Williston Observer

Local man played for Apollo astronauts

By Kim Howard
Observer staff

The pace is quick. Bows fly furiously across fiddle strings. Fingers pluck and strum a banjo and a guitar. A wooden tipper strikes an Irish frame drum, a bodhran, to mark the beats.

Just outside the bar area of The Lincoln Inn in Essex Junction, Bill Chambers, 70, is marking the beats, too, as he does every other Wednesday night with the rest of the group that performs weekly for Celtic Party Night. As Chambers fingers the six holes along his tin whistle, both of his white sneakers tap simultaneously to the beat, tapping faster as the pace picks up.

A nearly full pint of Guinness sits on the floor behind his chair. Behind the lenses of Chambers’ glasses, his eyes focus intently on the sheet music in front of him. As the group hits the end of the song, Chambers raises his whistle up in his left hand, exhales audibly, and breaks into a wide smile.

“He practices a lot; you can tell,” said John Dodson, 24, a member of the Celtic music group who has been playing with Chambers for about three years. “He will come to a session with six new tunes … he’s always learning.”

On the Wednesday nights he’s not at The Lincoln Inn, he plays his tin whistle with the band Circadia at Ri Ra The Irish Pub in downtown Burlington. Chambers has taught himself to play over the last 39 months, after having played with musicians who did a lot of Celtic music, he said. Due to mouth surgeries earlier in his life, having an instrument to play with no embouchure – or a mouthpiece that requires a lot of adjustment of the player’s mouth to play – is key for comfort at this point, he explained. Before the pennywhistle, he played the recorder.

For Chambers, who grew up in St. Albans, music has been a lifelong passion.

“I always wanted to be a musician I guess from the time I was five,” Chambers said recently. “Every time I’d hear a band play, it’d be uptown, and I’d be way down on South Main Street – I don’t know, a half, three-quarters of a mile away I’d hear the band. I had to go.”

Chambers said he had to wait until he was 15, when he was in high school, to start playing. His first instrumental music teacher, Sterling D. Weed, who passed away last fall at the age of 104, was well known in the Vermont music world. Chambers’ first instrument resembled a trumpet: the cornet.

“Serial number 11213,” he said, laughing at himself. “Why I remember that one I don’t know.”

When Chambers got a rag caught once in his cornet while cleaning it, Weed told him he needed a horn player so Chambers ended up playing a mellophone or alto horn (which looks like a small tuba) the rest of the year. He went to the state competition playing the new instrument.

After school got out, “the cornet magically appeared again without the rag in it,” Chambers said.

In time, Chambers picked up the tuba, the baritone horn, and the trombone. In 1955 he joined the U.S. Marine Corps.

“It was the only place I could make a living” playing the instruments he played, Chambers said. There was little need in symphonic orchestras for the euphonium or baritone horn, he said.

Except for some time away to get married and get a college music degree, Chambers played in military bands until his retirement in 1984.

He started off at Parris Island, near Beaufort, S.C. Then he spent a year in Okinawa. He played in the Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan. For seven years he was based in Washington, D.C., with the U.S. Army Band. He played at the White House about 75 times, and at Arlington National Cemetery at least 1,200 times, he said, for funerals of fallen Vietnam War soldiers.

An old tan briefcase carries remnants of his nearly 30 years in military bands. He pulls out a plaque signed by Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin; Chambers was among the band members who played for them in August 1969, upon their return from humans’ first walk on the moon. At that time Chambers was playing in the herald trumpet section.

“That section laid the people’s hair back for about the first ten rows,” Chambers said.

Chambers played at the grand opening of Disney World in 1971, and at President Nixon’s last coronation parade.

The “fun band,” though, Chambers said, was the 33rd Army Band based in Heidelberg, Germany, in which he got to play all over Europe.

“It wasn’t just military music. We could play rock or swing or whatever.”

