HARTFORD — Hartford Selectboad Vice Chairman Joe Major will moderate a town hall-style meeting forum about affordable housing at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 15, at the Hartford High School Auditorium.
People can also stream the forum via Zoom and can email jmajor@hartford-vt.org for the link. The six panelists will discuss the challenges of the housing and rental market in the Upper Valley. The panelists are: Andrew Winter, executive director of Twin Pines Housing; Clay Adams, CEO, Mascoma Bank; Lori Hirshfield, Hartford’s director of planning; Tracy Yarlott-Davis, Hartford town manager; Kristen Connors, general manager, Vermod Homes; and Megan Moseley, property manager, Moseley Associates.
“Across Hartford and the Upper Valley, as our communities expand and grow, families are being priced out of the communities they love and forced to live farther away from where they work,” Major said in a news release. “We are at an inflection point for affordable housing, and it’s critical that we find creative solutions that meet this moment.”
NORWICH — The Montshire Museum of Science has named Lara Litchfield-Kimber as its new executive director.
Litchfield-Kimber, who is currently the executive director of the Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., will begin her role in January, according to a news release from the nonprofit organization.
“It is an incredible honor to be joining the Montshire team and to have the opportunity to work collaboratively with its staff, board, and community stakeholders in advancing STEM education and inspiring the next generation of critical thinkers, problem solvers, and innovators,” Litchfield-Kimber said in the release. “Now more than ever, interactive science museums have an important role to play in connecting learners of all ages with awe-inspiring and relevant experiences in STEM that help build self-confidence, science literacy, and public trust.”
She replaces Marcos Stafne, who left the museum last April for a job with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York City, which oversees the Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, and the New York Aquarium.
Since Stafne left, deputy director Jennifer Rickards has served as interim museum director. Last May, the museum’s board of trustees formed a search committee and launched a national search. Committee members spoke to more 40 candidates from around the country.
Prior to leading the Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum, Litchfield-Kimber was the deputy director of the Sciencenter in Ithaca, N.Y.
“She is an exceptionally qualified, experienced, and well-regarded leader in the field of science and children’s museums,” board chairman Michael Bettmann said in the release. “We are certain that through her leadership, she will help the museum achieve even more, both locally and nationally.”
HANOVER — This Wednesday at 3:20 p.m., Dartmouth College will test its emergency notification system, including a test of its sirens and voice speakers, which can be heard up to 10 miles from campus.
An automated DartAlert message will also be sent out to all Dartmouth email accounts, desktop computers, campus phones and to personal phone numbers of people who have signed up for alerts, according to an announcement from the college.
The testing should last between 5 and 10 minutes. For more information, visit dartmouth.edu/prepare.
LEBANON — Lebanon Fire Chief Chris Christopoulos was honored as Firefighter of the Year by the North Country Public Service Foundation during a gathering at the Mt. Washington Hotel last month.
Each year, the foundation presents the award to a firefighter who has dedicated their career to serving their community through emergency services work.
Christopoulos has been firefighter for 39 years and Lebanon’s fire chief and emergency management director since 2007, according to a news release. He is also a commissioner for the Center for Public Safety Excellence’s Commission on Professional Credentialing, is the New England Division representative on the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) Board of Directors and is a past president of the New Hampshire Association of Fire Chiefs and the New England Division of the IAFC.
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — Caroline Kirkpatrick, a pharmacist at Springfield Hospital, has been named the distinguished young pharmacist of the year by the Pharmacists Mutual Insurance Co.
Kirkpatrick was presented with the award during the annual Vermont Pharmacists Association meeting in Burlington last month, according to a news release from the hospital.
Kirkpatrick graduated from Albany College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences in 2016, where she was president of the VPA’s Student Chapter. After graduation, she joined the VPA and joined its board where she served as treasurer for five years.
Additionally, Kirkpatrick helped the U.S. Marshal’s Service court security in Rutland and Burlington’s federal courts get COVID vaccinations. During the height of the pandemic when her supervisor was called up for active duty through the Army Reserve, Kirkpatrick served as interim department director. Additionally, she and her mother, who is also a pharmacist, made medical masks for pharmacists and technicians in the early days of the pandemic.
NORWICH — The Cliff House in Norwich will be part of a virtual tour of sustainable homes from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Nov. 13.
The tour is being hosted by the Sustainable Energy Outreach Network, “which showcases homes and the design/construction teams whose work demonstrates a commitment to high-performance building, sustainable materials, durability, indoor air quality, and renewable energy,” according to an announcement. Also featured on the tour is a “deep energy retrofit” home in Bellows Falls, Vt., and Fuller Road Hemp House, Goshen, Mass.
Register and find more information at seon.info/hometour.
Vermont high school students can now submit essays to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ annual State of the Union Essay Contest.
The essays can be about any national topic and must be 250 to 500 words long. The pieces are due by Jan. 11, 2022 and can be submitted at sanders.senate.gov/stateoftheunion.
“I want to see our students be actively engaged, no matter where they stand on the issues,” Sanders, said in a news release. “As we enter the twelfth year of this contest, I believe it is more important than ever to listen to the perspectives of our young people. We are continuing to address the health and economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, while also working to address many of our country’s long-neglected structural issues like education, health care, and climate change. Simply put — this is a pivotal moment — and I, for one, would like to hear the thoughts and ideas of our young people about how we can move forward as a country.”
