Shannon Miller, the most decorated gymnast in U.S. history, addresses a Saturday morning crowd at Green Mountain Gymnastics in Williston. (Observer photo by Luke Baynes)

By Luke Baynes

Observer staff

Few of the several dozen gymnasts huddled on the main mat of Green Mountain Gymnastics on Saturday were born when Shannon Miller won gold on the balance beam at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

But that fact didn’t abate the air of giddy excitement in the Williston gym as a video was projected of the routine that won Miller her first individual gold medal and cemented her legacy as the most decorated gymnast, male or female, in U.S. history.

Miller’s beam routine that day was exquisite, with a flawless execution of a front flip, a tumbling pass with two layouts and a move simply known as the “Miller,” a back dive with a quarter twist to a handstand, followed by a half pirouette.

The recorded cheers from the Atlanta audience for the 19-year-old Shannon Miller segued into applause from the Williston crowd as the video faded and the group of young, mostly female gymnasts turned their gazes to the smiling face of the 35-year-old Miller, who strode to the podium with a confidence that belied the severe shyness that plagued her as a youth.

“It’s always a little bit weird watching that video, because every time I think, ‘OK, this is going to be the day when I don’t land the dismount,’” Miller laughed.

At 35, the petite, toned Miller looks like she could still perform a precise round-off back handspring on a moment’s notice—and stick the landing. It’s all the more remarkable when one considers that she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer less than two years ago.

Miller’s talk at Green Mountain Gymnastics came the morning after an appearance at the University of Vermont’s Dudley H. Davis Center, at which she spoke as a guest of the Eleanor B. Daniels Fund, a nonprofit research and fundraising group for the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Fletcher Allen Health Care.

“I was able to talk about the idea of competing with cancer and how my gymnastics background has really helped me compete in this other battle, and how the lessons we learn through sport help us every day in regular life,” said Miller, who today is cancer-free.

In addition to her candidness about her disease, the professional gymnastics commentator spoke frankly about Gabby Douglas, who won the individual all-around gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Miller contrasted Douglas’ performance at the 2011 U.S. National Championships, at which she “completely imploded on the balance beam” and made “mistakes that you should not be making at the Olympic level,” to the 2011 World Championships, where she had a mediocre individual performance yet won a team gold medal.

“She won a gold medal, and she went home from that competition more confident and more empowered than ever before, and it was like a switch turned on with this girl,” Miller said. “This girl came from basically you wouldn’t put her on the world team, to winning the first Olympic all-around gold medal for an African-American. It’s a tremendous story.”

Miller positioned Douglas’ story as a lesson that a gymnast should never give up, even during practice.

“Every time you get up on the beam, it is go time. It is gold medal at the Olympic Games time,” she said. “Treat that routine as if this were the routine of your life.”

Laurel Evans-Daiffenderfer, 10, of Williston was impressed by the fact that Miller admitted the pre-routine fears she felt at the 1996 Summer Games, even after winning five medals at the 1992 Games in Barcelona.

“I’ve been trying to do my round-off back handspring, and I’ve been scared,” Evans-Daiffenderfer said. “The next time, I’ll try to do what she does.”

Thirteen-year-old Posie Nash-Gibney of Essex Junction, who has been a gymnast since she was 2, was also impressed by the presence of Miller, whose biography she first read when she was 8.

“It’s really cool that she came,” Nash-Gibney said. “Most of the time you don’t really meet someone that’s been so important to gymnastics history.”

No decision on Lamplite Acres stormwater proposal

By Luke Baynes

Observer staff

The Williston Selectboard approved a solar energy plan Monday that will generate a quarter of the town’s annual power demand, but deferred a decision on a plan to alleviate stormwater flooding in the Lamplite Acres neighborhood.

The solar energy project calls for the installation of 26 AllSun Trackers from Williston-based AllEarth Renewables Inc. on municipal property behind the Williston Town Hall.

While the town will only see savings of around $2,000 per year for the next six years, it has the option to purchase the solar trackers after year six for either fair market value or the preset purchase option price of $338,738, whichever is higher. According to figures crunched by Williston Finance Director Susan Lamb, the break-even point on the investment will occur in 2025, with cumulative savings of more than $900,000 realized by 2037.

The project will be financed through a 25-year solar energy services agreement with Waterbury-based consulting and asset management group Green Lantern Development, doing business as GLC Solar Gen II LLC.

