Williston Observer

Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity hangs its hat in Williston

Nov. 23, 2011

By Steven Frank

Observer staff

Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity Executive Director David Mullin (left) and Sara Munro (right), director of advancement, no longer have to work out of their homes. The organization moved to a larger office location in Williston in September. In addition to housing all three of its employees, the space can also host training sessions and workshops. (Observer photo by Steven Frank)

Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity has been providing new homes to families in need for more than 25 years.

Now the non-profit organization has a new home in Williston.

In September, it moved from a close-quarters locale in Essex Junction to a spot in the Cornerstone Drive plaza (across the street from the former Williston Driving Range).

The new space includes staff offices, workstations for interns and a conference room for volunteer committees. There is also a large training space for future programs in home maintenance and homeownership workshops.

GMHfH’s paid staff includes an executive director, director of advancement and a bookkeeper. The bulk of the organization consists of approximately 40 volunteers.

“Our office (in Essex Junction) was big enough for (the) bookkeeper, so he worked there and I worked out of my home in Williston,” GMHfH Executive Director David Mullin said. “Then we decided to hire a director of advancement, so that person worked from home as well. … We decided we needed to come together to be more efficient and effective as an organization.”

According to Mullin and Sara Munro, director of advancement, the office’s furniture and technology infrastructure were almost entirely donated by local individuals and businesses.

“We’d be sitting on crates if it wasn’t for them,” Mullin said.

Formed in 1984 and an affiliate of the worldwide Habitat for Humanity organization, GMHfH partners with low-income families living in substandard and/or unsafe housing conditions throughout northwestern Vermont. Through donations and volunteer efforts, it builds new homes and sells them to these families via interest-free loans.

GMHfH has built 55 homes to date, including one in Williston where the land was donated (the organization typically purchases the land). Another land donation was a recent three-building lot in Charlotte, where volunteers are finishing up the final house. There is also a GMHfH chapter in Lamoille County that will construct its first home in Morrisville next spring.

With the economy putting more families — particularly working ones — in need, Mullin hopes increased efficiency in the new Williston headquarters will lead to an increase in housing projects.

“We really want to ramp it up and (the move) is a big part of that,” Mullin said. “This space allows us to do more with our partner families and our volunteers, and that will allows us to increase our number of homes.”

A group of female volunteers work on a new home in Charlotte that was part of a three-building lot donated to Green Mountain Habitat for Humanity. (Courtesy photo)

Williston residents Charlie Magill and his wife, Ruth, have volunteered with GMHfH since 1988. Ruth Magill serves in the organization’s congregation relations committee, which promotes involvement from churches in terms of donated materials and/or manpower. One of Charlie Magill’s recent duties was helping construct the houses in Charlotte.

Charlie Magill said he is happy that GMHfH is in a larger space in Williston because it’s a short drive from his home and makes it possible for him and his wife to do more for the organization. But his greatest pleasure is seeing the impact it makes on families’ lives.

“It’s been wonderful, we’ve been able to see many families get into a home of their own that they would have never been able to get into otherwise,” Charlie Magill said. “It’s really affected us.”

Mullin, who has been the executive director for 11 years, still gets the same gratification.

“It all goes back to the families,” Mullin said. “You hear what it means to them and you see the difference that it makes, I enjoy that. You work with such a variety of people, from all walks of life. It’s a diverse group putting forth a common effort.”

Williston lacks wholesale club, Costco remains area’s lone option

Nov. 23, 2011

By Luke Baynes

Observer staff

Costco Wholesale Corp.’s Colchester location (above) is the only wholesale membership club in the greater Burlington area, despite the fact that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. — which has a store in Williston — is the parent company of Sam’s Club. (Observer photo by Luke Baynes)

In the past three decades, Williston has grown from a rural blip on the state map to a leading retail center, and a hub for Vermont businesses and national chain stores alike.

With a Wal-Mart, Home Depot, three supermarkets and scores of other box stores within the town limits, the holiday shopper has plenty of gift options.

Yet there’s a conspicuous absence among Williston’s plethora of shopping venues: a wholesale membership club, such as Costco, Sam’s Club or BJ’s Wholesale Club.

“We have not heard of any of the so-called wholesale clubs looking at Williston as a venue,” said Ken Horseman, an economic development specialist with the Vermont Department of Economic Development. “And it would be of interest because Costco – and I’m a Costco member myself personally – is doing very well up there (in Colchester).”

The Colchester location of Costco Wholesale Corp., situated on Lower Mountain View Drive, just off exit 16 of Interstate 89, is the lone wholesale club in the region. As the only game in that or any other town, it forces many residents from other areas of Chittenden County to drive long distances to do their bulk shopping — thus diluting their savings through fuel costs.

