Williston Observer

Changes could reduce electric, gas costs

March 26, 2009

By Greg Elias

Observer staff

Williston has landed a $12,000 grant that will fund efficiency upgrades at energy-hogging Town Hall.

The grant will pay for new insulation and lighting in the historic structure, which was built in 1860 and last renovated in 1988.

“We’re ecstatic,” said Kevin Batson, a member of Williston Green Initiatives, a grassroots group that worked with the town to complete the grant application. “That’s a lot of money to get the Town Hall building taken care of.”

Batson credited Building Energy, a Williston-based company, for rushing to complete an energy audit of Town Hall that he said helped win the grant. The audit, released earlier this year, concluded Williston could save thousands annually by upgrading insulation, lighting and heating systems.

The grant will supplement money already set aside in the 2009-10 municipal budget to pay for energy efficiency work. The town had planned to spend $15,000 for new lighting and insulation, and $27,000 for heating and air conditioning upgrades. The lighting and insulation projects are expected to be completed this summer.

Town Manager Rick McGuire said the grant money would help defray costs. Energy-wasting lighting and porous insulation were among the problems cited in the audit.

The grant “helps us do part of the projects sooner than we would have been able to do otherwise,” McGuire said.

Combined, the grant and municipal expenditures will pay for most of the upgrades recommended by the energy audit.

The audit, done pro bono by Building Energy, recommended efficiency improvements totaling roughly $65,000. But the audit said those investments would pay for themselves over time by reducing gas and electricity costs. The town spent $6,000 on natural gas alone in 2007.

Williston’s grant is just one of the 17 energy efficiency projects around the state to receive funding through the Vermont Community Climate Change Program. In all, $188,000 was doled out in the first round of funding. Another round of grants will be announced in late spring.

The grants require a 10 percent match from towns receiving funding, according to Sabina Haskell, spokeswoman for the Vermont Department of Natural Resources. In Williston’s case, the required local match is $1,200, a sum easily exceeded by the town’s planned upgrades.

The town could reduce its natural gas bills by 20 percent by installing new insulation and cut an estimated 30 percent off its electric bills by replacing light fixtures, the grant application said. The lighting and insulation upgrades alone could reduce energy costs by nearly $3,000.

The grant program is funded by the first installment of Vermont’s $1.8 million, five-year settlement payout agreed to by American Electric Power Corp., the nation’s largest operator of coal-fired power plants. American Electric was sued by a coalition of Northeastern states that alleged that coal power plants in the Midwest were contributing to acid rain and air pollution.

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Private school nearly $3 million in debt

March 26, 2009

By Greg Duggan

Observer staff

Barring a “miracle,” when Pine Ridge School closes its doors on June 5, it will mark the end of the institution’s 40-year history. But for headmaster Dana Blackhurst and other staff, that doesn’t mean the school has failed.

Blackhurst took over the private school nearly two years ago, charged with returning the institution to its original mission of teenagers with dyslexia and other language based learning disabilities. Since then, enrollment dropped from more than 70 students last year — many of them with behavioral problems that didn’t fall under the school’s mission statement — to 22 this year. Staff also dropped to about 20, including 16 layoffs in January 2008.

As the school reinvented itself, remaining faculty and students drew close. Blackhurst and other staffers moved into the dorms, and teens interviewed by the Observer spoke highly of the bond between students and staff while also praising the school’s one-on-one approach to academics.

“Academically, that side, we are very healthy as a school,” Blackhurst said.

But the school, which had been in debt since before Blackhurst took over, still struggled to pay the bills. Business manager Ron Turner and the Board of Trustee’s finance chairwoman, Kim Alsop, pegged the school’s debt at about $3 million. Turner said the school is losing less money this year than in any of the previous five years — when losses ranged from $250,000 to $800,000, he said. He would not speculate what the annual deficit will be in June.

Officials largely blamed the economy for the decision to close. Mitch Roman, the chairman of the school’s Board of Trustees and a former student in the 1970s, said public schools that would normally send students to Pine Ridge for language learning needs were cutting back on spending. Boarding students pay an annual tuition of more than $56,000. Alsop said the poor economy had made it more challenging for the school to raise money through donations.

Declining enrollment also meant a decrease in tuition income. Furthermore, Roman said that when Pine Ridge relaxed its admission standards and moved away from its mission statement — an effort to boost tuition revenue — it lost its reputation as a school for students with language based learning disabilities.

“Since we strayed from our mission, consultants didn’t know what our niche was. They weren’t sending us students,” Roman said.

Admissions Director John Thomas said all current students expressed a desire to return to Pine Ridge next year — and called that a reflection of the school’s academic success — but the loss of six graduating seniors would have dropped enrollment to 16. Turner said the school would need an additional 15 students to make the finances viable.

“We probably could have gotten by at 25 or so (students),” Roman said. “If we’d had 35, I’d be very happy.”

Said Alsop, “At the end of the day you want to do what’s right for the students there. We couldn’t see that happening next year.”

Finishing the school year

The students who remain, who watched Pine Ridge undergo its academic transformation in the past two years, are disappointed to see the school close.

“I’m trying to keep positive,” said 16-year-old Kelsey Jacobsmeyer, a student from California. “I will miss this school. It’s helped me so much and raised me to the level where I can go to college.”

She liked the changes implemented by Blackhurst to install more order and discipline — students used to regularly swear, storm out of class and cause other problems in the classroom — and her self-confidence grew this year as she became a better student.

“I believe when I leave here I’m going to be someone,” Jacobs-meyer said.

She plans to attend another private school next year, and hopes Blackhurst can be there as well.

Stephen Haigley, a 15-year-old student from Baltimore, said the school helped him grow academically and gave him an opportunity to make good friends.

Now, with the school ready to shut its doors, Blackhurst, staff and the six trustees have taken on an additional purpose — beyond continuing to educate, they need to find placements for the students who would have returned next year.

“The finest thing I do in 22 years of teaching will be placing these kids,” Blackhurst said.

Turner said making the decision now to close at the end of the school year allows the administration time to help students move on to new institutions. Blackhurst said he’s bringing in colleagues from other private schools to meet the Pine Ridge students, who he says will interview those administrators to decide which school to attend next year.

“I’d put these kids up against anybody, any time,” Blackhurst said.

As for faculty and staff — all of whom took pay cuts in an effort to help the school — Blackhurst believes the Pine Ridge teachers would make wonderful additions to any school. Two staffers are considering starting a learning center in the area.

“It’s important our teachers and students go out knowing we did the right thing,” Blackhurst said.

Alsop said the board is considering its options on how to climb out of debt, though she did not elaborate. Turner and Roman mentioned a sale of the school as one possibility, and Roman said there has been some discussion of allowing another school to rent the facility.

“A miracle could still happen,” Blackhurst said. “Twenty-two kids could enroll tomorrow.”

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Stoplight slated for James Brown Drive

March 26, 2009

By Greg Elias

Observer staff

Going against the flow of public opinion, the Selectboard chose a roundabout as the best way to move motorists through an accident-plagued intersection in Williston Village.

The board on Monday picked the roundabout over the stoplight and no-build alternatives for the corner where U.S. 2 meets North Williston and Oak Hill roads. It also decided a stoplight and a turn lane were the best way to improve another problematic intersection at Vermont 2A and James Brown Drive.

Board members acknowledged installing a roundabout would override public sentiments expressed during a hearing in February and on previous occasions. Traffic at the corner is currently controlled with a four-way stop sign, and most who spoke during the hearing wanted the town to leave the intersection alone.

“We heard quite strongly from people who (live) close to the intersection that they are happy with the way it is and it doesn’t need to be improved,” said Jeff Fehrs. But he said the wishes of other residents who didn’t attend the meeting and motorists in general should also be considered.

Chris Roy said he strongly supported a roundabout. He said they move traffic smoothly and look better than other alternatives.

“I think it would be great for Chittenden County to have a state-of-the-art roundabout that the rest of the county could look at and learn from,” he said. “I think that the benefits greatly outweigh the cost, and it would be a very responsible investment for the gateway to our village.”

Mark Smith, senior associate with Burlington-based Resource Systems Group, presented a study of potential improvements for both intersections. He said because the U.S. 2 intersection is accident-prone, it is eligible for 100 percent federal funding no matter what improvement was chosen.

RSG’s study found there had been 25 crashes over a five-year period ending in 2006, making it among the most accident-prone intersections in the state. The study concluded that a roundabout or a traffic signal would improve safety and traffic flow.

But residents at the February hearing thought stricter traffic enforcement or better crosswalks would solve safety problems. And some thought congestion, which is mostly limited to the afternoon commute, was manageable.

The board voted unanimously to select the roundabout as its preferred alternative, then had a lengthy discussion about how to solve the complex problems at Vermont 2A and James Brown Drive.

Traffic is often congested on the heavily traveled stretch and pedestrians have no safe way to cross the road.

Smith outlined numerous potential improvements, including traffic islands, stoplights and crosswalks. But he acknowledged the state would probably not approve of some of the options.

The board settled on a hybrid approach proposed by Williston Public Works Director Neil Boyden. He recommended the town install a stoplight, a crosswalk and center turn lanes that could be used by both northbound and southbound vehicles on 2A.

Neither project is expected to be completed anytime soon. Though the roundabout will be eligible for immediate funding, Boyden said rights-of-way must be acquired from neighboring property owners, which could delay the project. Smith said the Vermont 2A/James Brown Drive project will compete for state and federal funding with all the other road projects in Chittenden County.

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March 19, 2009

Senior athletes from Champlain Valley Union High got in some galaxy time with fellow all-stars this past weekend in boys hockey and basketball.

Five members of the CVU Division 1 champion hockey team were named to the Harris Conference stars for the 26th annual Key Bank Rotary All Star Hockey Classic Saturday at the Essex rink. The Redhawks helped their Harris mates down their Austin Conference counterparts, 6-3.

CVU forward Sam Spencer contributed a goal and assist while his teammate, Ben Soll, fired in a goal.

Also on the team were forwards Brady DeHayes and Tim Reichert, along with defensemen Owen Smith and Chris Howard.

Playing in the annual Senior High School Basketball Classic in Windsor on Saturday, CVU’s John Donnelly tallied eight points in his Division 1 and 2 North team’s 86-59 bashing of the South.

The day was a four-game sweep for the North, which also took the Division 3 and 4 boys and both girls’ contests.

The North came away with a 26-10 advantage in the series, which is sponsored by the Vermont Basketball Coaches Association.

— Mal Boright, Observer correspondent

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March 19, 2009

By Mal Boright

Observer correspondent

With seven sophomores and five freshmen, the Champlain Valley Union High girls junior varsity basketball team piled up victories in its first nine games en route to a final 13-6 record.

(For a game at Vergennes High, coach Jeff Evans’ freshmen — or B team — made the trip and recorded a triumph.)

Junior varsity coach Matt Lutz called it a strong season and agreed there will be strong competition for the few slots available next season on the varsity squad, which graduates just three from this year’s combine.

Lutz summed up his club, noting there were “ a lot of specialists” and good scoring balance.

“I think every player had one game of at least seven points,” he recalled. “It was a case of who was hot on a certain day.”

Leading point getter was freshman Elana Bayer-Pacht, whom Lutz called “very consistent,” averaging around 15 points per outing.

Sophomores Emma Cohen, Sara Riordan and Cayla McCarthy had big moments behind the three-point arc and were solid point producers. Dunn recalled that Riordan had one 20-point night.

Freshman Remi Donnelly led the rebounding corps while another freshman, Lazrin Schenk, and sophomore Daphnee Vandal were solid contributors.

Sophomore Emma Gause was termed by Lutz as his “best post position player,” and defensively very good.

Sophomore Lindsay Hawley missed more than half the season with an injury, but got back in uniform for the final eight games to become one of the team’s top scorers.

Ali Carey, another sophomore, was a defensive standout despite, according to Lutz, playing with a tricky shoulder.

Freshman Miranda Evans was a tough defender and shot blocker. Sofia Lozon, also a first year player, dropped in a welcome 12 points in the season finale.

Lutz said one of the highlights of the season came on the road in St. Albans, where the Redhawks found themselves down by 15 points in the third quarter to Bellows Free Academy, at which time they rallied to pull out the win.

The coach said most if not all of the athletes will be playing AAU basketball over the summer.

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