Cover photo by Marc Samson

Issue 4 Fall 2011

NNeewwssIINNKK SSttaaffff:: EEddiittoorr:: SSaarraahh AAuubbee

DDaannaa BBeerrlliinnPPeetteerr NNuuttee

RRoobbeerrtt PPaattttoonnMMaarrcc SSaammssoonn

BBrriittttaannyy VVaalleennttiinneeAAddvviisseerr:: DDaann WWiilllliiaammss

NewsINK is a publication of the Vermont Center for Community Journalism at Lyndon State College. Find us online at Issuu.com/newsink.Address queries to: NewsINK, Department of Electronic Journalism Arts, Lyndon State College, P.O. Box 919, Lyndonville, Vt. 05849.

IINNSSIIDDEE44...... KKiissssiinngg aa ggooaatt

HHoocckkeeyy rriivvaallrryy ......6688...... CCoonnccuussssiioonnss

RRaacciinngg hhoorrssee iinnjjuurreedd ......11001166...... MMaaggiicc SSppoooonn BBaakkeerryy

8877--yyeeaarr--oolldd aauutthhoorr ......11882222...... TThhee PPiizzzzaa MMaann’’ss bbaarr

CCoovveerr:: PPaarrttss ooffBBuurrkkee MMoouunnttaaiinn’’ssnneeww,, ffaasstteerr lliiffttaawwaaiittaasssseemmbbllyy..SSttoorryy PPaaggee 2200..

Fall 2011Page 4

This was the deal of-

fered to students at St .

Johnsbury School : Read

2,500 books by the end of

October, and Pr incipal

Martha Dubuque would

kiss a farm animal.

“We wanted to pro-

mote l i teracy and inde-

pendent reading, love of

reading and a habi t of

l i fe long reading,”

Dubuque said.

The students read that

many and then some, so

r ight before Thanksgiv ing,

Dubuque kissed a goat.

She la id down the

chal lenge in the run-up to

the school ’s bi-annual

book fai r, “To the Books

and Beyond.”

Dur ing the weeklong

fair, students could come

in and buy books for any-

one from kindergartners

to adul ts. They could also

purchase oddbal l school

suppl ies. Pr ices ranged

from $2 to $30.

“We have parents to

come help run the book

fair, ” said Beth Mal lon,

Kissing the goat

St. Johnsbury School Principal Martha Dubuque makes good on a promise to kiss a goat ifstudents read 2,500 books.

Artwork lines the walls at the weeklong book fair.

Fall 2011 Page 5

Right: Principal MarthaDubuque said she offered thegoat-kissing challenge to pro-mote a love of reading amongstudents at St. JohnsburySchool. Below: Leftover postersin the library from the book fair.

Photos and Story by Marc SamsonNewsINKAdditional reporting by Aaron Kormos

the head l ibrar ian. “Then

before and af ter school

we have our l ibrar ian as-

sistants help.”

The school turned a

prof i t of $1,500 on sales

of $5,700.

Mal lon said St.

Johnsbury School ’s l i -

brary wants to buy some-

thing special wi th the

money.

“This year we are

going to buy ‘Book-

f l icks, ’ “ she said. “ ‘Book-

f l icks’ is a Scholast ic

onl ine l ibrary wi th inter-

act ive books for many

ages. I t can be accessed

anywhere, school or at

home.”

In addi t ion to f ic t ion,

the onl ine l ibrary offers

“ interact ive non-f ict ion

stor ies as wel l to help

meet state standards,"

said Mal lon.

Fall 2011Page 6

Story and Photos byDana BerlinNewsINK

High School rivalries can getpretty intense. Just look at the an-nual football game between St.Johnsbury Academy and Lyndon In-stitute.