After his retirement, Chambers tried not playing music for a while, but he couldn’t. He practices virtually every day he’s not performing, his wife Patricia Chambers said.

“He forgets to eat,” Patricia said. “He’ll be out there for hours.”

In the senior living building in which they live, in the winter her husband plays in the corner of a stairwell so as not to bother anyone, she said.

“How many people shut themselves up in a basement corner so they can play?” Patricia said. “It’s like (how) I love my grandchildren, (is how) he loves his music.”

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Taft Corners improvements recommended

By Greg Elias
Observer staff

Motorists face increasingly clogged traffic around Taft Corners unless millions of dollars are spent building new streets and widening the Interstate 89 overpass, a new study concludes.

The study evaluates a proposal to construct grid streets around Taft Corners in order to relieve congestion on U.S. 2, Vermont 2A and Marshall Avenue, the town’s busiest thoroughfares. Traffic snarls are already commonplace on those roads, but the study predicts they will get much worse over the next 10 years.

“What it shows is that we can in fact improve traffic congestion at all the intersections if we are willing to invest in the improvements,” said Town Planner Lee Nellis. If the new streets are not built, he added, “gridlock might be too strong a word, but there will be lots of problems.”

An estimated 10,000 cars roll through the Taft Corners area during morning and afternoon commutes. More vehicles are expected as a handful of proposed subdivisions are built out over the next decade.

The town commissioned the $50,000 study done by South Burlington-based Resource Systems Group. It analyzes the impact of four road-improvement alternatives:

Build a road called Depot Street that runs east to west from Harvest Lane near Home Depot to Vermont 2A near the Vermont State Police barracks.

Extend Helena Drive in Blair Park southward to Trader Way near the Hannaford grocery store. Build a street connecting Vermont 2A at Wright Avenue to Harvest Lane.

Complete both of the above projects.

Build no new roads, but widen existing streets and improve intersections.

Widening the Interstate 89 overpass at Vermont 2A, however, is the key to making vehicles move smoothly, said Mark Smith, senior consultant with Research Systems Group.

“The whole thing unravels” unless the I-89 underpass is widened to include additional lanes, Smith said.

Southbound traffic approaching the I-89 interchange on Vermont 2A already backs up during the evening rush hour. Smith said the study does not even address what happens in 10 years without the interchange widening because the computer model showed such “tremendous delays” if it is not fixed.

It remains to be seen how – and if – the road improvements will be funded. The study estimates that it will cost about $4.1 million to build all the grid streets. Smith estimated the interchange widening will cost $10-$15 million.

The town has about $750,000 saved in transportation impact fees developers have paid over the years. That is enough money to fund smaller improvements such as new traffic signals, but nowhere near enough to pay for the grid streets.

An early draft of the new Williston Comprehensive Plan suggested the town allow increased density in commercial areas if it encouraged developers to build some of the grid streets.

That provision was altered after Selectboard members bridled at the idea of doing anything that might permit more big-box stores. The plan approved by the board leaves open the possibility of increasing density while maintaining previous agreements with Maple Tree Place and Taft Corners Park that limit the number of box stores.

Funding for the I-89 interchange project is an even bigger question. The state has a long backlog of road construction projects and not enough money to pay for them all, transportation officials say.

There are currently no plans to improve the Williston interstate interchange, said Christine Forde, senior transportation planner with the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization.

The study rates traffic congestion at intersections around Taft Corners by looking at the current level of service and how each will function in 2018, both with and without the various road improvement alternatives.

Each intersection is given a grade from A to F, a standard measure of traffic congestion. For example, signalized intersections rated an “A” have delays of less than 10 seconds; those given an “F’ have more than an 80-second delay.

Currently, all but one of the intersections near Taft Corners are graded “C” or better during weekday rush hours, according to the study. The Marshall Avenue intersection rates just under a “D.”

If no improvements are made, the computer model used by the study shows some of the intersections will get a failing grade by 2018. Smith said the study assumes additional development will occur in the next decade around Taft Corners, particularly the giant Finney Crossing project, which, if approved, will include more than 350 housing units.

