Williston Observer

By Kim Howard
Observer staff

Tony Palmer felt strong the first eight days ascending North America’s highest peak. Then his group learned that a few thousand feet up the mountain, a fall had just killed two climbers.

“I don’t think anybody admitted maybe how much of an impact that had,” Palmer, a 41-year-old software engineer, said this week.

It was mid-May. Palmer’s party was at 14,200 feet, at what is known among McKinley climbers as Camp 4. Having scaled 14,400-foot Mount Rainier last fall, Palmer knew he was comfortable at that altitude, and he was comfortable at higher altitudes in the days ahead.

So it wasn’t the altitude, Palmer said, that caused him to become so sick he lost all of the food he’d consumed that day, vital fuel for continuing on.

“News of the climbers dying was a lot to absorb,” the Williston father of three said. “That was the first point for me when I thought this was a big deal, a point for me when I felt a little bit vulnerable.”

About 1,300 people attempt to summit Alaska’s Mt. McKinley each year. At an elevation of 20,320 feet – the equivalent of more than five Camels Humps – the mountain is officially known in Alaska as Denali, meaning “the high one” in the Native American Athabaskan language. Extreme temperatures and weather, altitude changes and the sheer physical and mental stamina required to ascend the mountain translate into only a little more than 50 percent of climbers reaching the summit each year. Since the early 1930s when records began being kept, the mountain has claimed nearly 100 lives.

By Camp 4, Palmer’s guided group – which started with two guides and five climbers – already was one man smaller due to a hyper-extended knee in the first days of the expedition. By the time the group reached “high camp” at 17,200 feet, a second climber started to have fluid in his lungs and had to head down.

Palmer, however, who’d taken a rest day after losing all of his food, felt strong again, ready for the last stop after high camp – the summit.

But the weather didn’t cooperate. If it had only been cold – high temperatures at camp may have reached zero, Palmer said – they could have moved on. But the wind had picked up, forcing the five climbers to sit in their tents that day, just as they had for several days further down the mountain, waiting out a storm. A second full day at high camp was spent listening to 30 mile-per-hour winds and more snowfall. The third day, the weather started to look better.

For the final ascent each man carried a light load of survival gear, Palmer said, maybe 20 pounds.

“That felt great,” Palmer said. Until that point, Palmer had been carrying 50 to 70 pounds on any given day – more than the weight of his oldest daughter, Lauren, 9.

The group – tied together by climbing ropes – could see the first 1,000 feet ahead of them, until the wind picked up again. By the time they reached the ridge, a relatively narrow path, the wind was kicking up so much snow Palmer said he couldn’t see more than 20 feet in front of him, or anything on either side of the ridge.

Suddenly, they were there. The top.

“I had all these grand pictures I wanted to take up there,” Palmer said. He had tucked in his jacket pocket a letter from his oldest daughter that had been signed by all of her classmates, hoping to get a picture of it at the summit. But the air was so thin, he said, “it took a lot of time to process things.”

“I’m really glad (the youngest guide) had the sense to say ‘doesn’t anyone want any pictures?’”

They took a few shots of the group standing in the 20-degree-below-zero (or colder) atmosphere, snow whirling around them, no clear view of anything but themselves. They ate a little and then began to head down.

Others had told Palmer that most climbing accidents happen on descent. Fatigue sets in. Some people let their guards down. For Palmer’s group, the weather began to worsen. Unbeknownst to Palmer until the next day, the goggles worn by the second to last climber in the group were fogging and freezing up. The guide behind him coiled the rope up between them and steered him. But when the group – still tied together – was supposed to head down the left side of the ridgeline, the climber could no longer see at all, and stepped off the right side. The guide tried to pull him back, but couldn’t. Palmer would later learn the pair had fallen about 40 feet.

“All I felt, I got jerked right into the side of the mountain,” he said. “I stuck in the ice pick and sat on it… I didn’t really know what was going on.”