Peter Meadow, a Williston resident and a Costco member, said he would join a Williston wholesale club should one open in town.

“Yeah, I would (join a wholesale club in Williston),” Meadow said. “It would be a lot easier. It’s kind of inconvenient to drive all the way up to Colchester.”

The fact that Williston doesn’t have a Sam’s Club is not unusual in itself, but the presence of Wal-Mart — which owns Sam’s Club as a national subsidiary brand and typically builds one adjacent to the other — makes its absence noteworthy.

Sam’s Club spokeswoman Christi Davis Gallagher said there are many factors her company considers when selecting a new location, but declined to comment on what factors have prevented Sam’s from coming to the area.

“We are always looking for new opportunities to serve our Members, but we haven’t made any announcements about a new Sam’s Club in your area,” she wrote in a brief e-mail to the Observer.

By contrast, the Wal-Mart across Lake Champlain, in Plattsburgh, N.Y., has a Sam’s Club immediately adjacent to it.

Jeannie Van Nostrand, a Saranac, N.Y. resident who works in Plattsburgh, said that she shops more often at Wal-Mart but that she visits Sam’s Club “maybe once a month” for bulk discounts on paper products and laundry detergent.

“Sam’s Club has better prices on bulk items, which I do buy,” said Van Nostrand. “The other thing that Sam’s does for businesses in town … they have a thing (Click ‘n’ Pull) where businesses can order ahead and they’ll have a cart waiting for them.”

Rob Leuchs, a resident of Burlington’s Old North End, said his wife stopped shopping at the Costco in Colchester because of crowds and traffic congestion.

“A year or so ago my wife had a Costco membership, but she’d only go at 10:00 in the morning because the place was packed,” Leuchs said.

Horseman commented that the state would likely support an additional wholesale club in the region to provide competition for Costco.

“I would love to see another wholesale club that provides some good competition for Costco, and I think that it would provide some options for people,” Horseman said. “Colchester is probably quite a drive for some folks — particularly from the south — so having another option would be terrific as far as we’re concerned.”

He added: “Competition is a good thing, and I think that the local merchants benefit. They benefit from the increased traffic and they benefit when they’re able to differentiate themselves and carve out their own unique niche. It’s a win-win.”

Residents help restore Allen Brook

Nov. 23, 2011

By Luke Baynes

Observer staff

Ian Ambler, owner of Stowe-based Ambler Landscape Architecture & Ecological Design, shows the Bear Cub Scout Den Williston Pack 692 how to plant tree seedlings. The scouts planted the trees in a field along the Allen Brook, between Williston village and North Williston Road, on Nov. 1 to help with restoration efforts. (Observer photo by Steven Frank)

Williston has yet to see a significant snowfall this year, but there’s still a lot of white around town.

Instead of the fluffy stuff, the color has blanketed the banks of the Allen Brook in the form of ubiquitous tree tubes that represent significant progress in the restoration of a watershed that has long been relegated to the state’s list of impaired waters.

“I’m very proud of the work that we’ve been able to do,” said Williston Conservation Commission member Jude Hersey. “I really feel when driving around the town that we’re making an impact.”

Hersey and her commission cohorts are indeed making an impact, as Stephen Diglio, project manager with the environmental consulting firm KAS Inc., attests.

According to Diglio, 17 acres, with an average of 200 to 250 trees per acre, have been planted along the Allen Brook – a sprawling watershed located entirely within the town’s boundaries.

“The initial goal for the project was to do the restoration of 10 acres, so we actually exceeded those goals,” said Diglio.

As Williston senior planner Jessica Andreoletti explained, the restoration of the Allen Brook has been an ongoing, multi-year process.

“There have been multiple phases to the project, and this is the culmination phase,” Andreoletti said. “The whole point is to keep sediment out of the Allen Brook, and the only way to do that is to plant trees and provide habitat. What we’re trying to do is bring back fish and bugs. The reason why it hasn’t passed the state’s stormwater standards is because there’s not enough fish or bugs.”

In order for the tree planting to commence, however, Andreoletti and Diglio first had to convince landowners to give up land within the brook’s 150-foot riparian buffer by signing conservation easements over to the town in exchange for cash compensation.

“Really the biggest challenge we had was getting land owners to commit, because it is an easement on their property,” Diglio said. “It doesn’t really provide any more restrictions than the local town zoning, but it’s a perpetual thing. The zoning could one day disappear, but the easement will stay.”

