Author Archive for Shawn Cunningham
South Derry fire department wins $84,000 FEMA grant
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Champion Fire Company No. 5 Chief Jeff Duda announced Friday morning that the South Londonderry company has won an $84,096 Assistance to Firefighter Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Champion was one of seven FEMA grant winners in Vermont including Springfield with $250,069 and Wilmington with […]
Chester board finds itself in a DRB dustup
By Shawn Cunningham ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Chester’s planning and zoning functions continue to be problematic even after the adoption of “pro-business” changes to the Unified Development Bylaws earlier this year. Front2Back Landscaping owner Randy Miles complained to the Select Board at its June 14 meeting that the Development Review Board had denied his application. […]
Truck inspection yields cause of yesterday’s Hazmat leak
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing, LLC One nail, sticking up as little as a quarter of an inch from the surface of a pallet punctured one plastic drum being carried on a Clean Harbors Environmental Services truck and closed Rt. 103 in Chester for nearly 20 hours starting on Tuesday afternoon, according to […]
UPDATE: ROUTE 103 NOW OPEN Route 103 South still closed as Hazmat cleanup continues
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC At 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, more than 18 hours after the 911 call that unleashed a large emergency Hazmat response, Chester and Springfield firefighters, ambulance crews, local and DMV police and other responders were still on the scene with Rt. 103 South closed east of the Chester-Andover […]
2 named to Chester Planning Board, shoring up of Rt. 35 starts
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Leaving one of the three vacant positions still open, the Chester Select Board appointed two candidates to the Chester Planning Commission at its meeting on Wednesday, June 7. The board, which interviewed five candidates in executive sessions this spring, put Chester residents Tim Roper and Barre Pinske […]
Truck’s leaking cargo spurs Hazmat response on Routes 103, 11
UPDATE: 9:30 p.m. Tuesday About 30 firefighters, state Hazmat team members, police and ambulance personnel remain on the scene of a hazardous materials incident tonight to help a crew from Clean Harbors Environmental Services cope with a cleanup of one of its trucks that was leaking liquid sodium nitrate. “The people here now will be […]
Avoiding bear, driver crashes truck in Londonderry
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing, LLC The driver of a tractor trailer who swerved to avoid hitting a bear on Route 11 yesterday ended up crashing his truck, slowing and even stopping traffic in the area. According to the Vermont State Police, at about 5:30 Thursday morning, Saul Hernandez, 38, of Allentown, Pa., […]
Vermont State Police Incident Log for Feb. 8 to April 17
© 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Editor’s Note: The Vermont State Police incident report is a sampling of incidents directly from the Vermont State Police. We do not identify individual victims of crimes nor those who have been arrested. Wednesday, Feb. 8 – Londonderry – Just before 5 a.m. police received a report of a break-in […]
State agency seeks return of historical marker
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Jonathan Peckham Miller’s historical marker is missing and the Vermont Division of Historic Preservation hopes the public can help with its return. On May 26, 2017, the state agency told Vermont State Police the bronze historical marker was missing from a site in Randolph Center. The marker, […]
Chester commemorates Memorial Day 2017
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Although the weather was dreary and threatened rain, Chester once again observed Memorial Day on its traditional May 30th date. With honor guards from the American Legion and Chester Fire Department in the lead, residents watched as the Green Mountain High School and Chester-Andover Elementary School bands, […]
Ludlow nixes Mill River merger, Mt. Holly votes yes;
Merger heads back to Act 46 drawing board
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Voters in Ludlow today defeated a proposed merger between that town and its U-39 partner Mount Holly with the Mill River Unified Union School District in Clarendon. The vote in Ludlow was 245 for and 527 against the merger out of a total checklist of 1,588 voters […]
More speak against merger at Ludlow meeting
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC A crowd of nearly 80 people gathered in President’s Hall at the Ludlow Elementary School on a warm sunny evening last Tuesday to hear a presentation and ask questions about the proposed merger of the Ludlow and Mount Holly schools into the Mill River Unified Union School […]
Chester board talks new fire station, cemetery expansion
By Shawn Cunningham ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Select Board discussed plans for expansion of the Brookside Cemetery and a new emergency services building at its meeting last Wednesday – but one member appeared frustrated that topics brought up more than two years ago were still being “kicked down the road.” After hearing presentations […]
104th ANG fighter pilots spar high above Green Mountains
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC BARNES AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, WESTFIELD, MASS. Some morning in the near future you’ll hear that rumble, the one that scared your cat and made you search the skies last week. And as that rumble becomes a roar, echoing off the Green Mountains of southern Vermont, you […]
To the editor: Champion Fire Co. thanks others who helped during storm
I would like to take a moment and thank all of the mutual aid fire companies that came to our aid in the storm on May 18. Our dispatch system was completely overwhelmed and we were left on our own. The incident on Spring Hill took a long time to control, there were five homes […]
NEWS ANALYSIS: How an Act 46 merger became a separation
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC In two weeks, the voters of Ludlow and Mount Holly will go to the polls to decide whether to close Black River High School and become part of the Mill River Unified Union School District in Clarendon. This was the direction chosen by representatives of those towns […]
Drug task force arrests 16 in Springfield area sweep
Sixteen area residents, including two from Chester, were arrested last week and two more are being sought by police in a drug sweep by the Vermont Drug Task Force. According to a Vermont State Police press release today, the arrests came after several months of investigation into the sale of heroin and cocaine in the […]
Ludlow group plans ‘life beyond a no vote’ on Mill River merger
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing, LLC About 20 members of the loosely organized group that wants to keep Black River High School open met at the Ludlow Community Center on Thursday evening to plan for how children could be educated if the town rejects the proposed merger of the Ludlow and Mount Holly […]
‘Worst of the worst’ on Route 11 budgeted for summer temp fix
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Complaints by local officials about the poor condition of Route 11 between Londonderry and Chester appear to have gained some traction of late as VTrans has offered an interim step in repairing the road. And one Londonderry ambulance service member says improvements can’t come soon enough since […]
Chester board OKs Red Nose Day; 3 sites to get radar signs
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC For the second year in a row, Chester resident Townsend Gilbert appeared before the Select Board wearing a large red clown nose. This time, the board knew what was coming – Red Nose Day – an international day for raising money for kids in need that was […]
