Williston Observer

By Ben Moger-Williams
Observer staff

Walking on the bike path and sidewalks this winter should be a little easier for some Williston residents. The Selectboard on Monday approved three sections of the town’s sidewalk and bike path system for winter maintenance.

Each year, Public Works Director Neil Boyden receives requests from residents asking for plowing on certain sidewalks and sections of the bike path. Boyden must review the requests and determine if they are in accordance with the Sidewalk Winter Maintenance Policy. The Selectboard then reviews the requests that Boyden presents to them. The board considers such things as cost effectiveness, links to public transportation sites, and popular demand.

This year, Boyden received and approved three requests. The first request was from residents of Falcon Manor and Eagle Crest senior housing developments. The residents asked for plowing of sidewalks between the two apartment complexes , and along Helena Drive.

The second request was from an individual, Adam Huff of Lamplite Acres. In a letter to Boyden, Huff said he enjoyed walking along South Brownell Road between Williston Road and Marshall Avenue to bring his daughter to daycare, but found last year that the walks were not plowed in the winter.

“Our walk, which was primarily on the shoulder of Brownell Road, was dangerous and difficult,” Huff wrote.

The final request was in the form of a petition from the owners, employees and tenants of various businesses on Marshall Avenue and South Brownell Road, asking for these areas to be plowed. The petition also mentioned plowing Harvest Lane, but Boyden recommended that section be added to next year’s list instead.

Boyden estimated the annual seasonal cost to plow all of the approved sections to be about $3,000.

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DRB OKs public safety buildings

By Kim Howard
Observer staff

The new public safety facilities are one step closer to reality after last week’s Development Review Board meeting.

The board approved – with conditions – the development of a new fire station and a new police station for which Williston voters approved funding last year. The new fire and rescue station will be constructed at the corner of Talcott Rd. and U.S. Route 2; and the current firehouse next to Town Hall will be demolished and a new police station built in its place.

The $6.8 million project is designed to address town needs for the next 25 years, according to Town Manager Rick McGuire.

“Yes, there’s a little more space than we need right now,” McGuire acknowledged at last Tuesday’s meeting. But, he emphasized, buildings like these cannot be added to incrementally every few years in response to growth.

As the town’s population and commercial activities have grown, so have public safety service needs. According to a draft of the Williston Comprehensive Plan, in 2004, the Williston Police Department responded to twice as many incidents (4,218) as it had ten years prior; and from 1999-2004 police saw a 17 percent increase in calls. The fire department experienced similar increases: Rescue calls rose 16 percent and fire calls increased 24 percent from 2000-2004, the plan says.

Town records show that the public facilities are insufficient. In the town’s 2004 annual report, police Chief Ozzie Glidden indicated the current station was designed for half the number of its current employees; in the “officers’ room” – where officers write reports and affidavits – any given officer must share his or her space with three or more officers.

On top of that, Glidden continues, “this space serves as a changing room, lunch room, interview room, juvenile detention area, conference room, processing and police cruiser videotape screening area, temporary evidence room, storage closet, firearm cleaning and unloading station, records department, evidence processing, etc.”

The new 15,000-square-foot police station – the footprint of which is not much larger than the existing firehouse – will provide separate interview rooms and detention areas.

Fire Chief Ken Morton said the new fire station’s location will save driving time. The average drive time to calls from the current station is seven minutes; in contrast, from the new location, 91 percent of Williston locations can be reached in an average of four driving minutes, Morton said. For both locations, response time is longer when fire personnel are not already at the station.

Conditions from last week’s meeting are set to be finalized at next week’s Development Review Board meeting. Zoning permits can be issued after conditions are met. Act 250 permitting is still ahead. McGuire expects construction bids to be invited in January, with construction scheduled to begin in May. The facilities are expected to be completed in 2007.

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IBM employee gets to work without a car every day

By Ben Moger-Williams
Observer staff

Paul Bouchard doesn’t have to scrape off his car in the morning or wait for the heat to kick in. That’s because every day for the last two years, Bouchard has made the 7-mile round trip to work under his own power.

In these days of rising fuel prices and greenhouse gases, it seems like a sound environmental decision, but while Bouchard says the environment is important to him, that is not his main motivator.

“The reason why I do it is because it’s healthy,” the 54-year-old Williston resident said. “I think the older I get the more I need some kind of challenge I can do.”

The supply chain advisory planner said he has been biking from his Lamplite Acres home to IBM in Essex Junction for many years, but always drove between December and April because the frozen roads were not suitable for biking. But two years ago he made the decision to walk during those months, and made the total commitment to not use a car for work at all.

