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.
Dollar General foes end four-year fight; hope to see stronger zoning regulations in Chester
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC After a four-year battle, the Chester group fighting the construction of a 9,100-square-foot Dollar General has decided to not seek a motion to re-argue the case before the state Supreme Court, giving the green light to the Zaremba Group out of Ohio to construct the building on Main […]
Q&A: Attorney Alan Biederman on the latest Zaremba/Dollar General victory
Alan Biederman represented Zaremba Group, the developer of the proposed Dollar General store in Chester, during the Act 250 appeals brought by opponents of the project. He is a lawyer in Rutland who is happily heading toward retirement. Four questions were posed by email by Telegraph editor Cynthia Prairie. Biederman also responded by email. Except […]
In OK’ing Dollar General ‘warehouse,’ state Supreme Court affirms ‘adverse effect’
NOTE: Zaremba Group attorney Alan Biederman answered several questions for The Chester Telegraph concerning the appeals and other issues. You can read that article here. By Cynthia Prairie 2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC T he Vermont Supreme Court has given a green light for the construction of a Dollar General store on Main Street in Chester, after […]
Lisai’s taps into new market with draught craft beer to go
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC Lisai’s Chester Market has just become one of the few groceries — two as far as can be determined — in Vermont to sell growlers — those 64- and 32-ounce bottles of specialty beers tapped from a keg at the time of sale. After spending the winter rearranging and […]
Londonderry residents seek answers, tell State Police of fears of arsons, burglaries
Cynthia Prairie © 2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC Emotions burbled beneath a surface of congeniality as more than 200 Londonderry residents jammed Town Hall on Middletown Road Monday night to hear from Vermont State Police and its fire investigators concerning a recent spate of burglaries and the long history of suspected arsons in the area. State Rep. […]
West River Farmers Market kicks off season in Londonderry
The West River Farmers Market, at the flashing light at Route 11 and 100 in Londonderry, kicked off its 2015 season under bright but chilly skies. That didn’t dampen the spirits of the 40 or so vendors and their eager customers who all seemed pleased to be back after a long cold winter. Farmers offered […]
VTel responds to Big Pole controversy in Chester; Andover-Chester MOUs still in play
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 – Telegraph Publishing LLC Following two executive sessions to discuss legal issues with town attorney Jim Carroll, the Chester Select Board reconvened its public session after almost a 90 minutes on Thursday, May 21. After the first executive session, the board authorized Town Manager David Pisha to sign an amendment to […]
Chester Select Board revisits Andover MOU; ice cream truck permit will have to wait
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC The ongoing negotiations with the Town of Andover over a Memorandum of Understanding concerning the cost of providing emergency fire and ambulance service to that town of 500 is looking more like a duel with paper swords. Since the 2007 budget, Chester has charged Andover $9,300 (up from […]
Saturday night fire destroys garage, ignites brush along Route 10
By Cynthia Prairie © 2015 Telegraph Publishing, LLC UPDATE – 8:30 a.m. Sunday May 3: The Chester Fire Department reports that the cause of the fire has been determined but it is not being released and that the scene has been turned over to the Chester Police Dept. The fire department also explained that downtown […]
Grafton Select Board OKs local input resolution; approves historic preservation plan for Daisy Turner property
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC At its Monday, March 16 meeting, the Grafton Select Board approved – with vocal disagreement from some of the attending public – a resolution created by Rutland Town government to attempt to give local jurisdictions a stronger say with the Public Service Board over the siting of renewable […]
Squeaker of a write-in contest for Grafton Select Board; sale of Town Garage OK’d
It was a quiet day for Grafton officials as voters met at the Grafton Elementary School Tuesday for a less than hourlong Town Meeting, then sporadic visitation during daylong Australian balloting. The Grafton Select Board will have a new member with the write-in candidacy of Ron Pilette, who won a tight race 69 to 67 […]
Budget passes at relocated Andover Town Meeting
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC Failure of the Town Hall heating system forced the Andover Town Meeting to be moved to a hall at the Andover Community Church across the street, resulting in a standing room only crowd and prompting a joke from moderator Jon Bliss about the separation of church and state. Despite […]
From the editor: No surprises in complaint rejection, but hope for transparency lives on
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC Two weeks ago, the Chester Select Board unanimously adopted a motion from a letter by town attorney Jim Carroll as a reply to The Chester Telegraph’s complaint that it had held an illegal executive session back in November. The Chester Telegraph claimed that the Nov. 19 executive session was […]
Fire destroys Chester home on Sunday, donations welcome
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015-The Chester Telegraph Chester Fire Chief Matt Wilson says that a fire that destroyed the home of Andy and Judy Lavallee on First Avenue in Chester on Sunday was not suspicious, but that the cause has not been officially confirmed. According to the Chester Fire Department, firefighters responded around 8:30 a.m. to […]
Spending issues on Town Meeting agendas for Andover, Chester, Grafton & Weston
2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC This time of year, town governments throughout Vermont begin setting their proposed spending agendas that voters will have to vote up or down either from the floor or by Australian ballot. Below are summaries of those articles for Andover, Chester, Grafton and Weston. Because of the Tuesday snows, we’ll give you […]
From the editor: On the recent downs and ups of the Chester Telegraph
Around 11:20 a.m. last Tuesday morning, as we were editing and writing articles for The Chester Telegraph, the company that hosted our website began experiencing instability on its servers. As you probably noticed, attempts to access the paper were met with 502 errors, 504 errors and other messages that indicated we and other websites hosted […]
Commentary: Do it in public — a call for transparency and accountability
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 The Chester Telegraph The Chester Telegraph has sent a formal letter of complaint alleging that on Nov. 19 of last year the Chester Select Board held an illegal executive session. You can read a copy of that complaint here. That seems like a pretty serious step. But the fact is that […]
Environmental judge upholds Chester DRB on Dollar General permit
By Cynthia Prairie ©2014-Telegraph Publishing LLC Environmental Judge Thomas Walsh handed the billion dollar Tennessee-based Dollar General corporation an early Christmas present by striking down an appeal of the Chester Development Review Board’s OK of a developer’s plans for a 9,100-square-foot store across from the Country Girl Diner. The decision was signed on Monday, Dec. […]
$20 AND UNDER: Gifts they’ll love without breaking your bank
By Cynthia Prairie © 2014 Telegraph Publishing LLC Welcome to the 3rd annual Chester Telegraph Shop Local Holiday Gift Guide. Although the economy seems to be on the upswing, we felt that this year it was a good idea to focus on gifts priced at $20 and under. You may be under the impression […]
Commentary: Signs for our times
By Cynthia Prairie ©Telegraph Publishing LLC-2014 The Chester Planning Commission has begun considering making further changes to the sign regulations within the Unified Development Bylaws after tweaking them in the last go-round. (You can read them at right.) It had amended the Home Occupation and Home Business standards by cutting in half the allowable signage […]
