week, you're you're not out.
Maybe fifty if you've got a big job, you know
you're working.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
But but well, once you once you have that skill set,
once you've learned that, you can work for somebody else,
but you can also start your own business. Yeah, start
your plumbing business.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Yeah, plumbing whatever.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
The guys that own Chimney Savers have shared stories with me,
just what you're saying. Guys will go in, they'll work
there for five, ten years, and they go off, they
break out on their own. You know there's enough work
that they can do that. Oh yeah, it's because it's hard.
Not everybody wants to get up on a on a
roof and repair a chimney or so these jobs are
always going to be in demand.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
So yeah, always, you're absolutely right. I love the fact
that Randolph It's got that little quaint movie theater at
the pizza shop right next door. What's the Village Pizza
I think?
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Yeah, yeah, so absolutely fantastic. The Playhouse Theater is the
oldest theater in the state.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
It is.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Uh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Yeah, it's the oldest continuously running theaters, open early eighteen
hundreds and it Yeah, it's got a great story. The
two owners or these two guys that are just super
dedicated to bringing good movies and to town.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
And yeah, I think of the Savoy too.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
That's it's just like the Savoy.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
Yeah, the Savoy has these two great theaters they got
they've got great independent films.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
They also have other stuff.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
And yeah, I mean a town of five thousand people,
we've got we've got a movie theater, We've got a
bowling alley.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah right, we've got Chandler. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
So in that little that little market there right around
the corner from Half Village.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Pizza there, Chef's Market.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Yes, yeah, yeah, pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
It is awesome.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
It's uh that so so we architecture. Oh it's We've
had a lot of good investment in in town over
the years. And that was Sam Samas.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
So.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Sam is the guy who owned three Stallion back in
the day.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
And uh, you.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
Know, Sam invested a lot of money in our town
and he was a believer and he he.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Took the depot.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
He had a chef at at three Stallion who he
really liked and believed and he wanted to open up
a downtown shop and that he did. He probably he
probably dropped eight nine hundred thousand dollars in that building.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
And wow.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
Yeah, and it's uh so what it is today is
a lot of the depots you see in small towns
have been run down. You know, this costs a lot
of money. He yeah, the timing was right like that.
That is a huge asset in our community.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Absolute one of a kind. Yeah, I love it. Yeah.
And and Bent Hill, which I I don't think I've
actually been to the brewery, but yeah, I forgot actually
that it was there. And that's I'm glad you've reminded
me because I'd love to go check it out.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Yeah. So it's a sister town just over the border. Uheh.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
You you gotta you gotta head out the dirt roads,
you gotta kind of head up into the woods. But yeah,
it's an absolutely beautiful experience.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
You go up. They've like they make their own beer.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Sure it's all vegetarian food, but you never know it,
Like if you're not a vegetarian. You can still go
there and have like the most amazing food. That's so
cool overlooking these mountains and these beautiful fields, and you know,
they bring entertainment up there. That's another thing in Randolph
we have is a very vibrant artistic scene, not just
(33:15):
with Chandler, but the ancillary stuff. We have five galleries,
We have a lot of performing artists that uh that
write music.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
We have we have the Underground Recording Studio, which.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I'll tell you what I didn't know about that.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Yeah, So so Vincent is his name, and he won,
you know, the seven Daisies he won, He won the
best Small Recording Studio in the State seven Daisies Award.
Really yeah, in Randolph.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
So uh yeah, wow, I'm trying to keep track of
all this. It's so cool.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
And what was the other thing I was? I was
just gonna ask you, like, what opportunities right now do
we have in Randolph for somebody who wants to start
a biz, A small a small bass.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Have you got some store front?
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Yeah we do, Yeah, we we have. We have one
main which was our Anchor restaurant right on the corner
of Main Street and Merchant's Row. Closed and so that
that space is available. So we also have we have
almost three thousand square feet of space on Merchant's Row
that is unbuilt, undeveloped, and we also lost our one
(34:27):
of our drug stores right aid, so that space is available.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
So yeah, we have we have.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Some space for small business and for some bigger endeavors.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
What's the summer like in Randolph. Summer summertime in Randolf, Well.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
It's brief, like like like like summers in Vermont, It's
pretty brief.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
But yeah, we uh it, you know, it's a it's insane.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
It's beautiful. There's we have a very vibrant biking and
hiking scene. We we have, we've invested. When I first started,
we had a we had a grant with Again this
goes back to Joshua Jerome.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Joshua was working with Department of Marketing.
Speaker 4 (35:12):
And Tourism, I think it was doing the work program.
So we've had two Warick grants. One was the most
recent one we did was actually to help build the
Velamont Trail, a ten mile stretch of the Velamont Trail
which eventually Randolf will connect to.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
That's the long trail that runs through the state.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
But Prior to that, we did a we did a
trek up near the college where you can go up
and have like this this biking experience up there and
tons of different trails. So in the summertime we have
a very active lifestyle. We have a lot of people
that do a lot of biking, a lot of running,
and all these trails come. Welch was in our town
(35:51):
cut like about a year ago, and he's he made
a joke. He's like, sooner or later all the roads
end up in Randolph. He says, yeah, yeah, Like, well
it's not just the roads, it's the bike trails too,
and and uh so people love it because you can
you can you can sort of stay downtown, you can
connect to other towns, but you can also head out
into the woods.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
You could.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
We've got tons of trails that are actually if you
have a mountain bike and you want just a little
piece of of what it's like to be out in
the woods on a trail, you.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Have that cross country ski trails.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Ski trails. We've got an eighteen hole golf course which.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
In the winter time people love to snowshoe out there,
and so people golf people, don't you guys.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Have a a farmer's market in the summer.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
Yeah, we do, uh, we have a farmer's market. It's
again Gifford plays a very strong role in our community
and they have they've had their farmers market up on
their campus for a long time.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
And yeah, what what shows should we highlight that are
coming up? I think you alluded to a few of
them earlier, but at the at the Chandler.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Like, oh god, Well, what I would recommend is you
go to the website and you look and see what
see what they've got going, and you decide what you want.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
We'll be coming out with a.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
New program for for twenty twenty six soon, so you'll
get a chance to see what's going on. But yeah,
check out the website. See there's generally a wide variety
of things that you can see there.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
There's we were talking before about the opera that was
just there.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
How often can you see a full opera in Romans,
you know, so this was this was just amazing. It
was we have opera, we have the ballet comes the
key of Keiev Ballet will be there doing Nutcracker freely soon.
