Author Archive for Shawn Cunningham
Burtco seeks temporary gravel crushing, sales OK at car wash site
By Shawn Cunningham After a site visit earlier in the day, Chester’s Development Review Board on Monday began consideration of a project to extract, crush and sell gravel on the 5.3 acre site of Burtco’s new Abenaque Car Wash on Route 103 South. Stanton Scott of Burtco introduced the project as a way to […]
Chester Select Board OKs budget 4.75% above 2013; town to vote on March 3
By Shawn Cunningham On a snowy Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014, the Chester Select Board struggled with needs vs. wants as it finalized the 2014 water, sewer and general fund budgets in preparation for Town Meeting Day (held Monday, March 3 with voting on fiscal articles and the budgets. Elections occur on Tuesday, March 4.) […]
Chester town solar farm approved on a 3-1 vote
By Shawn Cunningham At its Dec. 18 meeting, the Chester Select Board approved the contract for a solar power farm to be built on town land at Route 103 and Trebo Road. Green Lantern Capital proposed the 5 acre, 500 kilowatt installation back in April of this year, making it the fourth company in the […]
Residents question use of town funds for re-enactment as Chester Select Board frets over tight budget
By Shawn Cunningham* The Chester Select Board meeting of Wednesday, Dec. 4 was unusual – not for its four and a half hour length – but for the crowd of more than 20 who attended it. Many were there to explain or advocate for funding under the 2014 town budget, including several members of the […]
Green Up Day funded; police, insurance budget concerns and solar farm discussion continues
By Shawn Cunningham If the Nov. 20 Chester Select Board meeting had a theme, it was “green,” with issues being discussed including next year’s budget (money), Green Up Day (conservation) and new information on the perennial topic of the solar farm on town land (clean energy). Chester resident and teacher Frank Kelley went before […]
Chester Select Board considers reviving solar farm proposal
By Shawn Cunningham After closing the door on a solar project on town land in a 3-2 vote at a previous meeting, the Chester Select Board re-opened the topic for further discussion last Wednesday night, Nov.6. Board member Bill Lindsay, who moved to accept the terms set out by project developer Green Lantern at […]
Chester Select Board says ‘it’s curtains’ for solar farm on town land
By Shawn Cunningham After a year of gathering information and deliberating, the Chester Select Board last Wednesday closed the door on the construction of a solar farm on town land across Route 103 North from Trebo Road. Earlier, at its Oct. 9 meeting, the board had expected to hear from the Luke Schullenberger – […]
SoVera observatory up and running on private land
By Shawn Cunningham Ron Jackson was in good spirits despite the heavy cloud cover as he rolled back the roof on his “new” observatory on a hill in Gassetts. There wouldn’t be any stars visible, so he trained his Celestron “orange tube” Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope on a pine tree several hundred feet away and invited a […]
Solar contract decision still hanging; VAST gets OK for trail through town forest
The Chester Select Board last Wednesday expected a presentation from Green Lantern Capital regarding financial details of its proposed solar farm on town land on Route 103 at Trebo Road. But Luke Schullenberger, the company’s founder and managing partner, was taken ill. Instead, Mike Wigham of Integrated Solar, which would be contracted to build the […]
Select Board mashup: Town solar farm now a question; supervisory union budget transparency questioned and answering a question: Who hired the consultant?
By Shawn Cunningham The Chester Select Board seems to be talking itself out of a solar farm deal that it has been working on for the past eight months. During its meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 18, board member Derek Suursoo kicked off the discussion on the proposed solar farm — slated for town land off […]
Issues over proposed bylaws returned to Planning Commission; Missing Link Bridge to be rebuilt
By Shawn Cunningham For the second meeting in a row, on Wednesday Sept. 4, the Chester Select Board went immediately into executive session. The closed door session was to talk with candidates for the positions of Lister and Planning Commission member. The board entered executive session at 7:07 and returned at 7:29 p.m.after which they […]
Study author recommends adding officers to Chester Police force
By Shawn Cunningham In a presentation to the Chester Select Board on Wednesday, Aug. 21, Doug Hoyt, a former police chief of Montpelier, suggested that the Chester Police Department staff should grow by two officers, to six total. Hoyt conducted a study of the police department under the auspices of the Vermont League of Cities […]
Select Board OKs business loan for carver Pinske, bond amount for portion of gravel pit restoration
By Shawn Cunningham While the Chester Select Board had a quorum of three for its Wednesday, Aug. 7 meeting, the absence of two members who had attended the July 17 meeting combined with the presence of one member who had not lead to complications in completing an economic development loan discussed at that previous meeting. […]
Bryan Ballinger is trying to raise a STINK!
By Shawn Cunningham With an Aug. 8 deadline approaching on his Kickstarter funding campaign, former Chester resident Bryan “Breadwig” Ballinger is optimistic that he will raise the $20,000 needed to publish his “scratch and sniff” children’s book, Animal Gas. At press time, his appeal to help produce the allegory on how we perceive our ourselves […]
Under perfect skies, 41 graduate from GMUHS
ON THE COVER: Ann-Marie Toussaint gets a kiss from her nephew during graduation ceremonies. The 41 members of the Green Mountain Union High School Class of 2013 graduated under perfect skies on Friday evening, June 21 on the grounds of the school. In attendance were family and friends of the graduates as well as members […]
Apartment application, sand & gravel extraction proposed before DRB
The Chester Development Review Board took a look at two new conditional use permit applications during its Monday, June 24 meeting. After a site visit to 18 S. Main St., the board accepted the application and exhibits for Scarlett Veil, LLC, a company owned by the Meyer family,for a renovation and adaptive reuse of a […]
A day to remember those who died in service
Chester observed Memorial Day on the traditional “Decoration Day” of May 30th with a parade, prayers, gun salutes, speeches, wreath layings and other ceremonies. The day was warm and sunny as bands from Chester-Andover Elementary and Green Mountain Union High schools played and marched from the North Street Cemetery to the Brook Side Cemetery and […]
Chester detective injured at fire scene
By Shawn Cunningham Chester Police Det. Matt Wilson was injured Sunday, May 5 when the concussion from the exploding tire on a burning loader knocked him to the ground. The Chester Fire Department and Chester Ambulance Service were called out around 5 p.m. for an equipment fire at Rhoman-Wai Farm on Green Mountain Turnpike. According […]
Season’s Greenings
The long winter has finally ended but the weather has been holding us in a limbo of lukewarm days and cold nights — not what most Southern Vermonters are looking for so long after maple sugaring has ended. Still, the signs are here and, on Tuesday, Shawn Cunningham ventured out camera in hand to capture […]
Burtco proposes five-bay car wash for Route 103 S.
By Shawn Cunningham On Monday night, the Chester Development Review Board reconvened a hearing on a conditional use permit for a five-bay car wash to be built and operated on Route 103 south. The facility, which will have two automatic and three self-serve bays will be owned and operated by Burtco and is proposed for […]
