In my town of Fairfax, Vermont, there are many historical areas that hold meaning. The town was founded in 1763 and has many remnants of the past. On example is mill brook, which cuts through the center of the village in town. Most of these buildings are well over 100 years old and center around this brook and where it feeds into the Lamoille River. On one of the winding banks of mill brook, amongst the many waterfalls, there is a large stone sitting out of place on the grass. It is cylindrical and stout and has a large hole in the center of the stone. This is an abandoned millstone, and when the mill was no longer of use. The wooden supports and platform that stood on the bank have since rotted away, and all that remains is a significant cut in the stony bank where a building might have sat, and a large wheel of stone further down the hill. This really gives a sense of what the town was like, where all the buildings are heavily clustered around the mill, and near the mouth of where the brook meets the Lamoille. Up the river a mile, there is an excavation site for native American artifacts. Humans have always settled nears rivers for food and fresh water, so it makes sense the way almost all towns in Vermont have a river running through or near them. Since coming to UVM, I learned a lot more about the sandy areas of Fairfax and how they were dredged up by glaciers and at some point, were the shores of lake Vermont. Something since leaving for college is the dramatic and fast changes happening to my town. It is quickly becoming more urban with cul-de-sacs popping up throughout town as more and more people move to Fairfax. Population growth is ok, and Fairfax is a prime location being 40 minutes from Burlington and the border. Fairfax has always had three convenience/gas station stores and one restaurant. But in the last few months, a Dollar General has popped up out of nowhere. Most of the community is outraged from it since it will detract from the sales of our local businesses and hardware store. But this is a part of the change that occurs in the transition from rural to urban areas. I have no doubt Fairfax will expand, but I don’t think that it will ever grow to the size of other American suburbs. This is Vermont, after all. But this sleepy town that I call home is changing, and with the introduction of chains and non-family run business, it changes the identity of Fairfax. For poorer people in the community who cannot afford to commute 20 minutes to the nearest supermarket or general store, this is a massive convenience, and many of the things found in Dollar General cannot be found anywhere else in the town. So it has its benefits, it is hideous, it is competing with local business, and it’s a sign of the changing times in Fairfax. The growth in young families moving in, and the expansion of the elementary school all signify it. These changes in the town’s environment make the town feel less rural and more like its neighbor Milton, though it is far from that level of development, we just added a new sidewalk, and that is a huge deal for the town, doubling the paths available.
In Fairfax, I am attached to the rural and cozy feeling I have always had from there. I feel that if the population expands too much that the friendly small-town attitude will shift into one where people care less about their interactions with others like in a city. You don’t mind honking at all the time at someone you will never see again, but everyone in Fairfax lives there, and likely knows you, so that small town small world feeling actually preserves the kind and patient to others attitude that I have grown up with and enjoy seeing every time I go back. My biggest fear for my town is that it will disappear. Development is natural and good for the local economy, but I enjoy having a place separate from the chores and stores. I wouldn’t want to be surrounded by the flow of people coming into our town to go to some new box store. Our town has one road that runs through it, and there is an intersection with a single blinking light. If there were significant traffic through Fairfax, the local infrastructure in the village would need to be completely redesigned, and it would alter the town’s historic houses entirely. One of the oldest buildings (an old general store) already was demolished because it caused a blind spot coming out of a road that should have been a one way anyways. Also, our fire department and rescue team are small, underfunded, and can barely handle operating on the town itself. We don’t even have a police presence. One cruiser from Saint Albans comes over and patrols for half an hour then leaves.
