Chester board hears of Mesh Network, new grants, Yosemite request

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Chester resident Josh Johnson came before the Chester Select Board on Wednesday, Nov. 4 to address earlier queries that hikers had made to Town Hall concerning a mysterious device found mounted at the Lost Mine Hiking Trail.

Turns out the device wasn’t a surveillance camera but a “mesh” repeater, related to an associated network that apparently a number of residents have set up to use.

For months now, Johnson,  a Chester resident, and his brother have privately been establishing the Chester Mesh Network to help residents communicate with one another and emergency personnel in times of disasters — natural and otherwise — that could cause other communications networks to fail.

“Mesh” itself is a network of low frequency radios that can link together to send short text messages without electricity or cell service. With an app, you link one of the low-frequency mesh devices called a “companion” to a cellphone or tablet via Bluetooth.

At home or away, you can use a cellphone or a tablet to send texts through the companion onto the Mesh network, which is made up of other companions and repeaters that pass messages along. Individuals and groups would have their own addresses. And private texts would be encrypted, then passed through the network to the recipient. Messages coming into the companion are stored there and accessible by the linked cellphone.

This is particularly handy in a natural disaster like ice storms or floods, giving those on the network the ability to communicate. The technology can also be helpful for hikers, snowmobilers and others in need of help in an area without cell service. With a cellphone connected to the mesh network through a companion, they can get a message out. Johnson says the network now can be used in most places in Chester.

Johnson added that the repeater on the Lost Mine Trail was not operational, but was put there to pique people’s interest. He apologized to the board for not getting their permission first and said that, when he learned of the error, he removed the device.

Johnson also wanted to dispel misunderstandings about the outdoors equipment, saying that they are neither cameras, like Flock, nor recorders, nor are they connected to the grid or the internet. These repeaters simply send signals. They are solar powered with a storage battery and can operate at very low temperatures.

Chester’s group – vt875 – wants to spread the network and work with town and emergency services, according to Johnson, who added that if residents adopt the technology and get used to it now, it will be there for them in a future emergency. The group is completing a website and expects to do more publicity around the concept soon. Board members thanked Johnson for the presentation and Hance said she could put Johnson in touch with the town’s Public Safety departments.

Town gets $4 million from Safe Streets; Whiting Library get $330,000 capital improvement grant 

Early in the meeting, Town Manager Julie Hance told the board that Chester has been awarded two large grants. The first is a capital improvement grant for the Whiting Library from the Vermont Department of Libraries. The grant for $330,000, with no match required, will cover the costs of a new elevator, new fire panel, generator switch, a new ADA ramp and improvements to the back entrance.

The second grant — for $4 million from the federal Safe Streets for All program within the Department of Transportation — will fund planning and demonstration projects to improve the outcomes of vehicle crashes. Funded projects could include service sharing and regionalization of public safety. This was the first grant from this program to be awarded in Vermont.

Last April, Hance told the board that the 20 percent match for the grant would be in-kind from the work of the Fire/Ambulance crews. In addition, the cost of administering the grant comes from grant funds and those funds can also cover the purchase of equipment and vehicles.

While Hance writes most town grant applications, she made an exception for this one. So in April, the Chester board approved spending $10,000 on the writing of this particular grant.

Yosemite Firehouse cleanout and cleanup

The Select Board reviewed a list of objects that the Friends of Yosemite Firehouse Museum wishes to dispose of as it works toward turning the 147-year-old structure into a museum of rural firefighting with a concentration on Chester as well as neighboring towns.

Since most of the contents of the firehouse belongs to the town, the Friend sought town permission to dispose of a number of objects  not related to the building or to the future museum, including a substantial quantity of junk. The Friends will be seeking new homes for several large ladders once given to the fire department by CVPS and an ice plow for scoring ice to create blocks for harvesting, which is expected to go to the Chester Historical Society.

Board member Peter Hudkins summed up the feelings of the board saying, “I have no problem with them taking up the responsibility for taking out the trash.”

The Friends will be having a cleanup day on Saturday, Nov. 14 to move equipment and other objects into safe spaces where they can be cataloged and cared for.  Hance noted that the Friends recently mounted new signs on the north and south ends of the building. There are plans to re-connect the building to electricity in the near future.

Draft 2027 town budget

The board continued looking at early drafts of the town’s budget for 2027. Hance said that the budget doesn’t usually come to the board this early and that putting it out there gives the board a chance to see how it’s made and to ask questions before they get down to work on it.