Williston Observer

Two local women awarded $1,000 for best entry

By Greg Elias
Observer staff

A versatile design that could accommodate everything from farmers’ markets to romantic walks has won Maple Tree Place’s “Make a Green Come True” contest.

Mary Jo Childs of Williston and Judy Goodyear of South Burlington won a $1,000 prize for their plan, which will be used in remaking the one-acre grassy square at the heart of the shopping center. It was among eight contest submissions from around the state.

The design features a central plaza surrounded by sugar maples. Walking paths radiate outward from the plaza to the green’s edge.

An arbor is located on one corner of the green. On the opposite corner, the design situates a second arbor, a stage and a terraced area where spectators can sit. That corner can also accommodate farmers markets and art fairs.

Among the items listed as optional are a pillar-mounted clock, a sundial and a sculpture people can climb on.

The overarching idea was to provide a setting where every square foot of space is useable by people, Childs said. The plan is designed to allow a farmers market to set up shop during the day and couples to take a stroll at night.

“I’ve always been interested in how space affects people,” Childs said. “Basically we wanted to create a space where people of all ages could get together. If you bring people to the space, you bring business to the shopping center.”

Judging was based criteria that included functionality, design value and creativity. Entries were scored by a six-judge panel.

The Childs-Goodyear design was the clear winner, scoring substantially higher than the other entries, said Rachel Carter, who coordinated public relations for the contest and who works for Paul Kaza Associates of South Burlington.

Patrick McLean, one of the judges and Vermont chapter president of the American Society of Landscape Architects, said the winning entry was the most complete plan and the best fit for the shopping center.

“I thought they had a good explanation about where they were coming from and what they wanted to do,” he said. “It was not like a spaceship coming in. It just fit.”

Some of the elements are flexible, which will allow the shopping center’s owner some leeway as to how much is spent on the project. But both Childs and Goodyear said the design is likely to cost considerably more than the $75,000 budgeted.

Representatives from Inland US Management LLC, the company that manages Maple Tree Place, have said the budget is flexible. They suggested the winning project could be done in phases, spreading the cost out over several years.

Childs and Goodyear met several years ago through their mutual involvement in a Williston gardening club. Both women had planned to enter the contest when Goodyear e-mailed Childs and suggested they work together.

“We brought our files and compared notes,” Childs said. “Then we realized our ideas dovetailed.”

Childs and Goodyear toiled nearly full-time for two weeks on the design, brainstorming ideas and drawing sketches. Goodyear said they were “doodling for a couple of days” until a clear plan began to emerge.

Childs owns MJ Childs Landscape Design. She has designed the playground at Williston Central School and a project at Vermont Respite House in Williston. Goodyear owns a landscaping business called A Very Goodyear.

Connecticut-based Starwood Ceruzzi sold Maple Tree Place for $102.3 million last year to The Inland Group of Companies in Illinois. The retail center includes a mix of big-box stores and smaller shops as well as office space.

Williston Town Planner Lee Nellis had first proposed the contest to Starwood Ceruzzi, which was unenthusiastic about the idea. Inland Group representatives, however, thought it was a good way to make a connection with the community.

The design must gain approval from the town and the state, and so is subject to change. Inland officials hope to start work on the project this spring.

The contest has significance beyond finding a functional design for the green. Town officials have long envisioned Maple Tree Place as Williston’s downtown. They hope an improved green will help the shopping center coalesce into a community gathering place.

Childs said she had always thought it was a shame that the space – a largely featureless grassy square – wasn’t better employed for that purpose.

“I’d always been bothered that the original developer left a blank slate,” Childs said. “When they announced the contest, I decided I’d better put up or shut up.”

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By Greg Elias
Observer staff

A Williston man’s eight-year battle to build homes on his land ended last week when the Development Review Board approved the small subdivision he proposed.

