RSSAuthor Archive for Shawn Cunningham

Quarry hearing focuses on noise, unanswered questions

Quarry hearing focuses on noise, unanswered questions

By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC One neighbor leaving last Wednesday’s Development Review Board hearing on the Julian Materials in Gassetts said his head was buzzing. It was not because of the noise of extracting stone but rather the complex and technical noise assessment presented by Eddie Duncan of RSG Inc. of White […]

Report: GM PCB levels under control; long, complex cleanup ahead

Report: GM PCB levels under control; long, complex cleanup ahead

By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The results of air monitoring and sampling as well as identifying sources of PCBs at Green Mountain High that took place over the summer are in and the report is a mixed bag. While some areas – especially the caulking around windows – are registering quite quite […]

State action on Chieftain appeal looks stalled

State action on Chieftain appeal looks stalled

By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC While the board of the Green Mountain Unified School District board has stopped paying for an attorney to defend its Chieftain name, appeals to the Vermont Agency of Education, which  could permanently settle the issue of whether the name violates school policy, appear to have stalled. The […]

GM board votes to stop attorney's defense of 'Chieftain' for now

GM board votes to stop attorney’s defense of ‘Chieftain’ for now

By Shawn Cunningham ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Board of Directors of the Green Mountain Unified School District voted 6 to 3 last night to stop paying an attorney and have him halt work representing the board to defend the Chieftain mascot in an appeal before the state Agency of Education. Instead, the board will […]

Chester Select Board to explore offering benefits to full-time Whiting Library staff

Chester Select Board to explore offering benefits to full-time Whiting Library staff

By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC While last Wednesday’s Chester Select Board agenda was short, it yielded a lot of discussion and some progress on a couple of long-standing issues. Whiting Library Board chair Matt Gorsky came before the board to ask for “some reasonable accommodation” to get benefits for the library’s two […]

Carrara arraigned on child sex charges, held without bail

Carrara arraigned on child sex charges, held without bail

By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Appearing via video conference from Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield, Jason Carrara of Chester was arraigned Monday, Sept. 25 by Judge John R. Treadwell in the Windham County Superior Court in Brattleboro. Representing Carrara, attorney Brian Marsicovetere entered a plea of not guilty to a charge […]

Despite long agenda, GM board meets for 7 minutes; legal fees go unaddressed

Despite long agenda, GM board meets for 7 minutes; legal fees go unaddressed

By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Thursday night’s Green Mountain Unified School District Board meeting ended almost as soon as it began. The board adjourned slightly more than seven minutes into the meeting over how to handle an agenda item regarding the appeal of its May 18 decision that the name Chieftain does […]

Chester man arrested on child sex charge

Chester man arrested on child sex charge

By Shawn Cunningham © Telegraph Publishing LLC Police arrested a Chester man today, Sunday, Sept. 24, on a charge of aggravated sexual assault on a child. According to the Chester Police, 40-year-old Jason Carrara surrendered at the Public Safety Building on Pleasant Street and was processed before being taken to Southern State Correctional Facility to […]

Drunk driver pleads to reduced charges in 2022 crash that injured Chester business owner

Drunk driver pleads to reduced charges in 2022 crash that injured Chester business owner

By Shawn Cunningham ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The drunk driver who ran head-on into a Chester business owner in a snowstorm on Route 103 near Gassetts in March 2022 plead guilty to a reduced charge in Windsor County Superior Court last Monday. Travis Stella of Wilton, Conn., was charged with driving under the influence and […]

DRB holds first hearing on permits for Julian quarries

DRB holds first hearing on permits for Julian quarries Site visits set for Sept. 25

By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Development Review Board hearings are quasi-judicial proceedings that can be quiet, formal affairs that consist of taking testimony and checking boxes. But they can also be confrontational and charged with emotion when people disagree over development plans. The latter was what Chester DRB chair Bob Greenfield was […]

Chieftain defense costs top $10,000 thus far

Chieftain defense costs top $10,000 thus far Hearings with three appellants have yet to be scheduled

By Shawn Cunningham ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Green Mountain Unified School District thus far has spent $10,000 defending its decision to continue using the word Chieftain as a mascot name, and a hearing before the Agency of Education has yet to be held. Once the hearing gets under way, those costs are expected to […]

Chester board bans new, unhosted short-term rentals for six months

Chester board bans new, unhosted short-term rentals for six months

By Shawn Cunningham ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC On Wednesday night, after much discussion and public comment, the Chester Select Board voted to impose a six-month moratorium on new unhosted short-term rentals beginning on Oct. 1. The suggestion for the moratorium came from Zoning Administrator Preston Bristow, who pointed out that there are seven such rentals […]

Remote meeting styles evolve with good and bad experiences, technology

Remote meeting styles evolve with good and bad experiences, technology

  By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The recent move by Green Mountain Unified School District Board to prohibit comment from those who attend its meetings by Zoom – including board members – prompts the question of where other boards stand on the issue of remote vs. in-person meetings and what goes into […]

Community Garden installs sign by artist Jamie Townsend

Community Garden installs sign by artist Jamie Townsend

© 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Last week, gardeners gathered at the Chester Community Garden to mark the installation of a new sign created by Springfield artist Jamie Townsend, whose colorful, farm-related work has been on display on buildings throughout the area. Two of his paintings hang on the front wall of Erskine’s Grain and Garden. […]

Cavendish member objects to GM board changes to Zoom meetings

Cavendish member objects to GM board changes to Zoom meetings Lisa Sanders to join Cavendish representation on GM board

By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC While the Green Mountain Unified School District Board finally filled the open seat for a Cavendish representative at its Thursday, Aug. 17 meeting, another issue came to light that has the potential to further inflame the relationship among the district’s towns: restricting public comment to those attending […]

Van rollover injures driver, knocks out power in six towns

Van rollover injures driver, knocks out power in six towns

By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC A rollover on Tuesday afternoon left the 73-year-old driver of a van with minor injuries after his car sliced a utility pole that knocked out power to 1,400 Green Mountain Power customers across six towns. Chester Police Chief Tom Williams said that John G. Johannesen III, 73, […]

Chester residents call for more short-term rental regulations

Chester residents call for more short-term rental regulations

By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Last Wednesday, several Chester residents attended the Select Board meeting to tell members that they want more regulation of short-term rentals before it’s too late and that neighborhoods like the Stone Village are full of “empty houses for tourists.” The topic was on the board’s agenda because […]

Chester to bypass vendor, roll out first phase of STR registration applications

Chester to bypass vendor, roll out first phase of STR registration applications No implementation dates from swamped Granicus

By Shawn Cunningham ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Last Friday’s “kick off” meeting with Granicus, the company that Chester hired to establish and manage its short-term rental registry, has spurred the town to seek an old-school route while waiting for the more hi-tech segments to be created. “Alex bravely answered our questions and stayed chipper,” Zoning […]

CAES sustained minor damage during floods

CAES sustained minor damage during floods Other TRSU schools in good shape; all to open on time

By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The area rumor mill was working overtime as people have added their own interpretations to a story about flood damage in Vermont schools that ran in VT Digger a week after the July 10 floods. With the Digger article attributing “major damage” to the school, one such […]

Work on Chester's delayed short-term rental registry to move forward

Work on Chester’s delayed short-term rental registry to move forward

By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Implementing a short-term rental registry has been a more daunting task than Chester’s town government had expected. More than five months after signing a contract to provide Chester a short-term rental registration program that was planned to launch by April, Granicus told the town on July 13 […]