Roads less taken fill Chester board’s agenda as MacGinnis sues town
Shawn Cunningham | Nov 26, 2025 | Comments 3
By Shawn Cunningham
© 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC
During last Wednesday’s meeting, Wyman’s Falls Road property owner Kirk MacGinnis announced that he had filed suit against the board and Town Manager Julie Hance with the Civil Division of the Windsor County Superior Court. The motion and complaint asks the court to discontinue the Class 4 portion of the road near his property.
MacGinnis’s petition comes under Rule 75, which gives an aggrieved party an avenue for appealing a decision (or lack of decision) by a state agency or political subdivision such as a town where there is no specified process for appeal spelled out in state law. But while the motion made in MacGinnis’s filing is to “Transparently Discontinue Wyman’s Falls Road Segment,” what is clear is that the board did not vote to adopt the policy on Class 4 roads and did not avoid a decision on any road but rather asked Hance to provide more information on the process so the board could better understand the it.
In fact, the board’s agenda last Wednesday contained both an ongoing discussion about a policy to regulate such roads as well as a summary of the laws on “laying out, altering, reclassifying or discontinuing highways.” The policy is still under discussion and had not been voted on by the board.
MacGinnis told the board he had filed a complaint against it in state court Telegraph File Photo
The board had been on the way to adopting the policy until the its Nov. 5 meeting in which a number of landowners complained of people using such old, unmaintained roads to cross their land in ways that damaged their properties or made them feel unsafe. The offenders included those driving four-wheel drive vehicles. Some speakers said they would like the town to discontinue such roads while others reminded the board that the roads belong to everyone in town.
At that meeting, board members noted that they believed the policy will give them the ability to take the use of Class 4 roads on a case by case basis. For example, motorized vehicles might be prohibited altogether or exceptions like snowmobiles might be made. The board also said it needed to study up on the rules and procedures for changing the status on roads, including reclassifying a road as a trail or discontinuing a road.
At the meeting last Wednesday, MacGinnis read from a written statement that he wanted added to the minutes “verbatim.” MacGinnis, who has been confrontational in past appearances, said he was “…trying to stay positive and keep the peace,” adding that unless the board had anything else to say he would be on his way. And he left the meeting.
The board also discussed the laws around changing road classifications but there was more talk about ways to make the Class 4 road policy less onerous for landowners who use such roadways to get to their properties. That included ways to allow landowners to work on their Class 4 “driveways” without triggering the need for a permit from the town. Town Manager Julie Hance suggested as a possible solution rewriting the policy to define the difference between maintenance and alteration.
The board will continue to look at the issues around Class 4 roads in future meetings. The Chester Select Board’s regular meetings are on the first and third Wednesdays of the month and The Telegraph publishes the board’s agenda.
Filed Under: Chester • Featured • Latest News
Ugh, suing the town like this is absolutely NOT “…trying to stay positive and keep the peace”. This is now probably going to cost the taxpayers a lot of money, unnecessarily.
Some people have no respect for their neighbors, the generous, decent folks who are ALREADY working pretty hard at an equitable policy, or the public good.
This is a selfish, petty, incredibly inconsiderate, land grab, that we now have to pay to litigate, because someone was just too greedy, and impatient, to allow the proper process to take place. What a shameful display. Then he just just left the meeting? Can’t even own it, or take responsibility for his injustice? No surprise there, what a coward.
I hope the town doesn’t give up a single inch of our public property, and countersues this rude, vexatious litigant, for all the legal costs he is trying to extort from the Chester taxpayers.
Boo!
Mr. MacGinnis is throwing everything thing he can at this he fails to realize a class 4 road is a road it is not maintained like most roads but they are a public like any other road. Just because he’s out in the middle of the woods and his driveway is off of a class 4 road doesn’t give him the right to claim ownership. Wymann’s Falls is right up that road it’s one of the most beautiful natural features we have in this town citizens of Chester and our guests should be able to walk up and enjoy the Falls. We can do so while being respectful of private property by staying on the road just like taking a walk in the Village. Philosopher, professor and counselor Jordan Peterson often mentions how important it is that kids playing well with others when they are young it shapes future adults to function better in society and get along with other people as adults. Mr. MacGinnis must not have been taught the importance of sharing in my opinion this is one of the greatest acts of selfishness I have seen in this community. Acting like a thug towards our elected officials makes it worse they are there to represent us so his actions are a slap in the face to all of us and the cost of a law suit is a bill we will have to pay. We are the town 3400 people every cost is our responsibility I doubt Julie can get a fight with a lunatic grant! The Select Board needs to be more than the adults in the room they need to teach this guy a lesson a lesson he should have have learned at three years old. He has shown no respect for the board or out town manager, no care of costs to the community I can just imagine the wreckage he’s created through out his life it’s all about him. Anyone who knows anything about psychology knows what it means to lack empathy.
I think the new owners of 78 The Commons should consider the draw that Sage Jewelry had to ppl. coming to the Common. This store adds a lot to the small-town VT atmosphere in its current location and could possibly bring more customers into their antique store.