With everyone completing a “self arrest” – ice picks into the mountain – there was no further falling. The fallen pair rejoined the group, and they made it back down to camp.

When Palmer called home to his wife, Esther, from 14,000 feet with a satellite phone, she said he didn’t sound the same as after his summit of Mount Rainier.

“After this one, he wasn’t bubbly,” she said. “It was a much more sobering experience.”

Esther had never worried for his safety, she said – her husband is cautious, responsible and was well prepared. A former Olympic athlete in cycling, the 6-foot, 4-inch Palmer is naturally athletic. His Mount Rainier guides last fall had said he was McKinley material. All winter he’d climbed Camels Hump with roughly 70-pound packs twice weekly.

Palmer said even when he was back down the mountain, he still felt more relief than excitement about the two-week journey.

“I think it took quite a while even after I got home to tap into even the ‘wow,’ the accomplishment, the excitement, rather than the ‘whew, I’m glad that turned out safe and sound.’”

Palmer will share pictures and more details of his journey in a presentation at Dorothy Alling Memorial Library: Wednesday, Sept. 19, at 7 p.m.

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By Kim Howard
Observer staff

The baseball team from the Dominican Republic was ahead 5-0 at the bottom of the fourth inning last Thursday night.

In the preceding six days, the team had already played nine baseball games, winning seven. Their opponents Thursday, players from Williston Little League, had played only twice during that time.

“This is their passion,” Williston Little League Vice President Greg Bolger said of the visiting Dominican Republic team. “They’re all amazing athletes. Some of the plays…they’re like acrobats.”

While baseball may have been the medium, it wasn’t the end goal for Bolger or many of those gathered at Williston Community Park last Thursday night. The sixth day of the Vermont-Dominican Republic Baseball Cultural Exchange program, Williston was stop 10 for the team playing throughout Chittenden County in their one-week visit.

“I’m happy our kids are getting a chance to interact with kids of another nationality,” Bolger said.

The exchange program is a product of the Vermont Institute on the Caribbean that aims to connect communities and cultures between the two areas.

“We believe in the power of small groups of people making change,” VIC Executive Director Marisha Kazeniac said. Kazeniac said she feels there’s been an increasing level of fear of foreigners among Americans since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

“I really think friendship disarms that fear,” she said. Friendship “lets them feel safe in another part of the world.”

During April vacation this year, 16 boys and 10 adults from Burlington American Little League traveled to the Dominican Republic for the first half of the baseball cultural exchange. While the initial hours were a little tense, by the time the week was up, some of the kids were crying because they didn’t want to leave, according to Oscar Rodriguez, the coordinator of the program in the Dominican Republic.

Language barriers didn’t appear to stop friendships from developing. Though many Burlington kids spoke little or no Spanish, and most of the Dominican kids spoke little to no English, relationships flourished nonetheless. After the game in Williston, the kids from both teams ate and hung around together at a barbecue.

Abelmariano Mendoza Placencia, 12, said he’s made “too much friends” since arriving in Vermont, a place he said is “very good.”

The climate is interesting, Abelmariano said, adding he thought it was “very cold” Thursday night. Wind whipped across the field and the temperature had dropped rapidly late afternoon. During the team’s visit, local daytime high temperatures have ranged from the 60s through the 90s; in the Dominican Republic the tropical temperatures are steady year-round.

Despite Abelmariano being the best English speaker among the children visiting, this was his first trip to the U.S. and his first time in an airplane.

“I am so exciting,” he said. “When I was in the airplane, I see down, I see all the houses they look so small.”

Williston Little League helped support the Dominican team with a donation of $1,000.

Dominican parent Rafael Lantigua said the hospitality shown by the people of Vermont is something Dominican kids will “keep in their hearts forever.”

He’s been thrilled, too, that in each community they have played, many spectators have turned out.

“I think all the people were waiting for us,” Lantigua said.