The approval means John Remy can now construct eight homes in Williston Village. The 7.7-acre parcel, located along U.S. Route 2 east of Williston Central School and next to Williston Bed & Breakfast, is the site of Remy’s home and business, Slate Barn Antiques.

“At this point I’m really happy I finally got the project approved,” he said. “The process started in 1998, and it’s been a long, hard road.”

Remy was sharply critical of the review process. He estimated that he spent $50,000 for permit, engineering and legal fees.

He blamed changes in town staff and shifting development review rules for the delay. He noted there had been three different town managers and three different town planners since the project was first proposed. That’s significant, he said, because rules governing development can be viewed differently depending on who is in charge.

“The problem I ran into over all the years was that there were so many changes with the town,” Remy said. “Everybody has their own interpretation of things.”

For example, Remy said he was originally told zoning allowed him to build 16 homes. But later, when planning staff changed, he was informed he could have fewer units because of wetland areas.

Town Manager Rick McGuire defended the review process. He said Remy was warned from the beginning that the project would face sizable hurdles because of its location in the historic district and the wetlands on his property.

“At the time I first heard about this project, he was told he would have a long road ahead of him,” McGuire said. He also noted that the review process is almost a moot point because until recently the town did not have enough sewer capacity to serve new developments.

In 2004, Remy appealed Williston’s growth management system under which the town decides what homes can be built and when. The state Environmental Court upheld the town’s rating system but using the town’s own point system calculated a higher score for Remy’s project.

Even as the final approval was granted last week, one Development Review Board member expressed reservations. Bill Sheedy cast the lone dissenting vote, saying the development was suburban in character and therefore not a good fit with the historic district.

As approved, the development, called Slate Barn Estates, will include four three-bedroom homes and four four-bedroom homes.

Remy said the custom-built homes would likely have sale prices in the $400,000 range. He expects to begin construction this spring

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Full day options wanted

Next year’s kindergarteners will attend school five days a week and most days will be longer, if the school budget passes in March.

The Williston School District announced last week the proposed change to the kindergarten schedule in its public budget information session.

The new schedule will have kindergarteners attending school five half-days a week.

Since September 2001, Williston kindergarteners attend school one full day and three half-days a week.

“I think it’s better for the kids,” said parent Christine Fuller, whose son will be attending kindergarten next year. “It’s more consistency for them. I think it’s very inconsistent the way it is today. … Even better is that they’re extending (school) a half hour each of the half days if the budget passes.”

The lengthening of the kindergarten day is dependent upon transportation, which is why the budget must pass before the new schedule can be finalized. Changes to bus routes may be required to make a modified schedule work, necessitating additional driver time and fuel that could cost as much as $10,000.

The new kindergarten schedule would mean up to 30 additional minutes each day, excluding transition time – the equivalent of 26 additional half-days a year, administrators said. That increase is significant. At 11.75 instructional hours a week, Williston has the second shortest kindergarten program in Chittenden South Supervisory Union. Hinesburg has the shortest week at 11 hours; Shelburne has the highest at 15.75 hours, according to a supervisory union study.

Lorene Spagnuolo, who has worked at Allen Brook School for 23 years, said she and the other Allen Brook kindergarten teachers “are really excited to return to a five-day schedule.”

The biggest potential adverse impact, Spagnuolo said, will be on full-time teachers who will have 30 minutes in between sessions to eat lunch and prepare for the afternoon class. Support staff will help morning session students pack up belongings and get to the bus, and greet early arriving afternoon students and engage them in reading or play time.

In spite of those logistical challenges, Spagnuolo sees many benefits, including eliminating what is currently a three-day weekend for kindergarteners and making it easier to meet the needs of students with learning or physical differences who require the assistance of paraprofessionals to accommodate individual education plans.

“We’re hoping that by extending the length of the day we’ll be better able to meet the needs of both the children and the families,” Spagnuolo said, though she emphasized that Allen Brook kindergarten teachers welcome a full-day kindergarten schedule when the budget and space allow.

