Williston Observer

State agency could penalize construction business

By Tom Gresham
Observer staff

A report on the March construction accident that injured two workers in Williston is expected this week.

Robert McLeod, compliance program director for the Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said a compliance officer had not yet compiled a report on the accident, but he had completed investigating the case. McLeod expects the report will be finished this week.

The accident occurred March 11 at a housing construction site on Overlake View. Ian Dewey reportedly suffered internal injuries in the accident, while Andrew Francis apparently sustained an apparent broken ankle. Both are employees of Colchester-based Francis Construction.

Dewey was listed in fair condition three days after the accident. He has since been released from Fletcher Allen Health Care.

Four workers were attempting to raise an exterior wall on the second floor of a house. The workers lost control of the wall and it fell. The wall struck Dewey and knocked him 12 feet to the ground, according to Williston firefighter Jim Hendry. Francis was injured when the wall fell on his leg.

George Walker, a VOSHA compliance officer, reported to the site of the accident to begin an investigation. Williston fire officials contacted VOSHA.

McLeod said the investigation would examine whether any VOSHA workplace rules had been violated at the site. If the investigation finds any violations, Francis Construction would be cited. If the violations are deemed serious, McLeod said the company would be penalized.

McLeod said a business that is cited has 20 days to meet with the state, either in an informal conference or to contest the violation before the VOSHA Board.

Work has continued on the house where the accident occurred in the weeks since the accident.

McLeod said the state database lists accidents by employer and not by location of the accident, so it is difficult to track the number of workplace accidents in Williston in recent years. A worker at Pete’s RV Center died in a forklift accident at the store’s Williston warehouse in June of last year.

However, McLeod said, generally “there aren’t an awful lot of (construction) accidents in Vermont” each year, particularly where serious injuries occur.

McLeod said Francis Construction has not been involved in a VOSHA investigation during the past five years.

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The Associated Press

ST. ALBANS — Several Vermont priests have returned from the Vatican after paying their last respects to Pope John Paul II.

The Rev. Thomas Mosher of Woodstock and the Rev. Benedict Kiely, a pastor in Enosburg Falls, were among those to receive the pope's last blessing before he died. They also waited in line for hours to pay their last respects to the pope following his death.

“We arrived, dropped our bags at the hotel, and walked into St. Peter's Square,” Kiely said. “We received the pope's blessing and that was the last time the pope was seen in public before he died. It was an amazing start to the whole thing.”

They had planned the trip to Rome six months earlier as a pilgrimage.

The experience was emotional for Mosher, 52. “To be Catholic in Rome is like being one step below heaven, no matter what time of year,” he said. “But to be there for a major event like that is like being only a half-step below heaven.”

Mosher and Kiely were walking toward St. Peter's Square when the St. Peter's bell started to toll. Kiely said the bells could be ringing because the pope had passed away. “We ran into the square from there just in time to hear them announce that the pope had died,” Mosher said.

The same cardinal who made the announcement led the people in reciting the rosary. “Then what happened was even more amazing,” Mosher said. “While the bell kept tolling, people began singing. It was small groups, here and there.” They included German high school students and Polish pilgrims, singing hymns in their native languages.

People poured into the plaza as they learned of the pope's death. Mosher and Kiely left around midnight, although the singing continued through the night. “Even after we went to bed, we could hear the movement of people,” Mosher said. “I opened the window to look out, and we could hear people all through the night walking toward St. Peter's.”

Kiely said he stood in line for hours and saw the pontiff's body lying in state at about midnight. He said the experience was unforgettable.

“What was impressive was that a majority of the people were young,” he said.

Kiely said he was 18 when he first met the Pope, and that meeting was one of the reasons he became a priest.

“We're all very, very sad,” he said. “He was like a grandfather. I'll miss him very much.”

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By Tom Gresham
Observer staff

They walk briskly, their heads tilted down, their eyes scouring the grass for samples. When they spot the treasure they seek — months-old piles of dog waste — they lean eagerly forward and scoop it carefully into a plastic bag, like scientists recovering rare specimens. Their smiling faces belie neither disgust nor agitation.

“It’s a little mushy, a little more aromatic than you’d like,” Allan Kunigis says analytically. “It’s great to get it when it’s still frozen.”

Kunigis and two fellow dog lovers, Jan Lawson and Pam Boutin-Adams, toured the bike path behind Williston Central School on Friday, cleaning up the waste left behind by a year’s worth of labs, hounds, collies, shepherds and mutts.

It was the third year the trio has performed the service. Each frequently travels the path with their canines, and they have become well aware that not all dog owners are diligent about cleaning up after their pets. Every spring, when the snow melts, mounds of the waste become visible along the bike path.
The group said the situation had simply grown unbearable two years ago, and they felt compelled to make some improvements.

“I don’t like getting in the car and finding poop on my shoe any more than the next person,” Boutin-Adams said.