“If you don’t do any of the alternatives, traffic will become unbearable,” Smith said.

If no new roads are built but improvements are made at I-89 and other intersections, congestion remains roughly at its current level, the study shows. Building all the grid streets “would relieve the current congestion as well as expected future congestion,” according to the study.

The Selectboard is scheduled to hear a presentation on the grid street study at its Sept. 18 meeting. The meeting starts at 7 p.m.

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Appeal of town permit settled out of court

By Greg Elias
Observer staff

Two Williston neighborhoods – one long-established, the other not yet built – have settled their legal dispute through mediation, clearing the way for a new senior housing subdivision.

Pinecrest Village and the developer of Balsam Circle reached an out-of-court settlement, according to papers filed Aug. 28 in Vermont Environmental Court. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The court requires parties to an appeal to attempt mediation before a trial is held.

In May, the homeowners association for Pinecrest Village appealed a decision by the Williston Development Review Board giving preliminary approval for Balsam Circle. The board has since granted final approval.

No details about the settlement were available. Balsam Circle developer Russell Barone said a nondisclosure agreement was part of the settlement. “It’s settled, resolved, and now the parties can move forward,” he said.

The project still needs an Act 250 state land-use permit before construction can begin. Barone said he hopes to obtain that permit in time to break ground before winter.

The dispute concerned access to the new subdivision. Pinecrest Village representatives complained during the approval process that plans for Balsam Circle called for an access road that crossed their common land.

After the appeal was filed, Pinecrest Village lawyer Vincent Paradis told the Observer that the neighborhood association appealed the DRB’s preliminary approval because the town improperly allowed Balsam Circle to use Pinecrest Village’s private road and set a speed limit of 25 mph on it. The board’s final approval omitted the speed limit requirement.

The settlement brings to a close a rancorous town review of Balsam Circle, which will have 14 units. The dwellings will be age restricted to those 55 and older.

Former Williston Selectboard member Herb Goodrich, who owns the land between Taft Corners and Williston Village where the subdivision will be located, filed a permit application in October 2004.

During the review process, Pinecrest Village expressed concerns about the development’s impact on their neighborhood. They said Balsam Circle’s access road crossed their property and complained the new subdivision would create traffic problems on Timothy Way, the road that connects Pinecrest Village to U.S. 2.

The Development Review Board initially rejected a permit for Balsam Circle, reasoning that it needed an emergency road and that such a road was not included in plans. The board later determined that Pinecrest Village had an emergency road that Balsam Circle could share and approved the project.

But then a town inspection of the road revealed it was not passable for emergency vehicles. D.K. Johnston, Williston’s zoning administrator, issued a notice of violation that alleged the road did not comply with conditions in Pinecrest Village’s original subdivision permit.

Pinecrest Village appealed. Lawyers for the town and Pinecrest Village continue to negotiate, said Williston Town Manager Rick McGuire.

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Housing developments raise concerns

By Kim Howard
Observer staff

As the Sept. 26 public hearing for Finney Crossing approaches, some Williston taxpayers question if the large development – and others like it – will increase school enrollment, forcing construction of new school buildings.

For the moment, however, preliminary data suggest the number of students in Williston schools is leveling off after a sizeable drop last fall.

As of Aug. 31, Williston Central and Allen Brook schools together had 1,180 students enrolled. When the district reported enrollment numbers to the Vermont Department of Education on Oct. 1 last year, enrollment also stood at 1,180.

District Principal Walter Nardelli said enrollment fluctuates over the course of the year – even between now and Oct. 1. Last year during the first month of school, the district enrolled an additional 15 students. When school closed in June, the district had another nine students enrolled, or a total of 1,189, Nardelli said.

