Author Archive for Cynthia Prairie
Cynthia Prairie has been a newspaper editor more than 40 years. Cynthia has worked at such publications as the Raleigh Times, the Baltimore News American, the Buffalo Courier Express, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Patuxent Publishing chain of community newspapers in Maryland, and has won numerous state awards for her reporting. As an editor, she has overseen her staffs to win many awards for indepth coverage. She and her family moved to Chester, Vermont in 2004.
Chester Police probe ‘Zoom-bombing’ at GM school board special meeting
By Cynthia Prairie ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Chester Police are investigating Tuesday night’s Zoom-bombing of a school board special meeting that shut down the meeting for about eight minutes. The incident included pornographic video and vile racial epithets and lasted 48 seconds before it could be shut down. Some Zoom attendees were watching the meeting […]
Editorial: Misinformation 1; Transparency 0
By Cynthia Prairie ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC No one likes to be called out in a public meeting. And for that to happen to a newspaper, it can be more than a little disconcerting. Journalists tend to not to like to be the center of attention. We write about the news, we don’t make it. […]
West River Farmers Market thanks Flood Brook School for hospitality
©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Members of the board of the West River Farmers Market on Tuesday presented Flood Brook School Principal Johanna Liskowsky-Doak with a bouquet of flowers and a tote celebrating the market’s 30th anniversary. Also presented was a thank you card signed by more than 45 vendors from the market. The gesture was […]
New program offers meal vouchers for area restaurants Vermont Emergency Eats targets flood-impacted residents in Ludlow, Plymouth, Cavendish, Weston, Londonderry
©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC In an effort to feed disrupted populations in flood ravaged communities in Vermont, beginning on Tuesday, Aug. 8 and running through Thursday, Aug. 31, the Vermont Emergency Eats program will begin signing up residents of Ludlow, Cavendish, Plymouth, Weston and Londonderry for meal vouchers for participating restaurants. To qualify in our […]
FEMA sets up long-term Disaster Recovery Center at Flood Brook School Individuals, businesses urged to sign up for assistance
By Cynthia Prairie ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Federal Emergency Management Agency has opened a Disaster Recovery Center at the gymnasium of Flood Brook School, at 91 VT-11 in Londonderry, to help those impacted by the floods of Monday, July 10. FEMA and the Small Business Administration will be on hand to help those affected […]
Weston Theater cancels last two shows;
‘Singin’ in the Rain’ moving to Walker Farm Financial losses multiply as damage to Playhouse, other buildings mount
By Cynthia Prairie ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The damage to the Weston Playhouse from the July 10 flooding was so severe that the Weston Theater Company is canceling its last two shows and moving Singin’ in the Rain from the Playhouse to Walker Farm as the final show of the season. This will allow the […]
Where to donate funds, goods to help families, businesses and organizations
By Cynthia Prairie and Cara Philbin @2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Small businesses, organizations and individuals have all suffered from the floods of July 10, 2023. Below is a list of fundraising efforts in our communities. We are concentrating on highly local efforts. If you know of other such efforts, please e-mail them in the format […]
SBA offers low-interest disaster loans to businesses, residents Flood recovery office set up in Ludlow; forms available online
Low-interest disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration are available to businesses and residents in Vermont following the announcement of a presidential disaster declaration due to damages from severe storms and flooding that began on July 7. “SBA’s mission-driven team stands ready to help Vermont small businesses and residents impacted by this disaster in […]
Sundays on Hill concert with Counterpoint canceled
Sundays on the Hill in Weston is canceling its concert scheduled for 4 p.m. today, Sunday, July 16 with the Counterpoint Chorus. Extensive damage caused by last week’s flooding at Lawrence Hill Road, throughout Weston and southern Vermont as well as today’s forecast for additional rain with dangerous flash-flooding risk make it best to hold […]
Londonderry clears more roads, continues to warn about possible flash flooding
©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Londonderry Road Crews made great progress on Thursday opening roads. The following roads still remain closed however: Cromack, Glebe View, Goodaleville (Londonderry portion is open, bridge is closed at the town line), Livermore Mills (passable with a truck but very rough), Rowes, Thompsonburg. Also, the expected severe storms for last night […]
Cleanup begins after massive rains wallop region Reports from Londonderry, Weston, Chester and Andover
By Cynthia Prairie and Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The comparisons to Tropical Storm Irene of August 2011 began rolling in over the weekend as the National Weather Service rolled out its rain estimates. By Monday night, at the end of the storm that dropped as much as 9 inches of rain in […]
Weather Service says more storms on the way
©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The National Weather Service has issued another hazardous weather warning for southern Vermont, this one until 8 a.m. Friday. With ground already saturated from early July rains and Monday’s deluge, more flooding could be expected. The NWS says “strong to severe thunderstorms are expected … late afternoon through late evening across […]
Cannabis grower addresses Andover concerns
By Cynthia Prairie ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Dustin Sherman believes he did not get much of a chance to address the concerns of the Andover community at Tuesday night’s hearing conducted by the Zoning Board of Adjustment at Andover Town Hall. With about 70 people in person and on Zoom, the meeting was more like […]
Andover residents criticize proposed pot farm Applicant's proposal barely gets a hearing
By Cynthia Prairie ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The potential for a lot of cannabis growing in their backyard drew more than 70 people in Andover to Tuesday’s Zoning Board of Adjustment hearing on a proposal to build up to four 24- by 96-foot greenhouses high up in the hills east of Terrible Mountain. The applicant, […]
After resignations, two former GMUSD members hope to return to posts
By Cynthia Prairie ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Since Thursday night’s turmoil at the Green Mountain Unified School District board meeting — in which three board members and the supervisory union superintendent announced their resignations following a vote to uphold the school’s name ‘the Chieftains’ — two board members are seeking to get reinstated while another […]
Editorial: School board should fix voting error
By Cynthia Prairie ©2023 Telegraph Publishing Whatever your view about the appropriateness of the Green Mountain High School team name and mascot, there is one thing we should all be able to agree on: That what happened last night at the school district’s board meeting during and after the vote is nothing short of distressing. […]
Londonderry to develop new ‘gateway’ park
By Cynthia Prairie ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Town of Londonderry is poised for a new park at the northeast corner of Route 11 and Route 100, overlooking the Mill Pond. It’s a park that proponents say will be a welcoming gateway for visitors traveling from both Chester and Weston, and they hope to start […]
Violet Haight wins two awards for GM history project
©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Violet Haight, a 9th-grader at Green Mountain Middle and High School, has been awarded two history prizes for her project titled “America’s First Ski Tow.” Those prizes are the Frances Bremer History Prize and the Vermont History Award for Senior Individual Exhibit. The two four-year-old Bremer prize, which recognizes an outstanding […]
Snow ‘dump’ sends a chill through s. Vermont, causes widespread power outages, car accidents
By Cynthia Prairie and Shawn Cunningham ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC For those in the southern Vermont region straddling Windham and Windsor counties, you know you got hit with snow – anywhere from 18 to more than 36 inches of it. Can’t open the front door snow; trees and power lines are down snow; don’t care […]
Vermont jobless rate falls in January Both Windsor, Windham counties see rise in employment
By Cynthia Prairie ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The state has seen a slight drop in the unemployment rate for the month of January, the Vermont Department of Labor announced on Monday, bringing it down to a seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate of 2.9 percent. The United States rate for January was 3.4 percent. Both the state and […]
