Williston
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Permit #15 Williston,VT 05495 POSTAL CUSTOMER
MAY 7, 2026
Quantifying F-35 impacts WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
WWW.WILLISTONOBSERVER.COM
UVM professor surveys residents on noise exposure BY JASON STARR Observer staff
We have decibel data from Vermont Air National Guard F-35 flights out of Burlington International Airport, and we have anecdotes of people’s experience with the overpowering noise of the fighter jets’ takeoffs. But we don’t yet have population-level data about the noise impacts on the lives of Chittenden County residents. UVM math and statistics professor Richard Single is aiming to
F-35s have largely been absent from Burlington International Aiport this spring as they have been deployed overseas. OBSERVER FILE PHOTO
provide that with a survey of people in Williston and other airport-adjacent communities that asks how the jets are impacting their lives.
Texas Roadhouse fined for food scrap neglect
center in late 2024. A subsequent visit to the restaurant found no program in place to separate food A year of food scrap sleuthing scraps from regular trash, accordin and around Williston’s Texas ing to staff notes presented to the Roadhouse restaurant has led to district’s Board of Commissioners a $1,600 fine from the Chittenden Executive Committee. After issuSolid Waste District and a require- ing an official warning of nonment to submit a plan to comply compliance in November of that with the district’s food scrap man- year, CSWD staff were given assurances from managing partner agement ordinance. DJ Slothower that the restaurant The ordinance is authorized by has an active contract with a food the State of Vermont’s Universal scrap hauler (Casella), and they Recycling Law, which began were invited to observe their probanning food scraps from landcess for food separation. It was a fill-bound trash roughly 10 years process that CSWD staff found ago. “very unusual.” CSWD compliance staff first “Restaurant staff were collectnoticed the restaurant’s food ing food waste in the kitchen by waste in a load of trash comsee ROADHOUSE page 4 ing into its Williston processing
Single said the survey has garnered about 2,000 responses since it went live in mid-April. The survey will produce
population-level data for questions such as: “How often does (F-35 noise) interfere with your ability to relax, to communicate, to
concentrate and to enjoy the outdoors?” and “How often do you need to cover your ears, close windows in your house or pause work, meetings or phone calls due to F-35 noise?” Noise monitors set up around the airport show that noise levels from F-35 takeoffs regularly top 70 decibels and occasionally reach over 100 decibels — a noise level that the Federal Aviation Administration acknowledges is incompatible with residential areas. “I’m interested in being able to quantify the amount of disruption, distraction and discomfort that people experience in those surrounding communities to the airport from the F-35 flights,” Single said. “I want to see F-35 page 4
Williston road warriors
BY JASON STARR Observer staff
TAQUERIA & TEQUILA BAR
cortijovt.com
From left to right, Gina Frey, Melinda Petter and Jeff Petter get a jump on Green Up Day as they pick up trash along South Road a few days before the scheduled event. More photos on Page 16. OBSERVER PHOTO BY AL FREY
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