Prompted by his father to try out his halting English, Rafael Lantigua, Jr., 9, said he thinks Vermont is “good” and “beautiful” and that he likes the mountains. His favorite part of the trip through Thursday was ice-skating at Leddy Park; it was his first time.

Williston players were enthused about their rivals.

“Not many people get to play teams from other countries unless you’re in the Little League World Series,” Tucker Kohlasch, 12, said. “It’s nice that little old Vermont can play people from the Dominican.”

Before racing off to bat, Kirk Fontana shared his thoughts.

“They’re a really good team and they’re really respectful,” he said.

As the teams headed into the fifth inning, with the score still 5-0, seven-year-old Greg Bolger told his father not to worry about the score because “it’s an expedition game.”

Yes, his father replied, it is an exhibition game. The final score was 9-4.

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Consultant finds pay ranges “very competitive”

By Kim Howard
Observer staff

Town employees will see a 3-to-5 percent salary increase this year. The town’s pay system, according to a town-hired consultant, does not require any major changes.

The Selectboard recently approved a 3 percent cost of living increase for non-union town employees, according to Town Manager Rick McGuire. (Police officers are union employees.) Some town employees also received an additional increase based on their performance. McGuire said merit increases this year ranged from nothing to 2 percent.

At the start of each fiscal year, which begins July 1, new salary schedules are set for government employees. Town positions are categorized in certain pay grades. Each grade has a minimum and maximum salary. The town manager, for example, has a salary range of $58,131 to $83,532.

Each year McGuire does his own analysis of how Williston salaries stack up against comparable positions in Vermont. A salary survey published by the Vermont League of Cities and Town is his guide.

“You want to be able to attract quality candidates when you have an opening and retain quality employees once you have them on board,” McGuire said.

Roughly every five years, the town hires an outside consultant to ensure McGuire’s analysis is on target, he said. The town paid $3,600 to Gallagher Flynn Human Resource Services LLC for such a review this year. The analysis found most positions “very competitive,” based on a review of data from the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, the New England Salary Survey, and a Vermont Department of Employment and Training survey.

“While the current pay ranges for many of the Town’s leadership positions appeared to be slightly less than absolutely comparable with their counterparts in their local towns in a first analysis, the pay for all of these positions is directly related to a town’s population,” the analysis says. “When this factor is considered, it is clear that their current pay ranges are very competitive.”

The consultant, Frank Sadowski, issued several recommendations. The finance director position, the consultant found, was not competitive with the overall accounting and finance market from which the towns might draw future candidates, particularly given additional responsibilities added to the position in recent years. The consultant therefore advised that the position’s pay grade increase from a grade nine ($44,963 to $64,592) to a grade 10 ($49,923 to $70,297). A similar concern was expressed about the town planner position. In response, both positions’ pay grades were upped, McGuire said.

The consultant also expressed concern about the ability to retain junior planners with a salary range of $32,014 to $46,032.

“Due to a relative shortage of Planner positions, it may be possible to hire a Planner into this grade with more experience, but it is also likely that they would leave for a position with a higher salary when one becomes available,” the consultant wrote. The town may want to consider creating a senior planner position at a higher grade level to help the town retain more experienced staff longer, the consultant wrote. No action has been taken on this recommendation at this time, McGuire said.

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Groups hope to conduct forums in other towns

By Colin Ryan
Observer correspondent

A computer and monitor left on all the time produces more than 1,000 kilograms of harmful greenhouse gas emissions in just one year. An old toilet uses three gallons per flush, double the amount used by the newer, more efficient models.

These facts and others were presented to visitors at a Community Sustainability Forum held in Williston Town Hall on July 19. The forum was co-sponsored by Chittenden Solid Waste District (CSWD), Alliance for Climate Action (ACA), 10% Challenge, and Vermont Earth Institute (VEI). The District said this was the first of a series of forums to be held around the county, in order to raise awareness on sustainability.