Football is not the only rivalry be-tween the two schools. FentonChester Ice Arena in Lyndon Centeris home to both St. Johnsbury Acad-emy and Lyndon Institute, and theyearly game between the two teamscan get pretty big. “Every bleacher isfilled, and there is no standing roomaround the glass,” said Christian

Henault, a former SJA player. There is something about a rival

school that makes the game biggerthan it actually is. Just like in foot-ball, hockey games become morethan just a team rivalry. The game it-

self brings the schools, and townsinto the mix. The magnitude of thegame cshanges a person’s feelingstowards the other town, school, andplayers. “You know everyone fromthe other team, but during that 45minutes they’re complete strangers,they’re the enemy, the bad guys. Allyou want to do is ruin them,” saidHenault.

Pride is a big part of rivalrygames as well. “There has to bepride in your school in order to con-sistently win during these types ofgames,” said Brian Hopkins, a formerLyndon Institute goalie. “You need towant it more than the other team andyou need to want to beat them. You

Hockey rivalry thriving between SJA and LI

“You know everyonefrom the other team, butduring that forty-five min-utes they’re completestrangers.”

-Christian Henault

Fall 2011 Page 7

Opposite Page: ChristianHenault (left) and Brian Hop-kins now play together onLyndon State’s club hockeyteam, but they were bitter ri-vals in high school, Henaultplaying for St. JohnsburyAcademy and Hopkins skatingfor Lyndon Institute.Top: Fen-ton Chester Arena is home toboth schools’ hockey teams.Middle: LI’s banners hangabove the ice. Bottom: SJA’sbanners hang next to LI’s.

need your fans to want ittoo. Everyone needs tohave pride in the schooland yourself to be able tosucceed in rivalry games.”

“Lyndon was ourbiggest rivalry in hockey forsure,” said Henault. “Ilooked forward to that gamefrom the beginning of theseason.”

Both Henault and Hop-kins are now playing on thesame team for LyndonState College but never for-get the games they playedon opposite sides. “I hatedthem, but as soon as it isover all the hatred is gone,”Hopkins said. “I rememberHenny (Christian Henault),he scored on me once but Irobbed him a lot more.”

The overall record be-tween the two teams wasunavailable, but formerplayers from both sides saySt. Johnsbury has theupper hand.

Fall 11Page 8

Dana BerlinNewsINK

His back planted on the boardswaiting for the outlet pass, the de-fense struggling behind the net to getthe puck out of the zone, time tickingdown off the clock, 49…48…47. Thepass from his defense comes to-wards him, his eyes focused on thepuck rapidly approaching, his onlythought: “Score.” As the puck makescontact with his stick, he turns hishead to begin rushing up the ice.Black.

“It was as if I just hit a brick wall,”said Brandon Logel, a freshman atLyndon State College, while dis-

cussing the play that resulted in hissecond concussion. “I turned myhead quick and was immediately onthe ground. My head hit the ice and Iimmediately had a headache.”

Concussions have been a bigissue among high school, college,and professional athletes alike.Within the past few years, more andmore concussion testing and screen-

ing has been implemented for thebenefit of these athletes.

At LSC pre-season tests takeplace to give athletic trainers ade-quate information to assess theseverity of all concussions and con-cussion symptoms. “Students areasked to count backwards, remem-ber words, and perform balance ex-aminations during the preseason, sothat if there is thought of a possibleconcussion the trainers can repeatthese exams to diagnose and treatany injuries that occur,” said AndrewSaltarella, a student in the ExerciseScience Department at LSC and cap-tain of the hockey team.

The protocol for concussion test-

“It was as if I just hita brick wall.”

-Brandon Logel

Concussions a hot topic among athletes

Fall 2011 Page 9

ing and evaluation is mandatory fortoday’s athletes but was a rare oc-currence just a few years ago. “I waslucky to have the trainer that I did,”said Christian Henault a member ofthe LSC hockey team, who suffereda concussion while in high school. “Idon’t think a lot of people would havetreated me the same way I wastreated. Now it’s the way you haveto do it, but back then it was not ascommon.”

