There are a growing number of residents who have recently stepped up to get involved and volunteer significant time to serve the town of Wilton. This sit-down interview is the first profile of a handful of these individuals who are helping steer the town forward as members of various boards and commissions.
Meet Vivian Lee-Shiue, vice chair of Wilton’s Economic Development Commission (EDC). She’s been in the news recently since presenting the Board of Selectmen with results of a survey done by the EDC analyzing the factors that impact business development and economic growth in town. She is one of the members of the EDC overseeing the survey and helping to direct follow-up plans for branding and marketing the town. She is also helping to spearhead an effort looking to renovate the playground at Merwin Meadows, primarily through a public-private partnership.
Lee-Shiue is also a long-time Wilton resident. She grew up in Wilton and graduated from the Wilton schools. She and her husband, Peter Shiue, decided to move back to Wilton because it’s the place where they wanted to raise their 5-year-old twins.
GMW: The town seems to have become reinvigorated, and you’re one such person who has made a huge contribution in the relatively short time you’ve been involved in town leadership, especially since being appointed to the Economic Development Commission. Do you feel you’ve made a mark on the town since getting involved?
Vivian Lee-Shiue: Thanks! I feel like we’ve made some progress, but I’m not sure we’ve made a mark. To date, we haven’t done more than analysis. What has been accomplished since we’ve added three new commissioners—Jennie Wong, Gil Bray and myself—we’ve reinvigorated the momentum of the EDC. We’ve got the ball rolling again. But we can’t say we’ve executed anything yet, until we act upon the findings.
We’ve started the process to figure out what we need to do as a commission, and we’ve started the process of analysis of it. That’s step one. The real telling part will be what will we do with that information and how are we going to act on it. Once we do something like that then I’ll feel like we’re contributing to the community.
GMW: But the act of stepping forward and saying, ‘I want to get involved,’ is a contribution in its own way. To put yourself out there, publicly in the media or on Ch. 79, and of course at the meetings and doing the work, that’s a message to send to the rest of the community. To say, ‘I’m doing my part.’ You’ve got a busy life—two active, young kids; you work full time; and then to put in a hefty amount of volunteer time on the EDC is a lot.
VLS: I hope what we’re doing shows people that you don’t have to be an elected town official to get things done in town. The reason I got involved originally was partially the change in leadership in town. [First selectman] Lynne [Vanderslice] was new, I felt like my principles were aligned and it was a good opportunity to get involved.
I think a lot of people don’t realize that most town leadership positions are volunteer, so anybody can get involved. They may think you have to be elected. I think they don’t know necessarily how to get involved. So I hope what this whole process is doing is showing that you can be a resident in town and if you have an issue, you can do something about it, by volunteering. I didn’t have an appreciation for that until recently.
You can volunteer, for whatever you want to volunteer for. Hopefully, by having Lynne come into office, by having the commission spots filled, and the new vacancies people are talking about, I hope people realize that anybody can get involved with the town.
GMW: What was your motivation to step up?
VLS: I think it started from a selfish perspective. I have little kids. We don’t have many public amenities in town. What we have needed a little bit of work. And everybody was complaining about it but nobody was doing anything about it.
On the playground effort, I went to Ballard Park, the new playground Ridgefield developed. I looked at how that process worked, and it was clear it was done as a volunteer effort. If they could do it, why can’t we? And for me, I want my kids to enjoy it while they’re young enough to enjoy it, and I can do it for the community at the same time as I do it for my kids.
It doesn’t take Lynne or some superior position in the town to get these things done, you just need people who are willing. That was the revelation that we could do this ourselves.
GMW: What’s been good about getting involved like you have?
VLS: I’ve met people, particularly through the EDC, some that I knew of, others that I didn’t, but that I wouldn’t have had the chance to get to know them any other way. I’ve gotten to know the folks from the Kiwanis Club pretty well, because there’s some mutual interest and I never would have crossed paths otherwise.
GMW: What’s important for people to know about what the EDC is trying to accomplish?
VLS: The EDC is not a regulatory body—we don’t change the rules, and we don’t make any regulations. We are the go-between between business and residents and the town. We have virtually no budget as a group, so we don’t have a lot of capability to enact a lot of changes, but we have the ability to be the facilitators between the town and its partners. That’s our goal, to be the point of contact for growth, whether its residential or business growth. It’s elevating Wilton’s profile as a whole, that’s our primary goal.
To say, ‘This is a great town to do business in, or it’s a great town to live in.’ That’s where we need to be focusing our efforts. We need to be the group that’s the cheerleaders for Wilton so that businesses consider Wilton as a place to come and do business, or where residents come to live.
GMW: What are those things you can be the cheerleader about? If you’re talking to a business, or you meet someone thinking of moving to Wilton, what do you say?
VLS: This theme resonated in the survey and it’s my own personal opinion as well: Wilton is a very, very close knit community. The reason we moved back here, aside from the fact that I grew up here, when we were looking at Wilton and neighboring towns, it still has a small-town feel. There’s a lot of community cohesiveness; people know each other and they get along (relatively) well. But what you don’t have—this is what I liked about it—it seems to be a little more down to earth than some of the neighboring towns. Maybe that’s a perception thing, but I felt that it’s a close knit community and a little more grounded.
Wilton is a great community. We are very close knit. People are looking to do good things for the town. And it’s a really great place to raise your children, because it’s a very family-oriented town. I think that may be one of the biggest drivers.
We need to figure out how to brand it, but the location is very good, just where we happen to be in the state—we’re between Danbury and Stamford, we’re right along the Rte. 7 corridor, close to the Merritt Parkway and I-95, so you get access to the talent pool potentially going into New York and the neighboring area.
GMW: How can someone who wants to get involved in the community do so?
VLS: Ask around, talk to people you know, or reach out to anyone–they can contact me–and ask about their experiences, to understand what’s involved.
I didn’t realize this until I reached out to Lynne about the playground, but she is very approachable. She is open to meeting people in town. We were talking about the playground and she mentioned what the EDC was doing. I’d say, reach out to her, talk to her about what her priorities are and if you like where she’s going, volunteer. That’s how I got involved. That’s the only reason I had considered it, I had never intended to get involved before talking to her.
I absolutely recommend getting involved. The thing I like the most is I feel like I have an impact on what’s happening with the town. There’s a lot of talk with the various social media sites where people may complain, but until you get involved you may not know what really can be done. Getting involved is my way of expressing my opinion and I feel like Wilton is small enough that residents can get involved. That’s one of the great things about Wilton, anybody can get involved. And you see things get done.
Don’t be afraid to raise your hand. If you have a certain skill set and you’re willing to donate your time and talents, you shouldn’t feel intimidated. That’s the way things get done here.
GMW: You joined the EDC in November, and got immersed very quickly. And you’ve been able to execute things quickly with good old teamwork and jumping right in.
VLS: People do need to know it’s a time commitment. When you get involved you have to be willing to roll your sleeves up and do it. It may not be the right time depending on what’s going on in your life. These commissions truly are working commissions, it’s not just have a meeting and go home. We need to make sure people have the ability to commit the time and a willingness to commit the time. Volunteers are the only way we could have gotten things done.
GMW: It sounds like a lot of work, but it must be satisfying to be in that work and see that there’s the potential for success.
VLS: Yes, it’s baby steps, but hopefully we’ll get there.
I do think the town needs new blood, and there’s a lot of activity. But for a while a lot of the commissions were staffed with repeat members. We need new blood and we need some folks to represent every aspect of the demographic, so that everybody’s voice is heard. So that we’ll be able to grow as a community, so that everyone leads and not just one segment of the population.
