CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The temporary committee of the Stamford/Clarksburg Community Watch has decided to postpone the next meeting to Feb. 20, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. This will allow our team to go over the information that is brought back from the Crime Watch Meeting in Washington, D.C., at the end of this month. We are postponing this meeting so that the next big meeting can be full of informative handouts that will help make this Crime Watch group a success.

The group was scheduled to meet this weekend.

The response to join the volunteer committee has been poor. We need a few individuals to participate in order to make this a successful.
    
To sign-up, please send an e-mail to stamfordcw@gmail.com with your name, contact number and how you would like to volunteer. Go to www.townwatch.com for more information.

The crime watch began this past fall after a number of break-ins in the towns of Clarksburg and Stamford, Vt.

SHELBURNE, Mass. — A Drury High School graduate was killed in a two-vehicl crash on Sunday afternoon on Route 2, just east of the state police barracks in Shelburne.

Sean Williams, 22, of Clarksburg was traveling west in a 2004 Honda Civic when he collided with an eastbound 1997 Dodge pickup driven 52-year-old Stephen Olaskiewicz of Concord, N.H., at about 1:26 p.m.

Williams was seriously injured and pronounced dead at the scene. He graduated from the North Adams high school in 2006 and was in his senior year at Bentley College in Waltham, where he was studying accounting.

Olaskiewicz and his passenger, Carol Olaskiewicz, 51, were taken to Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield for treatment of injuries.

Troopers were assisted at the scene by the Collision Analysis and Reconstruction and Crime Scene Services sections and the medical examiner's office. The Shelburne Fire Department and police as well as Buckland Police also assisted at the scene.

The accident is under investigation.

SHAFTSBURY, Vt. — State police are seeking information on two teenage sisters who have been missing since Thursday from their home at 16 Cory Drive.

Kasey C. Bezio, 16, and Kayla L. Bezio, 17, were last seen on BenMont Avenue in Bennington.

Kayla is 5-foot-7, 140 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair, and has braces and a pierced nose. Kasey is 5-foot-6, 130 pounds, with blue eyes and blonde hair.

The Vermont State Police are encouraging anyone with information regarding these missing juveniles to contact the barracks. The teens are under age 18 and by state law are considered juveniles. Anyone providing a place for the juveniles to live is a crime of sheltering or harboring a runaway.

Anyone with information on the girls is asked to contact Detective Sgt. Helaine Gaiotti at the Shaftsbury barracks at 802-442-5421.

STAMFORD, Vt. — A Connecticut couple are accusing a Bennington man of stealing $40,000 worth of lumber from their wooded property - four years after the alleged crime was committed.

Robert Kobelia, 57, has been cited to appear in Vermont District Court in Bennington on Jan. 26 on a charge of grand larceny.

Lynn and Walter Nightingale of Bolton, Conn., filed a complaint with state police late last year, saying they'd discovered in 2008 that the property had been logged four years before, sometime during January or February 2004, without their consent.

They had reportedly contacted the Kobelia, owner of Northeast Wood Products, who told them that he oversaw the operation, but thought they had a verbal agreement. The Nightingales' told state police they did discuss the possibility of having their land logged, but out of all the bids given to them, Kobelia's was the lowest, and they decided not to have their land logged. 

They hired a forestry consultant, who estimated the value of the standing lumber, as well as a private attorney. State police received a report from the consultant as well as e-mail and faxed correspondence from Kobelia to the victim's attorney, which was used to establish probable cause that a crime had been committed.

Kobelia, 57, was interviewed Dec. 31 at the Shaftsbury barracks. According to police, Kobelia said he felt as though there was a verbal agreement between he and the victim. He acknowledged that he never paid the victims for the logs removed, and stated that was it was because of a billing error after a computer crash. He told troopers that he is currently unable to pay Nightingales.

The forestry consultant placed the value of the logs taken from the victim's property at $40,601.07. During the interview, Kobelia maintained that he knows he has to pay the victims for what was taken, but disputed the amount quoted, and told state police that all of his assets are now in foreclosure. 

READSBORO, Vt. — A Readsboro teen died Saturday night after being struck by a snowmobile during a party on private property about a mile off Route 100.

The office of the state's attorney is investigating the circumstances surrounding the accident that lead to the death of 18-year-old Jessica Bolognani. The accident was reported at about 10:30 p.m.

According to state police, Bolognani was riding on the back of a 2009 Polaris snowmobile operated by a Richard Bernard, 20, of Whitingham when she fell and was hit by a second snowmobile that was following, a 2001 Polaris being operated by 21-year-old Clinton Birch of Readsboro.

Bolognani was wearing a helmet but sustained a serious head injury and died of her injuries before she arrived at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington. She was pronounced dead by the regional medical examiner's office.

A group of young adults were at the camp when Bernard, Bolognani and Birch left the camp to go snowmobiling, said police, and alcohol was involved.

Bennington County State's Attorney Erica Marthage ordered an autopsy on Bolognani by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Burlington on Monday.

The investigation into the incident is continuing; anyone with information is asked to call Sgt. Mike Marvin or Trooper Travis Hess at the state police barracks in Shaftsbury at 802-442-5421. 

Bolognani was a star athlete who graduated from Twin Valley High School in Wilmington in June. She was majoring in health sciences at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. Both college and high school classmates recalled a friendly, helpful, generous young woman on a Facebook page dedicated to her. "The whole entire town is in total devastation, she was adored by all," wrote one longtime family friend.