Brandon Logel was not as luckywhen it came to the resources avail-able when he had his first concus-sion. “I got hit in a similar way to mymost recent concussion, but it wasunfortunate because it was duringspring league so there were no train-ers available. My coach just askedme if I was okay, asked if I had aheadache and basically told me tosuck it up.”

There is no argument thathockey players hate it when theymiss games because of concus-sions. “It sucks to sit out, obviously,not being able to help your team ifthey are losing, not having any con-trol over the outcome of a game, butI would rather be able to play downthe road than to play in that mo-ment,” Henault said. “The possibilityof severe damage to the brain withcontinued play while you have a con-cussion is a greater risk than to sitout for a few games.”

Opposite page: A LyndonState hockey player col-lides with a Coast GuardAcademy opponent at arecent game at FentonChester Arena. Top: An-other collision sends anLSC skater and a CoastGuard player to the ice.Above: A Coast Guardplayer suffers an injuryand receives medical at-tention on the ice. Left: Asa precaution, paramedicscheck the Coast Guardskater in the ambulance.

Photos by Eric Blaisdell

Fall 2011Page 10

Christine Seymour of Lyndonville,Vermont, watches her horse Legacystep in place nervously about thebarn, scars from more than 200stitches clearly visible on the animal’sstomach and leg.

“We don’t know what happened,”Seymour says. “Nobody really knows.”

Seymour was racing Legacy inOctober at the National Barrel HorseAssociation World Championships inPerry, Georgia, when the horse de-cided to jump a 6-foot gate.

“Her front feet cleared it,” Sey-mour recalls. “She caught the gate

about chest level. I caught my foot onthe rail.”

Seymour somersaulted. She re-members hoping to avoid the saddlehorn because riders have been killedcatching the horn in the chest or head.

“I rode her all the way to theground, upside down. I remember hit-ting my shoulder and my hip. Shecame down sideways instead of com-pletely on top of me and landed acrossmy legs.”

Incredibly, both horse and ridersprang to their feet.

“All I saw was a trail of blood, andwhen I got over there, she was justripped open,” Seymour says. WhenLegacy crashed the gate, the brokenrail pierced the horse’s leg down to the

bone and tore into the membrane thatprotects her stomach. She had threerib fractures and a chip in her shoul-der. She needs months of rehabilita-tion and takes antibiotics and painkillers. Doctors doubt she will raceagain.

Seymour escaped with a brokenfoot. She has been racing since 1994and has no plans to stop. In the springshe will start training Legacy’s sister,Vegas, as a barrel racer.

Seymour says she has no clues toLegacy’s unusual behavior on that dayin October, but she suspected some-thing was a little off. L e g a c yneeded no coaxing to approach thestarting position before the run.

Story and photosby Peter Nute

Horse battles injuries; racing future in doubt

Fall 2011 Page 11

NewsINK is a publication of the Vermont Center for Community Journalism at Lyndon State College. Find us online at Issuu.com (search for “NewsINK”).Address queries to: NewsINK, Deptartment of Electronic Journalism Arts, Lyndon State College, P.O. Box 919, Lyndonville, Vt. 05851

Opposite page: American quarter-horse Legacy at the barn. Above:Owner Christine Seymour injectingLegacy with a round of antibiotics.Left: A veterinarian dresses Legacy’swounds after the crash. Right: Legacyafter her wounds had been cleaned.Below:Legacy’s leg after stitches.

“It was one of thoseunique times that she justwalked right up to the gate,”Seymour said. “I thought,‘This isn’t right. It’s cool, butit isn’t right.’”

Legacy took off nor-mally but “changed gears”at the first barrel. WhenSeymour tried to take her

around the second barrel,she spun and charged to-ward the gate.

“I went to pull back onher and nothing happened. Icould see the whites of hereyes and feel the stiffnessof her neck.”

Seymour had a secondor two to brace for impact.

“Luck on my part” ishow Seymour credits hersurvival. She looks over atLegacy, who is standingabove a blue bucket eatingnoisily after receiving around of medication. “Mymain focus is on her.”