Bouchard and his wife, Carol, both own cars, and he said he drives to the grocery store and other places, just not to work. Carol, who works as a part-time nurse at Pediatric Medicine in South Burlington, and as secretary for the Methodist Church district superintendent, does drive to work.

“I don’t try to put my lifestyle on her,” he said.

While he says his top goal is fitness, Bouchard recognizes the environmental benefits of cutting down on driving time.

“I wish that I were more disciplined and didn’t need a car, period,” he said. “But I think the lifestyles that we’re in, it’s very difficult to be completely removed, so you try and do the next best thing, which is reduce.”

The former runner said he figures he saves about 75 gallons of gasoline a year by not driving a car to work every day.

“In itself it isn’t a whole lot, but I like to think you pass the philosophy around,” he said. “You can’t do it all yourself.”

In January, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released revised health guidelines for Americans, which recommended 30 to 60 minutes of moderate exercise a day.

Bouchard estimates his winter walk takes about 40 minutes each way on a good day, and up to an hour and a half on a really bad weather day.

He said he tried going to a gym for about a year, but found that walking and biking were preferable.

“It’s a discipline that I wasn’t very good at,” Bouchard said of working out at the gym. “(Walking) is easier, I’ve got to get to work; got to get home, so it’s really good.”

His commitment has also affected other people in his office, he said.

“Other people have jumped on at work,” he said. “They’ll maybe come in twice a week during the summer, mostly biking.”

Like any commuter, Bouchard faces numerous hazards on his daily trek to work.

A month ago, while riding home during a sudden snowstorm, Bouchard had what he calls his “first meeting with a car.”

Bouchard was riding home from Essex when a car stuck his bike’s rear tire and he fell to the ground.

“My first reaction was ‘Boy, I’m really upset. Why don’t people see me on a bike?’” he said. “I actually feel a little apologetic to the woman because she came out and she says ‘I didn’t see you,’ and I said something like ‘Yeah, I noticed.’ I wish I was a little more polite.”

He said when he bikes to work, the going is usually fairly easy up until the recreational path ends at James Brown Drive, and he has to cross Vermont Route 2A.

“Truckers are better than cars,” he said, “I can sit there for a couple of minutes before somebody lets me by.”

Bouchard said his family, which includes his wife and three adult children Kim, Sara and Nick, all probably think he is a little crazy, but he will continue to walk, bike or otherwise challenge himself in his daily journey to IBM.

“I’m thinking about doing snowshoes this year, and kind of giving it a different twist,” he said.

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By Kim Howard
Observer staff

When Bethany Lieberman’s oldest son was about 11 years old, he got “very serious” about being Jewish, according to his mother.

“People would say ‘merry Christmas,’ and my son would say very firmly ‘happy Hanukkah,’” said Lieberman, explaining that her younger son did the same thing.

“They were never rude, but they did go through a year or so where they were very frustrated because it was automatically assumed that everybody was Christian,” continued Lieberman, who moved to Williston three years ago from the Boston area.

According to the American Jewish Committee, about 5,500 Vermont residents are affiliated with Jewish federations or synagogues, more than half of those in Burlington. However, these numbers do not account for unaffiliated Jews. As a result, there is no official count of the Vermont Jewish population.

When Judaism is acknowledged during the month of December, it often is in the form of Hanukkah.

“Often people see Hanukkah as the Jewish Christmas, and it really isn’t,” said Judy Alexander, education director at Temple Sinai in South Burlington. “Hanukkah is a minor holiday, but it’s taken on more significance as far as where it falls in the calendar because it is so close to Christmas.”

Rabbi Joshua Chasan of Ohavi Zedek Synagogue in Burlington also pointed to the minor role that Hanukkah plays in the Jewish calendar. Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot and Passover are more significant Jewish holidays.

“The wonder and excitement that many Christians feel around Christmas Eve and Christmas morning has a parallel around Passover for us,” Chasan said.

Sheryl Foxman, who has lived in Williston for 18 years, said there are challenges living in a state where such a small percentage of people understand Judaism.

“The Jewish population has grown, but it will never, ever be what it’s like in a big city,” Foxman said last week by phone. “It’s been quite an experience here. I was like the representative Jew” when her daughters were younger, said Foxman, who explained Jewish high holy days to her daughters’ classes.

Lieberman has had similar experiences. The first year the family lived in Williston, she said her children had sports events and play practice scheduled on high holy days, when Jews are expected to be in synagogue.

“I think that people here try to be sensitive to the differences, but they’re just not fully aware,” Lieberman said.

