Williston Observer

Argento Laraine Fine Jewelry

Fine jewelry store Argento Laraine specializes in custom design, bridal, repairs, estate and antique jewelry, diamonds and gemstones.

871-5115

www.argentolaraine.com

 

Bead Crazy

Bead Crazy is a full-service bead store, offering beading supplies, pre-made jewelry, children’s parties and adult classes.

288-9666

www.beadcrazyvt.com

 

Curtis Lumber

Curtis Lumber offers lumber, building materials and hardware, along with a knowledgeable staff.

863-3428

www.curtislumber.com/store/Williston

 

Davis & Hodgdon Associates

Davis & Hodgdon Associates CPAs serves Vermont’s residents and entrepreneurs.

878-1963

www.dh-cpa.com

 

Iron Mule Distributing

A locally owned food and beverage distribution company, Iron Mule Distributing serves restaurants, food-focused stores, offices and home-based consumers.

999-8887

 

J.L. Davis Realty

J.L. Davis Realty provides commercial real estate brokerage and an array of services to Vermont businesses.

878-9000

www.jldavisrealty.com

 

Liz Merryman, Century 21 Jack Associates

Liz Merryman focuses on putting her experience to work for her clients and among her many certifications, she is a senior real estate specialist.

658-5555

www.myburlingtonhome.com

 

Show Me the Biscuit

Indoor dog training center Show Me the Biscuit offers drop-off training, classes, agility training and more at its Williston facility.

879-3130

www.showmethebiscuit.com

 

Town of Williston 

Incorporated in 1763, Williston has more than 8,000 residents and approximately 1,400 businesses. 

878-5121

Town.williston.vt.us

452 Commons Road

William Drzyzga sold a condominium to Annette and Donald Miller for $291,000 on Sept. 13, 2012.

 

4517 Oak Hill Road

Clark and Pamela Gundlach sold a single family home to Stephen and Sarah Francisco on Sept. 14, 2012 for $780,000.

 

186 Stonybrook Drive

Gwenn M. Robinson sold a single family home to Timothy Flanagan for $262,000 on Sept. 14, 2012.

 

100 Ridge Road

The Martin and Dorothy Dienst Revocable Family Living Trust sold a single family home to Alain and Darlene Cloutier for $290,000 on Sept. 17, 2012.

 

358 Commons Road

Joan Johnson sold a single family home to Eric Goddard for $272,600 on Sept. 17, 2012.

 

139 Wildflower Circle

Juliane Hegle sold a single family home to Gerald Ghazi for $400,000 on Sept. 21, 2012.

 

56 Primrose Lane

Pamela Warner and Marne Stuthart sold a single family home to Kenneth and Linda Kaleita for $348,000 on Sept. 24, 2012.

 

363 Northview Court

Robert and Chesley Schamroth sold a condominium to Renee Ste Marie for $192,000 on Sept. 26, 2012.

 

50 Churchview Drive

Churchview Estates LLC sold a single family home to John and Christine Tardie for $310,000 on Sept. 27, 2012.

 

180 Turtle Pond Road

Paul and Sheryl Foxman sold a single family home to Eric Simmons and Theresa Krainz for $420,000 on Sept. 27, 2012.

 

507 Nob Hill

Richard II and Jean Bokan sold a single family home to Rand and Laura Whitney for $363,500 on Sept. 27, 2012.

 

51 Balsam Circle

Douglas and Claudia Labare, trustees, sold a condominium to William and Kathleen Young for $415,000 on Sept. 27, 2012.

 

235 Fairway Drive

Berl Mendel and Joanne Farrell sold a single family home to Peter Ferguson and Dawn Ellinwood for $530,000 on Sept. 28, 2012.

 

108 White Birch Lane

Catherine Wagner sold a single family home to Gregory and Casey Mack for $292,000 on Sept. 28, 2012.