For the last five years, some Williston taxpayers have monitored enrollment numbers because they can drive classroom needs. In 2001, enrollment jumped 7 percent in one year, forcing the School Board to consider a multi-million dollar expansion project for Allen Brook School. Enrollment peaked the following year at 1,218 students and leveled off until last year when it dropped nearly 3 percent.

Though enrollment appears to be steady for now, both schools are feeling pinched for space due to increasing numbers of students requiring one-on-one services.

“We’re squeezed about as tightly as we can be right now,” Nardelli said.

There are other space considerations. Full-day kindergarten, which national data say puts students ahead of those who attend half-day, would be viable only with additional classrooms. Temporary classrooms at Allen Brook School, in the form of trailers, are permitted only through February 2010; the Development Review Board is requiring the school district to provide a long-term facility plan by 2008.

Effects of new housing

Town planning limits new housing units to about 80 a year for the next 10 years, so residents can expect to see about 800 new units over the next decade, according to the most recent town growth report.

The largest development seeking approval is Finney Crossing, a mixed residential and commercial development proposing 356 housing units. Bob Snyder, the developer of the residential portion of Finney Crossing, said the development would add only about 67 students to the schools over the 10-year building period.

Town Planner Lee Nellis said Snyder’s estimate could be high. On average, two-bedroom units – which comprise the majority of new units at Finney Crossing – have generated an average of 0.16 school-age children per unit in Williston.

“Given that the school population is falling and they projected it to rise using those numbers, I would say (0.16) is high,” Nellis said.

Single-family homes are estimated to generate on average 0.25 students each.

Volunteer school demographer Bill Smith, a retired engineer from IBM Corp., who now works for the State of Vermont Department of Taxes, said new housing is only a small piece of the total enrollment picture. When housing changes enrollment from one year to the next, he said, it is more likely to be sales of existing houses than new construction.

Still, any enrollment increases as a result of new construction may, over ten years, be offset by a declining birth rate, Smith said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2002 saw the lowest U.S. birth rate since national data has been available.

“The biggest single factor involved in change in enrollment in schools is the fact that there are fewer kindergarten students coming in than there are eighth graders leaving,” Smith said.

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A high-speed Internet connection has become nearly a necessity. Yet access to a fast connection is hardly universal in Williston and elsewhere.

This Monday, telecommunication companies will give an overview of Internet options and issues during a meeting at Williston Town Hall. The meeting begins at 7 p.m.

Representatives from Adelphia, Soundtivity and Verizon will attend the session. An official from the Vermont Department of Information and Innovation will talk about other vendors and technologies, as well as state initiatives.

Rep. Mary Peterson, D-Williston, said Internet access remains an issue for many residents.

“High-speed Internet access in the home is becoming critical, as any number of stories on the ‘digital divide’ will tell,” she wrote in a media release. “Although clearly there is more high-speed coverage in Williston than more rural towns, we face challenges with existing services, and particularly on our longer country roads and south of the interstate, dial-up is still a reality.”

Monday’s meeting will provide information on Internet technology, but Peterson said the session will be geared to those who have little or no technical knowledge.

High-speed access is available in Williston through Verizon and cable television provider Adelphia, which was recently sold to Time Warner and Comcast. Under the sales agreement, Comcast will provide service to all of Adelphia’s Vermont customers.

Neither Verizon nor Adelphia provides service to all of Williston. To use cable Internet, customers must be in Adelphia’s service area. For DSL access through Verizon, customers must be within a certain distance from a central switching office.

Adelphia and Verizon representatives who attend next week’s meeting will provide details on their service areas and explain plans for future expansions.

Other Internet options will also be discussed. A representative from Colchester-based Soundtivity will explain the wireless service it provides, which “broadcasts” Internet access to multi-unit dwellings and in rural areas. The company will explain how a group of homeowners may make their service feasible in Williston.

For an overview of home broadband services, visit www.vtruralbroadband.org. For more information about Monday’s meeting, call Peterson at 878-8241 or send an e-mail to [email protected]

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