Friday, August 6, 2021
The alleged assault took place February 27 at Bergstein's Burlington home —a few weeks after the City of Winooski had already threatened to evict Bergstein's nonprofit from city property over similar allegations.
The woman came forward to Burlington police in April, shortly after VTDigger.org published an investigation detailing numerous other women's accounts of predatory behavior by Bergstein.
Tags: Ben Bergstein , Sexual Assault , North End Studios , Chittenden Unit for Special Investigations , Web Only , Image
Thursday, August 5, 2021
Two of the infected employees work at Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington, and the other works at Northeast Correctional Complex in St. Johnsbury, according to the state.
Only one of the South Burlington staffers was said to have worked on a prison unit near incarcerated people.
Tags: Vermont Department of Corrections , COVID-19 , Prisons , Web Only , Image
Robinson, who led the marriage equality movement in Vermont, could become the first openly LGBTQ woman to hold a judgeship on any federal appeals court, the White House said. Her appointment must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Tags: Beth Robinson , U.S. Court of Appeals , Second Circuit , President Judge Biden , Judicial Nomination , Vermont Supreme Court , Web Only , Image
Monday, August 2, 2021
In a message posted on its Facebook page, the camp blamed staffing shortages for the decision to cancel. Many staff members had told the camp before the season started that they would have to leave their positions early for college. The camp believed it would be able to "backfill" those positions before staffers departed, but hiring proved too difficult.
"This decision was not taken lightly as we know how much our families rely upon us for childcare during the summer months," the announcement read. "We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused for you and your camper. All families that are affected by this decision will be fully refunded their tuition."
Cutting camp short "was not a decision we really wanted to make," said Patty Houston, board president of the nonprofit YWCA Vermont, which runs the camp.
A series of staffing issues affected the day camp, according to YWCA executive director Deb Jorschick. The day camp director developed an illness — unrelated to COVID-19 — and was given doctor's orders to sit out the last two weeks of camp, she said. Of the remaining five day camp staffers, some had told the camp ahead of time that they needed to leave the program early and some made last-minute decisions to leave, according to Jorschick.
"As a collective group, they had to go," she said. "We just had no alternative" but to end the day camp.
Houston said that it was difficult to break the news to campers' families. "We had some families who were really understanding and some who were frustrated and angry," she said. "I know they were not easy conversations for any of us."
This isn't the first hurdle Camp Hochelaga has faced this summer. In early July, the camp announced that residential camp director Alana Matteson was leaving; she was replaced by assistant camp director Shannon Pritzkau on an interim basis. Jorschick declined to comment further about Matteson's departure, citing personnel issues, but said that Pritzkau has done a great job in the director role.
Houston and Jorschick both said that this season has brought unique challenges, on top of the labor shortage.
While "all in all, the kids are happy," Jorschick said, she's also seen an uptick in behavioral issues and sleep disruptions this summer, which she attributed to the pandemic.
"What's become apparent to us is, there's a lot of kids that have been traumatized over this past year," Houston said.
Camp leadership will take lessons learned form this summer and use them "to make sure camp is able to evolve and grow," she added.
Tags: Camp Hochelaga , day camp , South Hero , Web Only , Image
Friday, July 30, 2021
A pilot from electric aviation startup Beta Technologies crashed a helicopter on the Colchester Causeway on Friday afternoon, shutting down the popular recreational path as emergency crews responded to the fiery scene.
The pilot, later identified as 31-year-old Nathaniel Fortin, escaped with minor injuries and was taken to the hospital, the company said in a statement. No one else was hurt.
The helicopter was gas-powered and not one of Beta's experimental electric aircraft, a spokesperson said. An investigation into the cause of the crash is under way.
"The pilot, a certified flight instructor and sole occupant of the aircraft, executed emergency procedures and successfully and safely landed the aircraft," the spokesperson said in a written statement.
Photos of the crash posted on social media showed flames erupting from the crumpled helicopter. Police said the two-passenger aircraft "was a total loss."
Nic Longo, acting director of the Burlington International Airport, said it was not immediately clear when the aircraft took off. He said information about the aircraft's flight path will "eventually come from the pilot."Crazy, a helicopter crashed on The Causeway! pic.twitter.com/4MsantjasR
— Michael McKennedy (@mmckennedy) July 30, 2021
Colchester police said the crash had closed the causeway "until further notice." The popular path was reopened on Saturday.
Beta, the subject of a Seven Days cover story in May, is headquartered in a hangar near BTV's main terminal. The company is in the midst of a meteoric rise in the world of aviation and has tripled in size over the last year. It recently announced plans to build a massive new assembly facility for its electric aircraft.
Tags: Beta Technologies , Vermont , Helicopter Crash , Gas-powered , Colchester Causeway , Web Only , Image
A dozen survivors last week added Century International Arms as a defendant in their pending civil lawsuit against the nonprofit that ran the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival, the City of Gilroy, Calif., and a private security contractor.
