Williston Observer

Aug. 26, 2010

Board approves bylaw amendments

The Williston Selectboard on Monday evening approved two changes to the town’s Unified Development Bylaws.

One change, to Chapter 11 of the bylaws, allows developers of certain subdivisions to reapply for growth management allocation. Due to the confusing language of growth management, certain projects may have expired permits. Subdivisions qualifying for the reapplication process must have already displayed an intention to begin construction. Planning Director Ken Belliveau said his department will notify affected developers of the bylaw change.

The second change applies to Chapter 37 of the bylaws, and allows existing light industrial buildings and warehouses in the mixed use commercial district to expand.

Fire Department offers car seat fittings

The Williston Fire Department has three members who were recently trained as car seat technicians. Shift officer Ryan Prouty, firefighter-EMT Prescott Nadeau and firefighter-EMT David Auriemma are certified to properly fit car seats. To schedule a free fitting, call the station at 878-5622.

Shepard to chair Telecommunications Authority

Williston resident Dr. Steven Shepard, a technology educator and writer, has been appointed as chairman of the Vermont Telecommunications Authority.

Shepard was named to the position by Gov. Jim Douglas, Vermont House Speaker Shap Smith and Vermont Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin. The founder of the Shepard Communications Group and co-founder of the Executive Crash Course Company, Shepard has more than 25 years of experience in the technology industry.

“Over the last 10 years I have had the honor to work on telecom policy issues in over a hundred countries, from First World nations to the Third World, where the introduction of telecom technology is a nation-changer,” Shepard said in a press release. “The opportunity to work with the VTA and its many partners in the state is a unique opportunity that I take very seriously.”

The Vermont Telecommunications Authority was approved by the Vermont Legislature in 2007. It aims to ensure that Vermonters have access to affordable broadband and cellular service throughout the state.

Aug. 26, 2010

Flooding from beaver activity has made some of the trails in the Mud Pond Conservation and Recreation Area impassable. The town is working on a plan to reroute the trail to the north of the flooding.

Beaver activity has flooded some trails in the Mud Pond Conservation and Recreational Area, but the town is working to plan a rerouted trail.

“We’re trying to find a way to divert that by making a trail that goes to the north of Mud Pond,” Town Planner Jessica Andreoletti said.

Currently, there is a path that leads in approximately half a mile to the pond from Mud Pond Road, off South Road. The trail connects with a loop in the adjacent Mud Pond Country Park, across South Road.

The Five Tree Hill Trail is on the other side of the flooding, and can currently only be accessed from Oak Hill Road.

Since the area is conserved, the beaver cannot be trapped or killed, Andreoletti said. Workers can remove dams less than two years old, but the beaver just keeps rebuilding them, she said.

The Conservation Commission has some funds for trail maintenance, which could cover the cost of structures that need to be built, but not workers. Andreoletti said the town will probably look for volunteers to help reroute the trail.

The trail will likely be rerouted sometime next year, Andreoletti said.

— Stephanie Choate, Observer staff

Aug. 26, 2010

Linda Levitt and her dog Madison, pictured above, will compete in dock jumping at the Champlain Valley Fair.

Champlain Valley Fair is going to the dogs, and one Williston resident will be there to help make it happen.

The fair, which opens Saturday at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex, will feature dock jumping dogs in three different genres: Extreme Vertical, High Jump and Speed Retrieve. Williston resident Linda Levitt will be competing at the fair with her black lab Madison. Although Vermont does not have its own dock jumping club, Levitt and Madison practice in a pond behind their home.

“Jumping into a pond and into the lake is very different than jumping into a pool because it looks different to the dog. First of all the dock is much higher. It’s 2 feet above the water, and they’re looking into clear water, so you have to practice,” Levitt said.

Despite Vermont not having a club, Levitt loves competing and practicing with Madison.

“It’s fun for both of us,” she said.

The competition is brought to the fair by Dock Dogs, a traveling act. The event, which will run from Aug. 28 to Sept. 6 in Essex, was booked last year by Rich Lewis, director of communications for Champlain Valley Exposition.

“We have a convention every year that highlights a lot of acts and a lot of artists and people who make their livelihood through doing fairs and festivals,” Lewis said. “A number of years ago at the convention this group showed up called Dock Dogs. It was very intriguing.”

Dock Dogs gives relatively seasoned competitors, like Levitt, the chance to be recognized regionally and worldwide.

“Events that are put on by DD National allow competitors to earn national titles and chances to receive an invitation to the World Championship at the end of the season,” Kristen Brayne, secretary of Hudson Valley Dock Dogs in Millerton, N.Y., explained in an e-mail.

Levitt has visited the Hudson Valley Dock Dogs club, and has competed in many places including Canada and Maine, where Madison has won first place for Speed Retrieve.

The three different parts of each competition test different skills. Extreme Vertical presents the dog with a bumper that is held in the air, and it is raised incrementally higher. The challenge is to see how high it can go before the dog can no longer reach it.

The High Jump is similar, but requires effort from the owner as well. The owner must throw a non-living, non-food item in the air, and the dog must jump out and catch the toy while it’s soaring above the pool. Levitt explained that Madison lacks in this category because of her own inability to throw well.

Speed Retrieve is a little different, and challenges a dog’s ability to move quickly through the water by timing its swim from the dock to the other end, where the dog must retrieve a bumper.

Though the Champlain Valley Fair has hosted a multitude of other dog competitions, this one is different.