The group was embarking on its mission a bit later in the season than was ideal, Kunigis said. In previous years, they timed the trip for when the snow had only partially melted. Consequently, instead of the poop standing out against the white backdrop of the winter’s remaining snow on Friday, it was hidden among leaves and mud spots in the grass.

Kunigis and Boutin-Adams used garden trowels to scoop the poop into plastic bags in buckets; Lawson employed a pair of tongs. When a bag filled, they tied it off and left it along the side of the path. Lawson later drove down the path in a pickup truck, collecting the bags.

The three appeared to be having fun during their unenviable task, laughing and joking along the way. Boutin-Adams said the three were the sort of friends who identified each other by their dogs.

Lawson’s dog, Poppy, and Boutin-Adams’ dog, Clay, joined their owners on the search, playing rambunctiously along the route. Clay occasionally pointed out a sample for Boutin-Adams with his nose.

Although the threesome seemed to be constantly reaching to pick up new piles, they said the path area seemed cleaner than it has in recent years.

“This is way better than I’ve seen it before,” Kunigis said.

“I think the poop fairy may have come,” Boutin-Adams said.

Two years ago, when they made their maiden run on a cold, rainy day, the group “couldn’t go five feet. It was just disgusting,” Boutin-Adams said. Last year, the group filled five five-gallon bags with unretrieved poop.

Lawson, Kunigis and Boutin-Adams say they do not resent those who fail to clean up after their dogs, noting that sometimes people just do not realize their dog has “gone.”

However, Lawson said the three areas where the dog poop was most concentrated abutted residential neighborhoods.

“That seems more deliberate,” Boutin-Adams said.

Some passers-by thanked the trio for their work, and Kunigis said they have heard that people appreciate their work. Kunigis said a nearby day care worker who regularly walks along the path sent word to the town in the past year that the poop removal was beneficial.

The group also received praise from Williston Public Works Director Neil Boyden, who extolled the volunteers to the Selectboard this winter.

“They do a real service to the town,” Boyden said. “That’s not an easy job at all.”

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By Tom Gresham
Observer staff

Rossignol Park sits well below the surrounding traffic of Industrial Avenue and North Brownell Road, creating a decidedly isolated oasis.

Rossignol’s intimacy is both its best and worst quality, giving it a relaxed environment for a leisurely tennis match while also emboldening vandals and other social misfits. A man recently exposed himself to a female jogger at the park in the middle of a Friday afternoon.

For years, the town of Williston has hoped to fill in the park and raise it to the level of Industrial Avenue. The fill would come from construction of the Circumferential Highway through town.

The plan would solve concerns with the park’s seclusion, but, perhaps more importantly, it would produce much-needed park space for the town. Recreation Director Kevin Finnegan said the available land for recreation facilities at the park would grow from 3-1/2 acres to 5-1/2 acres.

Recreation Committee member Kevin Armstrong said he likes Rossignol the way it is — “it is neat to be down in that hole like that” — but still believes the plan to fill the park would best serve the town.

“I haven’t heard anybody say don’t fill it,” Armstrong said. “It would be an advantage for it to be more visible, and it would be great to get all that space.”

Little League players and fans and those that use the tennis courts are particularly appreciative of the park’s current isolated nature.

“It’s really what makes it unique,” said Martha Chevalier, a Williston resident who mostly visits the park for her sons’ Little League games. “It’s what gives it a lot of character. I really like it.”

However, Finnegan said use at the park is not very high, perhaps because it does not seem welcoming from the road, and safety concerns accompany the location.

In addition to the recent flashing incident, Rossignol was also the scene of a man exposing himself in 1999 (police made an arrest in that case). However, a search of the police database showed just eight complaints at the park since 2000. All were minor.

Williston Police Chief Ozzie Glidden said Rossignol Park is similar to most secluded spots.

“It really is a pretty little spot,” Glidden said. “People who use it should just temper that with common sense. It’s not a place for a child or female to go alone without taking some precautions, but I wouldn’t call it dangerous either.”

Glidden said the park’s privacy tends to attract people using alcohol and illegal drugs. Finnegan said municipal employees clean up empty beer bottles at the park most Mondays in the summer, and vandalism has been a frequent problem.

Municipal officials remain uncertain whether the plan to fill the park will ever be realized. Not only is the future of the Circ undetermined, but the town might not win the bid to store the fill.

“I think to get that much fill without the Circ is pretty much unthinkable,” Finnegan said.

In the meantime, the Selectboard has budgeted funds for maintenance improvements at the park. The board had postponed the improvements when construction of the Circ appeared ready to begin.

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By Tom Gresham
Observer staff

Occasionally, the Planned Parenthood offices in Williston receive a suspicious package that employees are wary of opening. The Williston Police Department is called.

