Williston Observer

By Greg Duggan
Observer staff

A local technology company has announced it will close its doors in Williston and head south for warmer pastures.

Qimonda revealed on Friday that it will consolidate its North American design and development operations, to which the Williston branch belongs, in Raleigh, N.C. The company works in the field of dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, to produce memory chips for consumer products including cell phones and gaming systems,

The departure will affect more than 120 employees currently working at the Williston facility on Hurricane Lane.

“The decision was made to leverage the resources better by combining the two development and design centers … in a larger site,” said Donna Wilson, director of communications for Qimonda. “By the nature of designs, (employees) work back and forth in the same room. It’s easier if you have them in the same building.”

Alan Walker, senior director of Qimonda’s Burlington Development Center in Williston, explained his branch looks for ways to reduce the size of circuits on the memory chips, which cuts costs by producing more from the same amount of initial product.

“The DRAM industry has lost about 80 percent of its price in the last 10 months. The company is looking for ways to become more productive,” Wilson said.

The site in North Carolina employs about 350 people, Wilson said. Wilson and Walker said the decision to move was made about a month ago.

“I think people are, I would term it as ‘shocked,’” Walker said. “They’re disappointed, but also people are looking towards the future.”

Wilson said Qimonda plans to extend offers to 50 to 75 employees to relocate to North Carolina, and is working with placement agencies to find work in Vermont for the remaining employees.

The Williston location will close on June 30, 2008, Wilson said. She added that some employees will likely start transitioning to North Carolina in the spring.

Though efforts to reach employees were unsuccessful, others in the business community expressed dissatisfaction and surprise with the decision.

“I’m extremely disappointed,” said Frank Cioffi, president of GBIC, or the Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation.

He gave several reasons for his reaction.

“They are a great company, their employees make a very, very decent income and receive great benefits. They’re in an industry that is a growing industry. It’s a technology-based, knowledge-based company with the type of jobs we want to keep and grow here in Vermont,” Cioffi said. “Our first concern is always for employees and their families.”

Cioffi also said Qimonda was a driving force behind changes made in 2006 to the state’s economic incentives. The change made a shift from tax credits to cash-based incentives.

Cioffi said Qimonda’s business structure kept it from paying corporate income taxes in Vermont, so it sought other incentives.

Though Qimonda was not the only company to push for changes in economic incentives, Cioffi said, “They were the first company that kept saying to us they couldn’t use the Vermont economic incentives. We had hopes they were going to grow here.”

EFFORTS TO STAY LOCAL

Such a history, particularly when coupled with other efforts to expand in Vermont, suggest that Qimonda had no expectation of the move until recently. Last year, Bill Dunn, president of Hillside East Corp., the business park owner of Qimonda’s Williston location, pursued zoning changes in the town to allow for an expansion of Qimonda’s facility. When initial efforts failed, Dunn submitted a revised proposal for zoning changes to a smaller area, which the Planning Commission Approved.

But when the process of making changes appeared as if it would take longer than the company wanted to wait, Qimonda sought another site, announcing in July that it would relocate to nearby Technology Park in South Burlington. Qimonda was scheduled to move to South Burlington on March 1, 2008, according to Tim McKenzie, director of business development for Technology Park Partners.

Now, McKenzie and Technology Park Partners have a vacant building on their hands, though McKenzie said Qimonda had signed a 10-year lease for a 62,000 square foot building.

Walker would neither confirm nor comment on the lease.

“We knew there were adjustments to their plans when a month or so ago we stopped doing fit-up, the tenant improvements to their space,” McKenzie said. “We’re working with them to satisfy both parties.”

Though McKenzie said Technology Park Partners would fill the space as soon as possible, he said his company faces a challenge in that it also needs to fill a 54,000 square foot building it began constructing after signing a lease with Qimonda.

“Once (the building for Qimonda) was leased up, we felt it was time to build another building,” McKenzie said. “That complicates the picture a little bit, but we’re working diligently to lease space in both buildings.”

FILLING THE VOID

While Technology Park Partners seeks a new tenant, GBIC is also searching for ways to fill the vacancy left by Qimonda.

