Williston Observer

State: no promises to build anything

By Greg Elias
Observer staff

The Selectboard on Monday voted to support construction of two park-and-ride facilities in hopes that at least one will be built.

The town will send a letter to the state Agency of Transportation expressing formal support for the proposed commuter parking lots on Vermont 2A. One would be located north of Interstate 89 behind Northfield Savings Bank across from Maple Tree Place. The other would be just south of I-89.

The Selectboard in August conducted a straw poll indicating support for the pair of park-and-rides despite the fact that it had in the past opposed the location south of the interstate. The state, however, wanted a formal vote on the issue.

Andy Mikell cast the lone dissenting vote. He said after Monday’s meeting that the facility south of I-89 is the better location. He predicted few motorists would use the other site because vehicles coming off the interstate would first have to pass through several traffic lights.

But other board members have in the past opposed a park-and-ride south of the interstate amid concerns that it would create a traffic hazard near the bottom of a long hill.

With little discussion before the vote on Monday, the board apparently agreed with Town Manager Rick McGuire, who previously said that if the state pursues two park-and-rides, it might ensure at least one will be built.

The town has long lobbied for a park-and-ride to replace the one that closed more than 10 years ago. Thousands of people commute daily to Williston, a regional retail center, and Census figures show that most people who live here work elsewhere.

A park-and-ride could reduce the ever-increasing congestion around Taft Corners by promoting ride sharing and public transportation. The lot behind Northfield Savings Bank would contain roughly 50 spaces; the lot south of I-89, on the west side of Vermont 2A, would have 120 to 150 spaces.

The idea behind studying two facilities is to leave open the option of building either one or both, said Richard Tetreault, director of program development for the Agency of Transportation, in a letter to the town.

“The two projects could be studied, designed and constructed simultaneously, but independent of each other,” he wrote. “This could allow one site to move through the project development phase quicker than the other.”

But the state is not making any promises about when or even if either park-and-ride will be constructed.

“There is no guarantee both sites will make it to construction,” Tetreault wrote. “The project’s development phase will determine if both or possibly only one park-and-ride would be built.”

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By Sky Barsch
Observer correspondent

The Dorothy Alling Memorial Library in Williston has developed a five-year plan, aiming to make the library a current, cultural community center with opportunities for lifelong learning.

The plan, written by a 14-member community board and staff, used survey feedback to guide the library for the next five fiscal years.

“We tried to focus on what were the needs, and how the library addressed those needs,” said library Director Marti Fiske.

The library collected surveys in May and June this year, with copies of the survey available at the library and on the library’s Web site. The library also sent surveys to patrons by e-mail. After much input, four service areas were identified for focus.

In the area of “current topics and titles,” the library wants to “help … fulfill the community’s ‘appetite for information about popular culture and social trends’ and its desire for recreational experiences,” according to the plan. The library will aim to stay current and alert patrons to these resources.

In the area of “cultural awareness,” the library will, through a variety of resources, help patrons understand their own cultural heritage and the cultural heritage of others.

The third service area is called “commons.” People enjoy having the library as a gathering place and a place to have public discourse about community issues.

Lastly, under “lifelong learning,” the library will assist patrons to continue to learn by helping them find materials within and out of the library.

What came out of the survey and study did not surprise Fiske, who said the community has an open relationship with the library.

“A lot of it we had heard before, as far as how we were doing. There are particular programs that are extremely popular, especially the children’s program,” Fiske said. “We didn’t hear anything we did not expect to hear. We have a very good relationship with our patronage.”

Plans are typically written every four years so they can be implemented on the fifth. Fiske said that the newly released plan is a few years late, because she wanted some time to get to know the community after she took on the role as director. The last plan was adopted in 2000 and expired in July 2005. Fiske began her tenure toward the end of 2005, and work began on the new plan in April of this year.

The Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, which receives most of its $386,000 budget from Williston taxpayers, targeted Williston residents as the primary population for the focus of the plan.

Fiske said it will not take a considerable increase in funding or resources to implement the four goals.

“Most of the goals aren’t going to take much for funding. They’re things that we’re doing very well for the library. A lot of the changes have no expense or are very inexpensive. We should be able to handle them by our regular budget or with the help of the friends group,” Fiske said, referring to the Friends of the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, a fundraising and support group

Fiske said the library will measure success with a list of objective measurements, including improving numbers for circulation, doing more surveys to ensure the community’s needs are being met and to getting assessments from community members.

The final draft of the plan is now available for public comment. Copies are online at www.williston.lib.vt.us, or available in-house at the library’s main desk. The Trustees plan to vote on the adoption of this plan at their Jan. 14 meeting. The public is asked to submit their comments to Fiske in writing by Jan. 7.Comments may be sent to [email protected] or 21 Library Lane, Williston.

