Lyndon State College announces new president

Dr. Joseph Bertolino will be the 15th President of Lyndon State College,  Vermont State Colleges Board Chairman Gary Moore announced today in a press release.

 

Bertolino, 48, comes to LSC after eight years at Queens College, part of the City University of New York. As vice president for enrollment management and student affairs, he was primarily responsible for supervising 22 departments including Admissions, Career Services and International Student Services. Under Bertolino’s leadership, a new Veteran’s Services Office and a Health and Wellness Center were created. He was also the executive assistant to the president, and an associate professor and chairman of the Department of Student Personnel.

“I am pleased that Joe Bertolino will be the next president of Lyndon State College. He is a very enthusiastic individual who impressed the faculty, staff, and students during his two-day campus visit," said Moore in a statement. "I am sure his enthusiasm will prove to be contagious and look forward to great things happening at LSC during his tenure.”

A 13-member Search Committee made up of LSC faculty, staff, students, VSC Trustees and members of the Lyndon community at-large began a national search in October 2011. Four semi-finalists visited the campus in late January for two days of meetings and interviews. The search committee recommended the two finalists who returned to LSC on February 15 for interviews with the VSC Board of Trustees.

The Board of Trustees selected Bertolino, who formally accepted the appointment on February 17. The president is responsible for executive leadership and the operation and management of the College within the policies of the Vermont State Colleges.

In 2003, Bertolino earned his Doctorate in Higher Education Administration and Organizational Leadership from Columbia University. Bertolino said in a letter to the search committee that working with first-generation college students from modest income and immigrant families in New York City has been among his professional focuses. He goes on to mention a “particular passion” of his, “the pedagogy of service learning,” about which he wrote his dissertation.

 

“I am deeply honored and humbled to have been invited to serve as Lyndon’s 15th president. I truly felt welcomed, comfortable and at home while visiting the College, and was struck by the authenticity, genuineness and sense of community the people at Lyndon possess," Bertolino said in a statement. "Time and time again, I was reminded that relationships and students matter here. As one student told me, ‘I love Lyndon because people here care about me.’ This is a message I will be proud to deliver as president.”

“It is Lyndon’s mission to serve first-in-family and modest income students that I find particularly appealing," he continued. "This is an institution with a wonderfully dedicated faculty and staff, and with premier academic programs. I am excited about the possibilities of what Lyndon can and will be--innovative, dynamic, entrepreneurial--an institution serving students, the community, the Northeast Kingdom, Vermont, and the nation. As president, I will be committed to ensuring that LSC is no longer New England’s best kept secret, but instead a nationally-recognized and respected college with strong partnerships and institutional pride.”

Bertolino lives with his partner of eighteen years, Bil Leipold, and their two dogs. His greatest joy is his eight godchildren.

Lyndon State College enrolls more than 1400 students and employs 270 full- and part-time faculty and staff. Bertolino takes the helm from Steve Gold who served as Lyndon’s interim president since Dr. Carol A. Moore’s retirement in June, 2011.

Sex offender arrested in Wells River

WELLS RIVER - A local man, who police said was wanted in New Hampshire and Vermont, was arrested at his home on Saturday around 6:15 p.m., police said.
Acting on information provided by the Haverhill Police Department, troopers with the Vermont State Police from the Bradford barracks went to a home on Bible Hill Road in Wells River on Saturday where they found and arrested 35-year-old Richard Pike.
Pike is wanted in New Hampshire for a parole violation related to failing to register as a sex offender and in Vermont for failing to appear in Orange County criminal court for a charge of driving while under the influence of alcohol, modified because he has been convicted of the same charge one time before.
Pike was lodged at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department for lack of $50,000 bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday in Chelsea on charges of being a fugitive from justice and violating the conditions of his release from custody.

Vermont lawmakers call Entergy decision "disappointing"

From the Vermont Press Bureau's Pete Hirschfeld:

MONTPELIER — On a snowy February day in 2010, Democratic lawmakers celebrated a Senate vote they said would force the closure of Vermont Yankee. On Thursday evening, many of those same legislators huddled to regroup after learning that a federal judge had stripped their authority to shutter the nuclear power plant.

“It’s disappointing that the court found that the people of Vermont, through their Legislature, could not have a voice about the continued operation of the plant,” said House Speaker Shap Smith.

Word of the ruling spread through the Statehouse like wildfire. Shortly after its release, Smith and Senate President John Campbell hunkered in the speaker’s office with a small corps of lawyers and lawmakers to read the 102-page decision and draft a response.

Campbell called the decision from U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha a blow to Vermont sovereignty.

“I think it shows the deterioration of states’ rights,” he said.

Continue reading >>>

Bear hunter charged with assault

ALBANY, Vt. — A Craftsbury hunter has been charged with aggravated assault for shooting a fellow bear hunter this fall in Albany.
Seventy-six-year-old Conrad Masse and 58-year-old Wayne Goff of Wolcott were using radio technology and GPS last October to follow two dogs who were tracking a bear when the shooting happened. The two men positioned themselves about 500 feet apart on a road where the expected the bear to cross.
Vermont State Police say when the bear crossed the road, Masse fired at least three shots, hitting the bear, Goff and a tree.

Goff, who was struck in the pelvis, was treated for his injuries.
Masse is facing a charge of aggravated assault.