Legacy has been in-jured before. In 2008 she

broke the coffin bone, thelargest bone in the hoof,and doctors doubted shewould come back from theaccident. But Legacy pre-vailed, and Seymour hopesthat with the medication andrehabilitation, she will beable to race again.

Fall 2011Page 12

The Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act couldshift the balance of where Vermonters buy theirfood.

Vermonters buy about 95 percent of theirfood from out of state. Supporters of the legisla-tion say a 5-percent shift could generate $88million dollars and create more than 1,500 jobs.

Paul Downing of Meadow View Farm in Lyn-donville supports the act.

“Basically it’s going to allow us to easily, ormore easily, distribute our products through thefarmers markets and the programs where theyare giving out coupons to needy families thatneed to have some kind of subsidies in order topay for these foods,” said Downing of the act.

Downing believes that the 5-percent targetwill not be difficult to hit and believes that thenumber can be taken even higher if it will helpVermonters, the economy, and people’s health.

“Local food is not necessarily cheaper thanstuff that’s brought in from the other side of thecountry, but it is a healthier product and it’s bet-

ter for you. Plus, building the local economy iscertainly the way to go,” said Downing.

Senator Patrick Leahy is co-sponsoring theact.

The bill was designed as an addition to the2012 farm bill. Should the act go into effect,supporters say it will help small family farms getbetter crop insurance, build infrastructure toallow farmers and food businesses to handlemore products, and increase food safety train-ing.

“I think the act is a step in the right direc-tion,” said Downing. “I certainly support it. Mostof the farmers that I know are very interested init; they feel it’s going to be beneficial for them.It’s a win-win situation.”

Reporting by David CarmichaelEditing by Peter Nute

Farm bill to help economy, allies say

A view from Meadow View Farm in Lyndonville, Vermont. Photo by Peter Nute

Fall 2011 Page 13

Left: The entrance to Meadow View Farm.Below: Cattle grazing in the pasture atMeadow View. The new act could potentiallyassist farmers, such as Paul Downing fromMeadow View, in distributing goods acrossVermont.

Photos by Peter Nute

Supporters say the act will

* Eliminate penalties for production of fruitsand vegetables on land previously dedicatedto row crops.* Support organic farming by authorizing

the Risk Management Agency to eliminate theorganic premium surcharge and by fundingthe National Organic Certification Cost ShareProgram.* Reduce barriers to institutional purchas-

ing, better linking Vermont farms with Vermontschools, hospitals and other institutions.* Help farmers sell products directly to

needy people through their electronic foodbenefit accounts.

Fall 2011Page 14

Seniors share memories When residents at the Good Liv-

ing Senior Center in St. Johnsburystarted meeting and sharing storiesfour years ago, nobody expectedthey would become authors one day.

Now they are. “The Good LivingReview” is a collection of memoirswritten by 20 members of the group.They take readers back to timeswhen things were very different.Some of the stories go back 75years, and many take place in theNortheast Kingdom.

"We were all brought up in aboutthe Depression era,” says one au-thor, Betty Blake. “I was a child of theDepression too. I lived out on thefarm in Lyndonville... and we werepoor people."

Group members come from Lyn-

donville, Sutton, St. Johnsbury,

Sheffield and Westmore. They have

been writing for almost three years.One piece in the book was writ-

ten by Clara Fisher, who remembers

growing up in Germany during WorldWar Two: “There were big placardsof threatening ‘Jews’ in public places,but I never connected these withpeople who lived in our neighbor-hood: Our kindly dentist, about whommy mother worried when he sud-denly disappeared, and my older sis-ter’s school friend who had to moveto a ghetto in the city.”

Another author in the book, Ros-alie Vear, also reminisces about thewar.

Clockwise from left: Rosalie Vear designed the cover of the memoirfrom the Good Living Senior Center. Harman Clark reads an excerpthe wrote. The book is opened to an excerpt titled “Over The Store” byRuth Allard.