That's always a popular one that will sell out. So
you go on the website, take a look and see, uh,
you know, see what what interests you.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
You guys have met the Nutcracker there frequently?
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Yea?
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Is it every year?
Speaker 4 (37:45):
Yeah, it's a popular one. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty popular
to your listeners. We actually were looking for five new
board members in the next six months. We have a
number of board members at Chandler that have been there
for most decades that are retiring, and so if you
go onto the website, you can if you know anybody
(38:07):
that you think would be a good fit to be
on the board of Chandler, you can nominate them. You
can also nominate yourself if you want, and I'll reach
out to them. We'll sit down, we'll talk a little bit,
and we want to we want to fill those five
seats by.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
February if we can.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
So.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Yeah, if you know anybody that's interested in participating, we'd
love to.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Good to know, it's good to know. I want to
go back to summertime for Randolph, because don't we have
like one of the few remaining drive in movie theaters
and in Randolph.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
We have a drive in.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Yeah, yeah, I should go more often. Yeah, it's pretty well.
They've got the technology.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
They just did it.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
They just figured out a way to come up with
the technology to keep it current or whoever.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
Yeah, my kids love it.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
You know, they go up.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
But in the summer, the summer, it doesn't get darks
on nine o'clock. You go up see it, you see yeah,
you see two movies. You know, you pack out at
one o'clock in the morning. Yeah, it's got one of
these old buses in the back.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
You know, you can go get snacks and popcorns and yeah,
it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
That's so nostalgic from hot right. Yeah, yeah, and then
and there, you know, there's not many the fairly drive in. Uh.
We had to close it out last last hour.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
So that's too bad.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
You know, that's it. I think it's it's Randolph and
I think it's Colchester. If I'm not mistaken for driving movie.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Wow, that's too bad, because it is.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
I mean, it's one of the things that especially as parents,
we love that because that's something.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
We did the kid.
Speaker 4 (39:39):
Yeah, and it also it also gets kids away from
their phones. Sure, like yeah, they're they're they're spending time
with their friends.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Yeah. Uh, you know, they're just yeah, we need to
get away from that.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
I understand. Believe me. I have an eleven year old
girl and what she loved that tablet constant struggle all
the time. Yeah, but yeah, get the kids out of
the house and and get them to to see some
great entertainment, some art. Uh, get into the Chandler. It
doesn't matter if you're in Randolph, the White River, wherever,
(40:12):
the heck Saint Chay, run down and check out the Chandler. Yeah,
you guys have so much happening and anything else from
from economic development that we want to wrap up with.
For Randolph, I mean, it's it's a town that's growing.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
Yeah, it is growing. It looks great, Yeah, it's there.
The the development is it's it's slow, but it's growing.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (40:36):
The the folks that do the census work, uh often
stop into our office and and talk with us, and
they said, of all the towns that we look at
in terms of the zoning activity, they said that Randolph
has is the most consistent grower of housing of projects.
And they said it's not you know, it's not like
ten percent a year or anything, but it's you know,
there's constantly projects that are going. So I guess what
(40:59):
I would say about Randolph is if you're looking for.
If you're looking for a place to live to have
some interesting yuh an interesting life, it's worth considering. And
you know, there isn't anyone there isn't any one big
project that's gigantic, but there's there's uh. One of the
things Michael Costa said recently and when I was talking
(41:20):
to him, was you know, the community has to show up, right,
You have to take responsibility for your part in a community.
And I think that what what what I see in
our town is we have so many people that are
so deeply connected and want to see Randolph thrive. And
so that is like it's hard to quantify that, but
(41:40):
when you come into our town and you start to
you start to get to know people.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
That is the draw. That's the draw in.
Speaker 4 (41:47):
Our community and or and and that's a you know,
that's an authentic, organic thing that you can't take away.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Folks that want to maybe chat with you or or
email you, get in touch with you, maybe they want
to meet with you, and they have some ideas or
some interest in Randolph. What's the best way.
Speaker 4 (42:07):
Well, probably email just Mark at randolphet dot org. That's
the easiest way to reach me. And then I'll get
back to you, back to them as soon as I can.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Yeah, great chatting with you, man, it was. It was
fun having Rusty in here yesterday and uh.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Pretty big chef. Yeah yeah, I'm a little more boring.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Than Russ Is. Is an interesting, interesting dude. But he
loves the Chandler. He loves coming to random.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
Yeah man, he he He cut his teeth in Randolph.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
He cut his teeth. He worked, He worked with way back,
he worked with.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Mc meekan and the folks there like he he there's
some of the some of his live shows that he like.
He made a lot of money selling CDs.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Back in the day. Lckbuster. There's some good stuff, man, everyone.
Speaker 4 (42:59):
So I'll listen to them because he's just it's just
fun to listen to. But he he taped one of
those that Chandler in fact, yea and yeah, yeah, yeah,
he taped it there man, and he you know, he
was on fire and yeah. So we're very lucky to
I think, you know, sometimes people take for granted some
of the old folks that have been around for a
(43:19):
long time.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
You know. I think Rusty, like Rusty Rusty is.
Speaker 4 (43:25):
A perfect example of an artist who learned how to
totally create a business for himself. And you know, he
goes back to the days with bud Bill, David bud
Bill and working with Judevin, you know, developing that character.
And you know what he said to me once, he says,
he said bud Bill was a writer, and I said,
I can be a writer.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (43:45):
He's like David just David would sit down and write
shit down and he said I could sit down and
write ship and then he started to yeah, and then
he's like you and David knew how to market himself.
Bud Bill like he knew how to tell his story.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
Yeah, and that's a gift. He said.
Speaker 4 (44:02):
Another thing he said to me said people artists don't
care about They think it's beneath them to promote themselves.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
You know, I'm an artist.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
He's like, if you don't, if people don't see your work,
what do you have?