“The labor force there (at Qimonda) is highly skilled,” Cioffi said. “We think their skills are very marketable in the State of Vermont to other companies, and certainly to our region as well. We’re working with the Vermont Department of Economic Development to reach out and try to work with the Vermont Department of Labor to find job opportunities for employees there.

“We’re also trying to recruit other companies that we might attract here,” Cioffi said, though he said he could not share names of potential businesses.

Qimonda’s sales and marketing centers in California and Texas, as well as a manufacturing site in Virginia, will remain in their current locations.

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Jim Thompson celebrates 90th birthday

By Colin Ryan
Observer correspondent

Jim Thompson catches the first lift up the mountain at Smugglers’ Notch four or five times a week – but he’s hardly a typical downhill skier. On Saturday, Thompson’s family threw him a 90th birthday party at the Williston Woods Community Center.

The still-spry Thompson stood for most of the party, ignoring a minor health issue, trading hugs and memories with more than 50 friends and family members who came to wish him well.

“I’m not nearly as active as Jim is. He’s always doing something,” said Thompson’s wife, Harriet, with a sigh, then added with a smile, “Jim is a 60-year-old in a 90-year-old body.”

After living for 40 years in Jeffersonville, the Thompsons returned to Williston in July to live near their daughter, Hallery Brunet. Thompson worked for many years as a chemical engineer for IBM, and his grandchildren, who flew in for the party, vividly recall his love for chemistry.

“I still remember being 8 years old and innocently asking my grandfather where salt comes from,” recounted granddaughter Jodie Donohue, who came from South Carolina. “Well, he proceeded to give me a 30-minute, college-level dissertation on the creation of sodium chloride. He certainly explained it well, but he also gave me a lot more than I bargained for.”

Several of Thompson’s friends wore ties to the party, in honor of his unique habit of skiing while wearing a tie.

“He hated wearing a tie to work at IBM,” explained Brunet, “but he was happy to wear them on the slopes, because they would keep his neck warm. He had to do it, since he simply refused to wear sweaters.”

Donohue, along with grandsons Bob and James Brunet, compiled a book of 90 memories of their grandfather for the partygoers to peruse. The three grandchildren remembered an active childhood of hiking, canoeing, swimming, fishing, camping and skiing – both water and downhill.

“He always had a great deal of reverence for the natural world, and had respect for nature and modern-day heroes,” said grandson James Brunet, who as a boy fly fished at night with Thompson near his primitive lakeside cabin in Pennsylvania.

“He’s a remarkable man,” said Jeffersonville resident Margaret McIntosh, who called the slopes at Smugglers’ Notch her retirement home. McIntosh is the president of the 16-year-old Smugglers’ 55+Club, of which Thompson is a founding member.

“Jim was on the ski patrol for 30 years, and only retired at age 80. He’s an ambassador in many ways – in and through his life, he has always promoted our ski areas,” McIntosh said.

In honor of Thompson’s 90th birthday, Smugglers’ Notch awarded him with a Lifetime Skiing Award, which was on display at the party.

“I wrote in his birthday card that I’ve been trying to keep up with him for years,” laughed Clem Holden, 85, who has already skied 11 days this season.

Holden described Thompson as a “mad skier.”

“He’s a very positive person,” said Bill Boyce, who worked for IBM at the same time as Thompson, but first met him on a chairlift at Smuggs. “The whole time I’ve known him, he’s had a grin on his face and a gleam in his eye.”

Explained Donohue, “He has always been an intense person – and he never does anything halfway, although I think the years have mellowed him in a really good way.”

James Brunet agreed.

“He’s always been driven in all aspects. I think his perspective changed along with his age. I think he’s come to terms with what he has done, and is satisfied … finally,” Brunet laughed. “May we all be so fortunate.”

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Some parents feel military presence ‘inappropriate’

By Kim Howard
Observer correspondent

Third grader Laura Gerry and fourth grader Michael Howell noticed the people in uniform serving hot food in the Williston Central School cafeteria on Wednesday, even though they didn’t buy lunch.

“It was pretty cool,” Laura said, referring to the Vermont National Guard personnel who had dished out baked chicken, garlic mashed potatoes and green beans.

Michael agreed it was cool “because they’re from the army,” he said.

