by Don Keelan
From a physical landscape perspective, Vermont offers interesting views: mountains, lakes, rivers, and miles of working farmland. In contrast, semi-congested urban areas begin on VT RT 7, entering Shelburne and extending northward to Burlington and its surrounds.
The above is obvious with the latter ever-increasing in size. What is unapparent is the decline in services and the aging population in Vermont’s rural towns and villages. An ever-so-subtle phenomenon.
Two news reports were published in early November: Copley Hospital closed its birthing center, and, second, and closer to home, the Bennington-Rutland Supervisory School Board voted (11-2) to close in June 2026 two elementary schools located in Danby and Sunderland, Vermont.
It was expected that the BRSU’s decision would be made in light of the changes that may result from ACT 73. The closing of rural schools is not the only casualty in rural Vermont.
My hometown of Arlington has also witnessed change ever so subtly, over the past 30 years.
Arlington, a few years ago, had its own representative to the Vermont Statehouse. The town became a casualty of redistricting.
Then the town had four gas/service stations, now it has two. The town once prided itself on having four houses of worship; there are only three today. Some 15 years ago, the Burlington Diocese of the Catholic Church decided to close the town’s church, rectory, and church hall—a lack of priests and a sustained weekly decline in church attendance were the justification.
Two decades ago, the long-time town pharmacy closed its well-frequented store, and so did the town’s only law firm. These were followed by five of the town’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner establishments closing their doors and not replaced.
Several important corporate employers have also ceased operating within the town: the closing of the century-old Hale Furniture Company. Then last year, and more impactful, the Orvis Company closed its 30-year-old, 58,000 square foot headquarters building (physically in Sunderland), the former workplace for 300 employees.
However, the most substantial change in Arlington has been in the enrollment of our elementary, middle, and high schools.
In the mid 1990s, this columnist was co-chair of our district’s high school building committee charged with developing construction plans for major building renovations. In that role, it was required to provide a 10-year forecast on enrollment. The school board was in disbelief when the results showed the district’s enrollment forecast declined from 600+ students to 350 in seven years—it happened in five years.
The district, at last March’s town meeting, had a population of 398 students ,including 43 Pre-K, which was not part of the enrollment statistics 30 years ago.
What has taken place in Arlington may be taking place in other rural Vermont areas. What has occurred at Copley Hospital and in the BRSU area is closely tied to a decline in young families in the areas served.
When the Arlington school building committee presented its findings to the school board in 1994, the board was in complete denial that there would be such an enrollment decrease. And therein lies the problem, then and 30 years later— rural towns and villages in denial.
At the risk of sounding redundant and incurring the wrath of readers from many rural communities, I will continue to call out the crisis rural Vermont is facing today.
Rural areas need infrastructure that will provide much-needed housing, which in turn will attract employers who will then bring us young families. It should not be all that complex—with one exception, the challenge of changing the status quo.
There is good news in Arlington that has been provided by four nonprofit organizations in recent years; the opening of a first-class animal shelter, an annual farmers market, a FQHC clinic and recently, the re-purposing of the former Catholic Church property into a performance hall(church), meeting/art center (rectory), and a fitness/health/sports complex (church hall).
What is needed is the recognition that rural communities are in stormy waters and work to get out of harm’s way.
The author is a U.S. Marine (retired), CPA, and columnist living in Arlington, VT.