Norwich Residents Look to Buy Mainstay Dairy Farm from Vermont Technical College

Approximately 100 people are pledging money to buy a dairy farm before Vermont Technical College sells it to the highest bidder, VT Digger reported.

The Norwich Farm Creamery – a 200-year-old farm – is now being divided and sold, with part of the property put on the market for $1.7 million last June and another part on sale two weeks ago for $485,000.

The fear from Norwich residents is that, in the farm’s place, will come multi-million dollar homes.

Nonprofit the Norwich Farm Foundation – founded by a group of residents – has raised $155,000 in pledges so far, offering to buy both properties in February for $610,000. That bid was rejected. The offer was only 36% of fair market value and wasn’t sufficient for the school, facing a $4.5 million deficit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vermont Technical College President Pat Moulton said.

“We have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers, the state of Vermont and its students to maximize the proceeds of the sale,” she said.

There has been interest in the properties but no agreement made, Moulton said.