Four members of the Vermont Army National Guard and two Vermont Air National Guardsmen joined forces with school lunch employees on Wednesday to serve lunch in Williston’s public schools. Students were invited through the school newsletter to donate snacks and supplies to send to troops overseas.

“It was just sort of a brainstorming of a fun thing we can do in the cafeteria to pique interest for the kids to go through the lunch line,” Williston School Board member Laura Gigliotti said.

Gigliotti helped organize Wednesday’s “Honoring our men and women in the military” day with Lydia King, the school’s food service director.

Piquing interest in the school’s food service program is fiscally desirable. School food service programs often do not break even financially, according to Williston Central School Principal Jackie Parks, and Williston’s is no exception. While school boards typically can expect to allocate $25,000 to keep a school lunch program afloat, Parks said, the Williston program is projected to be at a $50,000 to $60,000 loss this year.

“We’re doing all sorts of different days and programs in the lunch room to generate interest,” Parks said.

In previous years, school officials said, members of Williston’s police and fire and rescue departments have served lunch on “heroes” days. Inviting service men and women was another approach.

Williston School Board member Keith Roy, a member of the Vermont Army National Guard, told Gigliotti recently that a package he’d received from children in Milton schools when he was overseas meant a great deal to him. Wednesday’s event, Gigliotti added, “was a way to teach our children what it means to support our troops,” some of whom are school parents and neighbors.

A few parents saw the event differently, however.

“It’s a misguided and inappropriate method of showing support for the military,” said Jill Carberry, parent of a second grader at Williston Central. “I don’t think the kids will be able to differentiate between supporting the military and supporting the war. I do not support the war, nor does my family.”

Hannah Rabin and her husband Gil Theriault, parents of students in the second and eighth grades, concurred.

“If people want to show support for the troops, they should do that at home and outside of the school,” Rabin said. “If the school wants to bring up issues about the military and the war, then that should be done in the setting of the classroom in the curriculum with really balanced perspectives.”

Both families emphasize their respect of and support for the troops; Theriault’s brother is currently serving overseas in the Air Force. For these families, supporting the troops means seeing them come home safely as soon as possible, they said.

While their peers ate in the cafeteria Wednesday, second graders Eliza Fehrs and Lucien Theriault sat in their classroom happily munching on cheese pizza, carrots, waffle cookies and milk with Rabin, Lucien’s mom. Both children knew why they were eating there rather than the cafeteria.

“My mom wants (the troops) to come home,” Eliza said, referring to Carberry. “She doesn’t want me to buy lunch because I’m not supporting the war.”

Both children said they think the fighting should stop, though they didn’t like the idea of having a class discussion about it.

“School’s just not really a good place for war. School’s a place for peace,” Lucien explained.

Gigliotti said only two families had expressed concern over the event; the rest of the feedback, she said, has been “overwhelmingly” positive.

Steve Casale, parent of a second grader and fifth grader, said he supported the lunch program “without question.”

“I think it’s actually overdue. Not to quote Jack Nicholson, but we sleep soundly under that blanket of freedom they provide every night,” Casale said, referring to a line in the movie “A Few Good Men.” “The fact that we’re sharing what their sacrifice means to our children is honorable.”

After the first wave of children went through the lunch line at Williston Central Wednesday, Vermont Air National Guard Major Rick Shebib and Lt. Col. Steve Lambrecht sat together in the cafeteria eating their lunch.

Lambrecht, a Williston resident, said it was fun to watch the kids come through the line since he knew so many of them from his wife’s day care. Thinking back to his own school lunch days of “hot dogs and mystery something,” Lambrecht praised Wednesday’s lunch options: “We didn’t have lunch like this when I was a kid.”

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Jews and Chinese unite for comedy dinner

By Michael Kelley
Observer correspondent

With non-stop Christmas music dominating the radio and holiday specials on television nightly, the Christmas season is in full swing. With hundreds of thousands of people frantically putting final touches on shopping lists, the days leading up to Dec. 25 are some of the busiest of the winter. But what do these days mean for those who don’t celebrate Christmas?

Moo-Jew Comedy, a fusion of Jewish comedy and Chinese food, is attempting to answer that very question. The comedy festival, now in its second year, will be held at 8 p.m. at Asian Bistro, 121 Connor Way in Williston on Dec. 23, 24 and 25.