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Williston skate park opens to the public

By Greg Duggan
Observer staff

After years of delays while money kept being funneled elsewhere, the town finally has a skate park of its own.

Installed behind Williston Central School about a month ago by David Wood, owner of Talent Skatepark in South Burlington, the park contains a quarter pipe, bank ramp, three ledges and a planter box.

“It’s hard and challenging. I just learned how to do this today,” Keenan Reinsborough, 7, said at the skate park earlier this week, demonstrating how to ride a scooter up, and then down, a quarter pipe. “I believe you’re supposed to go up and turn around.”

Reinsborough and his twin brother, Kai, of Richmond, were both riding scooters around the park on Monday afternoon. The boys’ mother, Jean Reinsborough, said the two go to school in Williston and have enjoyed using the park since it opened, even though they don’t skateboard.

Of the half dozen or so kids using the park on Monday, only one had brought a skateboard. And that youngster, Liam Reiner, 8, was riding a scooter. Reiner’s mother, Susan Reiner, said she used to take her son to parks in Burlington and Colchester.

“I’m really happy Williston has something accessible,” she said. “We just found out Talent put this in. It’s kind of a word of mouth thing. One kid told my son (about it).”

Parks and Recreation Director Kevin Finnegan said the park cost about $5,000, half of which came from a state grant the town received in 2003. But with other necessary parks improvements continually cropping up, the town couldn’t find the matching funds until this year.

“We’ve been overextended in that (budget) item in parks improvement, due to vandalism or whatever,” Finnegan said. “It’s not a big budget. We tend to be up against the line. This year we had the money.”

Other money, Finnegan said, went towards reengineering the baseball field behind Williston Central School.

“Kevin Finnegan and I had been discussing (the park) for several years. Finding a place to put it, space in the budget to pay for it. It finally all came to be this fall,” Wood explained.

Finnegan said the park was a response to requests from kids, but also aims to benefit the town as well.

“From a practical standpoint, we saw a lot of abuse of our equipment, like benches, with kids dragging them out and railing on them,” Finnegan said. “This is a way to keep their enthusiasm focused in an appropriate way.”

Susan Reiner said kids of all ages have been using the park together. At this point, guidelines are lax. Asked if rules will govern use between skateboards and scooters, Finnegan said, “I don’t think we’ve gotten that far. It’s open to kids. If we start seeing conflict, we’ll look at making a policy.”

Yet for all the park’s novelty, residents will need to enjoy it in the immediate future, before temperatures drop below freezing and the town converts it to another type of skate park – an ice skating rink.

“Within the next couple of weeks we’ll have the highway department come lift (the equipment pieces) off and store it behind the field house. Once the weather is cooperative, we’re freezing,” Finnegan said. “We’ll shoot to have the ice open for winter break for the kids.”

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By Sky Barsch
Observer correspondent

Homelessness and hunger continue to affect the region, with hunger and decreasing resources posing a larger problem than homelessness in Williston. People are literally and increasingly choosing between eating and heating their homes, said Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf Director Rob Meehan.

A national effort to bring attention to the issue, Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, is under way until Nov. 17. Local organizations, such as the Committee on Temporary Shelter, or COTS, and the Hinesburg Food Shelf, are hopeful that the attention brings resources in the way of donations and volunteers. Champlain College and the University of Vermont are holding public demonstrations to bring awareness to homelessness and collecting donations to help.

“We’re definitely impacted during the holiday season,” said Meehan, whose organization serves 2,000 Chittenden County families each month. “There’s such a rising need. Heating costs are going up, gas prices are insane. Food prices are increasing. People living below the poverty line need our services to offset their heating costs.”

The Vermont Foodbank has reported that it is struggling to provide enough food, affecting its 270 members. The Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf is the largest member, Meehan said.

Meehan predicts this will be a particularly bad year. Even though many social programs are in place for those in need, low wages, lost manufacturing jobs and increasing costs mean more people will have a harder time putting food on their tables.

“We will see whether this will be a particularly bad year. People are going to get hit hard once the cold weather comes. Home heating costs have really skyrocketed – really big increases around 17 percent. It’s pretty common sense stuff, when you’re faced with heating and eating, it’s a pretty unfortunate place to be.”

Rita Markley, executive director of COTS, said there has been a dramatic increase in the number of homeless families in the past five years.

“What’s new for Chittenden County and many communities is many of these families have working parents. So it may very well be someone who serves you coffee at a restaurant in Williston finds themselves at the end of the day turning to a shelter,” Markley said. “All expenses have gone up, and wages have remained relatively flat. Many people are cobbling together two or three retail jobs, working weekends and nights, which if you’re a parent with small children, is enormously difficult.”