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (44:13):
And Rusty like he's I.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Know, man, Best O'Brien and Jay Craven. I mean, this
is this is the powerhouse, yea of what what can
come creatively out of the hills of Vermont.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
For sure, absolutely great stuff.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Man.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Listen, anything you've got going on in Randolph that you
want some some push on get in touch with me,
regardless of what it is, especially channel stuff. I'll be
paying more attention to what's coming. But great chatting with
you man, and and getting to know you Mark Uh.
Real pleasure. I read, as I said, I read the
(44:52):
story about you Uh in the the world and I
was like, that's an interesting guy right there, should be
aired out. Thanks for coming in here today, man, Thank you,
pleasure to meet you. Mark Risolbo. I am saying that correctly, right,
you got it. And he's the executive director over at
the Chandler.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
And actually that's Chloe Chloe Power, president of the board.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
You're president of the board of director, yes, that's right,
and Economic Development director for the ton of Randolph. Great
having you in here. Thanks and come back soon.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
I will for sure,
All right, it's Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
We've got Sweethearts and Heroes Day. Tomorrow Patfish is gonna
be in here for the aired Out Podcast. I think
this will be his second time, and I'm so excited.
I can't can't wait. Can be wearing my free hug shirt.
It's gonna be fun. Flying the Wall Productions bringing you
the aired Out Podcast this morning on the web at
(02:17):
aired out vt dot com and you can find it
of course everywhere you get your podcasts. Listen while you're
on the go. Man, we got some some clouds, maybe
some range, well not maybe it's one hundred percent. The
rain comes in tonight. We'll get down around forty degrees
fifty today for the high with the clouds in the sun.
(02:39):
And then tomorrow is it looks like the rain for
the most part, is gonna be moving out Tomorrow it'll
remain cloudy, fifty degrees and then Turkey Day on Thursday,
upper thirties, clouds and sun. So there you have it.
I gotta say happy birthday to a few people this morning.
There was some name in there that that I reckon.
(03:01):
Cody Copeland. There's a big dog right there, pat Riley,
another one, Joey Buttendorf, Great Gray Lady Glenn Wright. We
have Maggie Dexter faith Hall. Happy birthday to each of you.
The president and the board of directors at the Chandler
for the Center of Arts, and the Economic Development director
(03:25):
for the town of Randolph. Mark and I am I
saying this, rosalbo Am, I getting it right.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
You are.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
That's not often that I get that stuff right. Man. Welcome.
I'm happy to meet you. I think i've met you before.
I think at some point somewhere we may have cross paths.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I think you're a very, very busy guy. I was
reading the article that the World published on you and
everything that you've just taken on more and more things here.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah, I get in trouble with my wife sometimes.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I'm sure. Tell me a little bit about what's going
on in in Randolph and what you do. I mean, you're,
as I said, you're you're wearing a couple of different hats.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Well, we're small town. You know where we've been. We've
been just under that five thousand resident number for a
long time. Although I think we're gonna like we're finally
gonna bust up through it, probably in the next year.
So yeah. Uh, we we have uh we have a
standard uh select board, five members. We have a town manager.
(04:28):
About five years ago, uh, we had an organization that
got together and decided.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
That Randolph needed an economic development director.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
So uh they hired As a matter of fact, they
hired Joshua Jerome.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Josh was like, what an amazing guy. Yeah, he's awesome.
You guys are really.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Lucky to have him.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Josh took the reins uh and you know, he started
twenty nineteen maybe two thousand, just before, just before the pandemic.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
The way they structured the job back then was kind
of a shit show. You know, they didn't have enough
money per se to do it on its own, so
so they ended up they they they did a combination
of zoning and economic development work. So it was a
good start, but uh, it was a lot of It
was a lot of work for for Josh to do both.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
And it was uh it.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I think everybody knew that it wasn't wouldn't work in
the long term, but Josh did it, and he did
a great job and so uh so, Yeah, so Josh
did it for a few years, did it through the pandemic. Uh,
he he moved on to different pastors. The position was
open for a while, and uh I I jumped in Wow,
and I uh, I've got a long history in Randolph.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I've got five kids.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
I uh yeah, they've all went through the school system
in Randolph. They went to Chandler. They did various things
in Chandler over the years. I studied acting in college.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
I was gonna say, you've you've been up on stage plenty.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, So I studied.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I went to the American Academy of Stomatic Arts out
in La I. So I love performing arts, you know,
I love it, and so you know, it just made
sense to to take on the role, to see what
I could do to help make a difference.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
And yeah, you still get up on stage at the
Chandler I do.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
I do just in the in the spring, we did
Our Town, Yeah, and I played the newspaper man in
our Town and we had such.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
A ball with a long coat there.
Speaker 4 (06:24):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we had such a good time. And
as a matter of fact, I think you might have
heard of Noah Khan. Yes, he the director was able
to sort of finagle a few to sing a few
of his songs for the show, and at the last
show he showed up, He showed up, he watched the show,
came backstage afterwards, and the whole casket to meet him.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
And I was reading that in the paper.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
It was absolutely fantastic. We had super you know, on
the board, we knew we wanted to build more community theater.
Back over the years, there's been beautiful theater or yeah,
it's well known for its summer musical the programs that
they've had, but the summer camps, yeah, but the community
theater program sort of it has been fits and starts.
So right now we're on some really good momentum. We
(07:14):
had close to I think we sold over two thousand
tickets for for the for the for the show over
two weekends, and so yeah, I mean it was it
was awesome.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
The community loved it.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
And and the web for that to see the complete schedule.
What's coming to the.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Chandler Just Chandler chann for the arts. Yeah, just pull
up Chandler. You should find it.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah. Yeah, we've got a pretty good website. It's constantly changing.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
Beautiful theater, man, it is it. It's it is a
lot of work. It goes back over one hundred years,
it's twenty twenty two thousand square feet.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Yeah, so the town.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
It's a partnership with the town. Actually probably the town's
biggest asset. That so the town owns it and Chandler
is its tenant and the only Yeah, so it goes,
it goes back many many years. The town has its
uh annual meeting every year at Chandler, and so the
(08:12):
town can use it for as much as you know,
it's it's really an open space for the community to
use as much.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Talking to Rest yesterday and he was telling me off
the air, He's like, man, I love the Chandler. I
love to go in there. You don't need a microphone
at all. Yeah, I mean, the acoustics are just fantastic.