“It is no secret that Jews and Chinese food (have) been together for centuries,” said festival producer and performer Jason Lorber. “This is just a natural progression. Why make someone schlep to a comedy show when you can bring it right to them.”

Lorber said this year’s festival, stemming from the popularity of last year’s event, will be held on three different nights rather than one, as it was in 2006.

“Last year we sold out. We had to turn dozens of people away,” he said. “We are very excited to offer it for three days. It looks like it will be a big success.”

The event kicks off at 8 p.m. each night and will include a four-course dinner, with a vegetarian option, plus the comedic styling of Lorber, New York City’s Dan Hirshon and Boston’s Myq Kaplan. Hirshon has performed all over New England and was a 2003 Las Vegas Comedy Festival finalist. Kaplan is a well-known and award-winning comedian who has appeared on Comedy Central and at various comedy festivals around the United States.

According to Lorber, the three nights of comedy are not totally geared to Jews. In fact, Lorber said, everyone is welcome.

“A lot of people, not just Jews, are looking for something beyond the traditional ways to celebrate the holiday,” he said. “It is not just great comedy and a good meal. It has a very nice community feel to it.”

While the general goal of the festival is to provide a fun alternative to otherwise traditional holiday celebrations, Lorber has a very specific goal for this year’s event.

“We want to increase the laughter rate by 23 percent,” he said.

Lorber advised people to act fast if they hope to catch one of the shows this year: According to his calculations, the shows are selling tickets three-and-a-half times faster than last year.

For tickets call the Flynn Theatre Box Office at 863-5966. Tickets may also be available at the door. More information is available at www.moojew.com.

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Appeal filed with Vt. Supreme Court

By Greg Elias
Observer staff

An environmental group has appealed a decision designating Taft Corners as the state’s first-ever growth center, arguing that it encourages the kind of big-box development the program was supposed to prevent.

The Vermont Natural Resources Council filed the appeal last week with the state Supreme Court. The organization claims last-minute changes to the growth center’s boundaries violated the intent of the legislation establishing the program.

“The growth center law was never intended to give out tax and other financial incentives to promote Wal-Mart and other big box development that is single-use, scattered and auto-dependent,” said Steve Holmes, sustainable communities director for VNRC, in a media release. “This new version of the growth center does just that.”

At issue is a small piece of the growth center, which includes about 700 acres, running east to west from the South Ridge subdivision to just past Harvest Lane and north to south from Allen Brook to Interstate 89.

The growth center approved by the state’s Expanded Downtown Board in October excluded the small piece of the Taft Corners Park retail center where Wal-Mart and The Home Depot are located. But the VNRC alleges that a last-minute request by a representative of developer Jeff Davis, whose company owns Taft Corners Park, swayed the board to include the parcels.

Davis confirmed that he sent a letter and had a representative testify at a hearing before the vote that Wal-Mart and The Home Depot should be included in the growth center, as they were in the town’s original application.

He said the appeal was a “politically motivated” action by environmentalists who disliked Taft Corners Park since it was built in the 1990s.

“It seems kind of silly to me that after 10 years they are still bitter about the stores out there,” Davis said.

He added that even those who don’t like the much-criticized retail outlets should realize that they will be redeveloped over time and the growth center designation will give Williston tools to improve the area.

John Hall, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Affairs, which oversees the growth center program, said it made little sense to omit the big box stores from Williston’s designation. He said by including the stores the town will be better able to control future development.

Town Planner Lee Nellis declined to comment on the appeal, noting that Williston is a bystander in the legal fight. He simply hopes the town can still benefit from the designation.

Growth center status allows the town to apply for tax increment financing, which permits money to be borrowed against anticipated property tax revenue generated by new development. That money could fund a series of grid streets and sidewalks the town hopes will help convert Taft Corners into a pedestrian-friendly downtown.

Holmes said in an interview that the appeal is not aimed at the town of Williston, which he lauded for its cooperation with his group and others that advocate smart growth.

VNRC objects only to including Wal-Mart and The Home Depot in the growth center, which Holmes said sets a bad precedent for a program designed to promote compact growth and prevent sprawl.

“Since this is the first application of its kind, we think it is important it be done right because it sets a precedent for applications from other towns,” he said.

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