“A lot of people, they are interested in dogs, but this is a new presentation, a new angle on dogs,” Lewis said. “Dogs from outside actually doing the competition. It’s one of those things, a lot more people are involved in this.”

Lewis is unsure if he will bring Dock Dogs back next year, mostly based on the act’s busy schedule. But he believes it will attract many fair-goers, and be a fun and entertaining new act.

Aug. 26, 2010

The Williston Observer is celebrating its 25th year providing news to the community. Here are some stories from past months of August:

• The new Town Hall was officially dedicated in 1988, as reported in that year’s August edition of the Williston Whistle. The Town Hall moved into the old Grange Hall and was dedicated in a July 4 ceremony.

• The Aug. 19, 1992 issue of the Williston Whistle included an article detailing a softball game between the fire and police departments. The challenge for “an old fashioned hand-smacking soft ball” game had been floating around for a few weeks, according to the article. The police won the game, although the paper did not report the score.

• The Aug. 24, 1994 edition of the Williston Whistle announced its new owners, Paul and Marianne Apfelbaum. The Apfelbaums, who still run the paper today, announced the paper would begin publishing weekly the next month, with extended coverage of local and school news.

• The Aug. 29, 1996 edition of the Williston Whistle included an article about a proposed underground pedestrian tunnel at Taft Corners. The tunnel, among the ideas proposed by town officials for federal transportation funding, would have crossed diagonally under the intersection of U.S. 2 and Vermont 2A.

• Williston went to 24-hour daily police coverage in 1997, adding two officers to the four-person staff, according to an article in the Aug. 21, 1997 issue of the Williston Whistle.

• The front page of the Aug. 19, 1999 edition of the Williston Whistle was dedicated to Howard Lunderville, a community icon who died earlier in the week. Lunderville, known as “Mr. Williston,” worked to found the fire station and had been the fire chief, police chief, first constable, a state representative and more.

• The Aug. 1, 2002 edition of the Williston Whistle included an article about Foxwood Farm, a 30-horse farm formerly located in Taft Corners, moving to Charlotte. Owner Jean Pecor said the development at Maple Tree Place, directly across from her property, was “the last straw,” according to the article.

• The Aug. 21, 2003 issue of the Williston Observer included an article about staff layoffs at IBM. IBM laid off 500 workers from its Essex Junction and Williston facilities.

• Plans for The Old Brick Café on Williston Road were approved in 2004, as reported in the Aug. 19 edition of the Observer. David Herskowitz now operates the restaurant as Monty’s Old Brick Tavern.

• During a visit to Pamplona, Spain, a Williston resident had a near miss during the running of the bulls, according to an article in the Aug. 17, 2006 edition of the Williston Observer. A bull’s horn came within inches of Pogo Senior’s hand before turning in another direction. Senior called running with the bulls the most thrilling thing he has done in his life, outside of the birth of his children.

• The Aug. 9, 2007 issue of the Williston Observer includes an article about the release of the massive study of alternatives to the proposed Circumferential Highway. The study, however, failed to find the best option.

“Like a gripping novel with the last few pages torn out, the document reaches no conclusion,” the article reads.

• An article in the Aug. 14, 2008 issue of The Williston Observer announced that Williston would soon become home to the state’s first anti-terrorism task force, the Joint Terrorism Task Force of Vermont. FBI Director Robert Mueller and Sen. Patrick Leahy inaugurated the task force.

• The Aug. 6, 2009 issue of the Observer included an article detailing the decline in charitable giving during a tough economy. Several local non-profits, including the Committee on Temporary Shelter, or COTS, described drops in donations, endowments and grants. The same issue included an article about the growing donations to the Observer’s Plant a Row for the Hungry program, which had already collected more than 300 pounds of food that summer.

• Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., one of Vermont’s fastest-growing businesses, announced plans to expand into Williston last August, according to the Aug. 20, 2009 issue of the Observer. The company moved into a building on Marshall Avenue.

Trailers may become affordable housing

Aug. 26, 2010

The entrance to Allen Brook School undergoes construction last week as the school takes its modular classrooms out of use.

A lack of quorum for Tuesday’s Development Review Board meeting has left the Williston School District awaiting an answer on its request to extend the permit for Allen Brook School’s modular classrooms. But a new hearing has already been scheduled for Sept. 14.

With the permit expiring Aug. 31, the school situation will fall into no man’s land, said Planning Director Ken Belliveau. Still, the school submitted the extension’s request on time and is not responsible for the cancellation of the meeting. It is not uncommon that board meetings get cancelled due to lack of quorum as people go on vacation, Belliveau said.

“It’s a volunteer board, we’re in the summer, it happens occasionally,” Belliveau said. “It’s life.”

Meanwhile, the school continues negotiations with the Addison County Community Trust for relocating the modular units and converting them to affordable housing, said Chittenden South Supervisory Union Chief Operations Officer Bob Mason.

“The fact that the DRB meeting has been postponed until September will have no impact on the start of school for students or on the School Board plans to finalize negotiations with the Addison County Community Trust,” he said. “As we speak, documents covering the transfer are being exchanged between parties and will likely be finalized in the next couple of weeks.”

If negotiations are successful, the school will then begin removing the units from the school ground. The units are now disconnected from the main building and maintenance personnel is working on final details to the school entrance so it will look as it was originally designed when students return to school next week after the summer break.