 Welcome to ongoing election coverage by town meeting television. This is one of many forums we're bringing you in advance of local elections in town meeting on this first Tuesday in March, March 2nd, 2021. I'm your host Stephanie Lehar and I'm here tonight with two candidates, the two candidates that are up for reelection to Williston's select board, Gordon St. Hilaire and Terry McKay. And we'll be talking with them tonight and I wanted to invite you if you're watching live to call us with your questions or comments at 802-862-3966 we would welcome your questions and comments. So we'll hear from the two of them about all sorts of questions and issues facing the town of Williston. I'm going to start by asking Terry McKay to tell us why you're running and what you hope to accomplish when you see it on the select board in Williston. Well, thanks very much and thanks to town meeting TV for hosting the discussions. I have a long history of in my 54 years of residence in Williston to the town of Williston. My wife and I were involved with Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Softball and Little League. I was the scout master of the Williston Troop 692 for six years and served as the Eagle Scout project review board chair for the county for 13 years. I was the town health officer for 27 years and on both sides of that 27 years I served another three or four as deputy health officer. I've been the historical society president for 13 years. On the regional planning commission as a representative for Williston for nine years. I've been on the select board now for 19 years and chair of that board for 15 years. I was on the as a state representative for 12 years and did not seek re-election. But tonight I am seeking re-election to the select board for a two year term. So we'll get into more discussions later on about what the what the projects are. That's great. Terry, what a deep history of civic engagement in Chittenden County. Gordon, tell us why you're running and what experience you bring to the seat. Good evening first. Thank you for the invitation to be here tonight. I do appreciate the opportunity to speak. Again, my name is Gordon St. Haller and I'm a lifelong resident of Williston. I'm a proud product of the Williston public schools currently work as a classroom teacher in Richmond, Vermont. I was a page in the Vermont legislature in 1987. So I've got a little legislative tie there myself. I've coached middle school basketball, Little League, participated in supported lots of town activities along with the Fourth of July events. This is my first bid for re-election. I'm running for re-election because I believe in our town and the people who live here. I'm proud to be a public servant. I think every resident deserves to be listed to and their voice counts. As I said, I've served on the select board for the past two years. I also serve on the Board of Civil Authorities for the past several years. I've also volunteered in many other capacities. I've certainly enjoyed all of Williston's way of life it promotes. That's why I'm still here. I feel I'm a strong leader, but at the same time I know how to collaborate with others. I feel my experience as an educator, public servant, neighbor and friend, the beneficial to have again on the select board. Great community roots and experience too. That's wonderful. All right. Well, let me ask the two of you a question that most voters want to know, which is, do you support the town budget that is set forth this year? And I'm going to start with you, Gordon. Thank you. Yes, I do support our town budget this year. I feel the entire staff work diligently to watch the bottom line. And I'm proud to say that the tax rate remained flat. I believe a lot of careful considerations were looked at during the budget process along with the current pandemic we're all still dealing with. I know all of our decisions that we've made or have been asked to make bringing along change and challenges. But I do feel that these changes were looked at for the best interests and alternatives for all. We provide a lot of quality services for our townspeople. And I think if you've actively ever used any of these services, you really get a begin to appreciate not only what the service provides, but the people that are behind the service and why they're in place. So again, I'm, yes, I do support our town budget this year. Thanks so much. Terry, tell us about your thoughts on the town budget has been put forward and whether you support it. We'll select more unanimously supports the 2022 operating and capital budgets. And that amounts to a total of 11,571,355 dollars, which requires 5,669 and 389 dollars to be raised by taxes. And as Gordon said, there will be a flat tax this year. There will be no increase in the tax on property. So I do, as Gordon has mentioned, there's a lot of services. And if you look at our tax rate compared to any other town in Chittenden County, we're the lowest tax rate except for Charlotte. And you can think that Charlotte probably doesn't give as much services to their residents as well as the does. So, and this has been true for probably at least 10 years, maybe more than that. I'd like to chat just a little bit about the ballot items that will be on the Australian ballot. In this year, there'll be a couple of different items that usually are taken up in town meeting. And town meeting is not going to happen this year except for an informational meeting on Monday night to discuss