What is your opinion of bad ??
I lived in Cleveland for a while and I considered that to be ok. You had to avoid a lot of areas and be very careful at night. But as long as you weren't stupid you would be ok.
Barre is Beverly Hills compared to Cleveland. Barre is a poorer community with some drug issues, but certainly no violent crime to speak of. The occasional gas station hold up, but no muggings or anything of that sort. Same goes for Rutland.
There isn't a single town anywhere in Vermont that you need to worry about walking around in late at night. There really aren't any dangerous neighborhoods you need to worry about in New Hampshire or Maine either to be honest. Maybe some areas of Manchester and Nashua, but not really.
If you want an affordable town within an hour of good skiing, you also will need to be flexible and accept that you might also need to drive an hour for work everyday too. So, with Barre, you'd probably have to drive to Burlington, VT or the Lebanon area of New Hampshire. Manchester, NH might be your spot. Barre is closer to better skiing, but Manchester is an hour and fifteen or less to some very good mountains. Manchester would offer a much better employment picture for you due to it's proximity to Boston and many of it's suburban communities that have the type of companies in your field.