About the Lamoille Economic Development Corporation
The Lamoille Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) is a private not-for-profit corporation sponsored by Lamoille County businesses and municipalities as well as the State of Vermont. Our Mission is to strengthen the county’s economy through facilitating the creation and expansion of jobs and businesses and investing for the prosperity of Lamoille County communities.
Our services are available to all businesses in all commercial sectors whether they are existing businesses looking to expand, start-ups or businesses seeking to relocate to Lamoille County.
Lamoille County’s assets include a strong entrepreneurial spirit, a firm sense of community, and many physical amenities. 70 million people, including those in the major metropolitan areas of Boston, New York, and Montreal, live within a 500-mile radius of the county.
Lamoille County offers easy road access to markets via Interstate 89. Air options include Morrisville-Stowe State Airport (MLV), located at the center of the county, Burlington International Airport, just 45 minutes away, and Montreal’s Mirabel and Trudeau (formerly Dorval) International Airports, 90-120 minutes away by road. The Port of Montreal is the most direct land-sea route between the vast markets of the Northeast and those of Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.
Getting Connected
Many Lamoille County towns offer wireless Internet access, as well as DSL and cable. While not all reaches of the county have that technology, former Governor Jim Douglas chose Elmore as the first location for his initiative to bring broadband to all corners of the state. Fairpoint and Comcast are the main telecommunications service providers. Cellular phone service providers AT&T and Verizon continue to expand their coverage across the region.
Lamoille County is served by numerous providers of electricity, from the trans-regional Green Mountain Power and Vermont Electric Co-op to Johnson Water & Light, Hyde Park Electric, Morrisville Water and Light, and Stowe Electric. Propane, fuel and heating oil, and diesel are available from a number of providers.
Lamoille County is served by a number of newspapers. The News & Citizen (Morrisville) and Stowe Reporter are both weekly subscription newspapers. The Transcript, published by the same company as The News & Citizen, is a free weekly sent throughout the county. The Mountain Gazette, published twice a month in Underhill, Vermont, covers Cambridge and Jeffersonville. In addition, Jeffersonville is the home of Backcountry Magazine, which covers backcountry skiing nation-wide.
The LEDC’s partners include the region’s community development organizations: Johnson Works Community Organization, Inc., the Stowe Area Association, the Lamoille Region Chamber of Commerce, the Smugglers’ Notch Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Morrisville Alliance for Culture and Commerce.
Community
Lamoille County’s health care needs are met by a number of providers. Copley Hospital, located in Morrisville, is a Critical Access Hospital, with affiliate practices in a number of clinical specialties, including orthopedics, cardiology, and obstetrics and gynecology. Other clinical specialties are available because Copley Hospital is an outreach site for UVM Medical Center, the state’s only academic and research hospital. In addition, health centers and dental practices can be found throughout the county. Orthodontist and oral surgery practices are located in Stowe.
Lamoille County’s commitment to education is evident in the renovation and reconstruction projects recently undertaken at many schools in the region. Bishop John A. Marshall School is a private, Catholic school serving students in grades preK-8. The local public schools offer a preschool-high school education. People’s Academy, Stowe High School, and Lamoille Union Middle and High School, the region’s secondary schools, vary in size, but each offers a quality education. They share access to the Green Mountain Technology and Career Center, which offers a wide variety of technical education opportunities, many of which include internships with local businesses and industries. Mount Mansfield Winter Academy (co-educational) and the North American Hockey Academy (girls only), both located in Stowe, offer specific programs to high-school-aged student-athletes.
Post-secondary education opportunities in the county include Johnson State College and Morrisville campus of Community College of Vermont and near by Sterling College .Other opportunities are available in adjacent Chittenden County: the home of the University of Vermont, St. Michael’s College, Champlain College, and the VTC campus in Williston.
Lamoille County has attracted a lively arts community. The Vermont Studio Center in Johnson provides visual artists, writers, and poets with retreat space. Johnson State College’s Dibden Center hosts art exhibits and performances of all sorts. River Arts in Morrisville and the Cambridge Arts Council offer the region a variety of arts experiences, from concerts to classes to book discussion groups and performances. Helen Day Arts Center in Stowe produce exhibits, offer art classes and host special arts events. Stowe Theater Guild and the Lamoille County Players perform regularly in their respective venues. In addition, art galleries abound in the county’s villages, especially Jeffersonville and Stowe.
Vermont in Every Season
No matter what the season, Lamoille County offers abundant recreational opportunities. Stowe Mountain Resort is in the middle of massive expansion to offer more condominiums, restaurants, and five-star hotel, as well as a brand new 18-hole private golf course. Smugglers’ Notch, Vermont, America’s Family Resort consistently ranks as the #1 family resort in the Northeast.
We aren’t called the “Ski Capital of the East” for nothing. Both Mount Mansfield’s Stowe Mountain Resort, and Smugglers’ Notch Resort in Jeffersonville are major skiing and snowboarding havens, offering the absolute best in skiing and riding.
Other favorite Lamoille County winter activities include ice fishing on our own Lake Eden, Lake Elmore, Belvidere Pond, and Green River Reservoir. Lamoille County is home to a major intersection in the VAST (Vermont Association of Snow Travelers) trail network that serves the snowmobiling population. Lamoille County is also the birthplace of the Primitive Biathlon and hosts an annual dog-sled race.
Spring and summer are great times to boat, fish, and swim in or on our many rivers, ponds, and lakes. Numerous campgrounds and state parks, and a stretch of the Vermont’s Long Trail offer various opportunities to be active in the outdoors. The county’s many miles of back roads, as well as main roads with wide shoulders, the Lamoille Valley region offer prime bicycling. In addition, the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail is currently under construction. When it is complete, it will provide a year-round, all weather, seamless, off-road, multi-use, trail stretching 93 miles from St. Johnsbury to Swanton. Completion date is not available at this time.
In the autumn, the changing foliage puts on a gorgeous display of color that attracts thousands of people on bus tours. This stream of “leaf peepers” makes the fall season very successful for many area businesses.
For more information about Lamoille County and the LEDC, contact info@lamoilleeconomy.org