It is.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
It's uh we have are.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
When the the classical composers or the musicians come, they
all comment on how insanely beautiful the acoustics are. And
of course someone like Rusty could he could perform anywhere.
He's got such a powerful voice. He but but when
he's there he does fill it up. Like yeah, yeah,
Noody's business. Yet people love you know, we're blue collar town,
(08:55):
you know, so people like Rusty, Uh, you know, people love.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
To and I think you guys have had some tribute
acts in there too, didn't you. Yeah, isn't there an.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
We've had?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
You know, I feel like we need to do it more. Yeah,
you guys have the Uh. You guys do a good
job here with tribute acts. Down south of us, they
do a good good job with tribute acts. Uh So
we yeah, we need to we need to do a
little bit more. People love them.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Tell me, uh, what what a typical day is like
for you? And then I want to I want to
kind of shine the spotlight a little bit on Randow.
But what's typical day when you get up?
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Man, Yeah, well I still have We have one kid
left at home, so make sure his his asses out
of bed about seven thirty. Uh and he's he's an
amazing young man. He's his name is George. Uh so, yeah,
we make sure he's up.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
My wife, uh she works at Dartmouth, so we uh,
we were both pretty busy. So we uh you know,
we get up, we make breakfast, we have coffee.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
We bond uh. Guy.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
Yeah, we maybe we spend an hour before we before
we get ready for the day. Sometimes we go for
a walk, not as often as we should and so
we get ourselves ready, we get you know, George out
the door.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (10:13):
She heads down to Dartmouth and I, uh, she's a
little bit she's she's a little bit jealous in my commute.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah yeah, sure, yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I I open the door, head out and it's about,
you know, about a five minute walk to the town hall.
Yeah yeah, yeah, it's like not even a tenth of
a mile. It is amazing. I mean, I'm incredibly lucky.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Uh yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
I usually I head down. Oftentimes I'll see people. I
head to the bagel shop. Uh, or I'll go to
to Wit and Grit. We've got a number of local
businesses that are open for breakfast, so you know, I
often frequent them as much as I can.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Yeah, go in there. You brought I did, I did
give a plug?
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Yeah so so uh wee bird bagel there. They've been
around for probably three three years now, fantastic bagels. It's
owned by Chelsea.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Her name is Chelsea.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
She her partner does Bent Hill Brewery. Just amazing entrepreneurs,
great folks. And the bagels are sick.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
They open at seven thirty in the morning. Usually by
now the bagels are sold out.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Really yeah, they know what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah, they do so.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Yeah, I'll go in there cats and bagels and meander
my way over to the town hall and try to
try to start my day in a healthy way, like
not looking at emails. Yeah, reaching out to people. Uh,
we have a lot of interest in our community, a
lot of phone calls, a lot of people asking what's
up with Randolph.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
It's it's on the radar.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Yeah, there's a I think I think people are interested
in Central for mom because it's that it's that high
brown notion.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Of living a better life.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
You've got, uh, our history with agriculture, the farming community,
but you also have uh, you know, you've got this
really fun downtown. Yeah, we've got this this beautiful hospital
that's been around for one hundred years. It's the largest
I know you asked me about me, but let's focus
(12:12):
on the town a little bit. It's the largest employer
in Orange County. Yeah, they've got five hundred and fifty
or six hundred people there that work for Gifford and
these are really good quality jobs. We've got VTSU Randolph,
which is the second largest employer in in in Central
in Orange County.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
So we've got you know, we've got these amazing organizations.
I'm constantly trying to uh to build collaborative relationships with them.
Our relationship with Gifford is incredibly important.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
The town.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
The town wants to support the institution anyway we can.
The town wants to support Chandler anyway we can. The VTSU,
They're all going through their own morphing, through their own
kind of growing challenges between the broken healthcare system in Vermont.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Fuck, it is a shit show.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
And you know, we've got a new Michael Costa's just
let's talk about Gifford for a minute. You know Michael
Costa is is He's absolutely amazing. The outgoing CEO, Dan Bennett,
he came in to Gifford when it just had become
a furtherly qualified health center and hadn't been operationalized yet,
so he had all this work to kind of operationalize
(13:32):
that aspect and bring all this The technology had been dated,
so he had some really big jobs to do. I
don't think he was fully aware of some of the
challenges that he was facing. And then the pandemic and
then the money started going out the door. I mean
Gifford had I mean, if you look at Gifford on paper,
it's not a healthy story, but there's so much more
(13:52):
to it than just the numbers. Over the last ten years,
I think they've lost money eight out of ten years.
But Dan had Dan did some really amazing work, and
when he left, they had to figure out who to
who to get in that could actually kind of help
navigate through the broken system in Montpellier. And and and
so he's doing it. He's doing an amazing job. The
(14:14):
Oliver Wyman report you probably heard that, Yeah, that came out,
and it was a it was a huge blow to
to Vermont in the system. And we have fourteen hospitals
and four of them were basically I mean one could
say on the chopping block and uh and Gifford was
one of those.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
And he took that ye he he that rattled the
cage around Jesus.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
It was huge and we h he just it was
like his first week when the Wyman report came out.
He hadn't even started yet. And talk about a test,
you know, you you uh uh, anyone can do a
good job in a company or something that's running really well,
you know, for someone to actually come in and do
a good job where there's huge amount of challenge and
(14:55):
disarray and quicksand everywhere.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Like he came in and totally picked up the ball
in a.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Place where it was just a shit show, and he
used it as an opportunity to start start implementing change
and making some big shifts. And he was very thoughtful
about it, and so he he got ahead.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Of the curb.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
I think a while other institutions were still kind of
contemplating what do we do and.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
How do we know?
Speaker 4 (15:22):
What is the stake going to do and what are
our partners Like he just said, no, we are moving
and he started making big shifts and he started cutting
the fat. He started making changes where the organization didn't
need to be anymore. He started partnering with other hospitals,
working with Dartmouth, and you know, the number of beds
that was empty at Gifford when he started it was crazy,
(15:43):
like you know, they have I think twenty five or
thirty beds and it was like seventy percent empty and
now it's like almost that capacity. Yeah, Like he's like
people are coming back. When when when people are looking
for primary care physicians, they're going you know, they're going
to they're going to Gifford, and there's no way to
find new primary care physicians. And I mean, don't get
(16:03):
me wrong, there's still challenges, but but he has it
was a listing ship and he has uh you know,
it's it's it's come up right and it's moving. And
he got a huge settlement on an ARPA pending some
litigation or something for eight million dollars.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
You know, that just goes right into the reserves.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
So that hospital is not going anywhere.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
There's no way, no way. He made it crystal clear.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I interviewed him U a couple of months ago, and
he's to folks that are worried that Gifferd's going to
go somewhere, He's like, don't it's not going anywhere. And
he was crystal clear about it. And and that's what's awesome.
Like he's controlled, He controls the narrative, you know, he's
he he the hospital is out in front of it
and uh and and I think that's how it's going
to stay.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
It's beautiful campus. It's not all you know, big skyline stuff.
I mean, it's just it's just nice. It's cozy. You
don't even realize here, you can't believe here come out
of this quaint little town and you're in this incredible
hospital like that.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Right, like you get like the pediatrics hospital is in
a house that's connected. Like you walk in, it's a house,
it's you can see like you could see where there
was a kitchen one day, you know, and and uh
and yeah, so it's it is. It's very Vermont. It's
quintessential Vermont. And uh, yeah, man, we're pretty lucky.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Mark Grosalbo is the Economic Development director for the Tone
of Randoff and the president of the Board of Directors
for the Chandler Center of the Arts. We you know,
we were saying off the air just before we went live. Man,
it's like that exit for either way, either direction you go. Uh,
(17:38):
there's so much history, there's so much heritage. But that's
a it's a long run, uh, to get down into Randolph,
like off the beaten path, a little bit for for Pope,
for for people.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah, look that's a really good point. So so it's
really not. It's about two miles, yes, a couple of miles.
And but it can seem like that.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Because when you're driving on on on on the highway
and you see exit four, there's nothing around, but I know,
it's just it's Wales agriculture, the whales tilS. Jim sardonas
is whales tails. Uh, you know Jim Is. He's a
very active person in her town. He's you could always
see him at the coffee shops, you know, you walk
in and there's.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I've always wanted to have him on the air.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Oh, I'm sure you can. He's awesome.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
He's he's very open. He's uh. And the whales, Yeah,
he did the whaltales and Randolph did the whales tales
up here and procted.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I gotta talk to him.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
He just had a huge exhibit at Chandler a few
months ago. Hundreds of people came and uh, it was
what do you call it when it's a over the
course of your life. Uh, there's a name for that,
when you do a show and it's like with the
workover a span of multi decades. Anyway, I can't think
of it. Haven't enough coffee yet.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
But he did it.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
People came every from everywhere and uh to see him.
And but but it's only a couple of miles down downtown. However,
you have seen in many cases in towns where a
highway has come through that's that's killed the downtown, and
it hasn't been the case for Randolph And and we
have a new hospit I mean a new hotel. I
(19:15):
don't know if you've heard of that. So we have
a sixty four room hotel that is just off the
highway heading up towards Randolph's Center and it was completed.
It just opened a year ago September, and it's been
a it's a huge success. They have partnerships with the
academic institutions, the manufacturing sector, the hospital, and it's we
(19:40):
were so in desperate need of it. And imagine that
in redoff a sixty four room hotel.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
I had no idea.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Yeah, yeah, and it was it wasn't easy for the
investors to do it. It was a twelve or thirteen
million dollar project. It started again, started before the pandemic,
and then the shit hit the fan with the pandemic
and then the cop Then everything reopened at the same time,
and you had this just temporary inflation that just blew
up prices, so everyone had to go back to the
(20:09):
table and figure out costs and a lot of these
projects got destroyed. We had so many projects in the
works during the pandemic. We had a thirteen million dollar
hotel project, we had a nine million dollar childcare project,
we had a fifteen million dollar housing project downtown. Yeah,
it's going to open in January. It's an amazing story.
(20:32):
You're going to hear more about it. That was that
was actually Josh was a part of that when Josh
was at the when when Josh was working for Randolph,
he was working with GMBDC Erica Hoffman Kais and figuring
out how to make that work. Originally it was going
to be a little bit smaller, and then they did
a deal with the college to buy a property and
(20:53):
it'll open in January and eventually they'll have I think
eighty five children are going to be looked after there.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
And it's a huge win for us.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
And somebody just walked by and gave us the finger
just kind of you get a lot of that here.
I don't think he was like looking at us.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
He just happened to you. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
So it's it's gonna be the huge need. The biggest
challenge is that we face not unlike here is childcare,
housing and quality jobs. And we have the facility, the facility.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Up on it.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
So it's on Route sixty six, just as you're heading
down into town. That will that's gonna totally support the
need for childcare. We've got another one that opened just
a year prior that was for eighteen kids, and we
have another one opening that's going to serve forty. So
that issue, I think we're going to we've satisfied the
demand at least in the short term. But housing is
(21:53):
still the challenge. It's a shit show. And our downtown
housing Authority render very Communit Development Corporation has been working
on two big projects and they've come up with some snags.
They you know, they they they promised the community fifty
new housing units and it looks like we're getting twelve.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
And so it's I'm not going to say it's their fault.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
It's just it's a hard business the whole. I'll talk
about a healthcare system that's broken, like the the housing,
the way housing is built in Vermont. I was I
had breakfast or lunch yesterday with the Josh Hanford. So
Josh Hanford has been around for a long time. He's
he's very politically involved and like he he he had
(22:38):
his commentary was, it's just a system that is you know,
the it. We can't build these, we can't build houses,
and we can't focus only on on on low income
houses without focusing on the middle market of housing. We
can't do this without having some of the private sector
involved and have some sort of incentive for them to
be able to make a little money in the process.
(22:59):
You know, this project cost nine million dollars and we
have twelve rental units that are that that we're that
we're that we're getting to the public and it's been
you know, that is not enough.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
You know, it's unacceptable. And but so many it's.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
A ship show. So that the childcare stuff we're doing good.