 

16 Hideaway Lane

Karen Popovich sold a condominium to Patrick Kelly and Christina Eaton for $198,500 on Sept. 28, 2012.

 

460 Shunpike Road, Unit 9

Branch Realty Inc. sold a commercial condominium to JLC/JBC Properties LLC for $220,000 on Oct. 1, 2012.

 

9292 Williston Road

Marilyn Leduc sold a single family home to Matthew Lesage for $170,000 for Oct. 3, 2012.

 

476 Commons Road

Mary Lynn Riggs and Sarah Jane Conant sold a condominium to Dianne and David Bokan for $272,900 on Oct. 5, 2012.

 

702 Oak Knoll Road

Beth Ann and Andrew Lawrence sold a single family home to John and Kari Antonucci for $325,000 on Oct. 5, 2012.

 

161 Chamberlain Lane

Robert and Lori White sold a single family home to Jeffrey and Monica Paul for $434,000.

 

26 Read Road

Monica and Jeffrey Paul sold a condominium to MUK Real Estate LLC for $223,000 on Oct. 10, 2012.

 

193 Overlake Road

Wedgewood Development Corporation sold a single family home to Robert and Lori White for $660,675 on Oct. 10, 2012.

 

232 Lefebvre Lane

Megan Bachinski sold a single family home to Aaron and Katharine Cieri for $250,000 on Oct. 11, 2012.

 

Giovanna Lane, Lot 5

Fitzgerald-Godbout Custom Homes, Inc. sold a single family home to Megan Bachinski for $636,485 on Oct. 12, 2012.

 

69 Jakes Way, Lot 37, the Hamlet

Village Associates, LLC sold a single family home to Stephen Casale for $316,776.96 on Oct. 12, 2012.

 

136 James Brown Drive

HBRA Building sold an office/warehouse to Ricky and Sherry Limoge for $315,000 on Oct. 12, 2012.

 

48 Industrial Avenue

Munson Earth Moving sold a commercial space to G.I.T. Realty LLC for $830,000 on Oct. 15, 2012.

 

447 Highlands Drive

Brookfield Relocation, Inc. sold a single family home to Steven Stetson for $1,020,000 on Oct. 16, 2012.

 

117 Morgan Parkway

Shawn and Lisa LaBounty sold a single family home to Dinh Vu and Anh Tran for $281,000 on Oct. 17, 2012.

 

96 Chelsea Place

Anita Blau sold a single family home to Sandra DeBrita for $238,000 on Oct. 19, 2012.

 

105 Honeysuckle Lane

Virginia Clark Irrev. Trust sold a condominium to Patrick and Lorraine Ryan for $300,000 on Oct. 25, 2012.

 

266 Eastview Circle

David and Emily Moynihan sold a condominium to Ashley Hulsey for $197,000 on Oct. 30, 2012.

 

116 Southview Lane

Corey Cardinal sold a condominium to Martin and Rita Dessau for $202,000 on Oct. 30, 2012.

 

4959 & 4961 Williston Road

Betty Merriman and Sally Wilder sold three dwelling units to Frederick and Barbara Bristol for $248,000 on Oct. 31, 2012.

 

80 Wildflower Circle

Kenneth and Linda Kaleita sold a single family home to David and Eileen Freeman for $358,900 on Nov. 9, 2012.

 

16 Forest Run Road

Harjit and Mandeep Dhaliwal sold a single family home to Michael Duquette for $264,900 on Nov. 9, 2012.

 

57 Maple Road

Jeanette Voas sold a single family home to Hugh and Cheryl Rostad for $254,000 on Nov. 15, 2012.

 

224 Hanon Drive

Mark and Barbara Berry sold a single family home to Dean and Heather Lewis for $420,000 on Nov. 16, 2012.

 

2212 North Williston Road

Eileen Blackwood and Lynn Goyette sold a single family home to Seth and Kathryn Hibbert for $325,000 on Nov. 16, 2012.

