BURLINGTON — The former office manager of the Hardwick Electric Department is in a Minnesota prison.

Officials say that this week Joyce Bellavance began serving a 3½-year federal prison sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution Waseca, about 75 miles south of Minneapolis.

Waseca is a low-security prison for women.

Bellavance, 58, has been ordered to pay more than $1.6 million to Hardwick Electric and the Vermont League of Cities and Towns.

Bellavance worked at Hardwick Electric for 37 years. Prosecutors say she wrote checks to herself to pay credit card bills and for home renovations and vacations. She also bought real estate, jewelry and cars.