Williston Observer

School district seeks to extend 3-year permit

By Greg Elias
Observer staff

The temporary classrooms built three years ago to ease a space crunch in Williston schools will apparently remain in place for a few more years.

School officials said in 2002 that the so-called modular classrooms appended to Allen Brook School would be a stopgap measure until a permanent building expansion could be completed. But now, with enrollment leveling off and plans for the building expansion on hold, the district will seek to extend the permit for their use through the 2007-08 school year.

"Right now, I think we’re probably going to keep them until then," said Williston School Board Chairwoman Marty Sundby. "They have been an effective way to do things while we think our plans out."

School officials say they have little choice but to keep the modular classrooms, which are doublewide trailers adapted for educational use. They accommodate roughly 80 students, and school officials assert that the main buildings at Allen Brook and Williston Central School are at capacity.

"The modulars seem to be meeting a need, and we clearly need space," said School Board member Karla Karstens. "Plus, we can keep renewing them until we decide if and when to build."

The district has in recent years been caught between uncertain enrollment trends and waning voter support for school spending.

Until the last two school years, enrollment in the Williston School District had risen by an average of 37 students a year. In the 2003-04 school year, however, enrollment declined by two students. In the current school year, a tally done in October showed enrollment down by five students.

"The growth hasn’t occurred as fast as everyone expected three or four years ago," said Bob Mason, chief operations manager for Chittenden South Supervisory Union, which serves as central administration for Williston and other area school districts. "That has allowed the board to be more deliberate."

Meanwhile, passage of the annual school budget is no longer the sure thing it was in the past. Voters rejected the budget in 2003, and this year’s spending plan passed by just 11 votes.

The situation has made the School Board reluctant to propose a pricey expansion project. One of the most discussed plans in recent years called for doubling the size of Allen Brook School at an estimated cost of $6 million.

A School Board-appointed committee has met to discuss building expansion plans over the past few months. Karstens, who serves on the committee, said the group will revisit previous plans for expanding Allen Brook, but she wonders if such a big project is still needed.

Mason said it is uncertain if the district will keep the modular classrooms in place until or beyond when they are paid off in 2008. But he acknowledged that because of the specialized nature of the structures, it could be difficult to sell them.

The school district had originally considered leasing the structures. But after discovering that leasing would cost more than budgeted, the district opted to buy them outright. Voters approved $345,000 funding for the structures and additional staff in 2002.

The town’s Development Review Board approved a site plan for the modular classrooms in July 2002. Among the numerous conditions attached to the approval was a requirement that the structures be removed after three years. Mason said he recently inquired about extending that sunset clause for another three years.

The modular classrooms stirred controversy when they were first proposed. Some parents did not want their children housed in them, amid concerns about studies that showed materials inside newly built trailers could emit toxic vapors and worries that exhaust fumes from nearby buses could pollute the air inside the units.

The School District initially tried to save money by not using a consultant to draw up plans. That caused delays as the Development Review Board rejected the initial design, saying the plans failed to meet safety codes.

By the time the plans were approved, it was too late to finish the project before the school year started. Some students were forced to attend classes in the school’s gymnasium for a few weeks.

The district has been paying a portion of the $670,000 total cost for the units each year. Mason said the board could opt to sell them at any point.

But with any school expansion project certain to take years to be completed — and no groundswell of opposition among students and staff to being housed in the modular classrooms — it appears the modular classrooms will stay in place for the immediate future.

"Parents, students and staff seem to like them," Sundby said. "So as long as we are not outgrowing our space, let’s take our time in planning. We don’t want to overbuild."

[Read more...]

Contractor will get $5,000-a-day bonus for completing the work early

By Greg Elias
Observer staff

Traffic snarls in and around Williston are already bad and likely to grow worse when a paving project starts this summer on Interstate 89.

But the state Agency of Transportation is trying to limit tie-ups by employing a seldom-used contract provision that includes both penalties and incentives to get the work done quickly.

The project scheduled to start next month includes repaving the pothole-pocked southbound lanes of I-89 from South Burlington to Bolton and making improvements to both the Shelburne Road and Williston exits. The work is expected to start next month.

Penalties for completing work late are routine on major construction projects. But for the first time in recent years, the state will also award a bonus if the paving is done early. The amount is substantial whether the project is finished late or early: $5,000 a day, up to a total of $75,000.

“This way we have both a carrot and a hammer ready,” said Mike Hedges, paving program manager with the state Agency of Transportation. “These are already very busy portions of the project. We’d like them to be done in a timely manner.”

The incentive/penalty clause sets a 30-day deadline to complete work between exits 12 and 13. That portion of the project includes paving the interstate itself, lengthening deceleration lanes and adding a left-turn lane on the southbound Williston off-ramp.

The clause does not apply to paving work south of exit 12 in Williston. That part of the project must be completed by Oct. 15. The contractor will pay a $3,500-a-day penalty if it does not meet that deadline, but there is no bonus for completing it earlier.

Two contractors have submitted bids for the work. According to Hedges, Frank W. Whitcomb Construction Corp. bid $4,583,007 for the project; Pike Industries Inc. bid $4,879,724. As of Tuesday afternoon, state officials were still reviewing the two bids and had yet to officially award the contract to Whitcomb Construction, the apparent low bidder.

Jay Perkins, regional manager with Pike Industries, said the state rarely hands out bonuses for completing paving projects early.

“Usually, it’s 100 percent the stick,” he said. “Only very infrequently do you get the carrot.”

