All Entries in the "Featured" Category
GM track & field alumni athletes go the distance at the collegiate level
By Dan Barile ©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Green Mountain Union High School track and field program has achieved significant success throughout its existence, earning nine state titles on the boys’ side and four more from the girls. Both teams earned their most recent state titles in 2023 when they swept the Vermont Division IV […]
GMUSD board gets PCB update, continues internal wrangling
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC A few years ago, state sponsored testing found that chemicals known as PCBs are present at the Green Mountain High School. Last Thursday, Kassandra Kimmey of the state Department of Environmental Conservation gave a presentation on PCBs to the Green Mountain Unified School District Board, that outlined […]
State board orders Julian quarries to cease operations until conditions are fulfilled
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Vermont Land Use Review Board, in its administrative order against Julian Materials LLC posted on Monday, June 16, calls on the Julian companies to “stop work” at all three of its quarries in north Chester. The Land Use Review Board administers the Act 250 program. Since […]
Chester board tables American flag issue til fall Sets tax rate, approves zoning office shuffle
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC Before being elected to the Chester Select Board, Tim Roper complained to that body a couple of times about the state of the flags displayed on Main Street. They can be found wrapped around their poles, sometimes tattered and even snared on splinters from the utility poles […]
Live music fills Vermont’s hills this summer From classical to jazz to country, these bands will rock your soul
By Stacia A. Spaulding ©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC Calling all music lovers. The Telegraph has brought dozens of musical events in the region together in one place so you can plan your summer schedule. Our Calendar of Events contains additional information about several listings. Cavendish Summer Concert Series Concerts are held on Wednesdays from 6 […]
Caps off to the 48 Green Mountain High grads!
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC Weeks of rainy weather made for some uncertainty, but with a forecast of just hazy to cloudy skies on Friday night, Green Mountain Union High School graduated 48 students, with 46 walking for their diplomas. Principal John Broadley told the crowds of parents and friends gathered that […]
No Kings rally in Chester attracts large, peaceful crowd to protest Trump policies
By Cynthia Prairie ©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC It was just another damp and cloudy spring Saturday, except for the folks that began gathering on the Chester Green short before 10 a.m. to set up tents and a sound system preparing for the 10:30 national No Kings Nationwide Day of Defiance rally organized locally by the […]
CAES educators join statewide Friday morning protest of Vermont education reform bill
By Cynthia Prairie ©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC The educators are concerned. They say that the proposed state law H 454 to remake Vermont’s public education system, which is to be voted on on Monday in the Vermont Senate, has been rushed and filled with too many holes. It seeks to reform the governance, the finance […]
GM board votes down sole candidate; to restart the process of filling Chester vacancy
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC In yet another in a collection of remarkable meetings, the Green Mountain Unified School District Board last Wednesday voted down the only candidate for the open seat representing Chester. Patricia “Penny” Benelli, a longtime Chester resident who holds a degree in education and recently retired from practicing […]
Chester board hears GM appointment complaints, police on immigration enforcement
By Shawn Cunningham 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC As the clock ticked toward 6:30 and the conference room on the first floor of Chester’s Town Hall began to fill up, it looked like the May 21 Select Board meeting would be another long one with multiple comments by residents on several issues currently roiling the public […]
GM school board to hold special meeting to revisit board appointment, complaint
By Cynthia Prairie ©2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Board of Directors of the Green Mountain Unified School District will hold a special meeting next Wednesday in part to cure violations of Vermont’s Open Meeting Law regarding executive sessions that occurred at its May 15 meeting and – in effect – to rescind its request that […]
News Analysis: More questions than answers to fill a school board seat
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC The board of the Green Mountain Unified School District has a long history of tackling difficult issues but not resolving them in a timely manner: the on again-off again discussion with the school’s former mascot being the most recent example, until last Thursday night. The board went […]
Chester Fire Department ready to roll with new tanker
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC On Monday morning the Chester Fire Department took delivery of its latest piece of firefighting apparatus. The department had ordered the $500,000 tanker more than two years and two fire chiefs ago, but a number of hiccups delayed the delivery, which had been expected late last year. […]
Chester board punts making school board rep recommendation; hears protests about protests
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC Last Wednesday, the Chester Select Board was met with a fairly full house and two large servings of controversy starting with the public comment period. One issue concerns the use of the Green for political demonstrations while the other involved objections to a candidate who is seeking […]
May Day protest attracts 250+, some counter protesters
On Thursday afternoon, May 1, the Chester Green was — as it had been a month ago — lined with anti-Trump demonstrators carrying signs, waving at drivers and listening to speakers who, for this May Day celebration, emphasized the importance of workers and unions in building the American middle class. May Day is an international […]
Friends, co-workers, residents celebrate retirement with Aldrich
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC More than 120 friends, co-workers, relatives and Chester residents turned out at the American Legion on Saturday night to celebrate Town Clerk Debbie Aldrich’s retirement after 42 years. Aldrich began working as an assistant town clerk in April 1983 and became town clerk when Sandy Walker […]
A primer: How Vermont law enforcement agencies must handle immigration issues
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC Toward the end of last week’s Chester Select Board meeting, as members were discussing items for future agendas, Arne Jonynas asked what the relationship is between the Chester Police Department and federal immigration authorities in light of recent arrests of both documented and undocumented immigrants in Vermont. […]
Neighbors plead with Chester board to enforce on quarry violations
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC In an otherwise light meeting – mostly followups and housekeeping – the Chester Select Board last Wednesday heard from neighbors complaining that the Julian quarries in Gassetts were continuing to violate a signed agreement with the town. The quarries were cited by the town for violations in […]
Ludlow resident, a fugitive from Brazil, arrested on federal firearms charges
By Mike Donoghue Vermont News First BURLINGTON An international fugitive, who is wanted on a child rape charge in Brazil and has lived in the United States unlawfully for more than four years, has been arrested in Windsor County on federal firearms charges after a series of gun incidents, officials said this week. Gabriel Lopes […]
Well attended forum explores future of education in Vermont
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC Monday night’s forum on statewide education reform, sponsored by the Chester Democratic Committee, attracted about 40 people of many political stripes. And it was remarkable for the extent to which members of the invited panel — also of different political persuasions — agreed on the problems and […]
