Air Guard lease renewed
Councilor sought Tyler Barnes resigns from city council
Burlington OKs 25-year airport extension
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South Burlington’s Community Newspaper Since 1977
the OCTOBER 26, 2023
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VOLUME 47, NO. 43
Jackhammering sparks Senior night concerns over noise COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
Construction on a new housing development in South Burlington is prompting a wider examination of the city’s public nuisance ordinance after residents who live close to the site say that near-constant jackhammering on the property clearly violates the law. For months, construction crews have been using jackhammers to chip away at the bedrock of the site to build basements and water and sewer infrastructure for the new homes. The site is an extension of the JAM Golf development, which in 2015 entered a legal settlement with the city after over a decade of litigation that went all the way to the Vermont Supreme Court. Neighbors in the vicinity like Beth Zigmund, who lives on Golf
Course Road, have called the noise “incessant” and “unbearable.” The hammering continues for at least eight hours a day, she said, and has been going on during the warm months since at least 2020. Zigmund and other neighbors say the noise is a health hazard and have complained of “hearing the noise even when it is not occurring due to the intensity and duration, including during sleep.” “The noise disrupts work, meals, nap times for children, and other activities of daily life. We are absolutely frazzled,” she said in an email to top city officials. “It is a health hazard to be exposed to this type of noise for such a long duration (hours per day, weeks or months on end). Chronic noise exposure can cause hypertension, See NOISE ORDINANCE on page 9
PHOTO BY SLOANE URETTE
Senior Omar Daoudi scores on a penalty kick during the South Burlington boys’ soccer game Oct. 18, which was also senior night. More on page 12.
SB school district infrastructure conversations resurface LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
Since April, a South Burlington School Board committee has been exploring a move of the fifth graders to the middle school to alleviate a massive over-enrollment problem in the district’s elementary schools. But after seven months of
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meetings, the committee now says the better question to ask is what should the district do regarding its massive infrastructure needs for all five of its buildings? The fifth-grade transition committee was just one phase in the district’s various capital improvement needs brought on by aging buildings, deferred maintenance and increases in enrollment
and population in South Burlington. “We’d like to maybe take a step back and look at infrastructure,” board member Laura Williams said. “So, looking at a long-term thoughtful, fiscally responsible view of what to do with the five schools.” The group, led by Williams and former school board member
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Bryan Companion, met one time as a group since June, conducted a number of listening sessions with teachers, administrators and community members, and gathered information from neighboring districts that follow a fifth through eighth grade middle school model. Difficulties planning over the summer, as well as the resignation of Companion, compounded the
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committee’s lack of action. However, some parents and community members have voiced their frustration with the board, calling the work a “waste of time” with no roadmap for a way forward. “I appreciate your transparency and saying that you met one time. See INFRASTRUCTURE on page 10
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