Letters

continued from page 7 rapidly changing times … that person is surely Ellie.

Ellie’s professional life includes a bachelor’s degree in government from Claremont McKenna and a master’s in health science and public policy from University of Edinburgh. She has put her education to full use with three years of nonprofit work in D.C., where she advocated for economic justice for Native American tribal governments. Ellie continues to “walk the talk.” She is employed at both the Howard Center in Burlington and the Vermont Department of Economic Development.

Ellie is a member of the 2022 gradu - ating class from Emerge VT. She serves on Williston’s planning commission. She is enrolled in the Snelling Center’s Vermont Leadership Institute, which consists of 19 full seminar days, preparing students to better understand the human dynamics involved while leading groups to better decisions.

Ellie is an athlete. Her sport is long distance hiking. She completed the Appalachian Trail end to end in one outing! She stays fit hiking the trails at the Catamount Community Forest. She walks when she can instead of driving for health and to save carbon.

Trust me, please, Ellie is very good for Williston. Please vote for her for the selectboard at Town Meeting Day.

Jim McCullough Williston

Housing

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“It’s so nice to have numbers behind an issue that so many of us feel so acutely,” said planning commission member Ellie Beckett, who has publicly described her struggles with local rental housing affordability.

In another illustration of the affordability gap, the report notes that a person earning the average wage in Williston ($60,408) can afford a home price of $208,000 — which is about $270,000 less than the median home sale price in 2022. The average wage-earner in Williston can afford a rent of $1,510 per month about $140 short of the median rent in Williston.

Williston’s stock of deed-restricted, perpetually affordable homes is 206 units, according to the report. About half of them are “senior” housing, restricted to tenants aged 55 and older, or housing for people with disabilities. There are no vacancies among the 206 units.

(the one year seat vacated by

I am the 5th generation owner of the Isham Family Farm on Oak Hill Road.

I grew up milking cows on the farm and have since turned it into a diversified farm with maple sugaring, berries, weekly farmers market, pumpkins, corn maze and Christmas trees. I have restored the 200+ year old cow barn and now do weddings, special events and two years ago my wife, Helen Weston started the First: Earth Project featuring theatre and other fine arts performances. Now we are in the second year of the Williston Community Theatre with the barn being its primary theatre space.

We live and work in the environment every day so appreciate it and take it seriously.

Growing up as a farmer, we learned how to reuse, reduce and recycle in everything that we do. We have heated the 200+ year old farm house with wood since 2008, have used solar primarily for power since 2010, have 3 heat pumps, hybrid hot water heaters and have practiced many organic princi ples since taking over the farm in 2005.

What made up my mind to run for selectboard was the decision by the planning commission to allow the Glaser property to be developed by ignoring the town of Williston’s Growth Management Plan.

This plan has controlled growth in our beautiful town for several years. Vermont has seen serious growth in just the past few years. With the internet, the technology of teleconferencing with programs such as Zoom, the growth of high tech jobs, people have learned how to work from home. When faced at their home with the growing wild fires, higher temperatures, tornadoes, storms and high crime, Vermont has become a pretty special place to live. We all know how special Vermont is as a place to live, specifically Williston. By the planning commission approving the Glaser property this sets a dangerous precedent on future growth.

The result of limiting all growth in the town causes high property values, higher taxes and loss of our youth staying in Vermont. Towns must continue to grow to remain healthy, and like people, if allowed to grow uncontrolled and without reason they become unhealthy. The Growth Manage ment plan must take into effect the town’s infrastructure, police and fire departments, roads, schools and even the remaining open land. People do not visit Vermont to shop at the local box store, they visit Vermont for the open land. It’s important that growth in the open land area is also being done with agri-tourism being a part of that. People move to Williston to vacation and live because of open land and the opportunities of outdoor recreation that it allows. We must also keep our beautiful historic town district without imposing difficulties to people that live and own homes there as well. It must be balanced. Proper balance is an important part of life.

It’s important that when applying for the support of the public on this job that I keep an open mind. I don’t believe that now is the time to have hard opinions on all of the issues. By having an open mind, I can better learn about the short- and long-range responsibilities of the job and under stand the ramifications.

Americans today are living better than we ever have in the history of the United States. In the 1850s the average American worked over 50% of his life. Today with increased productivity, shorter work weeks and longer lives we work 20% of our life. Increases in agriculture have improved drastical ly. For centuries the agriculture production of corn as grain was 20 bushels per acre. Today farms average 180 bushels an acre with some farms over 200 bushels per acre. With less farms, less people involved in farming the farms we have are feeding many more people in the world.

With robots and automation just a few short years ago we thought that this would displace the American worker. Today we are living better lives, more productivity and face a huge worker shortage.

As Mark Twain once said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

Paid built annually in an effort to allow municipal services to keep pace. The town could consider exempting some construction from growth management, such as homes built in the Taft Corners growth center or the repurposing of existing buildings into housing.

“As a further step, consider revising or simply eliminating growth management in favor of policies that are more responsive to market needs,” the report states.

The report recommends increased regulatory flexibility for things like rentable accessory homes and farm worker housing, and implementing “inclusionary zoning,” which requires a portion of new developments be sold or rented at lower than market rates.

More homes need to be built, the report concludes, and more of the homes built need to be affordable for more people.

One policy prescription the report identifies is the easing of Williston’s strict Growth Management caps, which limit the number of homes that can be

The Williston Selectboard, in 2017, set up a housing trust fund for the “promotion, retention and creation of longterm affordable housing for very lowand low-income households.” It has seeded the fund with $60,000. But the board has yet to use the funds or set up the housing trust fund advisory board that was intended to go along with the creation of the fund. The housing needs assessment recommends setting up that advisory board.

Planners intend to finalize the housing needs assessment and bring it before the selectboard for its consideration this spring.