(Scroll down for list of Podcasts)

In the fall of 2023 I was elected to the Planning Commission of Williston, Vermont, the town where we live. I knew very little about the role of the organization, or about town planning in general, but it interested me on two levels. First, this is my town, I’m proud of it and want to help it become the kind of place that effectively serves its residents, visitors and the people who work here; and second, being a curious person, I wanted to better understand what was involved in a town’s planning process.

As towns go, Williston is relatively small, about 10,000 people, but as I quickly discovered, the intricacies of planning, the number of moving parts involved in balancing all the disparate elements of town operation, even one as small as Williston, would make a Rolex blush. 

I recently read a book by Harvard professor John Stilgoe called “Outside Lies Magic.” In it, he exhorts his readers to get up, put on a good pair of walking shoes, put on your seeing eyes, not your looking eyes, and go for a leisurely walk around your own town. It’s amazing, the things you notice when you’re not whipping through in a car, intent on the destination rather than the journey.

So, I started walking around Williston. The more I saw, the more questions arose, and I began to seek answers to those questions. This Podcast is the result of that insatiable curiosity. As you’ll see, in these programs I talk about town planning, but I also talk about town history, its geography, it’s wide open spaces, our colorful characters, and other topics that strike me as interesting. If there’s something you’d like me to research, please let me know—Steve@ShepardComm.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

On to the show!

Episode 1: Welcome to Williston! This first episode explains why I’m doing these Podcasts, and what listeners will gain from listening to them.

Episode 2: Thomas Chittenden Who was this guy, anyway? After all, our county is named for him, many of our roads bear his name (like Peachtree and MLK in Atlanta and throughout the south), and he’s buried in Williston, in the cemetery that also bears his name. So who was this guy to Williston?

Episode 3: A (Brief) Williston Town History Ever wonder how our little town came to be? And why it’s called Williston? Have a listen.

Episode 4: Dorothy Alling and the Library that Bears Her Name Contrary to what you may think, Dorothy Alling wasn’t the town’s first library, but she played a HUGE role in making the library as special as it is. 

Episode 5: The WPA Federal Writers Project Guide to Vermont Did you know that at one time, The Ringling Brothers Circus bought several farms in Williston to house their animals in over the winter? It’s all in the WPA Guide to Vermont, which I tell you about in this episode.

Episode 6: The Town Triad, with EmilyHeymann Have you ever wondered what the Planning Commission, Development Review Board, and Selectboard actually do, especially relative to each other? In this program, Emily Heymann, the Senior Planner and Deputy Zoning Administrator for Williston, explains what they do and why. It’s an interesting story, and does a good job of explaining the “division of labor” they engage in to make the town development process as effective and efficient as it can be.

Episode 7: What is Form-Based Code? In this episode I sit down with Williston Town Planner Matt Boulanger as he explains the concept behind Form-Based Code, the design criterion that is shaping much of the growth region in Williston.

Episode 8: Williston Memories. On July 4th, 2024, the Williston Historical Society opened the Stovepipe Schoolhouse to the public, as they do every year. Visitors to the old schoolhouse were asked to share their oldest memories of the town, which they did, in surprisingly large numbers. This episode is a compilation of those memories.

Episode 9: A Tour of the Essex Water Treatment Facility. Not long ago, I got curious about how Williston’s waste water his treated, given that we generate about 700,000 gallons of it every single day. So I made a few calls, and the manager of the plant, Chelsea Mandigo, was kind enough to give me a personal tour.

Episode 10: An Interview with John Adams of Adams Farm Market and Orchard. In this wonderful interview, John Adams and Steve Shepard talk about how an IBM programmer becomes a farmer–and many other topics in-between.

Episode 11: Farmer Mike Isham Talks Maple Syrup in a far-ranging conversation about WIlliston, history, family, and of course–all things maple.