In 2004-2005, 47 percent of Chittenden County kindergarteners were enrolled in full-day programs, according to the Department of Education Web site. Though not all Williston parents want to send their children to full-day kindergarten, a number of parents said they would like the option.

Laura McClure, who has a daughter about to turn four, isn’t sold on the proposed new schedule that she called “quarter days.”

“I would rather keep the one (full) day a week,” McClure said. “There’d at least be one day with some continuity with it. … It’s a lot of transitions for a young child,” she said, getting bused to and from school and daycare when parents work outside the home.

McClure said she would rather have curriculum instead of transition time, so she already is looking into private kindergarten programs for her daughter for fall 2007. For after school care on “quarter-day kindergarten” days, parents still have to pay for full-day care, McClure said.

“I’m at the point where I might as well pay a little bit more money and have the continuity for her being in one place, having a calmer day, with curriculum throughout the day,” McClure said.

Full-time preschool costs close to $8,000 a year, she said; a full-day private kindergarten the McClures are exploring costs $8,530, with pickup at 5:15 p.m.

Full-day kindergarten would require more classroom space than currently is available, said Williston School District Principal Walter Nardelli. Administrators also need more time to study the logistics.

In offering full-day sessions, “there is a rippling impact across the system,” Nardelli said, citing as examples music; art; librarians; bussing; support staff; and hot lunches. “What we had was a very rough estimate of what the teacher side of it would cost, not the impact on the entire system and all the other resources.”

A 2005 supervisory union study estimated increased teaching costs alone at $175,000 to convert all seven kindergarten classes to full days.

Before going ahead, Nardelli said, “let’s make sure we understand all the impacts. …

We’re going to have a lot more answers next year.”

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By Ben Moger-Williams
Observer staff

A Vermont district judge changed the sentence for a Williston sex offender at a sentence hearing last week in a heavily guarded courtroom.

After hearing from Georgia Cumming, director of the state’s sex offender treatment program for the Department of Corrections, Judge Edward Cashman last week changed one part of the sentence he originally gave to convicted sex offender Mark Hulett. Under the new sentence, Hulett will spend at least three years behind bars, a step up from the controversial original 60 days in prison Cashman prescribed.

In the packed courtroom, which was guarded by 10 officers from the Sheriff’s Department, two Burlington police officers and a state trooper, Cumming testified that the department had effectively changed its policy, and would now treat all sex offenders as long as they were in prison for at least 11 months. The original policy, adopted in 2002, provided treatment in prison only for sex offenders with a high risk of re-offending. Hulett was classified by the department as less likely than other sex offenders to re-offend, and therefore ineligible for treatment. Cashman argued that the public would be safer if Hulett received treatment, even if it was provided outside of prison.

After Cummings’ testimony, Cashman heard from state’s attorney Bob Simpson and defense lawyer Mark Kaplan.

Simpson argued that Hulett had not been given his “just desserts,” and that the state demanded that he be punished more severely.

Kaplan countered that the state had not provided enough reason to send Hulett to prison for an extended sentence.

“It’s not the public that makes the decision,” Kaplan said. “It’s got to be based on evidence and the law.”

Cashman listened to both sides, then read from a prepared statement that changed one of Hulett’s three sentences. As the judge read the sentence, Hulett’s father, sitting in the front row, slowly shook his head.

Hulett was charged with two counts of Aggravated Sexual Assault on a Child, and one count of Lewd and Lascivious Behavior with a Child. The first assault count was amended to give Hulett no less than three years and no more than 10 in prison. The other two sentences, which were three years to life and 2-5 years respectively, remained the same. Those sentences were probated, which means they won’t be activated unless Hulett violates the conditions of his probation.

After Cashman read the sentence, Hulett, his parents, and his lawyers left the room to discuss whether or not he would change his plea, which would have sent the case to trial. However, when they returned Kaplan announced that Hulett would accept the new sentence and Hulett was escorted out of the courtroom.

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