the town budget and the school budget. So we won't be elected a moderator this year. The moderator was elected last year by state statute. Now we'll carry on as moderator until a new one is elected. And we'll be voting by Australian ballot for accepting the town reports. And also setting the dates for when taxes are due on August, November and February. So we'll be doing some of the usual things on Monday night, but not as much. And there'll be no voting on Monday night. But every all voting on Australian ballot will be on Tuesday the 2nd of March. Great, thank you. Thanks for that information too on what's changed. Well, let me let me ask you about the pandemic and some of its effects. The the COVID pandemic's been a huge game changer socially and economically for so many people and communities. I'm just wondering, what have you learned over this past year that about the community and its needs that you will bring to bear as a select board to serve your constituents with particularly in terms of adapting to COVID impacts? And I will start with Terry on this. Well, as far as the pandemic goes, we've learned that there's greater community involvement since COVID struck. The 2020 annual report town report is dedicated to the people of Williston rather than individuals. There's been mask making endeavors to food drives, parades to virtual parties, neighbors helping neighbors and caring for the community has been constant. Participation at select board meetings has noticeably increased. When we were holding meetings in person, you'd be lucky to have one or two people attend the select board meetings and now with using Zoom, a term I wouldn't have used before this probably, but we have increased the numbers that are tuned into Zoom considerably ranges and usually upper teams to in the 20s and Tuesday night we had, I think close to 30 people tuned into the broadcast. So we've learned a lot and we've in actuality, it's probably benefited us as far as the visibility goes, but certainly not a thing that we'd like to do again. And that interesting that you've actually been able to increase your engagement and the exposure of select board meetings. How about you, Gordon? What's your sense of, you know, pandemic impacts on the community and how you might help address them through your select board seat? So when I think of this question, I kind of think globally first, kind of narrowing it back down to our town. First words that come to my mind are slow, slow down. You know, I think we live in such a fast pace and we multitask just about everything we touch these days. And I think this has just reminded us that, you know, sometimes we do have to just focus on one thing at a time or one person at a time. You know, don't take those things for granted, you know, life changes quickly. You know, and I've also learned and learned and seen in our community that people are taking the time to enjoy, you know, the family and friends around them and choosing activities that for lack of better phrasing unplugged from the tech world, getting outside when, you know, appropriate for social distancing and just engaging in, you know, activities and things that our town offers that maybe they didn't really know about or take advantage of before. These are words that I can say tonight, but I have to put into practice myself because I can get caught up in the fast paced world too. But I will go back to what Terri has said. And I do feel our community has definitely stepped up during this pandemic. A lot of adaptations have to be made. You know, we didn't have a Fourth of July celebration this year, you know, no parade, no fireworks, but people found other ways to still, you know, support, you know, whatever holiday or event that was happening in a unique way, but a safe way. So I think, you know, a piece of coming out of this for me is that we even though we're in a, you know, pandemic, there's been a lot of pluses that have come to our board where not only participation through virtual meetings, but just the outreach of, you know, people, people being kind and getting involved. And I think that's super important in any community, but especially ours. That's great. I like your point too about, you know, more of a focus on enjoying the town's resources, you know, natural resources and things like that. That's, those are great points. Well, let me, let me ask you a question, each a question about civic participation. And I'm going to start with Gordon this time. So the seats for your seats are uncontested this year. And is this because you're all doing a great job? Or do you think that there's limited civic participation in the community or people just totally occupied with dealing with COVID? Or why do you think that is? It is a concern you at all or not particularly. So Gordon, would you start? Sure. First, you know, I hope that, you know, we're doing the best job that we can. That's that's our intent. We always look for ways to improve no matter in what endeavor that we're doing. I honestly don't think that this is limited civic participation in our community. In fact, I feel that this year has brought forth participants who care about our town's direction in different ways, maybe not at the leadership level of, you know, speaking out and leading the charge, but certainly have been there to promote or just be involved or engaged in what's happening around them. This has been a year that's brought significant stress change. I do feel that people are somewhat