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RESTAURANT GUIDE PAGES 11-14
MARCH 19, 2026
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
WWW.WILLISTONOBSERVER.COM
Adventures in ICE tourism David Martel
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OBSERVER PHOTO BY JASON STARR
Resident launches petition to overturn library expansion vote BY JASON STARR Observer staff
David Martel is calling for a do-over. A $13.9 million bond question to finance an expansion of the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library passed by a slender 47 votes at Town Meeting Day. Martel was among those opposed, and he has until April 2 to gather enough support to force a revote. In a process laid out in state law, residents can compel their municipality to set a new election on an article if they submit a petition to that effect with the signatures of at least 5 percent of the town’s registered voters. In Williston, that is 435 voters. Nearly three times that many voted no on Town Meeting Day. If the petition is filed with the Town Clerk within 30 days of the original election, the town must see MARTEL page 2
An outfit called “ICE Tours VT” took its inaugural jaunt through Williston on Tuesday, bringing two vanfuls of participants to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in an artful, performative and informative tour. See Pages 3-4 for more from the event. OBSERVER PHOTO BY JASON STARR
Schools reopen after electric bus blaze BY JASON STARR Observer staff
It will be a while yet before we know what sparked a fire that consumed four electric buses around 10 p.m. last Wednesday evening as they were charging in the Allen Brook School parking lot. There are several public and private organizations conducting independent investigations. The bus manufacturer, the leasing agent, insurance adjusters, parts suppliers and state fire safety specialists have all been on scene in recent days, according to Champlain Valley School District Chief Operations Officer Gary Marckres. That’s why, behind temporary fencing, the scene is preserved in front of the school, with the charred, hollowed buses
remaining corpse-like near the school’s main entrance. “My son, he’s 5, he gets scared looking at them,” ABS parent Derek Olsen said before pickup time Tuesday. “It’s kind of cryptic to see them sitting there.” Allen Brook school reopened
Monday. It was closed Thursday and Friday for an initial site cleanup and to allow the district to coordinate bus route coverage and procure fill-in buses from Lamoille Valley Transportation of Morrisville. Williston Central School was also closed Thursday.
School reopened this week after two days of closures, but remnants of last week’s bus fire remain outside Allen Brook School.
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Marckres expects the burned buses to be removed from the parking lot next week, allowing for a final cleanup. “Then we’ll get back to more normalcy,” he said Tuesday, while updating the school board on the incident. Marckres said the fire started in one of the buses and spread to the other three, consuming interior materials like foam, vinyl and fiberglass. A fifth bus sustained exterior heat damage, he said. The district’s two other electric buses were unharmed but will nonetheless be placed out of commission for the time being. Williston Lead Principal Greg Marino praised “the poise of our faculty and the resilience of our see BUSES page 24
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