The housing we're still we're still in trouble. We have
a lot of work to do there. But the quality
jobs we have with.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Workforce development seems like it's generally okay.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Yeah, it's really good. We've got probably we have the
largest uh again, if you're tired of talking to Randolph.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
You just say so now you're here, man, Yeah, all right, good.
Speaker 4 (23:39):
So we have we have the largest engineering firm in
the state housed in Randolph. D. Bois and King fantastic company.
They employ one hundred and fifty people and these are
really good jobs. These are smart engineers.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
They they recruit wisely, very uh smart upper management in
the C suite, always thinking about ways to keep their
employees happy. You know, they'll get people that come in
and they're in Randolph for a while and they're young,
and they'll be like, ah, you know, I need more,
and they'll they'll move them that relocate them up in
Burlington for a while. But it's great because they can
(24:14):
hire people and offer lifestyle choices that they're looking for.
And if they're in Randolph, they want to have that
high brow notion again of living a better life, a
quiet life where there's little agriculture. You get some land,
you can build a garden and have some privacy. You
can live downtown. I mean we are truly a fifteen
minute community. And that that I mean you live. You
(24:35):
can walk to the grocery store, you can walk to
the schools, you can walk to culture. And that is
like there are very few towns in Vermont that are
truly a fifteen minute community. And so I lost my
train of thought.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
But that's.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
It's so quaint.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Oh d NK and the businesses sorry, I mean no, no,
go ahead.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
Yeah, So before I forget. The manufacturing sector is very,
very hearty.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
We've got New England.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
Precision is probably one of the more successful machine uh
fabricating companies in the state. They make tens of millions.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Of parts over the course of a year.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
You know, those the little metal component and when you
flyss you floss your your your teeth, that little thing
where you break the floss inside. They're all made there,
like tens of millions of them right there. Yeah, and
they ship them out to Jay and j and all
these other places. But they make they make components for
the health industry, they make components for the fire industry,
(25:36):
uh fire fire suppression stuff, and probably sixty percent of
their business comes from there. But you know, the company
makes tens of millions of dollars a year and the
town is also a big partner with them to make
sure that they have what they need to be able
to do there, because it's kind of a dirty job.
You know, after they make all the stuff, they have
to wash the parts and the components before that.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
So we uh.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
When I first started, as a matter of fact, just
as Josh Jerome was leaving the ARP fund, there were
a lot of ARP of funds available, and we did
a deal to secure a lot of money for them
to reduce the overall copper and lead content that was
going into the wastewater system because every town has sort
(26:20):
of a limited amount. If you have a system, a
wastewater system, you have a limited amount that you can
put in and we h that's probably kind of boring stuff,
but we so they were hitting our capacity that business alone,
and we figured out a way to lower what they're
bringing into our wastewater system by ninety percent. So now
we can have they can grow and their capacity can
(26:41):
go up enormously over the next few years, and we
can invite other manufacturers to come in. So yeah, we've
got we've got a handful of great manufacturers. And you know,
all these jobs are really good. You don't have to
You can work at the fabrication at a New England
Precision and not be you know, you don't have to
you know, you don't have to go to school for
(27:01):
twenty years to do it. You can start, you can
start slow, and you know, within a few years you're
making a fantastic living. And you know these are you know,
they're it may not be for everybody, but they're good jobs.
And we've got.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
We talked a lot about Gifford about the actual hospital.
I mean there's another big hitter, if not yeah, the
big hitter for randof But but you got the colleges too,
right there. You got the tech center.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
Yep, Yeah, the Vet School yep. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
The tech center is is really important. I think we
need to focus more on that in the coming years.
It's right and connected right to the high school.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
I don't even fully understand how the academic institutions are
going to sort of fall into place in the coming years.
But I'm hoping that given the way Randolph is situated
that we are going to we'll be able to support
the communities that will perhaps be coming into into Randolph
(28:02):
to educate their kids. As this, you know, something has
to give the micro schools and all the stuff that
the smaller towns that you know, it's very difficult when
the cost of education is going this way and the
enrollment is going this way. And I've been here for
twenty years and those lines.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Have not changed. Yeah, you know, cost keeps going up.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
And the enrollment is just it's stable and it's falling
and or so it's falling and you know, that's not
a winning scenario.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
So it's hard.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
You know, it's very complicated, but the school system that
the tech program is is very important. The more and
more people are identifying with that kind of work as
being meaningful. You know, when we were kids, you know,
if you were you know, you don't know what to
do with yourself. You got into the trades, you know,
if you had parents that were paying attention, you're like, oh,
(28:54):
you're going to go to college, You're going to go
do this. But that's not how it is anymore. People
recognize these are good jobs.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Yeah, he's a good jobs. They're meaningful.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
You get up in the morning, you go out, you
bust your ass all day, you feel good. You can
quantify the result, and it's a good life.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Boy, what a concept.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
My son, my older son, he's a he's a sophomore
at UVM and he's a business major. But he works
for Chimney Savers. During the summer, he's out busting his ass.
He's out building chimneys. He loves it. He absolutely loves it.
He wakes up in the morning, he goes, he's outside,
he comes home, he's tired, but he just feels good.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
He loves the work.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
And you know what, the guy's at Chimney Savers. They
can make eighty ninety grand a year. Yeah right, that
is crazy, right, eighty ninety grand a year for working hard.
But still forty hours a week, you're you're not out.
Maybe fifty if you've got a big job, you know
you're working.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
But but well, once you once you have that skill set,
once you've learned that, you can work for somebody else,
but you can also start your own business. Yeah, start
your plumbing business.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Yeah, plumbing whatever.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
The guys that own Chimney Savers have shared stories with me,
just what you're saying. Guys will go in, they'll work
there for five, ten years, and they go off, they
break out on their own. You know there's enough work
that they can do that. Oh yeah, it's because it's hard.
Not everybody wants to get up on a on a
roof and repair a chimney or so these jobs are
always going to be in demand.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
So yeah, always, you're absolutely right. I love the fact
that Randolph It's got that little quaint movie theater at
the pizza shop right next door. What's the Village Pizza
I think?
