All Entries in the "Featured" Category
Afternoon fire destroys garage on Cummings Rd. No one injured in two-alarm blaze
UPDATE: At 4:41 a.m. on Monday, firefighters from Chester, Proctorsville and Weathersfield were called back to the scene for the reported re-ignition of the remains of the building. By Shawn Cunningham © 2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC Seven area fire companies with 35 firefighters responded to Cummings Road in Chester Sunday afternoon to quell a fire […]
Chester mulls a local option tax; neighboring towns already have them and like them
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Select Board is nearing its deadline to decide whether to put before the voters in March a 1 percent local tax that would be in addition to the current state sales taxes charged on rooms and meals and served alcohol. We thought it would be […]
Chester board hears objections to local option tax, appoints development panel members
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Select Board last Wednesday looked at 2026 budgets for Public Works as well as the Water and Sewer departments and appointed four volunteers for a new economic development commission. But the continuing discussion of a 1 percent local option tax on rooms (hotel, inn and […]
Cavendish board holds hearing on subdivision regs
By Lorien Strange © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC Cavendish’s Select Board kicked off its Monday Dec. 8 meeting with a public hearing for the proposed subdivision regulations. It’s a touchy subject for the town. The prospect of a quarry on a small, subdivided lot on Tierney Road stood at the center of a years-long controversy […]
Fill your senses with the sights, sounds and smells of Germany’s Christmas markets
By Henry Homeyer ©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC An impulsive decision in late November by my wife Cindy and I to explore German Christmas markets found us in Berlin visiting with an old friend. We also spent a few days traveling by rental car to Dresden, Leipzig and Naumberg, a walled medieval town that also has […]
Chester Festival, long held on the Green, to move to Legion field
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC Approximately three dozen people gathered at Chester’s American Legion on Tuesday evening for a long awaited information session about moving the 2026 Chester Festival on the Green off the Green and surrounding town properties and onto a field next to the American Legion, off Route 103 South. […]
Chester Board hears local option tax concerns, picks new moderator Frank Kelley to replace longtime Moderator Bill Dakin at 2026 Town Meeting
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC For several meetings, the Chester Select Board has discussed putting on the Town Meeting Day ballot a 1 percent local option sales tax on rooms and meals, which would include short-term rentals and alcohol served at restaurants. The tax, which would be paid for by each establishment’s […]
Roads less taken fill Chester board’s agenda as MacGinnis sues town
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC It’s looking like Class 4 roads will fill Chester government’s horizon for months – if not longer – as the Chester Select Board once again devoted a large portion of its Nov. 19 meeting to the topic. During last Wednesday’s meeting, Wyman’s Falls Road property owner Kirk […]
Childcare, livestock and paper preservation round out businesses moving into Chester Chester's Rising Business Scene: Part 3 of 3
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC Editor’s Note: In the past two weeks The Chester Telegraph has looked at what seems to be an uptick in Chester business activity through the lens of the hospitality sector – namely restaurants and the retail marketplace. In this final installment we look at several new developments […]
Chester icons under the aurora borealis
©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC Chester resident Bruce Johnson sent over a few photos he shot during Tuesday night’s aurora borealis, a spectacular atmospheric display that Vermonters — and much of the northern hemisphere — were graced with on Tuesday night. Johnson used his cellphone to take the shots around 8:30 p.m. They show the aurora […]
Chester board wrestles with Class 4 road issues
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC There was no calm before the storm at the Nov. 5 Chester Select Board meeting with property owner Kirk MacGinnis forcefully making demands of the chair even before the minutes from the Oct. 1 meeting could be reviewed. In a confrontational style that includes handouts listing statute […]
A new year and new businesses coming to the Green, and more
Editor’s Note: Last week The Chester Telegraph took a look at what seems to be an uptick in Chester business activity through the lens of the hospitality sector – namely restaurants. This week’s focus is on what’s happening in the retail marketplace beginning with movement on the Green. By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing […]
With Create Together, Fletcher Farm turns the page toward a new community artistic vision
By Lorien Strange ©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC Locals think they know what’s going on here,” says Kathryn Svec as she leans against a cabinet in a recently refurbished pottery studio. Outside the long, low building just north of Cavendish, everything is puddles and gray. But that’s not dampening the quiet enthusiasm of Create Together’s new […]
Restaurant openings point to business revival in Chester
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC As the days turn colder it seems the business climate in Chester is heating up with around a dozen businesses opening, moving, expanding or changing hands in industries as disparate as restaurants and livestock farming, home decor and childcare. And with all that, a number of prominent […]
Estimates for PCB fix at GM high school top $20 million
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC While officials at Green Mountain Union High School have reduced the amount of airborne PCBs to acceptable levels with air filtering, the long-term solution – as spelled out at last Thursday’s Green Mountain Unified School District board meeting will be more than $20 million and there’s no […]
Family Center Food Shelf fills the gaps amid an uneasy economy, SNAP cuts, federal shutdown
By Cynthia Prairie ©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC On a recent afternoon in late October, the buzz in the grocery store grew louder as more shoppers arrived. The aisles soon were packed with people — an easy occurrence in the small store. It was becoming a more typical day at the Food Shelf at the Chester-Andover […]
Blue rally, red rally on the Chester Green Festive No Kings protest draws close to 600; more subdued GOP event follows with 80
By Shawn Cunningham and Cynthia Prairie ©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC On a picture perfect October Saturday, two polarized political factions shared Chester’s Green – at different times – to hold peaceful rallies with very different vibes and vastly different numbers in attendance. The Green was already crowded by the 10:30 a.m. start time for Chester’s […]
Londonderry residents continue debate over future of Williams Dam
By Cynthia Prairie ©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC For years, Londonderry residents have been arguing over the dam at the West River at Route 11, which for some is a much needed fire pond as well bucolic spot. The state, town government and other residents, however, see it as a festering problem that is best addressed […]
Tempest in a coffee cup? Area micro-roasters face harsh brew of tariffs, other price increases Earlier price hike, bulk buying spares customers for now
By Lorien Strange ©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC You may have noticed that your bag of fresh roasted coffee has been taking a bigger chunk out of your wallet lately. Or you may just be wondering just when those tariff-induced price hikes are going to kick in. The good news is that four local coffee micro-roasters […]
Chester solons get Class 4 earful
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC As the Chester Select Board wordsmithed a final version of its policy on the maintenance and use of Class 4 highways at its Oct. 1 meeting, two landowners addressed objections – not to the policy in general – but to how it impacts their properties specifically. Board […]