 

893 Ledgewood Road

Robert and Gwen Blankenheim sold a single family home to Robert Desautels for $532,500 on Nov. 16, 2012.

 

188 Southridge Road

Linda and Craig Ladd sold a single family home to Tracy Tripp for $344,000 on Nov. 19, 2012.

 

147 Windridge road

Antonio and Josephine Guerrieri sold a single family home to Drew and Katrina Crandell for $275,000 in November, 2012.

 

230 Lamplite Lane

Jeffrey Stem sold a single family home to Kevin and Monica Hutt for $259,000 on Nov. 20, 2012.

Wal-Mart gives $10,000 to local nonprofit

Wal-Mart recently announced that it is donating $10,000 to local nonprofit Vermont Soldier’s Angels.

The donation is part of its “12 Days of Giving” holiday campaign. The sixth day of the campaign saw $110,000 given to 11 nonprofits nationwide that support troops, military families and veterans in their local communities.

Soldiers Angels, a nationwide group, sends letters and care packages to deployed soldiers and assists returning soldiers. Soldiers Angels Vermont is led by Willistonian Barb Greck and Essex resident Terri Sabens.

 

NEFCU donates to COTS, agencies

New England Federal Credit Union recently donated $20,000 to Burlington’s Committee on Temporary Shelter.

“We are incredibly grateful to NEFCU for their ongoing support and for this very generous contribution,” said COTS Executive Director Rita Markley. “With winter almost upon us, demands on COTS will increase and these funds will help us meet the challenge.”

NEFCU also recently made donations totaling $25,000 to Franklin County organizations. Tim’s House, Franklin/Grand Isle Community Action, Franklin County Home Health Agency, Frankin-Grand Isle United Way and Northwestern Medical Center each received $5,000.

 

Gooden named NBT branch manager 

Jessica Gooden was recently promoted to branch manager of NBT Bank’s Williston office. Gooden, who has more than eight years of banking experience, joined NBT Bank in 2009 as assistant branch manager.

“We are proud to announce Jessica’s promotion to branch manager,” NBT Bank Regional Manager Matt Durkee said in a press release. “Her background in bank management and customer service makes her an excellent resource for our customers and staff in the Williston community. We wish her continued success in her career with NBT Bank.”

A resident of Williston, Gooden earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Fla. She serves on the board of directors for the Kid’s Rehab Gym and is a member of the Women Business Owners Network.

 

Hampton Direct moves some business to L.A.

Williston-based Hampton Direct, which sells “As Seen on TV” products including PajamaJeans, Total Pillow and Wonder Hanger, recently announced that it will open a Los Angeles location and reduce its local staff by about 20 workers, according to Vermont Business Magazine.

The company’s operations, finance and other support functions will remain in Vermont, a Hampton Direct press release states.

“This is a monumental step for our company and one that will facilitate long-term growth. The L.A. office will allow Hampton Direct to capitalize on numerous expansion opportunities and provides a strategic advantage that will help take the company to the next level,” Steve Heroux, Hampton Direct CEO and founder, said in the release.

 

DEW earns honors; hires Wheaton 

DEW Construction recently won Engineering News Record’s 2012 Best Projects competition in the retail/hospitality category for the New York region, which includes New York, New Jersey, and New England. DEW won the award for its work as construction manager for Hotel Jay and Pump House Waterpark at Jay Peak Resort.

“DEW couldn’t be more pleased to have the Hotel Jay and Pump House Waterpark recognized as one of the best 2012 projects in New England. The project is unique and involved a real team collaboration where everybody involved pulled their weight. It is a great accomplishment,” said Don Wells, president of DEW, in a press release.

DEW also recently announced that Matthew Wheaton has joined the company as manager of preconstruction services.

Wheaton is a graduate of Norwich University, with a Master’s degree in architecture and bachelor’s degree in architectural studies.