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Yeah, yeah, so absolutely fantastic. The Playhouse Theater is the
oldest theater in the state.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
It is.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Uh, I didn't know that.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Yeah, it's the oldest continuously running theaters, open early eighteen
hundreds and it Yeah, it's got a great story. The
two owners or these two guys that are just super
dedicated to bringing good movies and to town.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
And yeah, I think of the Savoy too.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
That's it's just like the Savoy.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
Yeah, the Savoy has these two great theaters they got
they've got great independent films.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
They also have other stuff.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
And yeah, I mean a town of five thousand people,
we've got we've got a movie theater, We've got a
bowling alley.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah right, we've got Chandler. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
So in that little that little market there right around
the corner from Half Village.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Pizza there, Chef's Market.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Yes, yeah, yeah, pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
It is awesome.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
It's uh that so so we architecture. Oh it's We've
had a lot of good investment in in town over
the years. And that was Sam Samas.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
So.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Sam is the guy who owned three Stallion back in
the day.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
And uh, you.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
Know, Sam invested a lot of money in our town
and he was a believer and he he.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Took the depot.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
He had a chef at at three Stallion who he
really liked and believed and he wanted to open up
a downtown shop and that he did. He probably he
probably dropped eight nine hundred thousand dollars in that building.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
And wow.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
Yeah, and it's uh so what it is today is
a lot of the depots you see in small towns
have been run down. You know, this costs a lot
of money. He yeah, the timing was right like that.
That is a huge asset in our community.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
Absolute one of a kind. Yeah, I love it. Yeah.
And and Bent Hill, which I I don't think I've
actually been to the brewery, but yeah, I forgot actually
that it was there. And that's I'm glad you've reminded
me because I'd love to go check it out.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
Yeah. So it's a sister town just over the border. Uheh.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
You you gotta you gotta head out the dirt roads,
you gotta kind of head up into the woods. But yeah,
it's an absolutely beautiful experience.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
You go up. They've like they make their own beer.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Sure it's all vegetarian food, but you never know it,
Like if you're not a vegetarian. You can still go
there and have like the most amazing food. That's so
cool overlooking these mountains and these beautiful fields, and you know,
they bring entertainment up there. That's another thing in Randolph
we have is a very vibrant artistic scene, not just
(33:15):
with Chandler, but the ancillary stuff. We have five galleries,
We have a lot of performing artists that uh that
write music.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
We have we have the Underground Recording Studio, which.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
I'll tell you what I didn't know about that.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Yeah, So so Vincent is his name, and he won,
you know, the seven Daisies he won, He won the
best Small Recording Studio in the State seven Daisies Award.
Really yeah, in Randolph.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
So uh yeah, wow, I'm trying to keep track of
all this. It's so cool.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
And what was the other thing I was? I was
just gonna ask you, like, what opportunities right now do
we have in Randolph for somebody who wants to start
a biz, A small a small bass.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Have you got some store front?
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Yeah we do, Yeah, we we have. We have one
main which was our Anchor restaurant right on the corner
of Main Street and Merchant's Row. Closed and so that
that space is available. So we also have we have
almost three thousand square feet of space on Merchant's Row
that is unbuilt, undeveloped, and we also lost our one
(34:27):
of our drug stores right aid, so that space is available.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
So yeah, we have we have.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Some space for small business and for some bigger endeavors.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
What's the summer like in Randolph. Summer summertime in Randolf, Well.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
It's brief, like like like like summers in Vermont, It's
pretty brief.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
But yeah, we uh it, you know, it's a it's insane.
Speaker 4 (34:53):
It's beautiful. There's we have a very vibrant biking and
hiking scene. We we have, we've invested. When I first started,
we had a we had a grant with Again this
goes back to Joshua Jerome.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Joshua was working with Department of Marketing.
Speaker 4 (35:12):
And Tourism, I think it was doing the work program.
So we've had two Warick grants. One was the most
recent one we did was actually to help build the
Velamont Trail, a ten mile stretch of the Velamont Trail
which eventually Randolf will connect to.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
That's the long trail that runs through the state.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
But Prior to that, we did a we did a
trek up near the college where you can go up
and have like this this biking experience up there and
tons of different trails. So in the summertime we have
a very active lifestyle. We have a lot of people
that do a lot of biking, a lot of running,
and all these trails come. Welch was in our town
(35:51):
cut like about a year ago, and he's he made
a joke. He's like, sooner or later all the roads
end up in Randolph. He says, yeah, yeah, Like, well
it's not just the roads, it's the bike trails too,
and and uh so people love it because you can
you can you can sort of stay downtown, you can
connect to other towns, but you can also head out
into the woods.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
You could.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
We've got tons of trails that are actually if you
have a mountain bike and you want just a little
piece of of what it's like to be out in
the woods on a trail, you.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Have that cross country ski trails.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
Ski trails. We've got an eighteen hole golf course which.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
In the winter time people love to snowshoe out there,
and so people golf people, don't you guys.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Have a a farmer's market in the summer.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
Yeah, we do, uh, we have a farmer's market. It's
again Gifford plays a very strong role in our community
and they have they've had their farmers market up on
their campus for a long time.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
And yeah, what what shows should we highlight that are
coming up? I think you alluded to a few of
them earlier, but at the at the Chandler.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Like, oh god, Well, what I would recommend is you
go to the website and you look and see what
see what they've got going, and you decide what you want.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
We'll be coming out with a.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
New program for for twenty twenty six soon, so you'll
get a chance to see what's going on. But yeah,
check out the website. See there's generally a wide variety
of things that you can see there.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
There's we were talking before about the opera that was
just there.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
How often can you see a full opera in Romans,
you know, so this was this was just amazing. It
was we have opera, we have the ballet comes the
key of Keiev Ballet will be there doing Nutcracker freely soon.
That's always a popular one that will sell out. So
you go on the website, take a look and see, uh,
you know, see what what interests you.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
You guys have met the Nutcracker there frequently?
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Yea?
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Is it every year?
Speaker 4 (37:45):
Yeah, it's a popular one. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty popular
to your listeners. We actually were looking for five new
board members in the next six months. We have a
number of board members at Chandler that have been there
for most decades that are retiring, and so if you
go onto the website, you can if you know anybody
(38:07):
that you think would be a good fit to be
on the board of Chandler, you can nominate them. You
can also nominate yourself if you want, and I'll reach
out to them. We'll sit down, we'll talk a little bit,
and we want to we want to fill those five
seats by.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
February if we can.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
So.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Yeah, if you know anybody that's interested in participating, we'd
love to.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Good to know, it's good to know. I want to
go back to summertime for Randolph, because don't we have
like one of the few remaining drive in movie theaters
and in Randolph.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
We have a drive in.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Yeah, yeah, I should go more often. Yeah, it's pretty well.