“But all in all,” continued Diglio, “most of the land is undevelopable anyway, so it’s a net benefit for everybody. They’re getting money for land they couldn’t really do anything with, plus we’re improving the water quality and health of the brook in hopes to eventually get it off the impaired water (list), and that’s the ultimate goal of the restoration project.”

Rick and Karen Reed, whose 14-acre plot on Williston Road abuts the brook, were more than happy to allow an easement on the western edge of their property.

“It’s not land that has any commercial value anyway and (it has) sort of marginal agricultural value, so I couldn’t see really a reason not to participate,” said Rick Reed. “I thought it was great.”

Doug Goulette, a member of the homeowner’s association in Williston’s Southridge neighborhood, said his community is unified in its support of the Allen Brook restoration.

“We wanted to do everything we could to improve the water quality of Allen Brook, at least where it passes through our property,” Goulette said. “It seemed like a win-win situation for all parties.”

There are two components to the Allen Brook project: land acquisition and restoration. Andreoletti said that while 2011 restoration funds have been exhausted and the final 70 trees were planted on Nov. 19, additional land acquisition dollars remain.

Funding for land acquisition and restoration was made possible by a federal grant the town secured through Jim Fay of the Champlain Water District. Under the terms of the State Tribal Assistance Grant — recently extended through July 1, 2012 — the grant will pay 55 percent (up to $220,243) of total project costs, if the town comes up with the 45-percent match.

With $66,080 in matching grant monies already in tow from a variety of sources — including the state’s Stormwater Impaired Restoration Fund — the Williston Selectboard authorized the use of up to $114,119 of the town’s Environmental Reserve Fund to satisfy the match.

Besides the environmental benefits of the Allen Brook restoration, Hersey said the project serves as a way to unite the community and to teach the value of conservation to local youths.

“Both of our schools border the Allen Brook, so you can have kids at a young age be a part of protecting the environment,” Hersey said.

Andreoletti observed that in addition to preserving the long-term welfare of Williston’s primary watershed, the brook’s restoration also sends a symbolic message to residents.

“Williston gets a bad rep for being the box store capital of Vermont, and this (project) shows there’s more to Williston than just that,” said Andreoletti.

Extended school day among proposed changes

Nov. 23, 2011

By Luke Baynes

Observer staff

Although no decisions were made, decision packets highlighted the Williston School Board’s budget meeting on Nov. 17.

Williston District Principal Walter Nardelli explained that decision packets are the tools that will be used to makes changes to the FY2013 baseline budget.

“To change the baseline budget, you have to write a decision packet, which is either going to increase or decrease the budget,” Nardelli said. “What we do here in Williston is we allow everybody to kind of tell us what their needs are through a decision packet. This does not mean that every one of these is going to go through. We’re going to have a lot of discussion about them and weigh out the educational impact.”

There were 17 items on the list of decision packets Nardelli handed out to members of the Board and budget buddies in attendance, none more notable than an item titled “Extended School Day.”

“We are looking to extend the day in some way that will take the pressure off the regular school day around a lot of different areas,” Nardelli said.

Nardelli further referenced the extended school day concept when discussing such proposed programs as kindergarten related arts and world language classes.

“If we’re going to add anything else in, that means we’re taking away from core (instructional) time because that’s the only place it can come from. So that’s the struggle with a six-and-a-half-hour day,” Nardelli said.

Also of note among the decision packets was the proposed creation of an “early intervention outreach coordinator,” who would serve as a liaison between Allen Brook School and local preschools.

“The idea of that position is to coordinate (preschools’) curriculums and the work they do with our students with programs at school, so when they come, they’re better prepared to be successful at school,” said Nardelli. “So it’s actually working with the preschools locally — every one of them that we have a partnership with — to influence the instruction our future students will get.”

At the larger Chittenden South Supervisory Union level — which comprises the towns of Williston, Hinesburg, St. George, Charlotte and Shelburne — CSSU Chief Operations Officer Bob Mason said the CSSU board met Nov. 16 to discuss FY2013 decision packets — including a packet that calls for the elimination of support for math coordinators.

“They are considering removing the support line under math coordinator,” Mason said. “The CSSU board used to contribute $50,000 in support of that program, with the bulk of the rest of the program coming from Title II funding, which is federal funding in support of schools. The title funding is rapidly disappearing, and as a result, CSSU will consider no longer funding salary and benefits in the form of math coordinators as part of its purchased services budget.”

On a similar note, Nardelli said Williston’s summer school program is in danger of being eliminated.

“Right now there’s no money left for summer school,” said Nardelli. “So if we want to continue summer school for students other than special education students, then we have to consider that (decision packet).”

Nardelli stressed that the purpose of his presentation was merely to outline the various decision packets, and that detailed discussion and analysis are still to come.