still in a survival mode. You know, you're taking care of, you know, at home first and then reaching out, you know, when and if you can to neighbors, friends and other community members in ways that, you know, you might have a specific talent or just want to give back. And I think we've seen kind of more of that as a rule rather than the out front. You know, a lot of behind the scenes things going on, which is impressive to see. So, you know, I certainly think this is a very different year. So lack of not having, you know, people in the race besides Terry and I, I don't feel is a lack of engagement or participation by the town at all. In fact, I kind of see it as the reverse to the points I've made. Great. I love that you see some other indicators of engagement that you're looking broadly. And Terry, what do you think about the uncontested seats and maybe the state of civic participation in Welliston? Well, part of the question was, is the board doing a good job? And of course, as board chair, I said, we're doing a fantastic job. And I can see people's eyes rolling up in the community about that. But we've we've addressed many difficult issues during the course of the past year. And past year is for that matter. But we in this past year, we've had the retirement of a town manager. So we had a nationwide search for and we hired a new town manager who happened to be the assistant town manager in Welliston, but an excellent choice. And we also had the retirement of a fire chief and we while the board does not hire the fire chief, there was a search also for that fire chief and successful resolution to that. Now, due to the pandemic, we've seen a large increase in civic participation in our boards and commission commission meetings. As I mentioned before, Zoom, all of our meetings now are on Zoom. And the boards and the commissions and the select board have enjoyed having more participation that way. And when we're filling seats on boards and commissions, we've had a wealth of candidates we've had in other years. You know, you'd be lucky if you have one person and putting their names up for these particular positions. And lately we've had to make a decision to have to appoint one person when we've had three or four candidates. And that's very difficult because they've all been outstanding people. So we've we've had a wealth of candidates and we've enjoyed very much doing that. And hope that people will continue to be interested in seeking the positions again. All right. Well, that's a great indicator that you've had multiple candidates for commissions and boards that are open on your town. Wonderful. So let's see, first of all, I wanted to to invite any viewers watching live to join our conversation and tell us what you want to talk about at 802-862-3966. All right. And I'm going to go to a question and I'll start with Terry about this. Where do you see opportunities for addressing racial justice in the community of Williston? This is a real topic for our day. And how will you use your select board seat to meet this challenge? Well, it's a great question because over the past two months, we've been debating the the the position that we would take on flying a Black Lives Matter at Town Hall. And Tuesday night, two nights ago, we passed a resolution or a motion that the the town would fly the Black Lives Matter flag starting on March 1st and continuing until two days after Juneteenth, which would be June 21st. That would sunset at that time with there be an opportunity for the board to come back and to see whether or not we would continue to fly the flag. Now, we asked community members to weigh in on this over about a two month period, either by email or phone. And we told them we would not publish their names or inquire on the phone, but we would just take their comments and publish those. And we had about 146 emails over that course of time regarding the the issue of flying the flag. We've also this also inspired the formation of a group named the Williston Racial Equity Partners. And just today, that group of seven has advertised in the Williston Observer and on Front Porch Forum, seeking volunteers to serve on a steering committee for the partnership. And the select board as a whole endorses the partnership and is aims to design a racial equity plan that will include short and long term goals and the activity is necessary to fulfill the goals. So we're taking an activist position on this and we're looking for as much citizen participation as we can possibly get. Great. Sounds like you have some already with a good email response and the response, you know, the formation of the racial equity partners. So Gordon, same question for you. What do you see the opportunities for addressing racial justice in the community and how the select board is playing? Yeah, first, I'll echo, you know, I won't reiterate, but I'll echo Terry's information that he's passed along on how much we've been talking about and moving moving this forward. You know, my job and I feel at my home in in in Williston, you know, it really does start with words like respect and kindness. I think that's just a motto. I try to live by myself and that's what we try to pass along to the youngsters that we're working with in our school and hopefully in our own community of Williston. You know, I've always felt and I've always been taught by my parents that actions have always spoken louder than words. And I think, you know, we have an opportunity to model the values