Fall 2011 Page 15

Photo courtesy of Good Living Review.Residents of the Good Living Center in St. Johnsbury work on their memoirs with Reeve Lindbergh.

By the time of my graduation [atSt. Johnsbury Academy] more thanhalf of the boys in my class were inthe service and one, who had liedabout his age, was killed in action atseventeen. The boys didn’t thinkabout dying, they wanted to win the-war and win it fast.”

Other sections of the book arelighter, such as Jean Ashley’s storyabout milking cows: “Milking wasusually peaceful and rewarding. Withmy head up against her warm side,talking soothingly to Big Lady orBlackie, I squeezed and pulled rhyth-

mically and the warm milk flowed intoa pail with a pleasing sound.”

As the group continues to meet,their bond continues to becomestronger.

“We've gotten to know eachother and to open up and learnthings that you wouldn't publish oreven talk about with others," saysHarman Clark, another author fea-tured in the book.

A Northeast Kingdom author,Reeve Lindbergh, selected the sto-ries for the book and managed thepublishing process.

“I found myself so fascinated bythe stories that came out of thisgroup and really I enjoyed so muchbeing with the people,” says Lind-bergh. ““This is a group that justwants to tell their own story and thestories are fantastic.”

The book is for sale for $10 atBoxcar and Caboose on RailroadStreet in St. Johnsbury, and all profitsgo to the Good Living Senior Center.

Reporting by Joseph Peters andJessica Walsh. Photography byBryan White and Ryan Holmes.Editing by Sarah Aube.

Fall 2011Page 16

High hopes and a strong support system turnedCarmela Ram’s bakery dream into a reality; that and acrooked back.

Ram found herself unemployed after a bakery whereshe worked was sold.

“I knew that nobody will hire me,” she recalls. “Mybody is all bent and crooked – like a pret-zel. Somebody would look at me and say,‘Hell, no, I don’t hire this woman..’ I knewI had to start something for myself.”

In January 2010, Ram started MagicSpoon Bakery in her home in Hardwick.She learned many of the recipes from hergrandmother while growing up in Israel.

“Everything I do I try to make with a little twist,” shesays. “I try to always add something that nobody else isdoing.” For example, Ram uses extra virgin olive oil andsea salt in her granola bars. She says she thinks she is

the only baker in Vermont who makes the filled pastriesknown as rugelach, or Linzer Tortes with their trademarklattice tops.

Ram moved to the United States in 1984. “A spiritualteacher that I knew lived in New York City at the time.That’s who really convinced me to come to America.”

Hardwick became Ram’s home in2007, and she says the communitymade her feel welcome. She tries togive back now by using as many localingredients as she can. “I’ve decidedthat even though I’m expanding, I wantto stick to local goods. This way I sup-port my community as they supported

me.”One of her favorite menu items is pita bread. “It’s a

simple bread, but very particular. You have to do it a spe-cial way and cover it all the time. When we do pita bread

Taste the Magic at the Magic Spoon Bakery

“I try to always addsomething that no-body else is doing.”

-Carmela Ram

Photos courtesy of Carmela Ram.

Fall 2011 Page 17

we take over the wholebakery. I call it a labor oflove because we don’t domuch money on them. Theingredients aren’t expen-sive but the labor is expen-sive.”

Don’t expect Ram toshare her recipes.

“Rugelach is from mygrandmother,” Ram says.“Me and three sons knowhow to do the dough. It’s re-ally a family secret. I actu-ally don’t want anybody toknow how to do the dough.“

Photos clockwise from top right:One of Carmela Ram’s favortiemenu items, pita bread; chocolatechip cookies from the MagicSpoon Bakery; rugelach from asecret family recipe; Ram hard atwork making rugelach.

Editing byBrittany ValentineNewsINK

Fall 2011Page 18

Robert PattonNewsINK

What does it take to write a500-page novel that spans twocontinents and more than 60years of history—a book that tellsthe story of love and war, of lifeand death and rebirth? For an 87-year-old resident of Peacham,Vermont, it took eight years of ef-fort with the support of a wifewho retyped his manuscript eighttimes before throwing up herarms in frustration.