“Sometime mid-December we’re going to go through and we’re going to consider all of these (decision packets) and you’ll get presentations in detail on every single one of them and we’ll discuss them at length,” Nardelli said.

Nov. 23, 2011

By Luke Baynes

Observer staff

Who among us knew — or thought we knew — what to do with our lives when we graduated from high school?

Who among us actually pulled it off?

For many high school seniors, going to college isn’t a decision — it’s inevitability. It’s a predetermined academic progression — just as middle school followed elementary school and high school followed junior high.

But for all the undecided high school grads or undeclared freshmen floundering through their first semester of college, there’s another option: a gap year.

A gap year is when students take a year off (generally between high school and college) to pursue interests outside the classroom and learn experientially, often by traveling aboard. Although it’s a relatively new concept in the United States, it’s a common practice for graduating high school seniors in many European countries.

“It’s not a year off, it’s not a vacation year and it’s not an abyss of a year. It’s a structured year focusing on different areas of interest, and on that practical level, following up on things that you might be drawn to, to try and get a better sense of who you are,” said Holly Bull, president of the Center for Interim Programs, a Princeton, N.J.-based group that helps students find gap year programs that fit their interests.

“The thing that’s so powerful about this,” continued Bull, “that I see both from having done this myself, but also being on the counseling end of it, is that you have a 17- or 18-year-old for the first time in their lives choosing what they want to do with their lives in a substantial way and for a chunk of time that’s more than a summer. That’s powerful.”

Gap year activities are many and varied, and can range in price and length of time. But a commonality among programs is a focus on independent, yet structured, learning.

“We always say, ‘A gap year is not sitting at home on your mother’s couch playing Xbox,’” said Nikki St. Mary, a guidance counselor at South Burlington High School, who oversees the school’s annual gap year fair.

It was at the SBHS gap year fair in 2010 that Montpelier High School senior Noel Kerr found a program through the Portland, Ore.-based Carpe Diem Education that allowed him to combine his interests in Thai culture and scuba diving. He’s currently in Thailand, where he has already worked in an orphanage and studied Buddhism. At the end of the semester he will do his scuba diving certification and hopes to next year get an internship rescuing sea turtles.

“He’s not a super academic kid, and this was an opportunity to explore,” said Nilda Kerr, Noel’s mother. “A lot of kids need to grow up a little bit before they go to college. It would be a mistake to just send him off and expect him to excel at academia when that’s always been a challenge for him — and this will give him the confidence, and help him kind of figure out who he is and what he wants to do.”

Kerr said that despite her son being more than 8,000 miles and many time zones away, she doesn’t worry about him because of the structured and well-organized nature of the Carpe Diem program.

“To be honest, I don’t worry about him on this trip at all, really,” she said. “I worried about him more when he was home with his friends and going out.”

Besides safety concerns, common parental worries include cost and the fear that their child might never attend college.

Bull assuaged these concerns by pointing out that although a gap year is an additional expense for parents, gap year students are more likely to graduate in four years once they attend college. She also said that it’s rare that a gap year student would forgo college altogether.

“There’s information that shows that (gap year) students are unlikely not to go to college,” Bull said. “That’s very rare. In fact, if you have a student that’s right on the edge — who’s just turned off by school — they’re much more likely to go to college after doing gap time.”

And while gaps in time on résumés and transcripts have traditionally been frowned upon, St. Mary said that college admissions offices are looking more and more favorably at gap years.

“Our experience has been that colleges are thrilled to have students (do gap years),” said St. Mary. “Students really do come back with a much more mature, global perspective than they did before they left. So I think colleges look very favorably on it.”

Jane Sarouhan, a vice president at the Center for Interim Programs’ office in Northampton, Mass., said that while gap years are sometimes taken by college students or working adults, it’s most common among graduating high school seniors seeking a break from academia.

“The number one reason students are taking gap years is because of burnout,” Sarouhan said.

Sandra Ackert-Smith, a 17-year-old senior at Vermont Commons School in South Burlington, attended this year’s gap year fair at SBHS on Nov. 10 for that reason.

“I’m definitely feeling burnt out,” Ackert-Smith said. “I really loved learning and school in general when I started high school, and as it’s progressed it’s become more and more of a chore. It just feels like there’s so much pressure to go to college next year and I’m kind of resisting that pressure.”

She’s not alone in her resistance.

Karina Jaquith-Bender, a 17-year-old self-directed learner from Charlotte, is sold on the gap year concept.

“I’m definitely going to do a gap year because I don’t want to go to college just because it’s the next thing on the wheel,” said Jaquith-Bender. “I want to go to college because I know why I’m going. I want to do something real in the world first.”