Luke Shullenberger, a managing partner of Green Lantern, told the Selectboard on Monday that his firm is working on packaging a series of statewide solar investments from school districts and municipalities—including Williston—into a bundled investment portfolio for companies seeking targeted tax-incentivized investments. Unlike tax-exempt municipalities like Williston or Rutland—which has its own municipal solar project in the works—firms in the private sector can receive tax credits through investments in solar energy.

“I promise I will be very transparent who the investors are soon, but they are two iconic Vermont companies who are going to be investing in this portfolio,” Shullenberger said.

Selectboard member Chris Roy asked Shullenberger if the town should be concerned about the durability of the solar trackers over the course of the 25-year agreement.

Shullenberger responded that Green Lantern views the bases the trackers sit on as a “75-year investment,” and that the panels can easily be swapped out if significant technological advances are made in the next quarter century.

The most important structural component of the trackers, Shullenberger said, is the hydraulic system that allows the GPS-based solar trackers to pivot toward the sun. He remarked that the hydraulics are non-proprietary and are similar to technology used in farm equipment, making them easily repairable.

Although the Selectboard authorized Williston Town Manager Rick McGuire to sign the solar energy services agreement on Monday, the project is still pending approvals from the Vermont Public Service Board and the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board. The VHCB isn’t scheduled to meet again until early November, according to McGuire.

“If it gets all the approvals in early November, I’m thinking they (AllEarth) want to get these (solar trackers) installed by the end of this calendar year,” McGuire said.

LAMPLITE ACRES STORMWATER PLAN

The climate in the Town Hall meeting room turned from sunshine to rain following the solar panel discussion, as talk shifted to a proposal designed to mitigate stormwater impacts in Lamplite Acres, a neighborhood located off North Brownell Road that experiences excessive stormwater surface ponding during the annual spring thaw.

Williston Public Works staff and representatives from Stantec Consulting Services Inc. previously met with Lamplite Acres residents during a pair of public meetings on June 13 and Aug. 15. At the latter meeting, Greg Goyette of Stantec revealed a recommended course of action, which involves the installation of infiltration trenches and roadside rain gardens in flood-prone areas of the neighborhood.

Public Works Director Bruce Hoar explained Monday that although the project is still in its initial scoping phase, the endorsement of the Selectboard is requested so that Public Works staff can pursue grant funding. Stantec estimates total project costs to be upward of $300,000.

Roy raised the question of whether it is equitable for the town—and by extension, town taxpayers—to foot the bill for the project, when other neighborhood homeowners associations have been required in the past to make specific contributions to stormwater management.

Hoar pointed out that the flood-prone areas of Lamplite Acres are located in the town’s right-of-way.

“This is a little bit different, in my opinion, in that it really is an older neighborhood, but it’s definitely just the roads that we’re talking about here,” Hoar said. “We’re not saying we’re fixing anybody’s stormwater system, besides what we own.”

Hoar added that the board doesn’t necessarily have to commit to the entire six-figure project investment, and could instead choose to initially target only the most affected areas of the neighborhood on a pilot basis.

“That’s what’s kind of unique about this whole approach, is that you don’t have to go in and just build this whole thing right away or at once,” he said.

On Deputy Chairman Jeff Fehrs’ suggestion, the Selectboard agreed to continue the stormwater discussion at its next scheduled meeting on Oct. 22.

By Luke Baynes

Observer staff

“You can’t start a fire without a spark,” Bruce Springsteen observed in the 1984 single “Dancing in the Dark,” the biggest hit of The Boss’ career.

Williston Central School bosses are hoping that dictum rings true with Spark Academy, an extended day program designed to light a fire under struggling students and encourage them that learning, once you get the hang of it, can be fun.

WCS Principal Jackie Parks explained that the extended day concept is twofold.

“One (component) is to make sure that kids that need extra time and support to get some of the key concepts, particularly in literacy and math, have additional time to do that with professionals,” Parks said. “The other is to provide other enriching opportunities that would be a benefit to any student.”

Spark Academy, which has the slogan “Igniting Learning through Creative Explorations,” launched earlier this month, with seven instructors and slightly fewer than 30 students. Classes are held Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., with bus transportation available afterward.

Williston District Principal Walter Nardelli said the Monday and Wednesday sessions will concentrate on the core competencies of math and literacy, while the Thursday session will have a greater focus on enrichment and arts-based learning. However, he noted that the two forms of instruction won’t be mutually exclusive.

“We want really targeted instruction, exactly in the kind of extra help they need, but then we want to integrate that and make that exciting for them to draw them in,” Nardelli said.

Spark Academy course offerings reflect the confluence of core curriculum and enrichment learning, with such course titles as “Art and Literacy Come Together,” “All-Systems-Go Language” and “Art by Numbers.”