 

Department of Labor warns of scam

The Vermont Department of Labor has been alerted to a nationwide identity theft scam attempting to lure employers into providing confidential information about their employees. So far, it has not received reports of the scam occurring in Vermont.

The scam is designed to trick employers into responding to an email that appears to have been sent from a state’s “Division of Unemployment Assistance (DUA).” The email looks like a legitimate job separation request used by state UI agencies. It requests wage and other information on a former employee(s) filing for unemployment benefits, and directs the employer to click on a link to an embedded website address which is in South Africa. The scam email is generic and does not reference specific employees or businesses by name.

The Vermont Department of Labor does not request confidential information over email or attempt to collect information on behalf of other state’s unemployment agencies.

 

Sports Illustrated honors Brush Davisson

Former Charlotte resident Kelly Brush Davisson has been selected as one of “10 Athletes Who Care” in the Dec. 10 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine for her charitable work off the playing field. Brush Davisson, 26, founded the Kelly Brush Foundation in 2006, following a ski racing crash that left her paralyzed. Despite her injury she remained active in sports, winning the women’s handcycle division of the Boston Marathon in 2011.

In the six years since its inception, the foundation has raised $1 million to support the foundation’s mission to improve the quality of life for those living with spinal cord injury and to improve ski racing safety.

“I’m humbled and honored to be included on this list,” Brush Davisson said. “This group of incredibly gifted athletes who choose to honor their achievement by turning around and giving back is an inspiration for me and the work of the Kelly Brush Foundation.”

 

Federal unemployment benefit cuts to impact Vermonters

Approximately 1,400 people in Vermont will lose unemployment benefits when the Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program ends on Dec. 29. The Vermont Department of Labor will have no funding or authority to continue to pay EUC benefits after that week.

Although Congress has extended the program 10 times in the past four years, there is no indication at this time that the EUC program will be reauthorized.

Individuals who need help finding a job can receive assistance from the Vermont Department of Labor. For a list of the Department’s Career Resource Centers and other information, visit www.labor.vermont.gov.

 

Kelly joins CCTV

Matt Kelly is set to join the CCTV Center for Media & Democracy as director of Channel 17/ Town Meeting Television and executive producer of CCTV Productions.

Kelly grew up in Burlington and worked at WVNY TV-22, WEZF-93FM and WXXX-95Triple X, and returned to Chittenden County after stints in New York and Los Angeles.

 

Anderson joins RehabGYM

The RehabGYM recently announced the addition of Mike Anderson, M.Ed. to its Colchester team. Anderson will be the business manager and site director. Anderson graduated from CSU-Sacramento with a bachelor’s degree in recreation administration, followed by a Master’s degree in education from Monmouth University. Prior to joining the RehabGYM, Anderson owned and operated Petra Cliffs Climbing Center in Burlington for almost eight years.

 

Statewide Seasonally-Adjusted Unemployment Rate Increases Slightly in October

The Vermont Department of Labor recently announced that the seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate for October 2012 increased by one-tenth of a percent from the prior month. At 5.5 percent, Vermont’s seasonally adjusted rate remains significantly lower than the national average of 7.9 percent, which also rose by one-tenth of one percent from the prior month. The total labor force increased for the second straight month.

By Luke Baynes

Observer staff

Williston’s newest business is called Argento Laraine Fine Jewelry—with the emphasis on the fine.

“We only sell precious metals and fine gemstones and diamonds,” said co-owner Krista Laraine Argento. “We don’t sell any lab-created stones. We don’t sell any industrial grade diamonds. My goal is to have everything top quality, even in the gemstones or smaller pieces.”

Argento Laraine Fine Jewelry opened Dec. 12 at 135 Talcott Road. It is Williston’s only fine jewelry store.

“I figured it was a huge untapped market,” Krista Argento said. “A lot of people from surrounding towns come here to work and to shop and eat.”