“Wildwood,” Stuart O’Brien’sepic story, is set largely on the is-lands of the Pacific where U.S.Marines are locked in a life-and-death struggle with Japanese sol-diers during World War Two.

Thousands of Marines died,andfamilies back home were facedwith the need to make peacewith memories once peace wasrestored.

O’Brien now spends summersin Vermont and winters in Florida,but he grew up in New Jersey,

and Wildwood Avenue in Mont-clair is where his characters re-side until the world goes to war.

The project started at a highschool reunion in Montclair. Rem-iniscing with his aging classmates,Stuart agreed to research andwrite about the life of a high-

Long, hardroadforPeachamauthor, 87

school buddy who diedfighting the Japanese inthe Pacific.

Stuart himself servedin Italy with the U.S.Army Air Corps, so hisresearch into the PacificWar opened up a newworld for him. He wasfascinated with what helearned, especially whenhis investigation uncov-ered the fact that his de-ceased friend had leftbehind a lover in Mont-clair, who was so com-mitted that she spentthe decades that fol-lowed without a mate,remembering only theyoung man she hadhoped to marry.

The true story he un-covered was so powerfulthat he determined towrite the story as anovel that blended truthwith fiction but pre-served the adventure,the conflict and the pas-sion of real-life drama.

But there was aproblem—a very bigproblem. O’Brien had tolearn to write. Never be-fore had he written any-thing beyond businessreports, correspon-dence, and school com-positions. Most writerstoday use word process-ing programs on com-puters. Not O’Brien.Every word of his mag-

num opus was set downwith pen on paper.

Aside from writing,he had much to learnabout the years thatstretched from Decem-ber 7, 1941, to the daythe Japanese signed the“instrument of surren-der.” But O’Brien didn’tdo Internet research ei-ther. He learned aboutthe key events of thewar from books.

To make thoseevents come to life,O’Brien relied on otherswho had fought in thePacific. He spent manyhours with Fred Fortin, aPeacham neighbor who,like the hero of “Wild-wood,” fought in the Pa-cific with the 2nd MarineDivision.

O’Brien has capturedthe feeling of that lifeand death struggle in

places like Guadalcanal,Tarawa, and Saipan. Todo that successfully, heneeded to learn to paintpictures with words.Enter Bill and SharonBiddle who have led awriters’ group in St.Johnsbury for manyyears. Biddle teachesfreshman English at Lyn-don State College, andO’Brien credits his criti-cism and advice for turn-ing him from neophyteto novelist.

Twice a month in thewarmer parts of theyear, O’Brien would readpages of the work inprogress to his fellowwriters. They knew, ofcourse, that these pageswere intended to beparts of a novel, but likethe fabled blind menand the elephant, thebig picture was never

fully revealed to them.One member of the

group privately opinedthat this book might beinteresting to the fewsurviving members ofthe generation that re-membered Pearl Harbor.But Stuart’s vision wentfar beyond that limitedidea. “Wildwood” is apowerful story aboutlife-and-death struggleand undying love anddevotion.

His war scenes areso gripping and graphicthat this reader felt en-gaged in the struggle.His characters, many ofwhom are drawn fromlife, are fleshed out bythe novelist’s art. At thesame time his descrip-tion of life in a New Jer-sey suburb takes us backto a time when lifeseemed simpler. PearlHarbor brings that idylliclife to a close as youngAmerican men go off towar, often leaving youngwomen that care aboutthem behind.

The Boxcar and Ca-boose bookstore in St.Johnsbury printed asmall number of copiesof the novel. They arecirculating amongO’Brien’s circle of friendsin the Northeast King-dom and in Vero Beach,Florida, his winter home.

Fall 2011 Page 19

Photo by Robert PattonStuart O’Brien peruses his epic World War II novel, “Wild-wood.”

Fall 2011Page 20

As winter ap-proaches, Burke Moun-tain is launching a newmarketing campaign aswell as other attractions.

