NEWPORT — The gaping construction site in the heart of downtown serves as a reminder of what might have been.
Referred to simply as “the pit” by most locals, the patch of barren land was meant to house the centerpiece of an ambitious plan to redevelop Newport funded by the EB-5 visa program, which pairs foreign investors with rural development projects in the U.S.
The project collapsed in 2016, when the orchestrators of the development plan, Ariel Quieros and Bill Stenger, were indicted for defrauding investors of millions of dollars.
In the wake of what has since become known as the EB-5 scandal, the money to develop the parcel of land in Newport dried up, and with it went the plans for revitalizing the Northeast Kingdom city.
Sitting in his downtown office on a recent afternoon, Rick Ufford-Chase pointed out the window at the empty construction site and sighed.
“While that property across the street itself serves as a reminder, the scar on the psyche of the community is actually bigger. People feel like they’ve been hoodwinked,” he said. “It’s just really unfortunate.”
Running unopposed in Newport’s mayoral race, Ufford-Chase is the city’s presumptive next mayor.
At the center of his campaign is the promise to make Newport a cultural and economic hub for the Northeast Kingdom, reviving a goal that was all but abandoned when the EB-5 scheme came crashing down. That project has also been the focus of Ufford-Chase’s current job as the executive director of Newport City Downtown Development, a nonprofit dedicated to the economic development of the city.
“What’s actually more important than anything specific we’re building is actually rebuilding the community bond and developing a shared sense of vision,” said Ufford-Chase.
Although he has family ties in the Northeast Kingdom and grew up visiting the area often, Ufford-Chase is relatively new in town, having moved to Newport in 2021.
He quickly became an active member of the community, and won a seat on the city council several years later. In mid-January, just under a year into his tenure on the council, he declared his candidacy for the city’s top post, following Mayor Linda Joy Sullivan’s announcement that she would step down after a single term.
“I hadn’t even contemplated running until Linda Sullivan said that she wasn’t going to run,” Ufford-Chase said. “I looked around and said, ‘Okay, if that’s true, we need a mayor who really understands the long term strategy for Newport and who can help and bring some vision and follow-through.’”
As a council member and head of Newport City Downtown Development, Ufford-Chase helped spearhead the effort to draw up the city’s updated master plan, a blueprint for development that he intends to help execute as mayor.
Adopted by the city council in December, the plan calls for the city to build about 410 housing units over the next 10 years while completely redeveloping its downtown. In it are proposals for new mixed-use buildings and added marina space along Lake Memphremagog, as well as suggestions for how entire city blocks could be revamped.
“What we are aiming for is a place where normal, everyday folks can find a place to live at a reasonable affordable cost,” Ufford-Chase said, “where they have a walkable downtown and want to be here because it’s pretty and there are activities and things to do.”
To lay the groundwork for that vision, Ufford-Chase has emphasized the need for the city to balance its budget, which he said would be his first priority as mayor.
According to information on Ufford-Chase’s campaign website, the city has been operating at a deficit for years, primarily owing to its failure to raise sewer and water rates between 2016 and 2024.
But Newport’s municipal woes extend beyond its books and its post-EB-5 economic struggles.
In recent years, a series of abrupt resignations and firings has made the city government seem at times like a revolving door for officials.
Sullivan’s predecessor, Beth Barnes, stepped down less than three months into her term as mayor, alleging in a resignation letter that she had been “intimidated and bullied” by city officials and council members. In November, moreover, the city council voted to dismiss Newport’s third city manager in as many years.
Frustration over the apparent dysfunction has routinely been on display at well-attended council meetings, which have often featured impassioned speeches, shouting matches, and name-calling.
As mayor, Ufford-Chase said that he hopes to diffuse those tensions. One of his main priorities, he said, is “to help the city reclaim a sense of transparency and balance and trust that has been missing for a long time.”
Some residents have expressed concerns about the presumptive mayor-elect’s own ability to cultivate such an atmosphere.
Ufford-Chase has said that he plans to continue working for Newport City Downtown Development even as he takes the helm of the city, a decision that could expose him to potential conflicts of interest. The nonprofit works closely with the city government and receives partial funding from the city’s budget.
In a written statement, Sullivan — the current mayor — said that she has reservations about whether Ufford-Chase will have “adequate bandwidth” to do both jobs.
“We’re going to have to see if Rick can manage the inherent conflicts of holding both positions in a sufficiently transparent way as to assure our residents that his actions as Mayor are consistent with the interests of all of our constituents,” Sullivan wrote.
While acknowledging the potential for conflicts of interest, Ufford-Chase, for his part, said that he was confident in his ability to keep his footing.
Prior to declaring his candidacy, he said, he reached out to the state ethics commission to confirm that he would be able to viably manage both jobs without running afoul of ethics laws.
“The answer I got back was no,” Ufford-Chase said. “But the level of scrutiny is likely to be different and higher, and therefore, as on any conflict of interest, the appropriate response is to name it before it’s an issue.”
When asked if, as mayor, he would recuse himself on matters relating to Newport City Downtown Development, Ufford-Chase noted that, due to the structure of Newport’s government, the mayor only votes as a tiebreaker on matters when the city council is split, making recusal a sticky proposition.
His goal, he said, was to be “effective at building collaboration and consensus” so that he would rarely find himself with a split council.
“If you do get to that point then you name the issue yourself, you put it on the table and disclose it with the appropriate legal forms and then you make your best judgement.” Ufford-Chase said.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Running unopposed, Newport’s presumptive next mayor hopes to turn a new leaf.