When major school activities are scheduled on a Jewish high holy day, “the children are forced to make a choice,” said Lieberman, whose family, like Foxman’s, attends Temple Sinai.

“Now a Rabbi would tell you there is no choice. But for a child who is the lead in a play,” that is hard, Lieberman continued. Now Lieberman said she calls schools as schedules are being set to tell them the dates of upcoming Jewish holidays.

Foxman also noted the challenge of living in a world in which time off is granted for Christian holidays – like Christmas – but not for those she recognizes.

“That’s always been hard, when you have these holidays you want to observe but you have to work,” Foxman said. “Or kids (have) homework to do when you want to be festive and hang out with your family.”

Rabbi Chasan said it is important to remember that there are a large number of intermarried families, where one spouse converted to Judaism upon marriage, and as a result there are close family ties to Christians.

“The connections are very personal; many Jews accept with wonder the beauty of Christmas,” Chasan said. “And at the same time, we feel the challenge to define and teach our own culture in the midst of all the red and green.”

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By Marianne Apfelbaum and Ben Moger-Williams

The town could adjust its policy on winter road maintenance alerts, following a spate of icy days and two serious accidents.

The latest accident involved Williston resident Kaitlyn George, 51, who is in critical condition with head and chest injuries at Fletcher Allen Health Care. George was driving northbound on Oak Hill Road at approximately 4:20 p.m. on Sunday when she lost control of her vehicle, which went off the left side of the road, police said. George was pinned under the vehicle, according to police, and was pulled from beneath it by passersby, who also alerted police to the accident.

Williston police Sgt. Bart Chamberlain said that speed and alcohol did not appear to be factors in the accident, but did note that the roads were icy and snow covered, and had not been cleared.

On the evening of Nov. 22, snowy and icy roads also caused problems in responding to a plane crash on Partridge Hill, police say. According to police, fire trucks were not able to get up snow-covered Partridge Hill Road. Fire and rescue personnel had to reach the scene on foot, and were able to put out the crash’s ensuing fire with a fire extinguisher.

Williston police acknowledged that the problem of hazardous winter road conditions is a longstanding one. “We are aware that this has been a concern of residents for the past few winters, and we have informed the town,” said Chamberlain. “We recently met with Neil Boyden and Rick McGuire again to come up with a solution.”

Boyden, director of public works for the town, said that during weekends and off-hours, Essex police are supposed to alert the Williston Public Works Department to dangerous road conditions. Essex and State Police also act respectively as dispatchers for Williston Fire and Police Departments on nights and weekends. Williston has two shifts of police dispatchers but no fire dispatchers.

McGuire, Williston’s town manager, said he meets with other town departments periodically to discuss many issues including winter road maintenance.

“This is one of the areas that we’re particularly focusing on,” McGuire said. “We think that our response can be better so we’re going to be looking at a number of different ways of improving it.”

Chamberlain said the roads were so bad on Sunday that officers had to use a town-owned 4-wheel-drive truck to respond to accident calls instead of the police cruisers. “We couldn’t get around with them,” Chamberlain said.

Williston police called Vermont State Police on Sunday morning asking them to get the town to clear the roads, Chamberlain said. The town’s road crew normally works Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. When a need for road clearing arises outside those hours, the procedure is as follows: Requests are funneled through the State Police, then on to the Essex Police Department – which is responsible for calling Williston Public Works to alert them to the need for road clearing, Chamberlain said.

According to State Police, two calls were made directly to Williston’s road crew foreman Sunday morning, neither of which received a response. There is a list of several other road crewmembers who can be called, but those calls were not made, according to Chamberlain.

The administrator for the State Police Williston Communications Center, Jim Cronan, said the center has lists of town highway personnel in five counties to call, so keeping track of calls is difficult on stormy days like Sunday.

“Basically it’s just a scramble,” Cronan said. “In a snowstorm it’s just survival time for us.”

Cronan said he did not know of any problems with communication on Sunday with Williston.

Boyden acknowledged that the State Police had paged foreman Ron Burritt on Sunday, but said Burritt did not receive the page.

“What they should have been doing, is if you don’t get a response, you go down the list,” Boyden said.

The department did receive a call at about 3:45 p.m. Sunday, Boyden said, and the road crews were out by 4:30 p.m.

Boyden said he would make some modifications to the town’s current policy and was preparing to send out a memo to Williston, Essex and State Police this week. Boyden said the memo would advise the departments if they did not get a response 15 minutes after paging the highway foreman, they should begin calling each of the town’s plow truck drivers until one responds.

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