Chester board talks optional sales tax, Class 4 roads and 40-year-old money

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Last Wednesday’s Select Board meeting agenda was heavy with discussion and pretty light on action items. And for long-time Chester board watchers it was like old times with multiple comments from former members Derek Suursoo and Bill Lindsay.

Three agenda items came in for substantial discussion: a 1 percent local option sales tax proposed to support the work of the town’s Housing Commission, a draft policy for the town’s nearly 17 miles of Class 4 roads and moving the Cyprus Minerals Fund out from the account managed by the Trustees of Public Funds and into the investment account that holds the town’s economic development fund. The board also talked about possible uses of the $223,000 in the Cyprus Minerals Fund.

Talking local option tax

At Town Meeting last March, voters approved a reserve fund to help the Chester Housing Commission with promoting the construction of affordable housing. The fund would be able to help with finding and assessing possible sites and also receiving grants and other funding.

Around the same time, the Select Board decided it would apportion the net proceeds of short-term rental registration fees to the fund.

Instituting a local option tax has been around floated since before the March vote, but never made it on the ballot because of a lack of time for the voters to learn about it.

The tax would be an additional 1 percent on room rentals, including STRs, taking that tax from 9 percent to 10. The meals tax would increase from 9 percent to 10 and the tax on alcohol served on premise would rise from 10 percent to 11. Alcohol purchased at retail for off premise consumption would remain at 6 percent.

While the board can put the question of instituting the tax on the Town Meeting warning, that decision will be up to the voters. Board member Arne Jonynas said that since this was raised at the last meeting nobody had called or texted him about the issue. He said apparently it didn’t stir people up enough to reach out.

Select Board chair Lee Gustafson said he understood the use for the tax but reminded board members that such taxes – once they have achieved their ends – don’t seem to go away. He envisioned a future board raising the percentage from 1 to 8. Fellow member Tim Roper noted that state law allows a maximum 1 percent local option tax.

Board member Arianna Knapp asked if the tax could go away if the intended goal was reached. Town Manager Julie Hance said it could be rescinded in a townwide vote.

Knapp then wondered if anyone had spoken to the owners of restaurants and hotels. Hance said they could be invited to a future meeting, while Knapp quipped that speaking with them was a good excuse to go out to dinner.

In an earlier meeting, Town Planner Preston Bristow estimated that the added tax on rooms, meals and alcohol would raise about $60,000 annually, of which the town would keep 75 percent for the housing reserve fund while the state would take 25 percent.

Bill Lindsay criticizes the idea, telling the board that the solution to every problem is always another tax. Noting that the board was going to address the Cyprus Minerals Fund, he suggested using those monies for the housing problems instead of adding another tax.  “Why raise the tax when you’re sitting on the money?” asked Lindsay.

Roper said the board would keep the discussion open. Click here for a list of Vermont towns that have adopted a local option sales tax.

Class 4 road policy review

Chester has about 17 miles of Class 4 roads, which are defined as a right-of-way owned by a town but generally not maintained. Some are used by the public for recreation, but since most run across the property of local landowners, disputes can arise.

After much discussion over several months, on May 7 the Select Board asked the privately run Chester Conservation Committee to look at model policies regarding Class 4 roads and make recommendations for the creation of one for it to consider. According to Jonynas, the committee used a combination of a Vermont League of Cities and Towns model along with policies from other towns in the state.

Jonynas noted that state statute governs much of what a municipality can do with a Class 4 road. Board member Peter Hudkins agreed, saying that the town needed to take care because others have gotten into trouble with regulating them.

Paul Bidgood, a Massachusetts lawyer who owns land in Chester and Cavendish, is currently in a dispute with Chester over the ownership of a ancient road. He told the board he participated in the Conservation Committee discussion and suggested some changes. He added that historical uses and agreements along a road have to be taken into consideration.

Suursoo spoke at length about the Class 4 road that runs 50 feet from his family home and of his fear that “corporate interests with deep pockets and no respect” will find ways to use the roads to profit “from our stuff.”  He also expressed the concern that the draft policy is heavy on what people want to do with the road but seems to lack protections for landowners.  He suggested that the policy should emphasize “hooves, paws and boots” and not motorized vehicles.

Suursoo said that his family has maintained the Chester side of the road for more than 60 years but that while the town doesn’t maintain it, they want to use it.

The board took note of a number of suggested edits and additions and will send the policy back to the Conservation Committee for work before sending it on to the town attorney for a review.

Cyprus Minerals Fund

The town’s Cyprus Minerals Fund came from its sale in 1984 of an option for mineral rights to a company called Cyprus Minerals.  While mining didn’t take place, the $100,000 the town was paid grew to be just shy of a quarter million dollars today.

It has been has been under the umbrella of the Trustees of Public Funds since 1989 but unlike the public funds,  which have specific uses like education or cemetery maintenance, the Cyprus fund is under the control of the Select Board, which has avoided spending it. Both are with Wilmington Trust, which has handled the town’s investments for a number of years.

Now, the board is considering uses for that money including internal short-term borrowing, such as purchasing a new police cruiser, which has a relatively short lifespan and so should not be part of the capital plan.  Hance said that M&T Bank has changed its lending requirements and rates, making internal short-term borrowing attractive.

The town could borrow from the Cyprus Minerals fund at a lower interest rate, which would save money on such purchases and preserve the fund. Jonynas said they could use it as a bank, but not deplete it.

While board members were generally in favor of the idea, Suursoo warned that without a “rock solid financial policy” a future board could spend it down. He pointed to a large surplus that the Water & Sewer departments had some years ago, but frittered it away by keeping user rates artificially low.

Hance said the town could develop a policy for handling the Cyprus Minerals Fund before moving it out from the Trustees of Public Funds.

Whiting appointment, Water & Sewer meeting

In other business, the board accepted the recommendation of the Whiting Library’s Board of Trustees and appointed Penny Benelli as a Trustee to replace Bill Dakin, who resigned. Benelli’s appointment runs through March 2026, when that position will be on the Town Meeting Day ballot.

Before the Select Board meeting, its members met as the Water & Sewer Commission for a hearing in which Dufresne Group presented its findings of “no significant impact” from work to needs to done replacing the Depot Street sewer mains this year

The engineering group looked at several categories of impact including on wetlands, fish, wildlife and endangered species, drinking and ground water, and air quality, noise and emissions. Dufresne’s Matt Bissel explained that after research, the company believes that any impacts in those areas would be minimal. The hearing was a chance for the public to ask questions about the problems that the project might raise. The finding is mandated by the Department of Environmental Conservation.