that we have been talking about within our meetings and getting feedback from the public within our own town governing departments and our local schools, our places of work and ultimately in our own homes. I think if this becomes a social norm, then and only then will we be able to challenge the issue of racial injustice. I truly believe that it's it's still out there. It's it's a daily thing. I think it affects, you know, different people or groups of people differently. I think perspectives can vary. I would just ask that people are willing to have a, you know, respectful conversation no matter, you know, what side of the issue that they they might fall on just so that we can get a good good plan of direction on what and, you know, what the town apparently looks like and what what do we need to change to make it better so that we are echoing that idea of being respectful and being kind to each other. I appreciate hearing from you both, both on the actions that you're taking as a civic entity and and also the attitudes that you're aspiring to and committed to modeling. Let's see what I'd like to go next. Let me ask you a very pragmatic question. And this this is about the Champlain Water District Bond. And I'm going to start this one with Gordon. You support the Go bond to upgrade the distribution plant of the Champlain Water District. So this one, for sure, I do support the bond, upgrade the distribution plant. You know, I I'm a science teacher as well. And I truly believe clean, reliable water is essential. I think that we need to stay ahead of these kinds of projects to maintain that that quality service that's provided to many residents, not only within our town, but within the district itself. You know, I have currently our family has, you know, our own private well system. We're not locally distributed town, town water, but I have a lot of folks that I know are obviously within the residencies of town or if you visit any public institution in Williston that is supplied there as well. So I do support the bond. You know, I do feel that not waiting till something's completely broken to fix it isn't the way to go. You know, you want to be as preventative and stay ahead of things as possible. And hopefully hopefully this is a step in the right direction. Great, thanks. Terry, your comments about why you if you support the the bond for the Champlain Water District improvement or not? Sure. So I, as an individual, totally support the bond vote and hopefully it will pass overwhelmingly. CWD is such an important source of drinking water for the whole, essentially almost the whole county. And we need to protect it. So the amount that has been that amount, the amount that has been previously authorized was not used due to receipt of grants and cost underruns. So it will result in no rate rate increase for the users of the of the water system. And it takes advantage of a historically low interest rates this year. It also minimizes the need for a future larger scale projects by making timely investments in their equipment at CWD. So it's it would be terrible to say we're not going to do this because it will just increase the cost later on. All right. I'm going to go back to you, Terry, with another kind of timely question, which is what's it's about policing? What's the most important? What's most important for Williston in terms of policing and community safety at this moment in time? And, you know, what do you see as the role of police in the community of Williston? We do have a community policing in Williston have had for a long time and a police force is dedicated to keeping the community safe. Over the last few years, there there has been introduced into the town neighborhood watches in many of the larger developments and the police routinely interact in positive ways at our schools, the two elementary schools in town. There are ways for individuals to make complaints regarding the police. Hello, we don't see too many of those to the police chief and they're investigated. The town population, of course, in Williston more than doubles each day with our businesses and shoppers at their big box stores. So the that presents certainly with infrastructure challenges in the town and with the police department. But we're very fortunate in that we currently have a police force that's at full staff. And I think and since the we've hired police officers and not sure how many years, 15, perhaps, we've never had a full force until recently. And we hope that that will continue. But as you know, people do move on to other things. And that's been our our history over the course of a number of years. But I think we have a very progressive police force in Williston. Thanks, Gordon, your turn to address what you think is important for policing and community safety and in the role of police in your community. First forward that pops into my mind is visibility. And I think, you know, our our community policing has done a really good job over time of just being visible and out there and not in a policing sort of way. It's it's nice to see that visibility for not only the youngsters that are in our schools. Not thinking that, you know, these are scary folks, but they are folks that are here to protect and serve our community. You know, I have the opportunity to deal with SRO school resource officers in my in my profession, also seen and heard the same opportunities here in Williston. You know, my own experience has been extremely positive with the