Arthur Gibb Award Recipients

2010 Art Gibb Award for Individual Leadership

Gus was the founding Executive Director of Vermont Housing Conservation Board. With the help of a dedicated staff and a creative board, he took an idea and built it into a nationally recognized model for addressing the twin problems of affordable homes and conservation of open space. He helped bring together both the housing and conservation organizations to further the state's smart growth goals of building in our centers and maintaining our working landscape.  He worked with Senator Leahy to implement the Farms for the Future program as a pilot project which led to the national Farm Protection Program.  As a direct result of Gus' leadership, Vermont now has some 325,000 acres of conserved land, including over 500 conserved farms, 9,800 units of permanently affordable housing and the infrastructure policies in place for the future.

2009 Arthur Gibb Award for Individual leadership

^{Rob’s vision that housing and conservation were complementary public functions enabled the Board to support conservation that revitalizes our rural economy, while reinvesting in Vermont’s downtowns and village centers.}

^{- Gus Seelig, Vermont Housing and Conservation Board}

As founding chair of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, Rob helped establish one of Vermont’s flagship programs charged with a dual mission – conserving important open lands and creating affordable housing – that was unique in the nation. Rob set a high standard for integrating the mission and took the necessary risks to ensure that housing and conservation complemented rather than competed with each other. The result is Vermont Housing and Conservation Board’s strong record of success, with nearly 10,000 affordable housing units created and over 375,000 acres conserved.

2008 Art Gibb Award for Individual Leadership

Paul Bruhn, Executive Director of Preservation Trust of Vemont, was honored as the 2008 recipient of the Art Gibb Award for Individual Leasdership, for his significant contribution to preserving Vermont's landscapes, village centers and historic landmarks.  Since 1980, Preservation Trust of Vermont has touched the lives of Vermonters in almost every city and town in the state from the Latchis Hotel & Theater in Brattleboro, to the Opera House at Enosburg Falls.

 2007 Arthur Gibb Award for Individual Leadership

“In his quiet way, Bob Lloyd profoundly influenced the shape of land conservation not only in Tinmouth, but throughout Vermont. Now he has taken on the added challenges of affordable housing
—Darby Bradley, Vermont Land Trust

Bob Lloyd is a community builder who has proven himself to be an asset to Tinmouth and the state of Vermont.  During the years 2004 to 2006, Lloyd was  President of the Vermont Association of Planning and Development Agencies (VAPDA), and the Chair of the Rutland Regional Planning Commission (RRPC). Lloyd was also President of Vermont Coverts: Woodlands for Wildlife, for five years, from 1999 to 2004.  Currently, Lloyd is Chair of the Tinmouth Board of Adjustment and Vice Chair of the Tinmouth Planning Commission.

Lloyd has spent his life working with local, regional and state organizations to plan for strong communities.  To do this, he uses sound planning principles, balances diverse public objectives and builds consensus around common goals.

In the early 1980s, Lloyd helped organize the Tinmouth Land Trust.  Through that organization, and with the Vermont Land Trust, Lloyd has participated in several subsequent conservation projects in town.  Approximately 4,500 acres of Tinmouth's 18,500 acres are now under conservations easements.

In his acceptance speech during the Smart Growth Awards, Bob Lloyd had many people to thank for influencing his work, including his family and the people of Tinmouth.

2006 Arthur Gibb Award for Individual Leadership

“Connie’s work is done face-to-face, day-to-day, and requires much more than a good mind and good organization. It requires trust, an essential element of her success, and one of Art Gibb’s defining traits.”

—Liz Bankowski

Connie Snow, the first recipient of the Arthur Gibb Award for Individual Leadership, is a founder and the Executive Director of the Brattleboro Area Community Land Trust.  Snow’s work over the last nineteen years includes rehabilitating Brattleboro’s lower Canal Street and the Wilder Building, developing housing options in downtown and villages, and collaborating with human service organizations on “service-enriched” housing for special needs residents.  She has earned the trust and respect of Vermonters who seek her wise counsel on making our communities better places to live and work.