The new slogan isTrue North. Ads call it"Less a point on a com-pass, more a way of life.A way of life we're fight-ing to preserve for skiersand riders everywhere,”

Burke hopes to at-tract more skiers, but theslogan is only one of thenewer additions.

Burke Mountainhopes to finish construc-tion on a new lift by theend of December. The liftgoes from the middle ofthe mountain to the sum-mit in half the time thatthe “Willoughby Lift” did.

Its new name as of nowis the “Mid-Burke Ex-press.” Manufactured byLeitner-Poma, it will carryriders up the mountain at11 miles per hour.

With the new lift, fivenewer trails are alsobeing opened: Upper LiftLine, an intermediatetrail; Rerun, Upper PowerLine, and Lower PowerLine, all expert trails; andJester, a terrain park trail.Burke will use its moun-tain biking trail to serveas a terrain park.

"Hopefully some ofthe marketing efforts wedo will increase visitors toBurke itself and that obvi-ously flows right into thecommunity," TimMcGuire, Burke’s vice

president and generalmanager.

But it doesn’t stopthere. Burke has con-structed a turbine that willproduce 20 percent of themountain’s energy. “It ob-viously reduces our en-ergy impact and is reallya sensible project for us,and it really pushes ustowards our sustainableenergy effort,” saidMcGuire.

Opening anywherefrom the end of Novem-ber to mid-December,Burke is also going to bemarketing to metropolitanareas such as New Yorkand Boston to increaseits business.

Reporting byRene Thibault andMichael HenesseyEditing byMarc Samson

Green and True in the North

Fall 2011 Page 21

Photos document the progress of construction on the Mid-Burke

Express, the new lift at Burke Mountain. The quad lift will carry

skiers up the mountain at 11 miles per hour.

Photos by Marc Samson

Fall 2011Page 22

If you’d rather have a rum and Cokethan a beer while eating at The PizzaMan, you’re now in luck.

The owner of The Pizza Man is remodeling therestaurant for the addition of a full sports bar,where liquor will now be served, multiple additionalTVs will be put in, and the bar itself will be movedand expanded.

“We have a small area now,” said owner ShaneSwitser of the expansion. “When there are biggersports events, we have more than five people whowant to watch the game.”

Switser says that this is something that he haswanted to do with the restaurant for a while. The re-modeling is happening little by little, and they arehoping to finish it soon.

When the bar is all set up, it will be open until11 p.m. during the week and midnight on Friday andSaturday. Currently, the restaurant is open until 9on weeknights, and 10 on weekends.

However, the restaurant has received a license

from the town that permits Switser to serve alcoholuntil 1:30 if he ever chooses to. “We’ll see how itgoes,” said Switser. “If there’s a need for it, we’llstay open till 1:30.”

Not all beer and pizza

Photos and Storyby Sarah Aube

Fall 2011 Page 23

During the additionalhours after the restaurant it-self closes, the bar will stillserve food, but from a morelimited bar menu.

As for being competitionwith other local bars, Phat Katsand The Packing House, Switsersays that’s not his aim.

“The goal is not to create anightclub. We’re trying to be arestaurant with a full servicebar,” said Switser. “I think thatwe’re filling some sort of a needin the area.”

Owner Chad Pilotte of PhatKat’s says that he does not thinkthat this addition to The PizzaMan will affect him adversely be-cause they serve different cus-tomers. He said it is actually agood idea.

“It’s good to have a couplemore places around here,” saysPilopte. “It gets people out anddoing things.”

The remodeling of ThePizza Man is giving the restau-rant a new entrance, so cus-tomers won’t have to walkthrough the bar to get to the din-ing area.

“We’re hoping to keep afamily-friendly environment,”says Switser.

Photos on opposite page, clockwisefrom top left: Beer on tap behind thenew bar. The dining room, whichwill have a separate entrance whenthe bar opens. The new entrance.Right: The old entrance is closed off.