THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2011 VOL. 19 NO. 202
BERLIN, N.H.
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Where are the pictures of Johanne’s jump? BY GAIL SCOTT THE BERLIN DAILY SUN
BERLIN—At the spectacular Olympic Trials held at Berlin’s brand new Nansen Ski Jump in March 1938, Norwegian guest star Johanne Kolstad of Dokka, Norway, soared a women’s world record of 228 feet. Thousands of people witnessed this awesome event. At least 5,000 cars were counted, parked in the parking lot and along Route 16, according to the Berlin Reporter of March 10, 1938, which also enthusiastically estimated the crowd at 25,000. Now a respected Norwegian documentary film company— Flimmer Film— is making a documentary about Kolstad’s life and especially of her feat here—a record that stood unchallenged until 1972. But where are the films and the photos of the event? So far, the researchers of Flimmer Film have not found any, although they have compiled other moving picture shots of Kolstad who was, at this time, a star at a number of ski jumping events in
the U.S. as well as elsewhere. Kolstad was 25. The Nansen Ski Jump, then hailed as “the largest ski jump in the eastern United States and foremost in the country”, gave her the opportunity to beat her own previous world record of 203 feet by 25 feet. It proved to be Kolstad’s finest jump. She never beat the distance, although she continued to ski in succeeding decades. She died in 1997. After her death, a book about early women ski jumpers was written by Karin Berg, director of the Oslo Ski Museum, who had access to Kolstad’s clippings, saved in “a little box”. There appear to have been newspaper clippings in the box, but …. where are the Berlin films. Even in the 1930s, motion pictures were being shot of sports and must have been taken of Kolstad’s appearance in Berlin—if nothing else because the event was the 1938 ski jumping Olympic Trials in the U.S. This sad state of the historical record has come to light because of Flimmer Film’s intent to document see PICTURES page 7
Walter Nadeau, of Berlin, Romeo Labonte, of Berlin, Leane Rexford, of Milan, and cameraman Torstein Nodland, of Flimmer Flims, share a laugh, occasioned, no doubt, by some remark Labonte has made about skiing in the old days and whether or not Johanne Kolstad’s world record jump of 228 feet from the Nansen Ski Jump in 1938 was anything to write home about. Labonte’s record on the same hill was 250 feet. Kolstad’s jump broke her own world record by 25 feet, was her career best, and stood as the world’s women’s ski jump record until 1972. It was made during the 1938 Olympic ski jumping trials in Berlin when the Nansen Ski Jump was brand new. Kolstad was a guest star. (GAIL SCOTT PHOTO)
Annual GRS Co-Op Shelburne to consider meeting tonight at GM/HS contracting for police services GORHAM—The Gorham Randolph Shelburne Cooperative School District will be holding its annual meeting tonight. The meeting is at 7 p.m. in the Gorham Middle High School gymnasium. At the meeting voters will be faced with deciding on a number of warrant articles including the proposed 2011- 2012 school budget and the proposed four-year teachers’ contract. The proposed 2011- 2012 school budget is $8,452,694. The Gorham Randolph Shelburne Cooperative School Board voted on a number of cuts in order to cover the increase in insurance costs, other benefits and an anticipated decrease in state aid. This year’s proposed operating budget of $8,491,772 is a $39,078 increase over last year’s budget. The administrators initially came in with a budget that showed a reduction, but the board voted last week to put a nursing position
back in. This caused the increase. A number of staff reductions are in the budgets, including eliminating a part time custodial position, eliminating a special education teacher, eliminating an English teacher, eliminating an business/ IT teacher, eliminating the industrial arts program, eliminating a part time special education administrative assistant and eliminating five para-professionals. The reduction of an English teacher would be prevented if voters pass the proposed teachers’ contract. Aside from personnel changes, the budget also cuts co-curricular stipends, department head stipends, the golf team and the crosscountry skiing team. The projected tax rate impact is a $2.24 increase for Gorham; a 65 cent increase for Randolph; and a 15 cent decrease for Shelburne. This would make the antici-
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see MEETING page 7
ately due to a small number of troopers on the road. “They were looking for a quicker response time for emergency calls for service,” said Cyr. The estimated price for a year of police services in Shelburne, said Cyr, is $12,000- $15,000. He added the estimated figure is based on the past three years worth of calls. Shelburne would pay the Gorham officers $39.31 per hour, which is the amount included in the union contract, and pay that same rate for any follow up investigation that an incident might require. In an incident where an emergency call comes in from Shelburne and there is only one Gorham officer on patrol, Cyr said an off-duty officer would be called in so someone would be on duty in town. He added Shelburne would then pay for the overtime for the officer that is called in, as well as regular rate for the emergency call response. For Gorham residents, Cyr said they
BY CRAIG LYONS THE BERLIN DAILY SUN
SHELBURNE— At Tuesday’s town meeting, Shelburne’s voters will decide whether to begin contracting with the Gorham Police Department for services. The proposed agreement would give Shelburne 24- hour police coverage from Gorham officers. The Gorham police would primarily handle emergency calls, while state police would continue fielding most of the general service calls. The town could also ask for specific dedicated patrols during certain hours, according to the terms of the agreement. The Shelburne Board of Selectmen initially asked if extending police services to the town was possible, said Gorham Chief PJ Cyr. He added Shelburne expressed interest in the idea since the town will no longer have an elected constable. Currently for police services, Cyr said Shelburne relies on the constable and the N.H. State Police. He added that the town was concerned because state police sometimes can’t responded to a call immedi-
see SHELBURNE page 7
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