Woman pleads no contest in fatal crash

ST. JOHNSBURY —  A Vermont woman charged in connection with a fatal crash that killed a 7-year-old boy will serve no jail time as long as she complies with the terms of a plea agreement reached with prosecutors.
According to the Caledonian Record, thirty-nine-year-old Corrine Baker of Walden pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of negligent operation in exchange for a sentence of nine to 12 months, all suspended with two years of probation. The plea agreement also calls for Baker to serve 100 hours of community service.
Baker was driving a pickup truck carrying five passengers, including Carson Tilden, when the truck crashed into a utility pole. Baker was charged because she failed to ensure Tilden was wearing a seat belt and was driving too fast on the snow-covered road.

Petit larcenist turns himself in

A man who stole "an old broken down snowmobile and lawn mower" from a vacant property last year has turned himself in and has been cited with Petit Larceny. Roger Williams, 52, of New Hampshire, reported himself to State Police for the theft from a Bloomfield property owned by Randy LeClaire, also of New Hampshire.

School bus v. plow truck collision in Bradford

BRADFORD — A state plow truck collided with a school bus yesterday in Bradford on Rte. 25B. The two vehicles were crossing a bridge in opposite directions when the rear of the truck hit the side of the bus. The 30 children in the bus were unhurt, as were the drivers.

"It is unknown who was at fault for the collision due to the narrowness of the bridge and the width of the truck and bus," according to state police.

The children were transferred to another bus with the assistance of the Bradford Fire Department and taken home.

Police investigating deaths in St. Johnsbury

ST. JOHNSBURY — Police are investigating what they are calling the untimely deaths of two people found at a home here.

Police found the two at the Caledonia Street home about 3:30 p.m. Monday.

Police Chief Clem Houde said officers discovered the bodies while responding to the residence to check on the welfare of the occupants.

Houde did not release the causes and manners of death, and said his department is withholding the names of the dead pending notification of next of kin.

 

The Caledonian-Record reports tax records say the two-family home is owned by David and Penny Birch.

Vermont's Fletcher Allen Health Care offers new cancer screening initiative

By Jenna  Pizzi

Staff Writer

BURLINGTON – Fletcher Allen Health Care announced Wednesday that it has received a $90,000 gift to fund screening for ovarian cancer.
The gift from the Mary Haas Ovarian Cancer Early Detection Foundation is meant to help primary care providers with information they need to screen for ovarian cancer. The goal is to make ovarian cancer screening part of routine patient care.
The foundation was established in honor of Mary Haas, a long-time Vermont resident who died of ovarian cancer 15 months after being diagnosed in 2009.
“The Mary Haas Foundation is focused on saving lives now through early detection,” said Meredith Burak, foundation president and Haas’ daughter.
Ovarian cancer is often called a silent killer because 75 percent of those with the disease are not diagnosed until it has reached an advanced stage. If ovarian cancer can be caught early enough, the overall survival rate is 93 percent.

Katye Robare Munger blog: A look at how far Vermont has come, post-Irene

I am sitting at 34 Strongs Avenue, Restoring Rutland “HQ,” as we coordinators have so lovingly called it, and I can’t help but get a little sad. It is surreal for me to sit here and think about the whirlwind experience I have had in the past 14 days. I do not know if I fully understand what has happened here or how it happened.

The first day we were open, my friend Alexis Voutas was here even before I was, and when we received our first bag of donations, she looked at me and said, “What are we going to do with this stuff?”

I looked at her and replied, “You know, I’m not sure. But I am really not worried about it.”

She was a lot more worried than I was, and now, looking back over the week, I am surprised that everything worked out as well as it did. Everything fell into place.

The minute we said that we were here to help, those who needed help and those who wanted to help, reached out to us. There was no emergency plan in place. There was not too much prior knowledge of who to call or what to do. The amazing thing is, we worked together with firefighters, towns, volunteers; all around amazing people and this marvelous movement occurred.

I have been working with the Creative Economy for over a year and a half. I have seen and heard many people talk about a lack of a sense of community from the smallest towns in our county, to the largest ones.

And not just within a community, but a sense of community between these towns has also been criticized for missing. I have seen the struggles that each town is faced with and it sometimes surprises me that so many people in these areas either are not aware of or do not care about what is going on in their home town.

Comparing “pre-Irene” Vermont to “post-Irene” Vermont is astounding. Vermont is very much a community oriented state, but I think over the past few years, we somehow lost ourselves and had been extremely lucky to not have experienced devastation this great.

I am not trying to be cliché and say that a horrible event can drive people together to do what they normally would not.

I am saying that Vermont needed to find our way back to who we are. Vermonters as individuals helping individuals has always been a way of life.

We needed to get back to communities helping themselves and each other. Though I would never wish Irene or any further devastation on my wonderful state or country to occur again, what comes out of that devastation illustrates the character of those affected.

It is quite obvious by now that I am pro-Vermont and pro-community. I have seen what communities are capable of within themselves, and what they can offer to others.

I hope that as roads get reconstructed, businesses open back up, and homes are rebuilt, that we do not lose this great sense of a statewide Vermont community. I so often say that I am thankful to be a Vermonter, and I truly believe that I always will be.

I am so proud of my little Vermont, that we have proven to the nation; no, the world, that we are strong.

We are not easily scared.
We can overcome any obstacle.
We can work through our tears and continue to laugh.
We are strong.
We are Vermont strong.

-- Katye Robare Munger is one of Vermont Today's community bloggers. She also is the Associate Director Of Admissions and Transfer Counselor/E-Recruitment Specialist at Castleton State College. She can be reached at www.castleton.edu  or (800) 639-8521.

If you would like to blog for Vermont Today, please contact Jeannine Guttman, Vermont Today editor, at [email protected] or at 802-747-6133.