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NOVEMBER 21, 2024
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GlobalFoundries closes deal on $1.5 billion federal grant
Board puts ARPA funds toward parking lot
OBSERVER STAFF REPORT
BY JASON STARR Observer staff With Joe Biden’s term as president coming to an end, it’s perhaps fitting that the Town of Williston is spending down the remaining funds from one of his signature pieces of legislation. The town was granted $3 million from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), passed in 2021 as a pandemic relief package. But the windfall has long shed the guise of pandemic recovery. The town has divvied the funds among unexpect-
“The revised scope we’re looking at is to just focus on the immediate safety needs.” Erik Wells Town Manager
ed repairs, like rebuilding a structurally unsound pedestrian bridge on Industrial Avenue, long-range strategic planning and softening annual budget increases. The selectboard came into its meeting Tuesday with about $700,000 left in the fund and unanimously agreed on $250,000 in new allocations. The board decided to hold the rest as an asset in upcoming budget discussions for the new fiscal year. The largest allocation Tuesday was a $180,000 contribution to see ARPA page 7
Six new electric school buses are set for delivery to Allen Brook School by next fall under a contract approved Tuesday by the Champlain Valley School Board. PHOTO COURTESY OF HIGHLAND FLEETS
Six new e-buses coming to Allen Brook
School district wins EPA grant to bolster electric fleet BY JASON STARR Observer staff The Champlain Valley School Board approved the lease of six new electric school buses on Tuesday to be stationed at Allen Brook School in Williston. The buses will join two existing electric buses at the K-2 school, representing a small but growing fraction of the Champlain Valley School District’s 60bus fleet. “We eventually would like to get to a 50-50 mix,” School District Chief Operations Officer Gary Marckres said. While electrics are more expensive to purchase or lease than gas-powered buses, they are less expensive to operate and maintain, Marckres said. They are also quieter and emission-free. The six new e-buses are manufactured by
Thomas Built Buses, a subsidiary of the German company Daimler Truck. They are due to arrive next year for at least a 12-year lease, with an option to extend or buy out. “They are more environmentally friendly than a diesel bus,” Marckres said. “We think it’s a responsible decision to integrate them into our fleet.” Included with the lease will be a row of new charging stations in the Allen Brook parking lot that are able to push electricity back into the Green Mountain Power grid when the buses are not in use. Allen Brook has been home to the district’s electric bus fleet because of its charging infrastructure. Like the existing two electrics, the new buses will continue to serve mostly Williston students. But as the fleet grows, the use of electric buses will be
spread throughout the five-town school district, said Marckres. The district’s existing two electric buses, manufactured by the Canadian company Lion Electric, have been on the road for three years. There have been kinks with their heating system and charging stations, Marckres said, but those have been ironed out. “The buses have been pretty reliable,” he said. “The drivers like them.” The school district was awarded a $1.2 million Clean School Bus Program grant from the Environmental Protection Agency for the buses and partnered with a Massachusetts company called Highland to procure the buses and install the charging stations. Per the contract, Highland will cover charging costs and any repairs outside of routine maintenance.
GlobalFoundries’ microchip manufacturing facility situated on the border between Essex and Williston will reap part of a multi-billion-dollar investment over the next 10 years, bolstered by funding through the federal CHIPS and Science Act. The U.S. Department of Commerce announced a $1.5 billion CHIPS and Science Act award on Tuesday after signing a preliminary agreement with GlobalFoundries earlier this year. The company plans to add the award to $13 billion of investments in Vermont and at its operations in Malta, N.Y. While the bulk of the money will be spent in New York, the Vermont facility will be modernized and upgraded to “expand production capacity and create one of the world’s leading facilities capable of high-volume manufacturing of next-generation gallium nitride semiconductors for use in electric vehicles, data centers, smartphones and other critical applications,” the company said in a news release. In New York, the company plans to build a new manufacturing facility for automotive, aerospace and defense applications, tripling its manufacturing capacity there. The company expects the Vermont and New York upgrades will create 9,000 construction jobs over the next 10 years and 1,000 manufacturing jobs. The funding will also help GlobalFoundries develop internships, apprenticeships and gradeschool outreach, among other workforce development initiatives.
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