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RECIPE INSIDE! APRIL 28, 2022
Williston names energy coordinator
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
WWW.WILLISTONOBSERVER.COM
Inaugural Town Fair to accompany Green Up Day
OBSERVER STAFF REPORT The Town of Williston has hired from within to fill its new energy coordinator position. Melinda Scott will move into the role from her current conservation planner position — staying within the town’s Department of Planning and Zoning. The selectboard created the position at the urging of local environmentalists as a way to implement the town’s Energy Plan that was added to the Town Plan in 2020. Scott, whose new title is Energy and Community Development Planner, will work with the newly formed Energy Committee. The town will begin a hiring process to fill her previous position of conservation planner, Town Manager Erik Wells said. Scott will cover both positions until a hire is made. She has worked in the planning department for the past seven years. “I am confident her skills and experience as a planner will serve the town well as she fills this important new role for the community,” Wells wrote in a report this week to the selectboard. POLICE AND FIRE DEPARTMENTS STAFF UP
The Williston Police Department is adding two experienced officers to fill out its ranks and become fully staffed. Wells announced the hiring of officers Bradley Miller and Brian Fox on Tuesday. Miller comes over from the Shelburne Police Department and Fox from the Hinesburg Police Department. Together, they bring 23 years of law enforcement experience, Wells said. The new officers will start in early May. Wells also announced that the nine new firefighter/emergency medical technician (EMT) positions voters approved at Town Meeting Day have all been filled. They are Joel Domas, Trevor Garand-Tes-
BY KARSON PETTY Community News Service
Martin Hain, longtime music director at Williston Federated Church, stands with his cello.
Leaving a musical legacy
PHOTO BY KARSON PETTY
BY KARSON PETTY Community News Service
The melodic sounds of a choir with cello and piano accompaniments fill the Williston Federated Church on a Sunday morning. They are performing an anthem called “Think on These Things,” selected by church Music Director Martin Hain, who is also the cellist. Hain knows as he draws his bow across the strings that this April 24 service marks the start of his last month as music director. He is ready to pass the torch after almost 30 years of curating music for Sunday service and other church functions, conducting the choir and leading choir practice every Thursday night. From an early age, Hain always had the urge to conduct and lead music. “When I was young I would listen to recordings on the record player and conduct the recordings,” he said. Music was a very strong element in Hain’s upbringing, as both of his parents were music teachers, and he participated
see TOWN STAFF page 2
in choir and concert band through his junior and senior years of high school. He couldn’t decide which of his strong suits — music, math or science — to pursue when he left his home in Saugerties, N.Y., in 1975 to attend the University of Iowa. “It gave me a chance to postpone that decision, essentially,” he said. He started pursuing an undergraduate degree in music, but he eventually settled on engineering when he realized that he couldn’t dedicate as much of his time to practicing as others who study to become professional musicians. He joined the Army after graduating college and moved to Kentucky for four years, where he met his wife, Donna Sue. Hain then earned a master’s degree in structural engineering from Cornell University before he and his wife moved near Boston in 1985. Spending three hours a day commuting in Boston traffic for two-and-a-half years convinced the Hains that they see HAIN page 5
Williston town planners are trying something new for Green Up Day 2022. With spring in the air and Covid restrictions becoming more relaxed, planning staff aim to bring the community together this Green Up Day with a new town fair. The fair is scheduled to coincide with this year’s green-up efforts on Saturday, May 7. Starting at 10 a.m. on the Village Green, the town fair will feature free refreshments and giveaways, tours of the old schoolhouse provided by the Williston Historical Society, sign-ups for free smoke alarm installations through the American Red Cross, and opportunities to meet staff from the town management office, Planning Commission, Recreation Department and Energy Committee. The fair will also feature story time with the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library at 10:30 a.m. and a meet & greet with Rep. Erin Brady at 11 a.m. “It’s the first time we’re trying something like this, so it’s a pilot event,” said town planner Emily Heymann. “It’s (also) an opportunity for people to engage with municipal staff and some (members) on the boards of volunteer committees, outside of the boring 9-to5 office hours and night meetings,” she said. And of course, green-up bags and coffee will be available on the Village Green, starting at 8 a.m. Bags are already available for pickup in the Town Hall Annex from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. until this Friday. Bags will then become available for 24/7 pickup at a self-service station outside of the Town Hall Annex until May 6. see FAIR page 2
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