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RECIPE INSIDE! NOVEMBER 18, 2021
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
Town seeks to regulate special events Rewritten ordinance creates application fee, permit approval BY JASON STARR Observer staff Town leaders were apparently quite freaked out by the legendary Woodstock festival that took place in neighboring New York in 1969. Two years later, they passed an ordinance to regulate events lasting 18 hours or more. That ordinance is still on the books, but town administrators are not finding it useful in regulating modern-day Williston events, such as food truck nights, harvest festivals and outdoor performances. The selectboard recently began the process of rewriting the 50-year-old “Ordinance for the Regulation of Public Festivals” with an eye toward creating an application process, standards and a fee for one-time events or event series. Town Manager Erik Wells said the increase in outdoor events brought on by the pandemic spurred the town to rethink the ordinance. “We’ve had this on our to-do list for a couple of years, but we were trying to have more outdoor (events), especially last summer, and questions came up: ‘Can we do this?’ It gave us pause to think how we should rework how our ordinance is structured,” Wells said at the selectboard’s Nov. 2 meeting. The town’s planning and zoning department presented a draft of the rewritten ordinance at the meeting. The selectboard would have to set a public hearing on the ordinance before it could be adopted. Any temporary event that is not permitted under the town’s zoning regulations would require a permit, town planners said. The draft sets a duration maximum for special events of eight hours. Event series would be capped at 12 events per year. A series could be permitted at once, but the town would treat each event in the series as a separate event subject to the conditions of the ordinance. A person would need to apply at least 21 days in advance of an event and pay an application fee to be determined by the selectboard.
The town itself and the local public school district would be exempt from obtaining a permit for special events. The draft ordinance gives the town manager authority to approve or deny special event permit applications, and revoke permits if conditions of approval are violated. Some grounds for denial would be if the event is too big to be policed, unnecessarily disrupts traffic or “otherwise places undue burdens on town;” creates a hardship for adjacent businesses or residents; interferes with use of pubic property; or generates a level of noise that would require an exemption from the Williston noise ordinance. The ordinance would allow the town manager or selectboard to impose unique conditions on an event, such as limits on hours, number of attendees, sound amplification and plans for waste disposal. Melinda Scott of the planning and zoning office anticipates some grey area in determining whether something is a special event or just the typical offerings of a particular business or organization. Old Stage Road resident Deb MacDonald disagreed with the allowance of up to 12 events in a series, because those events are likely to be all packed into the summer months. “Everyone understands that someone in your neighborhood might have a party, it might get a little loud and parking might be compromised, but if you’re talking about a series, that becomes more of an impact,” MacDonald said. “I don’t know if any of you would enjoy, down the street from you, having a food truck and concert night for three straight months every Wednesday night.” She said food trucks should be regulated as businesses. “Zoning is there for the protection of residents,” she said. “If you buy a home and invest your money in a property that’s residential and agricultural, you have a little bit of assurance that a food store or business isn’t going to pop up next to your house … Food trucks seem to be popping up everywhere. I think it’s important that they be recognized as what they are, a commercial business.”
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Veterans Day observance revived
A Veterans Day observance was held early last Thursday morning in Williston’s Veterans Park for the first time in several years. Organized by the Rotary Club of Williston-Richmond, the event was kicked off by Rotary president Lesley Murray. Speakers included selectboard chair Terry Macaig; town manager Erik Wells (pictured at podium); Williston Federated Church pastor Paul Eyer; and veteran Armand Fournier, who organized the event. Charlie Magill, also a veteran, delivered a roll call of Williston veterans living and deceased who are honored in the park. OBSERVER PHOTO BY RICK COTE
Schools present $4 million spending increase proposal BY JASON STARR Observer staff School administrators on Tuesday gave the public its first glimpse of the budget for the upcoming fiscal year that will be up for voter approval at Town Meeting Day in March. With the caveat that some variables remain unknown — such as the amount of reserve funds the school board will use to offset spending and what the total student population will be in the district next year — Champlain Valley School District Chief Operations Officer Jeanne Jensen presented an $89.5 million proposal. The proposal carries an increase in spending of about 5 percent ($4 million) over the current fiscal year and an increase in spending per student of 6.7 percent. The associated property tax increase — estimated “with a grain of salt,” Jensen said, due to the remaining unknowns — would be about 12 cents for every $100 of assessed property value, roughly $360 annually on a $300,000 home. “These are kind of sobering numbers, but I hope it will become apparent how much we need the resources we are asking for,” Jensen said.
‘These are kind of sobering numbers, but I hope it will become apparent how much we need the resources we are asking for’ Jeanne Jensen Chief operations officer Champlain Valley School District
The school board asked administrators to aim for a smaller increase in per-student spending (5.4 percent), which would come with a slightly smaller tax increase (10 cents for every $100 of assessed value). “There are a lot of compelling needs in the district right now, so we’re not holding ourselves to that target,” said Jensen. Budget hearings will continue at school board meetings every other Tuesday through Jan. 18, when the board hopes to finalize the proposal for Town Meeting Day. Contributing to the spending increase are anticipated salary increases in a new contract with the
teachers union that is currently being negotiated, health insurance cost increases estimated at 5 percent and a 4.7 percent increase in the general cost of goods and services. The district is also planning to add two to four elementary school teachers, two special educators, a district-level data analyst and enough money for three full-time people to work on diversity, equity and inclusion. Outside of the budget that will be on the Town Meeting Day ballot, the district is also managing pandemic relief and recovery funds that are flowing in from the federal government. According to Jensen, about $200,000 remains from the first two pandemic relief bills passed last year. Funds from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 will amount to $4.3 million to be spent over three years. The district is required to create a “stakeholders” committee to steer how that money will be spent. But administrators advise that the funds should focus on social and emotional learning, mental health and academic recovery from missed classroom time. Resources under consideration for pandemic recovery spending are social workers, guidance counselors and summer school programs.