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WEBVTT POTENTIAL OFVERMONT'S CREATIVEECONOMY TODAY --GOVERNORSCOTT GOT HIS FIRST LOOK AT GENERATOR --BURLINGTON'SMAKER SPACE JUST RELOCATEDTO THE SOUTH>> REALIZING THE POTENTIAL OFTHE VERMONT ECONOMY.THE GOVERNOR GOT THE FIRST LOOKAT GENERATORS.BURLINGTON'S MAKER SPACERELOATHED TO THE SOUTH END.THAT IS IT?FOR ONLY $75 A MONTH,ENTREPRENEURS CAN BECOME AMEMBER AND DEVELOP A NEW PRODUCTOR BUSINESS FROM FURNITUREDESIGN TO 3-D PRINTING TO DRONEPHOTOGRAPHER, GENERATOR HAS AWAITING LIST OF PEOPLE READY TJOIN.>> IF YOU HAVE THIS IN EVECOUNTY IN VERMONT IT WOULD BEUNSTOPPABLE FORCE, A STATE THATWOULD KEEP PEOPLE IN T STATE.BUSINESSES ARE HERE.>> CAN YOU IMAGINE ONE OF THESEIN EVERY COUNTY?>> ABSOLUTELY.CERTAINLY IN THIS AREA, MORETHAN ONE.EVERY COUNTY EVERY DEVELOPMENTCENTER SHOULD HAVE SOMETHING OFTH NATURSTEWART: BRIAN MAKES A SPECIFICWOODEN FLUTE SAID BECAUSE OF THECOMPANY HE WILL SELL HISINSTRUMENT COMMERCIALLY.SOON.CHAMPLAIN COLLEGE OWNS THE SPACEAND SAID THERE IS AN OBVIOUS

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Inside a South End warehouse,newly-converted into a low-cost home for entrepreneurs and start-up businesses, Gov. Phil Scott marveled at the range of products now in development.The facility is called Generator, one of Burlington's 'maker' spaces. For as little as $75 a month, members can access a range of tools, from 3-D printers to woodworking and metal fabrication, to help them turn an idea into a prototype. Gov. Phil Scott toured Generator Monday afternoon. He was impressed. "It's a great, modern facility," Scott said after meeting several members working on everything from jewelry to a new kind of office chair intended to reduce back pain. Here, he said, you can make "almost anything you can think of." For $200 a month, members can set up in a 'studio' - a stall enclosure around the perimeter of the 8,600 square foot space, allowing a larger production set-up. The Sears Lane facility which opened in January is 50 percent larger than its former space at Memorial Auditorium. Still, organizers says Generator has more than 200 members and a waiting list for studio space. "What you see being here is a very diverse group of people working on diverse projects who have an opportunity to communicate with each other and share ideas," said Brian Merrill, a custom flute maker who has rented studio space for more than a year. Merrill hopes to soon begin selling his flutes commercially.Another tenant, Steve Mermelstein of Vermont Drone, uses his studio space to edit commercial video footage for his growing business. He said he now has seven employees. Mermelstein thinks it's time Vermont got wise to the potential. "If you had a maker space like this in every single county in Vermont we would be an unstoppable force," he said. "An unstoppable state and it would keep people in the state."That would be a change. Again Monday, Scott lamented the steady decline in Vermont's working-age population, now six Vermonters every day. He said the demographic challenge is a critical issue facing the state. Would he favor opening 'maker' spaces in all 14 counties? "Absolutely," the governor said. "Certainly in Chittenden County, more than one. But I think every county, every development center should have something of this nature."The new Generator space is owned by Champlain College. Champlain President Donald Laackman praised the entrepreneurial work now underway here. University of Vermont officials agree maker spaces offer obvious potential for business development and job creation.