They say the gunmaker's business practices have funneled “uniquely lethal” semiautomatic rifles to criminals and “helped cause the mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival” that left three people dead and 17 wounded.
Tags: Century Arms , Gilroy Garlic Festival , Mass Shootings , WASR-10 , AK-variants , Gun Manufacturer , Web Only , Image
Thursday, July 22, 2021
The department "has been working with community members this past year in an effort to better serve everyone in our community, especially those most impacted by racism and inequity," Hoague wrote. "We have engaged our public in conversation and efforts like never before and we realize that incidents such as this indicate we have more work to do."
Williams was the only one charged of at least four people involved in the July 13 fight, which police said took place at the home of a man who Williams had hired to repair a motorcycle. Police had previously said their investigation was not over and that additional charges could follow.
Tags: Essex Police Department , Ron Hoague , Brandon Williams , Racial Justice , Hate Crime , Assault , The Black Perspective , Web Only , Image
The deal puts the scenic hillside campus, known as Potash Hill, under the control of its longtime summer tenant, which hosts the annual Marlboro Music Festival there. It also resolves a legal dispute between Democracy Builders and a mysterious cryptocurrency entrepreneur who had laid his own claim to the property.
“We are delighted to announce this historic agreement enabling us to protect Potash Hill and our use of the campus,” Christopher Serkin, Marlboro Music’s president, said in a press release.
Tags: Marlboro Music , Marlboro College , Democracy Builders , Type 1 Civilization , Seth Andrew , Adrian Stein , Christopher Serkin , Alize-Jazel Smith , Web Only , Image
Friday, July 16, 2021
Boland and four passengers took off on Thursday evening from Post Mills Airport in Thetford, where Boland lived with his partner, Tina Foster. Some time later, the balloon touched down in a field. The basket tipped over, causing one of Boland’s passengers to fall out. As the balloon rose again, Boland became entangled in the gears below the basket, fell to the ground and was killed, according to Vermont State Police.
The balloon drifted across the Connecticut River, landing in a copse of trees, where the remaining three passengers climbed out unharmed.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.
Boland had been building and flying his homemade aircraft for more than five decades. In 1971, he constructed his first hot air balloon for his master’s thesis at the Pratt Institute in New York City. After graduating from Pratt, Boland became an art teacher at Farmington High School in Connecticut, where Paul Stumpf, a balloon mechanic and builder who now lives in Andover, was one of his students. Under Boland’s tutelage, Stumpf found his own passion for ballooning.
Tags: Brian Boland , Vermont , hot air balloon , accident , Web Only , Image
Monday, July 12, 2021
Hallquist will be the first executive director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board, a new entity created by lawmakers to coordinate and accelerate the rollout of high-speed internet services to the 23 percent of Vermont households that lack it.
A veteran of the electric utility industry, Hallquist ran against Scott in 2018. She made history as the first transgender major party gubernatorial candidate in the country. She won just 40 percent of the vote to Scott’s 55 percent.
Hallquist made broadband a major platform in her campaign. She argued that her experience as CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative positioned her well to help expand the service. She currently works for two communications union districts rolling out broadband in Lamoille County and the Northeast Kingdom.
In a press release, Scott framed broadband as an economic equity issue and praised Hallquist for her years of work advancing the issue.
“I cannot think of a better person to lead this important effort than Christine,” Scott said. “Her experience as a cooperative executive and most recent experience with two CUDs as well as her long-standing commitment to expanding broadband in Vermont will be valuable to this work.”
Communications union districts are a type of municipal entity designed to bridge the digital divide in the state. There are now nine such districts, which can build broadband infrastructure themselves or work with private internet providers to expand service. They cover more than 200 towns and are managed mostly by volunteer boards.
The five-member Vermont Community Broadband Board was formed to help these fledgling districts design, fund and manage the rollout of broadband networks. Future state grants will flow almost exclusively through such districts. Board members have yet to be appointed.
Hallquist compares the challenge of expanding broadband to the rural electrification effort of the 1930s and 1940s that gave birth to the electric co-op that she headed from 2005 to 2018.
In an interview Monday, Hallquist said she was honored to be appointed and learned she'd been selected during a “gracious” call from Scott last week. She said she’s been impressed with Scott’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and told him so.
"I think he did a better job than I could have done,” Hallquist said.
Hallquist will work in the Department of Public Service. Her first order of business will be to get the five board members appointed and ready for the board’s first meeting on August 9, she said.
The state has set aside $150 million for broadband expansion, and Hallquist will be largely responsible for helping the board direct those dollars to fiber-optic projects serving all residents, she said.
“I’m very excited and looking to get to work helping CUDs maximize the value of those grant funds,” Hallquist said.
Tags: Christin Hallquist , Phil Scott , broadband , Web Only , Image