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The Statistics are Staggering

On Sept. 16, I attended a special meeting of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Council of Governments (RiverCOG) to hear a presentation by the organization LEARN on declining school enrollment. This is a problem not just in Chester, but in all 14 towns in the lower Connecticut River Valley (CRV) and across Connecticut. The statistics are staggering and right now the solutions are few.

Also at that meeting I learned about GrowSMART, an economic growth strategy for the Lower Connecticut River Valley. On Sept. 23, I attended its first regional summit at the Riverhouse at Goodspeed. GrowSMART has done, and is continuing to do, research to gain insight on numerous issues facing the lower Connecticut River Valley. Now it needs your readers’ help.

What do your readers see as the lower CRV’s strengths? Weaknesses? Opportunities? What do they value most about the area? I encourage everyone to attend GrowSMART’s upcoming workshops posted on our Facebook page Linn/Englert Leadership that Listens. I challenge everyone to go to GrowSMART’s website www.growsmartregion.org to learn about the study and complete the survey, thereby giving it more information to develop its growth strategy. After all, helping them is helping us! How smart is that?

Carolyn Linn

Chester

Carolyn Linn is the Republican candidate for first selectman.