Representatives from the organizations staffed booths filled with information about practices that people can employ if they want to be more environmentally responsible. The District encouraged using its ‘Local Color’ paint, which is re-blended from disposed paint collected at the CSWD Environmental Depot. By not having to barrel it and dispose of it as hazardous waste, the paint is better for the environment, and it is affordable due to the avoided disposal costs.

“I thought it would be a ‘you get what you pay for’ product, but that wasn’t the case,” said Williston resident Don Gaffney. “My son used it all through a new house he built in Starksboro. It’s very good paint, covers well, and looks great when it dries.”

Though the event was only moderately attended, the various representatives were positive. They explained that the event had already generated a lot of interest, and were trying to get people involved in the conversation of how to reduce one’s environmental impact.

“This is the first forum we’ve held here in our home town,” said Marge Keough, business outreach coordinator for CSWD. “And it’s the first step in our formal approach to go town by town and get the information out there. We’ve already gotten requests to hold the forum in Burlington, South Burlington, and Shelburne. We hope to hold these a couple times a year, per town.”

A District spokesperson said they hope people will take the advice to heart.

“We’re hoping that people will take home tools and ideas, and plug them in to how they make decisions,” offered CSWD Marketing and Communications Coordinator Clare Innes. “Everybody can benefit from this information, without feeling like they’re being forced to give up their lifestyles. What we’re hoping to do is help people see how simple it is. It doesn’t take more thinking; it just takes smarter thinking – a different kind of thinking. How can I take this area, and use it to reduce the amount of energy I expend?”

Innes referred to the idea of the carbon footprint, which is the amount of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) emitted through the combustion of fossil fuels as demanded by an individual as part of his or her daily life. For example, when you buy local goods, you decrease the amount of emissions resulting from the transportation of that item from production to the place of purchase.

Numerous other suggestions were presented, including:

When you purchase a product in a plastic container, think about if that container is recyclable, or bound for a landfill.

Reduce construction waste, which makes up a huge portion of the waste stream.

Buy locally. Transportation creates much of the pollution in Vermont.

Use non-toxic household cleaners, or make your own. Both are just as effective as harsher chemicals.

Consider paving your driveway with permeated concrete, which allows rainwater to absorb into the ground, instead of running into the stormwater drains, a process that tends to pick up oil and other pollutants, and carry them to the lake.

Of course, with so many possible ways of changing your habits, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. For that reason, presenters went out of their way to remind people that a tiny lifestyle change can add up to a significant difference.

“Take one focus at a time,” Innes said. “When I purchase groceries, I can always bring my own bag. And composting is really easy because you don’t need a backyard to do it. You get the bucket, peel your vegetables into it, and then bring it to our drop off site. By doing that, you can keep 600 pounds of trash a year out of the landfills.”

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Observer staff report

A new parking lot being constructed behind Williston Town Hall this month will double town-owned parking spaces.

“Our parking here is pretty limited,” Williston Public Works Director Neil Boyden said. “The Armory is taking space back now that they so graciously allowed us to use for all these years.”

The State of Vermont military department owns most of the land west of the town hall annex that houses the public works and recreation departments, Boyden said. For years the town has provided winter maintenance service to the armory in exchange for use of the Armory parking lot. It’s time, however, for the town to have its own parking lot, Boyden said.

Currently the town owns roughly 15 parking spaces; the new parking lot will add 21 spaces, about 9,360 square feet, Boyden said.

A land swap about two years ago laid the groundwork for the parking lot’s construction, Boyden said. The land on which the new parking lot will be constructed was previously owned by the state; the town owned about a half-acre behind the Armory. The switch enabled the Armory to construct a new vehicle and equipment compound in the last year to better secure their property.

“It seems like it was a win-win situation for the town and the state,” said Wendall Nolan, facilities manager for the State of Vermont Military Department.

The environment, too, will benefit. Stormwater runoff from the land behind town hall previously was untreated; with the new parking lot, all of the runoff will go through treatment.

Drainage work on the parking lot is underway this week; construction of the base will begin next week, according to Boyden. Paving is expected next month.

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