Any Vermont dopers feel like helping me out? (Possible relocation)

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hey Dopers…

I’m looking for a new job because my current one is grant funded and (as everyone knows) grants do come to an end. While I’m probably safe from the first rounds of layoffs due to necessity and restructuring, I may eventually be on the list. I’d like to preemptively find another position, but I’m probably going to have to relocate to do so.

So today I found a job, and in general that is no big deal, but I’m really well qualified, I would like the position, and I’m relatively confident that I will at least get a phone interview or a call back. This has happened before but I didn’t end up getting the job, but those were all in places I knew or had visited before, so I could gather some information and feel comfortable with the idea of moving there or not. This one is in Vermont. I’ve never been to Vermont, but I hear it is nice. It is in the Hartford area and I know nothing about it. What is living there like? Are there things I should consider before I apply/interview/move? What do you think I should know before I do this? I know nobody there, but my family is willing to move (well, my wife…my son is only 3 and he only gets a half vote because he would move anywhere we asked him to…)

Thanks!
Brendon Small

2

I live about 15 miles away from Hartford. Whether or not you’ll like it here depends hugely upon what kind of person you are. If you’re a big city type, thriving on the urban nightlife vibe, then you’ll loathe it. If you like peace, quiet, natural beauty, and more peace and quiet, then it’s heaven.

Hartford itself is essentially part of White River Junction, and on the other side of the river, West Lebanon, New Hampshire. The nice thing about this is that these towns are the closest thing to an urban center we have until you get to Concord NH (~an hour away) or Burlington VT (a little farther). Everyone for miles around comes to that area for shopping. It’s where the few fast food outlets, the Walmart, and the Home Depot are. That area has a small-town sort of feel. WRJ is known as sort of an artsy kind of place. It was on a list of Americas’ top 10 small towns a few years back because it has artist studios, a theater group, and stuff like that. I should also point out that the whole area is quite close to Dartmouth College, if you weren’t aware, which is why I’m here.

Now, in my opinion, you’d be a fool to live actually in town. If you’re going to go the rural New England route, go all the way, and move to somewhere out in the country. My house is in an area that’s right on the border between small neighborhood and rural farm country. I love it there. It’s the kind of place where I can wander around in the backyard in my underwear if I really want to, and no one locks their doors. Our neighbor left for a two week vacation and left all the doors unlocked, because “If anyone really wants in, a lock won’t stop them.” The sky at night is unbelievable when it’s clear. We’ve started gardening because our soil is so amazingly good it would be criminal not to. We’re half a block from the Appalachian Trail, and there are trails everywhere. Vermont residents are virtually required to own a kayak, canoe, and snowmobile. If that’s the sort of thing that appeals to you, then this is a great place.

There are drawbacks, of course. Cost of living is higher than I expected. Property taxes are high, though New Hampshire has no sales tax, at least. Heating costs are going through the roof as well. Winters are, frankly, miserable. I’ve lived through three now. The first one wasn’t too bad, though there were a couple of big storms. The second one was actually incredibly mild. This last one, well, I wanted to kill someone by the end. We had snow on our lawn until the first of April, and for most of the winter it was up to my waist. Generally, you know spring is coming when it’s no longer physically painful to be outside. The other major drawback in my opinion is the driving. Everything is far away. To run to the shops for some milk takes an hour, so proper planning is important. Oh, and food. There are simply no good restaurants around. There are some OK ones, but no great ones. It’s even difficult to find certain ingredients in the stores sometimes.

On the other hand, autumn is utterly amazing and beautiful. There are farms all over the place where you can get good fresh produce (though it’s usually not as cheap as you think it should be).

I don’t know. As I said, it depends on what you want out of life. Me, I love it here. My wife would too if it weren’t for the winters. If you have other more specific questions, I’ll do my best.

3

Well, you may have just sold me.

We live in southern Ohio now, in one of the state’s smaller villages. We both grew up near here and have lived other places, but moved back home when we both found jobs here. To be honest, until I bought a house (for example, when I lived with my parents) I never knew people locked their doors unless they were going out of state. It’s a small town here but I don’t mind cities. Right now, even in great weather, to get to a real grocery store, I need a 40 minute drive. Sure, there is a store in the village, but everyone knows the food costs almost double there, so it ends up being cheaper to drive. Fast food and whatnot are not too big of a deal, as we live 20 miles from any chain fast food place now and only really eat at them when we are out for work or shopping reasons. The canoeing and kayaking sound nice. I’ve done a bit of it when I was younger and we recently started taking my students again this summer. As a family, we spend a lot of time outdoors, especially me and my son. If I was going to move up there, I assume there are places where one would want to live and where one wouldn’t, and I generally try to gauge what to do based on house prices, school ratings, and the like. Artsy stuff is cool, especially if it is music. I’ve played music my whole life and miss doing it as much now.

I notice housing prices seem to be rather high. Here, we bought a 3-4 bedroom, 1 bath house - around 1200 sq. ft. - for less than 75k. I think the cheapest 3 bedroom I saw near there was around 100k. Also, the crime rate seemed low, which may account for the unlocked doors, but that made me feel a little better about it. Ohio winters aren’t too bad here, but we are in the hills. North of here, where my parent’s summer home is, we get waist high drifts and whatnot, but by the end of March it is clear. I don’t mind the cold, I suppose, but I hate driving in the snow if I can help it. The job is listed as White River Junction, but no address, so I don’t know exactly where, but I’d love to not have to drive too far to work. Hell, I’d love to be able to bicycle to work, but in the winter that is a little bit rough here, so I imagine it would be there.

Now, for the weird question - are there a lot of social service type places there? My wife has a BA, an MS, and is getting another masters to be a licensed counselor. She has been a case manager for about 5 years, and enjoys the work (but not our particular population). In some places, there are social service type of jobs every week in the newspapers, but in others there are none (for example, here there is the public/government jobs that are already filled, one non-profit, and two counseling centers within three counties, but not much else - jobs are kind of non-existent in her field other than for the company we work for or the one we partner with).

Thanks so much already though.

Brendon Small

4

White River has a large VA hospital, and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center is about ten miles away. Both are major installations, and probably have a bunch of social service needs. I think White River also probably has the various state benefits offices and the like.

You may find cost of living and especially taxes lower on the New Hampshire side of the river. White River (and Hartford) is right on the border, within easy driving distance.

5

Housing prices are high. Everyone who lives here is opposed to development and building new homes, but employers like Dartmouth-Hitchcock continue to expand, so prices have been going up. Our realtor said the last time there was a real housing boom was in the 1980s.

As for social services, I don’t know much about that beyond what BC said. I know there’s a womens’ shelter nearby. There’s also a motel in Hartford that serves as a subsidized homeless shelter, and they’re looking to open up a prison halfway house in that area too. Hartford proper is looking a little economically depressed at the moment… So, yeah, I can think of a few places around here that do that sort of thing, but I haven’t a clue what the job prospects are like in the field. I have to say that job prospects around here in general are pretty bleak, unless you’re working for Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Dartmouth College proper has laid off quite a few people in recent years, causing no end of controversy. I know a few people who have been looking for work for a year or more, though they’re generally unskilled.