Parks commented that while education has become more diversified over the years and has added elements outside the traditional core of reading, math and science, the duration of the school day has remained the same.

“The idea is really to get parents to look at it like the school day doesn’t end at 3 o’clock,” Parks said. “The athletic piece has always been after school, so that’s always been recognized. What we’re trying to do is to bring other things into that afterschool realm and have it be for lots of different purposes.”

Although Spark Academy has been operating for less than a month, Nardelli said feedback he received from teachers has been positive.

“The teachers said the kids didn’t want to leave. They were having a good time,” Nardelli said. “So that’s part of what we’re trying to create—that education can be really fun. It’s not just about drill and practice. There’s many different ways you can learn, and have a good time doing it.”

The easternmost shooting station of the North Country Sportsman’s Club (far right) has been decommissioned as part of an environmental stewardship plan on file with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. The club’s primary five-stand shooting station (center) will be relocated so that it faces away from the headwaters of a Sucker Brook tributary. (Observer photo by Luke Baynes)

By Luke Baynes

Observer staff

The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation has approved an environmental stewardship plan for the North Country Sportsman’s Club, but a group of local residents are dissatisfied, claiming it doesn’t do enough to improve the quality of waters and soils contaminated by lead shot from the Williston shooting range.

Protests over the shooting practices of NCSC have been spearheaded by Mona and Leo Boutin, whose Old Creamery Road property abuts the gun club. The Boutins were instrumental in forming Lead Free Williston, a group dedicated to improving the water quality of Sucker Brook, which flows through both the NCSC and Boutin properties.

At a Sept. 20 media event organized by Lead Free Williston, Mona Boutin argued that the environmental stewardship plan (ESP) submitted by NCSC is inadequate. She further maintained that the club has yet to submit a secondary work plan for the ESP, which was one of the conditions of approval outlined by George Desch, director of the DEC’s Waste Management and Prevention Division.

“While the gun club has submitted an environmental stewardship plan to the DEC, it does not satisfy the requirements of the state Superfund law for investigating and remediating the lead contamination documented in Sucker Brook,” Boutin said in a prepared statement. “The ESP only deals with operational changes on the gun club property. It does nothing to identify the extent of the lead pollution emanating from the soil, or what needs to be done to clean it up.”

A copy of the ESP, provided to the Observer by NCSC President Tom Blair, states that the easternmost of the club’s three shooting stations was discontinued in January 2012, due to its shot fall zone being too close to the headwaters of a Sucker Brook tributary. It also outlines plans to relocate the club’s primary five-stand shooting station so that it is oriented in a northwesterly direction, away from Sucker Brook.

However, the ESP also notes that “preliminary investigations with lead reclamation contractors have determined that, at this time, full reclamation of lead from the shot fall zone would be cost prohibitive.”

Blair, who was not invited by the Boutins to the Sept. 20 press conference, said in an interview that NCSC is complying with the state’s conditions.

“The Boutins, through their efforts over the last couple of years, were the ones who involved DEC and who asked DEC to intercede on their behalf,” Blair said. “They finally were successful in doing that, and I guess if they don’t like the outcome, then I would have to say that they should take that up with DEC.”

Tami Wuestenberg, a DEC environmental analyst, doesn’t entirely agree with Blair’s characterization, telling the Observer in an interview that NCSC hasn’t supplied a formal work plan for the ESP.

“I have lots of correspondence between the gun club and us, reminding them that they still need to do the second branch of work,” Wuestenberg said.

Yet Wuestenberg also observed that NCSC has made forward strides through the environmental stewardship plan.

“What we’re really happy with is there’s no additional shot going anywhere near the tributary anymore,” she said. “It’s a small club, and I have faith that they’re going to do the right thing. I think they’re working to the best of their ability.”

At the same time, Wuestenberg acknowledged the concerns of the Boutins and Lead Free Williston, and pledged that the state is committed to doing what is necessary to remediate lead contamination in the waters and surrounding soils of Sucker Brook.

“I agree with the Boutins 100 percent that the stream has been impacted, and we’re going to work with the club to determine how badly and what we can do about it,” Wuestenberg said.

Observer photos by Marianne Apfelbaum

Locals and visitors enjoyed the fun at the 19th annual Fall Harvest Festival hosted by Adams Apple Orchard and Farm Market last Sunday. The weekend event included food, fresh cider, a petting zoo, a bouncy castle, various vendors, apple picking and a rock climbing wall. Co-owner Scott Adams estimated that the festival attracted 5,000 people from all over the region.