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JUNE 17, 2021
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
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BLM flag display extended into next year
The Black Lives Matter flag will continue to fly outside Williston Town Hall for at least another nine months, the selectboard unanimously agreed Tuesday. The board originally approved raising the flag in February with an end date of June 21. The board will consider another
Lightning strikes in southwest Williston Shortly before 5 a.m. on June 9, residents in the southwestern corner of Williston were jolted awake by an enormous boom. The cause — a lightning bolt from a fast-moving thunderstorm had struck a tall white pine on Blue Heron Drive. Homeowners Andy and Ashley Mikell found the bark blasted off the sides of their tree and its roots exploded from the ground. Wire fencing was vaporized and rocks were blown out of a low stone wall. Their barn wiring was damaged. Ashley Mikell noted that a skunk who was visiting the nearby compost pile did not survive. Neighboring homes, some as far as a quarter-mile away, experienced various impacts, from a ruined furnace to a burnt-out cable modem and tripped circuits.
Andy and Ashley Mikell took this photo of a pine tree on their property after a lightening strike last Wednesday.
extension next March. Cristalee McSweeney, representing the newly formed Williston Racial Equity Partnership, urged the board to make the flag a permanent installation alongside the U.S. and Vermont flags. “The flag communicates that our community is willing to acknowledge that racism and
white supremacy have oppressed African Americans for centuries and … sends a signal that we, as community, are committed to combatting racism and racial injustice,” the Racial Equity Partnership wrote in a letter to the board. No board members expressed support for making the
Black Lives Matter message a permanent fixture at Town Hall, but all five agreed that the underlying issue continues to be relevant and unresolved. “The issue it’s calling attention to is still an emergency,” board member Ted Kenney said. Resident Cindy Provost takes exception to the flag sin-
gling out one race of people and said it doesn’t belong at Town Hall. “When you fly the flag for one thing, that leaves everyone else out,” she said. “That flag, in a sense, is racist toward all the people it doesn’t represent in our town.”
Vaxxed and maskless
— Jason Starr
Vermonters step out after pandemic restrictions end BY JASON STARR Observer staff For the first time during their pandemic-year monthly lunches at Maple Tree Place, Edith Hendley and Monica Farrington walked through the front door to the Asian Bistro on Tuesday unmasked. Gone were the hand-sanitizing station and contact-tracing sign-in sheet near the entrance. And for the first time, they could see their server’s full face. “There was a sort of freedom to it,” Hendley said. A day earlier, Gov. Phil Scott had allowed the state’s pandemic emergency order, in place for 15 months, to expire. With more than 80 percent of the state’s over-12 population having received at least one vaccine shot, all remaining pandemic rules and restrictions were lifted. Shortly after the announcement, the general manager at Agave Taco and Tequila restaurant sent a message to staff saying they are free to come to work without masks if vaccinated; the restaurant had their first maskless shift that evening. “Everyone who worked the shift didn’t know how to act,” Agave General Manager Matt Brown said. “Just like everyone else, they had masks in their car, they had masks in their purses, they had masks all over the place, and now you don’t have to worry about that … It was a relief.” Inside Best Buy and Guitar Center, masks were present in about half the shoppers and employees Tuesday. Both corporations are maintaining a masked policy for unvaccinated employ-
Spencer Snipes, right, and Josh Bowen take one of their first unmasked shifts at Vermont Meat and Seafood on Tuesday. Observer photo by Jason Starr
ees.
Jackie Estes exited Walgreens on Cornerstone Drive after her first maskless shopping experience in over a year. “It feels strange to go in somewhere and not wear one,” she said. “I think you just have to get used to it again. Just like we had to get used to wearing them, now we have to get used to not wearing them.” With restrictions easing gradually over the past few months, diners at Agave had been asking their servers what the latest mask policies were. For months, the policy required people to enter the restaurant masked, then allowed
them to remove their masks while at their tables. “I see another month or so of people getting transitioned to the new way of things,” said Brown. “I think you’ll see anxieties calming down and people feeling better about day-to-day stuff, which is nice to see.” At a press conference Monday, Gov. Scott touted Vermont’s best-in-the-nation vaccination rate, saying it is the reason that restrictions have been lifted. “Now that we have hit 80 percent … I am lifting all remaining state pandemic restrictions and here’s why: because it’s safe to do so,” Scott said. “It is safe
because Vermonters have done their part to keep spread of the virus low throughout the pandemic and stepped up to get vaccinated. In fact, no state in the nation is in a better or safer position to do this than we are.” Outside the Asian Bistro, Hendley, a retired UVM professor, agreed with Scott. “Had this been done nationally, we would have been out of the pandemic a lot earlier and had a lot fewer deaths,” she said. At Vermont Meat & Seafood on Cornerstone Drive, the sign requiring masks upon entrance was removed last Thursday, along see MASKLESS page 5