They've got the technology.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
They just did it.
Speaker 4 (38:49):
They just figured out a way to come up with
the technology to keep it current or whoever.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
Yeah, my kids love it.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
You know, they go up.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
But in the summer, the summer, it doesn't get darks
on nine o'clock. You go up see it, you see yeah,
you see two movies. You know, you pack out at
one o'clock in the morning. Yeah, it's got one of
these old buses in the back.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
You know, you can go get snacks and popcorns and yeah,
it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
That's so nostalgic from hot right. Yeah, yeah, and then
and there, you know, there's not many the fairly drive in. Uh.
We had to close it out last last hour.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
So that's too bad.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
You know, that's it. I think it's it's Randolph and
I think it's Colchester. If I'm not mistaken for driving movie.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Wow, that's too bad, because it is.
Speaker 4 (39:34):
I mean, it's one of the things that especially as parents,
we love that because that's something.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
We did the kid.
Speaker 4 (39:39):
Yeah, and it also it also gets kids away from
their phones. Sure, like yeah, they're they're they're spending time
with their friends.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Yeah. Uh, you know, they're just yeah, we need to
get away from that.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
I understand. Believe me. I have an eleven year old
girl and what she loved that tablet constant struggle all
the time. Yeah, but yeah, get the kids out of
the house and and get them to to see some
great entertainment, some art. Uh, get into the Chandler. It
doesn't matter if you're in Randolph, the White River, wherever,
(40:12):
the heck Saint Chay, run down and check out the Chandler. Yeah,
you guys have so much happening and anything else from
from economic development that we want to wrap up with.
For Randolph, I mean, it's it's a town that's growing.
Speaker 4 (40:28):
Yeah, it is growing. It looks great, Yeah, it's there.
The the development is it's it's slow, but it's growing.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (40:36):
The the folks that do the census work, uh often
stop into our office and and talk with us, and
they said, of all the towns that we look at
in terms of the zoning activity, they said that Randolph
has is the most consistent grower of housing of projects.
And they said it's not you know, it's not like
ten percent a year or anything, but it's you know,
there's constantly projects that are going. So I guess what
(40:59):
I would say about Randolph is if you're looking for.
If you're looking for a place to live to have
some interesting yuh an interesting life, it's worth considering. And
you know, there isn't anyone there isn't any one big
project that's gigantic, but there's there's uh. One of the
things Michael Costa said recently and when I was talking
(41:20):
to him, was you know, the community has to show up, right,
You have to take responsibility for your part in a community.
And I think that what what what I see in
our town is we have so many people that are
so deeply connected and want to see Randolph thrive. And
so that is like it's hard to quantify that, but
(41:40):
when you come into our town and you start to
you start to get to know people.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
That is the draw. That's the draw in.
Speaker 4 (41:47):
Our community and or and and that's a you know,
that's an authentic, organic thing that you can't take away.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
Folks that want to maybe chat with you or or
email you, get in touch with you, maybe they want
to meet with you, and they have some ideas or
some interest in Randolph. What's the best way.
Speaker 4 (42:07):
Well, probably email just Mark at randolphet dot org. That's
the easiest way to reach me. And then I'll get
back to you, back to them as soon as I can.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Yeah, great chatting with you, man, it was. It was
fun having Rusty in here yesterday and uh.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Pretty big chef. Yeah yeah, I'm a little more boring.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Than Russ Is. Is an interesting, interesting dude. But he
loves the Chandler. He loves coming to random.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
Yeah man, he he He cut his teeth in Randolph.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
He cut his teeth. He worked, He worked with way back,
he worked with.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Mc meekan and the folks there like he he there's
some of the some of his live shows that he like.
He made a lot of money selling CDs.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Back in the day. Lckbuster. There's some good stuff, man, everyone.
Speaker 4 (42:59):
So I'll listen to them because he's just it's just
fun to listen to. But he he taped one of
those that Chandler in fact, yea and yeah, yeah, yeah,
he taped it there man, and he you know, he
was on fire and yeah. So we're very lucky to
I think, you know, sometimes people take for granted some
of the old folks that have been around for a
(43:19):
long time.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
You know. I think Rusty, like Rusty Rusty is.
Speaker 4 (43:25):
A perfect example of an artist who learned how to
totally create a business for himself. And you know, he
goes back to the days with bud Bill, David bud
Bill and working with Judevin, you know, developing that character.
And you know what he said to me once, he says,
he said bud Bill was a writer, and I said,
I can be a writer.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (43:45):
He's like David just David would sit down and write
shit down and he said I could sit down and
write ship and then he started to yeah, and then
he's like you and David knew how to market himself.
Bud Bill like he knew how to tell his story.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
Yeah, and that's a gift. He said.
Speaker 4 (44:02):
Another thing he said to me said people artists don't
care about They think it's beneath them to promote themselves.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
You know, I'm an artist.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
He's like, if you don't, if people don't see your work,
what do you have?
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (44:13):
And Rusty like he's I.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
Know, man, Best O'Brien and Jay Craven. I mean, this
is this is the powerhouse, yea of what what can
come creatively out of the hills of Vermont.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
For sure, absolutely great stuff.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Man.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
Listen, anything you've got going on in Randolph that you
want some some push on get in touch with me,
regardless of what it is, especially channel stuff. I'll be
paying more attention to what's coming. But great chatting with
you man, and and getting to know you Mark Uh.
Real pleasure. I read, as I said, I read the
(44:52):
story about you Uh in the the world and I
was like, that's an interesting guy right there, should be
aired out. Thanks for coming in here today, man, Thank you,
pleasure to meet you. Mark Risolbo. I am saying that correctly, right,
you got it. And he's the executive director over at
the Chandler.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
And actually that's Chloe Chloe Power, president of the board.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
You're president of the board of director, yes, that's right,
and Economic Development director for the ton of Randolph. Great
having you in here. Thanks and come back soon.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
I will for sure,
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