Dear Friends,

It’s September and already some of the maple trees have started to change color. I went down to Rutland to the state fair over the Labor Day weekend, primarily as an excuse for a motorcycle ride, but also because Grace wanted to see the chickens. Let’s put it this way — it was a good motorcycle ride.

Speaking of Rutland, I have some very exciting news to announce. We held a press conference this Wednesday to announce that we will be opening our 4th store in downtown Rutland in April. This was a long-hatching (keeping with the chicken theme for Grace’s birthday today) plan that started a few years ago at the Deane C. Davis awards. We won the award that year and the runner up was a 100-year-old company — the Foley Family of Companies.

At the award ceremony, I met Mark Foley, Jr., who not only owns some real estate in downtown Rutland, but is very active in his community. We got talking and he convinced me to come to Rutland to talk with him. I saw a downtown that had seen better days but that was seriously on the rebound. A new shopping center had been built, a beautiful theater renovated and the town was pulling together.

I was still very skeptical, but we decided to hold this spring’s eWaste Recycling Event in Rutland and the community was very responsive and helpful throughout the great event. I was encouraged…but still skeptical. Enter my friend, Mary Powell. Mary is the CEO of Green Mountain Power and serves with me on the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility Board. She called me and asked to get together to talk about Rutland.

That came as a surprise, but of course, we got together for a chat. Mary explained to me how Green Mountain Power, who had recently merged with Central Vermont Public Service (headquartered in Rutland), was going to make a big commitment to downtown Rutland. She told me she wanted to make Rutland the “solar city” and that GMP was going to put in an Energy Innovation Center and refurbish an old historical building in downtown to make that a reality.

I was getting more intrigued. She suggested that we work out a Memo of Understanding wherein Small Dog and GMP would work together in Rutland. She agreed to make us their Apple and technology supplier and a number of other exciting incentives, but the one that pushed me over the edge was that they would put in a dog watering station downtown jointly branded with Small Dog.

We hammered out the details in record time, I signed a lease with Mark Foley, and we announced our new store in downtown Rutland on Wednesday. We are excited about becoming a part of the community in Vermont’s second largest city and are thrilled with our partnership with Green Mountain Power. We hope to have the store up and operating by the spring.

View some photos of the press event and announcement here.

Exciting announcements are expected from Apple next week; we are all on the edge of our seats!