Considering a Move to Burlington / VT (Colchester, Shelburne: city hall, rent, homes)

[danpb]

Greetings!

I've taken time to go through some of these threads, but I found I got a bit lost, so forgive me for starting another "moving to vt?" thread...

In short, my wife and I are residents of Rochester, NY. She is in the education field and I am in the IT field. We are considering a move a: something new and b: job market for teachers here is very tough.

I'm curious how the IT industry is doing in Burlington (and Vermont in general). I'm familiar with .NET and a slew of other IT acronyms/languages (Jack of all trades, master of none sorta thing).

My wife is curious how easy/difficult it would be for her to get a job as a teacher. She is currently finishing up her Math certification (She has a Masters in Education currently) at which point she'd be certified to teach 1-6 General & Special Ed. and 1-12 Math/Special Ed.

Lastly, my wife and I along with my cousin and her fiancee are making a trip up to Burlington in early July and were curious if there were any "must do"s in terms of checking out the city itself and getting a feel for life in Burlington. Probably a very general question, so I apologize in advance.

We appreciate you all taking time to reply to this - looking forward to your replies!

Dan

[vter]

Vermont is not exactly a technology hotbed. There are a few large companies here - GE Healthcare seems to be the most stable. IBM has plant here, but there are rumors of layoffs. The rest of the economy here is mostly small business.
The area also is home to numerous colleges including the UNiversity of Vermont, Champlain, and St. Michael's. The State also has offices in the Burlington area.
I can't help with the teaching aspect.
I would suggest looking at the Seven Days Classifieds online -they seem to have the best job listings - Seven Days | Vermont's Independent Voice. The Burlington Free Press is the major daily - burlingtonfreepress.com | The Burlington Free Press | Burlington news, community, entertainment, yellow pages and classifieds. Serving Burlington, Vermont
Keep in mind that metro Burlington has only about 150,000 or so residents, so our economy is not all that large.

[vter]

re: must sees. The city is not that big, so they won't miss the must sees! Waterfront Park and Church Street Marketplace.

[MassVt]

..but I would also add the Fletcher Allen Heath Care hospital, with the adjacent UVM College of Medicine, as possible employment possibilities.

As far as "must-see" activities, I would suggest UVM, downtown (Church Street), the Webb Museum in Shelburne, the South End neighborhoods (around UVM), and perhaps the Bike Path, which links the South End with the New North End.

[68vette]

Originally Posted by MassVt

..but I would also add the Fletcher Allen Heath Care hospital, with the adjacent UVM College of Medicine, as possible employment possibilities.

As far as "must-see" activities, I would suggest UVM, downtown (Church Street), the Webb Museum in Shelburne, the South End neighborhoods (around UVM), and perhaps the Bike Path, which links the South End with the New North End.

Give the human resources department a call at FAHC. There is a freeze on new hires for most departments in the hospital due to the poor economy right now. Seven Days would be your best option in finding job listings as already mentioned.

[picante]

There is actually a strong demand for folks with .net experience. There are hundreds of small (10-100 people) tech companies in the Burlington area, and many web design companies looking for help with back-end databases. A digital plant closed here about 16 years ago. Many of the former Digitial employees started their own companies rather than relocate. Many other companies have moved here b/c of the quality of life. (There's a company head-quarted her in Burlington that tests jet engines!--there testing facility is in TX I think.) I know the company Timberline Interactive was looking for .net experience last month. I'm sure there are at least 1/2 dozen others. These companies work niche markets, don't have high profiles, and aren't known to people not paying attention.

Burlington has festivals throughout the summer at the waterfront, at battery park, on church street. Things to do:

Get out on the lake, charter a sail boat, take a ferry ride, rent a sailboat at the Sailing Center, take a tour of shipwreck tour ("Lake Champlain Shipwrecks recently won an award for pioneering work as the first operation in North America and second worldwide to connect the general public to shipwrecks through ROV technology." How's that for a tech company and a thing to do in Burlington!), take a kite-surfing lesson, hang out on at either North Beach, Oakledge Park, Redrocks or Leddy Park. Or bike from one to the next and hit the beach at all of them.

Want land based fun? Take a walk through the intervale, bike from Burlington to the Colchester Cut for a picnic lunch, discover the Bolton potholes, or the Shelburne Museum, or Shelburne Farms, Perkins Geology museum, Ethan Allen Homestead, or the farmers market at city hall park. Jump into a game of pick-up Ultimate at Callahan Park, or pick-up soccer at Oakledge park. Hike mount Philo for a quick hike, or camel's hump for something more challenging. Kids love the Echo Center. Do some bouldering or rock-climing at Smuggler's Notch Bolton Notch--if it raining hit the indoor climbing center Petra Cliffs.

If the wind is right when you visit, you can even get yourself into the air paragliding from Cobble Hill.

Then you can enjoy Church street in the evening during dinner.

There are at least 1/2 dozen homes in Burlington's New North End for under $200,000.

Hope this helps.

Pike

[Mary77]

What the heck is "the intervale"? I've heard that mentioned many times during the six years I've been here and I still have no idea what that is.

[vter]

The intervale is an area in Burlington between the old north end and the new north end that is undeveloped - it's basically the flood plain of the Winooski River. There are lots of great hiking and biking paths there as well as community gardens.
If you ever take Route 127 the "Beltway", the intervale is the area to the east of the road.

[Mary77]

Sounds like an interesting place to check out. I've driven to route 127 comming from Mallets Bay to get to the DMV, so I know the area you are talking about, but I don't know exactly where it is. Is there a parking area with a sign that says intervale?

[danpb]

Many thanks everyone!! Great forum you have here .

We actually aren't looking to move right away. My wife is going to give the job market here another go. Next year we will start to look at our list of places to relocate as I can't stand to see her struggle to get a job here for another year.

Thanks again - 2 weeks till our trip!