Author Archive for Shawn Cunningham
Act 46 RED goes to voters: What will merger mean?
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Next Tuesday, May 2, the voters of Andover, Baltimore, Cavendish and Chester will decide whether they will join their existing school districts into a new, unified one to fulfill the requirements of the state’s school consolidation law. The Regional Education District — or RED — that will […]
Between school mergers and splits: How did we get here?
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Enacted by the Vermont legislature in the spring of 2015, Act 46 was designed to improve education opportunities for Vermont students while lowering the cost of providing those opportunities through mergers that would scale up the state’s schools and help create efficiencies. And that’s more than just […]
Robbers caught on camera in two convenience store robberies
© 2017-Telegraph Publishing LLC Vermont State Police are looking for three men involved in two robberies last night. In the first robbery, two men entered the Sunoco station on Route 5 at I-91 Exit 4 in Dummerston at around 9:15 p.m. According to a VSP press release, one man distracted the store clerk while the […]
Chester board talks economic growth; sets Planning interviews
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC With a smaller crowd in attendance than at most of its recent meetings, the Chester Select Board on Wednesday, April 5 signed the Unified Development Bylaws that have been a bone of contention for months. In a related action, the board discussed the questions and timetable for […]
Stratton Mountain resort parent sold in $1.5 billion deal
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Denver based Intrawest Resort Holdings, the parent company of Stratton Mountain, announced today that it is being sold to Aspen Skiing Co. and KSL Partners in a $1.5 billion deal. According to the press release, Aspen Skiing Co. owns and operates four mountains in Aspen, Colo., – […]
May 2 voting set on Green Mountain Act 46 merger
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC The town school boards and town clerks of Andover, Baltimore, Cavendish and Chester met at Green Mountain Union High School on Monday, March 27, to lay out and agree to the process for holding votes on forming a Regional Education District to fulfill their obligations under the […]
A SNOOTFUL: Drug sniffing K-9s train at Green Mountain High
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC School was out, but a class was hard at work on the ground floor hallway of Green Mountain Union High on a recent evening. Four dogs – or K9s – were going through their paces looking for drugs placed in the corridor of empty lockers as part […]
Westminster troopers nab a dozen as VSP conducts statewide warrant sweep
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Vermont State Police announced tonight that it had conducted a statewide sweep, arresting 65 people on warrants for a variety of pending criminal charges and failing to fulfill court obligations. Troopers from all 10 VSP field stations were joined by local police officers, county sheriffs, game wardens, […]
Chester Police Log for Jan. 13 through March 21, 2017
© 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Editor’s Note: The Chester Telegraph Police Log is a sampling of incidents directly from Chester Police reports. In general, we do not identify individual victims of crimes nor those who have been arrested. Friday, Jan. 13, 5:49 p.m. A complainant told police that her youngest child was nearly hit when […]
After years of promises, state to fix crumbling Route 11 in 2019
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC A little over a month ago, 911 dispatchers received a call about an eastbound tractor trailer that was “all over the road” on Route 11 west of Chester. When Chester Police Det. Andy Brothers stopped the truck, the driver of the rig explained that he “was trying […]
State Ed Board OKs TRSU RED plan; town votes eyed for May 2
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC At its Tuesday, March 21 meeting, the Vermont State Board of Education gave the go-ahead to four area towns to put an Act 46 merger proposal before their voters on Tuesday, May 2, 2017. The approval by the Agency of Education and the Board of Education was […]
UDBs adopted, questions on procedure persist
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC The battle over the adoption of Chester’s Unified Development Bylaws came to an end with the Select Board voting unanimously to approve the document as presented, but not without questions about the way a change in the number of public hearings was handled. Board member Dan Cote […]
Chester board reverses course, will interview in private
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Select Board reversed course last week, deciding to hold interviews for volunteer positions in secret, with one board member saying that the public should trust the board in this matter and another one indicating that executive sessions were necessary because the public could not be […]
Nor’easter blankets region, closing shops, causing accidents
© 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Nor’easter that promised 18 inches of snow for New York has fizzled, but it’s keeping its promises to the New England coast … and Vermont. The snow started in most of the area around 6 a.m. Tuesday and by nightfall hadn’t let up since. See photo gallery below. At […]
Chester board votes to appeal Act 250 permit conditions
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 – Telegraph Publishing LLC On Monday, the Chester Select Board met in executive session with a Rutland attorney and decided to appeal conditions of the recent Act 250 permit that allows the town to build a new water tank but severely restricts where the town can extract gravel on the […]
In blow to Chester gravel plan, motion to alter denied
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC When the Town of Chester bought 139 acres from Mike and Amy O’Neil as a site for a water tank, Town Manager David Pisha envisioned a decades-long supply of inexpensive gravel that could help pay for a portion of the $4 million project. It was part of […]
Weston Select Board gets a raise; town to buy a new fire truck
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Voters in Weston passed all of the articles on its warning and returned most town office incumbents to their positions on Tuesday morning during a Town Meeting that went by so quickly that the Little School, which was making lunch to be served, had to scramble to […]
Grafton votes ‘no’ on school merger; Mack ousts Turner from Select Board, Pollio beats Hall for Lisle seat
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing, LLC The voters of Grafton voted overwhelmingly to nix the proposed merger that would create a Windham Northeast Unified School District. As a “necessary” town, Grafton’s rejection of the plan defeats it, but it was not alone. According to a report in VTDigger, two other necessary towns – […]
Gustafson, Whalen win Select Board seats; budgets, bonds pass by wide margins
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC In the only contested race this year, incumbent member Ben Whalen and newcomer Lee Gustafson won election Tuesday night to one-year seats on the Chester Select Board. With 673 people voting, the totals were Whalen 441, Gustafson 388 and Kelly Arrison 318. When John DeBenedetti decided not […]
After long school meeting, Andover OKs $834,000 town budget
By Shawn Cunningham © 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC With about 10 percent of the town’s population in attendance, the Andover Town Meeting on Saturday was – as usual – a well-mannered and friendly affair even though it started 70 minutes later than scheduled due to the school district meeting running over its allotted 15 minutes. […]