Krista Argento, who ran an Essex-based home jewelry business for the past year and a half, is also an accomplished actress. She met her husband and store co-owner Jayson Argento during production of his supernatural thriller “Cthulhu Chronicles,” which co-starred the future couple.

Jayson Argento, also a photographer and lead singer in the local ’80s cover band PleasureDome, suggested that the as yet unfinished design of the store will be an amalgamation of the cinematic and jewelry arts.

“One of the top things we want to do is make it an old Hollywood sort of feel, and one of the things we came up with is putting up a big movie screen and running classic movies,” he said.

Krista, who cited the bejeweled Hollywood classics “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” as personal favorites, said her filmic tastes have informed her store inventory.

“I really like a vintage feel for my pieces,” she said. “I have a line of all solid, die-struck platinum made by this incredible company, Whitehouse Brothers, who recreate antique platinum mountings from the ’20s and ’30s, and they’re so fine and all hand-done.”

While the selection of rings, earrings and necklaces at Argento Laraine range in price from $100 to $20,000, Krista said the common denominator of the business is that she wouldn’t put anything on display that she wouldn’t wear herself.

“I hand select everything,” she said. “I won’t put anything in the case that I think looks tacky or isn’t up to par for what I would like for myself.”

By Luke Baynes

Observer staff

Seated at his desk at Kojo Academy of Taekwondo in Williston, 70-year-old Master Stephen Barrett recalls a story from his younger days, before he obtained master status and rose to the rank of eighth-degree black belt.

As Barrett tells it, one day his taekwondo instructor set a concrete patio block atop two larger cinder blocks and told Barrett to break the patio block with the heel of his palm. He’d never attempted such a feat, but he summoned all his energy and brought his palm crashing down.

The block exploded into tiny fragments.

The instructor then told him to break a stack of two blocks. He complied, followed by stacks of three, four and five blocks.

Smiling, the instructor then told him to break one block. Barrett raised and lowered his arm like before and struck the block. It didn’t budge. After seven unsuccessful attempts, the instructor told him to go home and not come back until he realized why he failed.

“Halfway home, it came to me,” Barrett said. “After I knew I could break five, I didn’t give any respect to the one. That was a valuable lesson. That lesson has taught me to pay attention even to the little things that don’t seem so important.”

At Kojo, such life lessons are as important as learning the proper form of a crescent kick or knife hand block.

“Taekwondo is a microcosm of life in general,” Barrett said. “It’s all about character building.”

A New Hampshire native, Barrett spent eight years in the Navy before moving to Vermont and beginning a 30-year career at IBM. He began his taekwondo studies in 1972 under Grandmaster Duk Sung Son and taught at various venues around Chittenden County before establishing Kojo in 1992.

Barrett said one of the basic tenets of taekwondo, a martial art that originated in Korea, is to engage an opponent in physical combat only as a last resort.

“The ultimate goal of taekwondo is to eliminate fighting,” Barrett said. “A person who becomes proficient in taekwondo feels so confident to handle themselves that they can use their head for something other than a hat rack. They can think and not be emotionally involved.”

He added that self-control is as important as technical proficiency when it comes to advancing to the next belt level.

“We don’t teach the more advanced techniques if you haven’t gone through the process of proving that you have self-control. You have to have it, or there’s chaos,” he said.

Kojo offers taekwondo classes for children as young as 4 through its Little Dragons program, taught by Master Judy Nolin, a fourth-degree black belt. Barrett, who estimated that Kojo currently has about 100 students, personally teaches 15 classes per week.

Barrett said enrollment is open to anyone willing to show proper respect to the discipline of taekwondo and to fellow students.

“I make sure every student that comes through the door is respected. It doesn’t matter who they are. It’s only through their actions while they’re here that that respect can be lost,” he said. “It’s really wonderful. It’s a non-threatening atmosphere, and that’s what I’ve created.”

For more information about Kojo Academy of Taekwondo, visit www.kojotkd.com.