Williston Police Chief Ozzie Glidden said the department does not have the tools to inspect the contents of the package without opening it. So, typically, if there are no wires sticking out of the package, officers “very gingerly” remove the package from the offices and open it outside.

“We shouldn’t be doing that,” Glidden said. “We shouldn’t have to do that.”

Glidden cites the Planned Parenthood example to explain the usefulness of the homeland security grants that police, fire and rescue departments across the country have received over the past three years.

Critics assert much of the homeland security funding has gone to smaller communities at little risk from a terrorist attack. They say many of the items purchased have nothing to do with security.

The grants, Williston officials say, have helped both police and firefighters acquire equipment they otherwise might not have been able to afford.

For instance, Williston police secured a grant last year to purchase a portable X-ray machine that it would be able to use to inspect suspicious packages.

Most recently, the Williston police and fire departments were approved for a combined $101,542 in homeland security grants this month. Town Manager Rick McGuire still must approve the acceptance of the grant money, and the Selectboard will review the equipment the grant funding would purchase at its May 2 meeting.

Both Glidden and Morton declined to discuss the specific items the new grant funding would purchase because they had not yet met with the Selectboard.

The grants represent a big addition to the departments’ budgets. They appear to make Williston an example of what critics complain is too many of the federal homeland security dollars going to small towns.

Some have questioned whether the grants amount to pork barrel spending. Lauren Cook, a media associate with Citizens Against Government Waste, said the 2005 Homeland Security appropriations bill, which totals $4 billion, features $1.7 billion in pork barrel spending.

Cook said the bill too often “supports programs riddled with waste and abuse.”

However, both Glidden and Morton say there has been no waste in Williston’s homeland security purchases. Nothing, they say, sits in storage unused.

“The things we have bought are all things we can use to prepare for (a terrorist attack), but also they are things we can use on a day-to-day basis,” Morton said. “These things are not just sitting on a shelf waiting for the big one.”

Municipal officials say the equipment purchases improve public safety workers’ ability to respond to major events, whether they result from a terrorist attack or not. For instance, upgraded radio equipment allows firefighters and police officers to communicate with each other and neighboring departments in a way they could not before, producing a more coherent, organized approach to a disaster.

Extrication equipment used to remove people from cars in auto accidents could also help firefighters rescue people trapped in a building collapsed by a bomb. Thermal imaging cameras used to fight fires and locate hidden suspects would be used for similar purposes during a terrorist attack.

Williston’s homeland security grants place it in the norm among Vermont municipalities. The Williston Police Department’s recent approval for $61,300 in grant money stands alongside $61,410 for Winooski, $82,044 for Stowe and $133,378 for Springfield. The fire department’s $40,242 can be measured against $43,975 for Beecher Falls, $62,000 for Bradford and $49,199 for Cabot.

In fact, the amount raises the question: “Why hasn’t Williston sought more homeland security funding?”

Morton said the answer is restraint. Both Morton and Glidden say the equipment they have purchased with the grants has been limited to items they would have sought in their operating and capital budgets.

Municipal officials argue the funding is particularly appropriate in Williston because it is home to multiple potential targets. The town might not present as obvious a target as New York or Washington, but there are reasons Williston could be the site of a domestic terrorism attack, officials say.

“It might not seem likely, but it’s definitely possible,” Glidden said. “We’re close to Vermont’s largest city, we have the largest commercial base in the state, we’re part of the prime interstate corridor, we’re 80 miles from Montreal — a place we know terrorists have been. We’re 40 miles from the Canadian border, which is not that heavily guarded and which it would not be that difficult to walk across or to smuggle something across.”

Williston is home to four federal buildings, including Homeland Security Department offices. The town also includes the Vermont State Police barracks, a hazardous waste disposal facility, a propane line that runs from Canada to the southeastern United States and some shipping companies.

“You add up all those things and our risk is enormous,” Morton said. “If I was a terrorist, I would think, ‘What better place is there to make an impact in the state of Vermont than Williston?’”

Morton and Glidden attended a domestic terrorism preparedness exercise on Saturday for Chittenden County public safety officials. Morton said the potential incidents involving Williston that were reviewed as test scenarios were both “believable and logical.”

Over the past three years, since the passage of the USA Patriot Act, Vermont has received $54.8 million in federal grant money for public safety departments. The previous three years, the state received $1.1 million for the same purpose.

The 2005 federal budget included approximately $1.1 billion in grants to be distributed to the states. Under a funding formula that Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy has claimed a hand in devising, each state could receive no less than 0.75 percent of the total pot. The Bush Administration’s initial budget proposal for 2006 reduced that number to 0.25 percent, directing more money to heavily populated areas.

Morton hopes the new supply of money does not dry up, but says the past three years have been fruitful.

“We’re just happy to have had the opportunity to improve our equipment and to get better prepared,” Morton said.

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