Keep an eye out at the Town Meeting Day polls! We should have a few people in the morning and evening hours, distributing flyers and raising awareness of the State's plans to build a correctional facility in Essex.
February's PC meeting started and ended basically where we left off at the end of 2024. Essex officials have yet to get meaningful answers to questions posed by the commission and us as a community. The consensus of the Planning Commission was that they can't move the zoning ammendment forward without more information around how a correctional facility will impact area first responders, infrastructure needs, real estate, and over all quality of life in Essex. It's not clear the prison project will be discussed in the next meeting, but it's worth keeping an eye on this page for the release of the upcoming agenda.
On February 7th, VT Department of Buildings and General Services, along with the Department of Corrections, gave a presentation to state legislators on the VT HCI detailing the prison project proposal. This was basically a more detailed version of the presentation given to the Essex Planning Commission in the fall of 2024. BGS Commissioner Minoli and DOC Commissioner Deml painted a rosy picture of the state's engagement with the Town of Essex, characterizing the reception of the prison project as "warm", while seeming to indicate that they don't plan on spending much time trying to answer the questions we as a community have asked.
The entire meeting can be viewed on the HCI's youtube page. Near the end of this video, HCI Chair Emmons points out that everyone presenting in the meeting agrees with the plan to build a prison in Essex, and it is important that the committee hears from people who do not agree. So if you don't agree with this project, please send an email explaining why to:
The Essex House delegation also gets a shout-out in the HCI video for their universal support of building the prison in our community. If you would like to reach out to them, please use the contact info here: