Williston Observer

Feb. 25, 2010

Teachers aren’t in touch with reality

It would seem that teachers in Chittenden South are not in touch with economic reality.

Businesses struggle, employees experience cutbacks or layoffs, food and fuel costs increase. Americans continue to tighten their belts and make decisions between needs and wants, yet teachers in Chittenden South believe they are entitled to larger salary increases and benefits.

Thank you to the CSSU Negotiation Team for recognizing that times most certainly are bad. The teachers union stance is both disrespectful and insulting to hardworking taxpayers who receive no raises, who pay more each year for their health care and who work hard just to get by.

Perhaps the CSSU administration should follow the decision of a school district in Rhode Island, which opted to fire teachers who wouldn’t compromise. Most people I know are grateful to have jobs, much less receive any cost of living increase, and the teachers union would do well to understand that.

Cathy Yandow, Williston

Too much taxation

Vermont’s current General Fund fiscal year 2010 revenue is below the levels of fiscal 2005.

Even with higher taxes we are looking at a $150 million tax shortfall in 2011. That don’t count the couple of hundred million we are borrowing on to keep the unemployment compensation fund afloat. If unemployment rates keep increasing the amount Vermont will need to borrow just to cover those shortfalls will continue to rise.

Federal “funds” now going to Vermont are going to decrease by over $100 million next year. State spending has doubled between now and 1996-97, while Vermont incomes still rank only 25th in per capita income. Our tax rates are at or near highest levels in the nation. Why don’t we just return to state spending levels from a decade ago? This is the best way to give Vermont a competitive edge so that economic activity can be stimulated.

Increasing your credit limit when your spending does not meet your expenses is downright foolish. I’d like to see our representatives make real progress in increasing the wealth of Vermonters. Naturally, that is the same thing as reducing the tax burden. We need to reverse this continued percentage increase in the growth of state and local governments and permit people and businesses to keep more of what they produce, not less.

Things weren’t so bad in 1997, weren’t they? We had half as much unemployment as we do today.

With the large upcoming tax increases scheduled by the Fed for fiscal 2010 we can expect more sharp declines in state tax revenues. Tax revenues normally drop when the tax rates increase. I’d prefer to see the reverse happen. How about you?

Shelley Palmer, Williston

[Read more...]

The miracle of the market

Feb. 25, 2010

By Jacob G. Hornberger

In preparation for two recent back-to-back blizzards, residents in the Washington, D.C. area emptied the shelves of neighborhood grocery stores. Notwithstanding the pre-blizzard panic buying, what’s interesting is that no one was freaking out about whether the stores would be adequately stocked after the blizzards.

Now think about this: There is absolutely no government planning that goes into what is stocked in grocery stores. No federal Department of Food. No local or state planning commission. No grocery boards. No bureaucrats or bureaucracies. No laws requiring grocery stores to be well stocked. No rules and regulations dictating how much of each food item, including bread, milk and chicken, needs to appear on the shelves.

So how in the world do grocery stores get stocked without government planning or direction? How is it that so much food appears, almost by magic, within a day or two after most of the shelves have been emptied? Indeed, how do grocery stores manage to have more than enough food for people throughout the year, given that no government department or agency is doing the planning and issuing food directives?

Let’s look at the situation another way. Suppose that in 1900 it was decided that food was just too important an item to be left to the free market. To ensure that there would always be enough food for people, state and local governments took over the grocery-store industry, just as they took over the education industry. To provide support for grocery stores, the U.S. government established the federal Department of Food to provide grants and set standards for the grocery stores, just as the U.S. Department of Education does for state and local public schools.

Now imagine that we’re here in 2010, having lived under a system of government-run grocery stores for more than 100 years. Wouldn’t people be incessantly complaining about the shoddy quality of products and services, as they constantly do with the state-run schools?

Along come libertarians and say the same thing about the grocery business that they say about the education business. Get government out of the grocery business, at all levels — local, state and federal. Abolish the federal Department of Food. Sell off all the grocery stores. Abolish all the taxes needed to run the grocery stores. Separate food and state, just as our ancestors separated church and state. Let the free market reign in the grocery-store industry.

How would today’s statists respond? Wouldn’t they say the same things they say when libertarians call for the same solution in education? “Where would the poor get their food? There would only be grocery stores for the rich. How could we count on the free market to make sure that there was the right amount of food for each grocery store? What if some grocery stores went empty while others were plentiful? How could we be sure that each grocery store received the correct quantities of each item? You libertarians are dreamers. Do you honestly believe that you could leave something as important as grocery stores to the free market?”

Yet today, no one gives a free market in food a second thought. Every day, people have a wide range of grocery stores from which to choose, each one vying for his business. Practically every day — blizzards being a possible exception — every one of those grocery stores is packed with food, all with a dizzying array of choices.

And it’s all accomplished through the miracle of the market, with no government planning or direction. And no one gets freaked out about the fact that it all happens without government intervention. People just take it for granted.

Now, while we’re on the subject of a free market in grocery stores and food, may we talk about the same thing in the context of public schools and education?

Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation (www.fff.org) in Fairfax, Va.

[Read more...]

Feb. 25, 2010

Staff report

· In February 1986, the Williston Whistle reported on a proposed expansion at Trinity Baptist Church on Mountain View Road. Plans for the expansion called for an auditorium complex, classrooms, administrative offices, a conference room and a high school building.

· The paper reported in February 1991 that Arlene and Waldo Siple had in January announced a decision to sell the development rights of their 243-acre farm on South Road to the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, the town of Williston, the Vermont Department of Agriculture and the Land Trust. The Siples sold the property for $394,000.

· Rick McGuire became Williston’s town manager in February 1998, the Whistle reported in its Feb. 19 issue of that year. McGuire was hired in December 1997 to replace former Town Manager Bill Dugan, who left the position in October 1997. McGuire was chosen from a pool of 30 candidates.

· The Williston Central School’s “A” team Bobcats finished off the basketball season in February 2004 with a perfect record. The Bobcats averaged a 22-point margin of victory in their 16-0 record.

· In the first week of February 2005, thieves stole a life-sized Gumby statue from the home of Barb Giardi and Norm Reuss. The couple soon received a ransom letter with a set of demands, including the ouster of former President George W. Bush and the legalization of marijuana.

· On Feb. 11, 2008, the Vermont Commission of Family Recognition and Protection took public testimony on whether Vermont lawmakers should pass legislation allowing gay marriage. An overwhelming majority spoke in favor of gay marriage during the forum at Williston Central School. More than a year later in April 2009, Vermont lawmakers passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage.

[Read more...]

Feb. 25, 2010

By Tim Simard

Observer staff

A new government building on Harvest Lane could be certified as one of Williston’s “greenest” buildings, according to a local architectural firm.

Steve Roy, an architect with Colchester-based Wiemann Lamphere Architects, anticipates the office building will earn an environmental certification within the year.

Roy believes the design and implementation of the environmentally-sound building practices will continue in future projects across Vermont.

“What went into the design are things we should always be thinking about,” Roy said.

The U.S. government’s General Services Administration moved into the 27,000 square-foot space in January after it was completed late last year. When brought before the town in its early planning stages in April 2008, plans indicated staff from the United States Citizen and Immigration Services department might also work within the new building.

A government official could not be reached as of press deadline to confirm which departments work in the building.

There are a number of government offices within Williston, including a large workplace across from the new structure, as well as offices within the White Cap Business Park on Industrial Avenue.

Roy said the building should earn a silver certification for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, better known as LEED. The U.S. Green Building Council confirms structures as LEED certified.

Roy, along with architect Gary Lavigne, designed the building to save more than 25 percent in energy costs and use 42 percent less water than similar office complexes. Many of the materials used in construction came from local companies, Roy said. Williston-based DEW Construction spent much of 2009 constructing the government building.

In the original plans, the building was to include a large, glass etching of the Statue of Liberty at the front entrance.

“In the end, they decided not to put that up there after all,” Roy said.

[Read more...]

Feb. 25, 2010

By Tim Simard

Observer staff

The third time’s a charm for the Champlain Valley Union High School express bus.

After changing departure spots twice in less than a week, the Champlain Valley Union High School express bus will now leave from Allen Brook School instead of Town Hall. It’s the newest location officials settled upon after voluntarily leaving Town Hall and discovering that a lot on North Williston Road would not work.

The change occurred Feb. 18. The two express buses will continue to leave by 7:45 a.m. each school day morning.

Originally, buses picked up CVU students at town offices in Williston Village. Vehicles lined up along the Town Hall Annex, in the parking lot next to the Williston Armory. But concerns over traffic backups onto U.S. 2 created concerns with town officials.

Town Manager Rick McGuire asked CVU transportation officials to move the student pick-up from the Annex to behind Town Hall. He said he was surprised to discover the express buses found a new pickup stop altogether.

“I clearly did not ask for (the buses) to be moved,” McGuire said. “Actually, I thought I had a good location picked out.”

Bob Mason, chief operations officer for Chittenden South Supervisory Union, said he “misunderstood” town officials and decided to seek a pickup location away from Town Hall.

On Monday, Feb. 15, CVU express buses collected students at the Williston Recreation Path parking lot, behind Korner Kwik Stop and across from Williston Federated Church.

That lasted three days.

According to Mason, the traffic at the church’s parking lot entrance created a bottleneck of sorts, especially with commuters near the busy intersection of U.S. 2 and North Williston and Oak Hill roads. Also, the Federated Church hosts Rotary Club of Williston-Richmond meetings Thursday mornings at roughly the same time as student pick-up.

“It just became obvious this wasn’t going to work,” Mason said.

Mason said parents can now drop their students off around 7:30 a.m. for bus pickup at Allen Brook. The CVU buses will leave the elementary school before its students arrive for the day, Mason said, therefore avoiding further traffic issues.

“This gets us to a location where we’re not inconveniencing anyone,” he said.

CVU instituted an express bus pilot program in January 2009. The buses became so popular, the high school added a second 84-passenger vehicle to the run. Shelburne also has an express bus and officials are working on a route for Charlotte. Students who do not have classes during the early block generally take the express buses, Mason said.

Initially, buses traveled 20 minutes via Oak Hill Road to CVU when leaving from Town Hall. Now, buses will follow Vermont 2A to Hinesburg. Mason said the busing times should remain the same.

Mason said he heard from a few parents and school officials concerned about the change in pickup locations, but he remains confident that Allen Brook will be the best spot for the long term.

[Read more...]