police department. I find myself to try to be a law abiding citizen. And I think most residents in town would probably agree with me with that. But they are out there and it's nice to see that the patrols that are around the busy sector of tap corners area. But also, I kind of live in more rule part of Williston and we still see that visibility. And so it's it's pretty well balanced, I would say, in my opinion. You know, the police department, as I said before, is is here to protect and serve our town. One of the department, you know, roles is uphold the governing laws. But, you know, they do so many other things around other programs. And one that I think has just been really neat to watch unfold is our comfort dog over the past year named Duke has had a lot of camera action and media coverage on just the involvement, not only with the schools, but just actively involved and engaged in, you know, some of the the things that come up in crisis that the police have to deal with or the people on scene that that the dog really benefits. And that's just one example of the many that I think promotes the positiveness of our department. I think it's got a very well, you know, well, that person that will lead the department and our chief. And I, you know, I do think it is it is still growing and still progressing. It's ever changing because of the world around us. But I do have a good job for our town. Great. Well, I want to give you each a chance to offer any last words that you have challenges that you hope to address in your next term, presuming you are elected or or visions that you hope to realize. Any last words, I'll start with you, Gordon. Yeah, you know, I think it's really important to keep our eye on our yearly budgets. We spend a lot of time preparing and listening to our local departments on what's what's still needed, what needs to be improved. Or sometimes, you know, we have to look at where, you know, potential diminishes need to occur to to help our residents and the tax rate. You know, I live here, I'm a taxpayer as well, and I certainly want to do my share, but I also want to still have some money in my pocket to live life. I'm also interested in our growth plan, you know, I think we have a pretty significant opportunity with foreign based code coming in to the town and looking at what we have existingly to not going to say improve, but, you know, maybe enhance the aesthetics of, you know, tap corners, the busy sector of that area and then also new development where where that's going to be, how that's going to look, you know, I think we have a great commission that takes a look at those pieces. We have a good director. So I think we have some very responsible people that are willing to hear the voices out there. You know, fiscal responsibility, just that clear direction of, you know, what, you know, our town plans pretty spelled out. Are we going to be committed to follow it? And, you know, the participants that are involved, do we have people in the right places and the right plan in place? So those are the kind of the three things, the budget, the growth plan and the existing developments that we have in town. Thanks so much. Terry, do you have any last words about challenges you'd like to address the elements of your vision? Sure. And Gordon has mentioned most of the ones that I have on my list. So affordable housing would be high on my list. It has been for a number of years, but we haven't made sufficient progress on doing that. There's few new developments that are in the process right now that will provide some affordable housing, but certainly not nearly enough for the demand that we would have. We have a lot of a lot of high priced homes and apartments out of out of reach for middle class people in town. We would need to implement a form based zoning code as Gordon mentioned for a future development of the town. It's currently being studied by consultants that are funded partially by the town and partially by regional planning grants. So we'll continue to grow within the constraints of the sewer system and the ability of that to provide the services necessary. And that could quickly disappear. But the growth needs to occur in the areas designed for growth in the town. We need to take a look at the size, the height, the design and, as Gordon said, the aesthetics of how it will look to the public with more trees and with our grid streets being used to supplement some of the housing and businesses. Beauty is going to be important to it as right now, route two, and it's not too beautiful from the interstate down to TAF corners. So it would be nice to see that change. And we need to take a look at the wants of the community and how they're going to be paid for a community center, more space for the library and how it affects the taxpayers. So we do do our due diligence on these kind of things. And I think the last thing I need to mention is what Gordon said, the budget for the rest of this year and the budget for the next fiscal year are going to be necessary to be watched very carefully because we don't know what COVID has in store for us for the next six, nine, 12 months. So thanks again for hosting the discussion tonight. Great. Well, thank you, Gordon St. Hilaire and Terry McKay for your time and effort in connecting with voters before the election. And thanks to viewers for tuning into town meeting TV coverage. And you can find this in more forums at www.ch17.tv. All right. Good night. Thank you, Stephanie.