Markley said the face of homelessness is changing. It is often working parents with children who are living in emergency shelters.

“We’ve served homeless families from every community in Chittenden County this year. The number of single adults has gone down, but the number of families has gone up,” Markley said, using the following figures to illustrate her point: in 2005, the number of households who needed emergency shelter in Chittenden County was 365; the number last year was 788. Those are families who are staying in shelters and no-frills motels and trying to get to work and school.

Hunger, more than homelessness, affects Williston residents, said Selectboard Chairman Terry Macaig.

“As far as we know, we don’t see homeless people in Williston. Nothing’s been reported,” Macaig said, when asked about the subject. “But hunger, we do suspect, through the church organizations and different schools, there are people who are short of food supplies.”

Organizations that serve people experiencing hunger, Macaig said, are two churches – Williston Federated Church and The Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic church. Each has a food shelf that serves anyone in the community, not just parishioners.

Town tax dollars support social organizations that serve those needs as well, he said.

The Hinesburg Food Shelf, serving 160 different area families in a year and 60 families per month, is another pantry that relies on the Vermont Foodbank. And it is feeling the pinch.

“It is hard to place an order,” said Doug Gunnerson, who runs the Hinesburg Food Shelf. “The selection is limited making it necessary to reorder later in the month. Even so, some items are just not available. The Foodbank is our key supplier. We end up cutting back on Foodbank orders and increase our purchases in local stores at a much higher cost. We must cut back to stay within our limited funds.”

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Efforts under way to cut costs

By Sky Barsch
Observer correspondent

When it comes to heating prices, there’s good news and bad news.

The bad news first: if oil prices continue on their upward trend, fuel oil could cost $3 per gallon this season. The price of natural gas, propane and electricity are predicted to rise sharply as well, according to a recent report from The Associated Press, leaving many to struggle to heat their homes.

The good news? A bill being introduced by Rep. Peter Welch aims to toughen up oversight on the so-called dark markets, where oil futures are being traded and the cost is spiraling upward. The Vermont Fuel Dealers Association is lobbying for the bill’s passage.

Matt Cota, executive director of the Fuel Dealers Association, said the general trend in heating costs is upward. But a few factors could reverse that trend, he said. A warm winter could slow down demand. Oil prices could reach $100 a barrel, reaching a peak price, and prices will begin to fall. Proposed legislation could put more oversight on trading oil commodities, closing the so-called Enron loop that eased regulation, Cota said.

Cota said his organization and others that look out for the interests of small fuel dealers have been trying to get the law changed for five years. Only since the Democrats have had control of the house has the matter been taken seriously, he said.

Susan Lamb, finance director for the town of Williston said some people in town struggle to pay their heating bills. One extended illness or job loss and anyone could have trouble paying their bills.

“Some people don’t have any savings in place to fall back on,” Lamb said.

Williston has a small amount of money that is available as a last resort for very dire circumstances, she said. The town supports various social programs through tax dollars.

Area residents have access to some assistance programs to pay for heat. The following is a list of some of those resources:

The Patch Chit Program: A statewide resource for those in dire need of heating assistance, this Vermont Fuel Dealers Association-run program creates and places pledges, or “chits,” usually in 100-gallon fuel increments, in a pool for the use of the Department of Social Welfare’s Emergency Fuel Program, and other similarly concerned programs. More info is online at www.vermontfuel.com/Vermont_Fuel_Dealers_Association/Fuel_Assistance.html.

Vermont Fuel Assistance Program: This year, Vermont will receive $2.5 million through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program dollars. To apply for Fuel Assistance one must fill out a Fuel Assistance application each and every year. More info is available by calling 800-479-6151 or 241-1165, or going online to www.dsw.state.vt.us/Programs_Pages/Fuel/fuel.shtml.

Crisis Fuel Program: For those in a heating crisis — no fuel or very close to running out of fuel — or for those who have received a disconnection notice from their electric company and need electricity to run a heating system, help may be available by going to the local Community Action Agency for help through the Crisis Fuel Program. In Chittenden County, contact Chittenden Community Action, 191 North St., Burlington 05401 or by phone at 863-6248 or 800-287-7971. After hours, nights, weekends and holidays, call 800-287-0589.

Town of Williston: The town has a very limited supply of emergency funds available to those who have exhausted all of the other social welfare programs. For more info call Susan Lamb, finance director, 878-0919.

Citizens Energy Corp. Oil Heat Program: offers discounted heating oil prices for those who qualify. More info online at www.citizensenergy.com.

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