Perkins said bonuses are a good idea. He thinks they help both contractors and the general public, reducing traffic headaches for motorists and allowing contractors to better marshal manpower and work more quickly.

For example, Perkins said, a contracting company may bring in an additional 10 trucks at a cost of $2,000 a day if it can earn a bonus equal or greater than that amount for each day the project is done early. With a contract that has only late penalties, he said, the contractor tends to try to keep costs as low as possible.

“I think they should utilize (bonuses) more often,” Perkins said. “The inconvenience to the traveling public should have a dollar value put on it.”

Hedges said the state last used an incentive clause for paving work in 1999. Three years earlier, the state employed an incentive for the paving job on the same stretch of Interstate 89 that is being redone this summer.

That pavement’s lifespan was far shorter than the expected 15-20 years. But Hedges said a new type of pavement — not the contractor or the contract — was the reason for its premature failure.

The repaving project as originally planned did not include work on the Williston exit. But at the urging of town officials and residents, the state decided to add the Williston off-ramp work to the project.

Many people have expressed safety concerns about the ramp. Vehicles sometimes back up at the interchange and spill out on to the traveled portion of I-89, creating a traffic hazard as cars whiz by the halted traffic at 65 mph.

The penalties and incentives to get the repaving done quickly are just one of the steps the state is taking to reduce traffic tie-ups while the project is underway.

No lane closures are permitted between South Burlington and Williston during rush hours, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and again between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. The requirement is somewhat less stringent on less-traveled portions of the project, with both lanes required to remain open only from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

As with other paving projects, the state is also trying to ensure the contractor does a high-quality job. There are also incentives and/or penalties that address the quality and consistency of the asphalt as well as the smoothness of the finished job.

Hedges said the state would continue to use both bonuses and penalties on projects where there is heavy traffic and a potential for traffic tie-ups. With traffic volume increasing each year throughout the state, he said the use of incentives is only likely to increase in the future.

“With the incentives, we hope to stay out of people’s way,” Hedges said. “We want to get in, get out and stay out.”

Andrew Bassette of Richmond suggested officials install a second Williston off-ramp to give shoppers, which make up the majority of motorists, a chance to exit sooner. Having an exit at South Brownell Road, for example, would lessen the amount of cars getting off at exit 12, he said.

[Read more...]

[Read more...]

Town undervalued Maple Tree Place by 145 percent

By Tom Gresham
Observer staff

The Maple Tree Place development sold for approximately 145 percent more than its tax valuation, possibly indicating the town missed out on several hundred thousand dollars in revenue.

Town assessor Bill Hinman expressed astonishment at the $103.3 million purchase price in the sale of Maple Tree Place from Connecticut-based Starwood Ceruzzi to Inland Western Retail Real Estate Trust of Illinois. The purchase was closed on May 20.

“That number is definitely a surprise,” Hinman said. “I’m very surprised it was that high. That’s much higher than I’d anticipated.”

Theresa Knight of the property valuation and review division of the Vermont Department of Taxes said she believed the sale price was the largest for a non-utility commercial property in state history.

The appraisal of the property was updated this spring at $42.2 million. Experts in property valuations said it is too early to tell whether the chasm between the sale price and the town’s appraisal was the result of a major undervaluation or if other factors were involved.

“We are supposed to be showing in our crystal ball that this is what the property would be selling for on April 1 each year,” said Todd LeBlanc, the town assessor in South Burlington. “That’s the goal, but this is by no means an exact science and there are many things that can go into a sale.”

It is difficult to measure the property tax revenues the town might have missed out on if the property was actually undervalued by such a large margin. For instance, the sale price was based on the current Maple Tree Place, while property taxes this year were paid on last year’s appraisal of approximately $36 million, which did not include construction at the site over the past year.

However, a reasonable estimate of the difference in property taxes for the current fiscal year, which concludes July 1, exceeds $700,000.

LeBlanc, Hinman and Knight cited a host of reasons why the sale price would be significantly higher than an accurate appraisal, though Hinman conceded they might not entirely explain such a stark difference.

Among the possible factors that could lead to an inflated sale price e are the structure of the financing of the purchase and the leasing agreements within the development, LeBlanc said. Hinman said sometimes a sale that involves special contingencies beyond a simple real estate transfer bears little relation to the market price.

Rick Fox, a spokesman for Inland Real Estate, was unaware of the details of the transaction. Fox indicated he would investigate the possibility of contingencies, but he did not respond by the Observer’s deadline.

Hinman said he will begin to work with Inland Western in the next month to investigate the specifics of the purchase agreement. He is confident the deal will indicate the town’s appraisal was not such a small fraction of the property’s true value.

“I know what these properties were worth,” Hinman said. “There is no way that we missed Maple Tree Place by that much.”

Hinman said the sale price for Maple Tree Place will not immediately increase the appraisal for the property.

“That’s a sticky point,” Hinman said. “Eventually, it will, but it probably won’t between now and the next appraisal, because you can’t appraise based on the sale price.”

As a comparison, Hinman said homes in Brennan Woods have been selling for $100,000 more than their appraised value from two years ago, but the town cannot reappraise Brennan Woods because the market in the neighborhood has grown so fast.

“I cannot go out and selectively prosecute somebody and raise their (appraisal) unless I find something substantial that I missed,” Hinman said.

Knight agreed it is difficult to tell what kind of impact the sale would have on the appraisal of Maple Tree Place, but she said it would definitely not affect the property’s value over the next year. She said the grand list values are based on values prior to April 1, so the sale cannot be considered.

[Read more...]

[Read more...]