All Entries in the "Featured" Category
Plan for Chester Ambulance reorganization explained; beautification panel proposes restoration of ‘hearse house’
By Shawn Cunningham ©The Chester Telegraph — 2014 At its Wednesday, Sept. 3, meeting, the Chester Select Board looked at a grassroots effort to restore the hearse building at Brookside cemetery, questions about the application for historic site markers and the restructuring of the Chester Ambulance service Back in June, the board had heard about […]
Grafton Select Board updated on break-ins, drug use
By Mark Burbela ©The Chester Telegraph – 2014 The Grafton Select Board met Tuesday Sept. 2 to discuss local crime and getting more publicity for its town-maintained covered bridge. Capt. Robert Lakin of the Windham County Sheriff’s department was to lead a discussion on narcotics use, local crime connected to narcotics and how communities are […]
Explainer: In search for fairness, Vermont’s school funding calculations tax the brain
By Shawn Cunningham ©The Chester Telegraph – 2014 Whether you live in a Victorian on The Green, an old farmhouse up a dirt road or a yurt off the grid in the hills, you have one thing in common – property taxes. The largest portion of that annual payment is the education tax. It’s also […]
40 listen as state ed experts explain education funding formula
By Shawn Cunningham ©The Chester Telegraph – 2014 The first two hours of the Chester Select Board meeting for Wednesday, Aug. 20 was devoted to a seminar on how the state education tax rate is calculated and why Chester’s tax rate took such a jump this year. The program was led by Steven Jeffrey, executive […]
No surprises in a primary election with ‘ridiculously low’ turnout
With 97.8 percent of the precincts reporting in Vermont’s primary held Tuesday, Politico.com is reporting that Democratic incumbent Gov. Peter Shumlin easily defeated H. Brooke Paige with 82.5 percent of vote from those picking up Democratic ballots. He garnered 15,164 votes to Paige’s 3,225. Republican Scott Milne also came out on top against two other […]
Chester architect wins competition to help design Japanese resort
Chester architect Claudio Veliz has projects in Ludlow, Chester, New York City and now Hokkaido, Japan. Veliz learned over the weekend that he had won one of two spots on a panel that will design a new eco-ski resort in the snowy northernmost prefecture of Japan. According to Veliz, an eco-ski resort has no lifts […]
Primary election set for Tuesday, Aug. 26
©The Chester Telegraph – 2014 The primary election is being held next Tuesday, Aug. 26, to determine which candidates will represent their parties during the November General Election. Seventeen offices are on each ballot and no party has put someone up for every position. Since Vermont is an open primary state, voters will be given […]
All Aboard! Green Mountain Flyer restarts Fall Foliage excursions
By Cynthia Prairie ©The Chester Telegraph – 2014 The Green Mountain Flyer will begin using Chester as the hub for its regular Fall Foliage excursions beginning on Tuesday Sept. 23 and running through mid-October. In preparation, employees of the Vermont Rail System, which is celebrating its 50th year this year, have been working in and […]
After a year’s wait, new Chester website caught in a web of uncertainty
By Shawn Cunningham ©The Chester Telegraph — 2014 On July 3, 2013, the Chester Select Board voted to have a new town website constructed, using economic development funds to pay $10,000 to a company that had not yet been incorporated and had constructed just one website – its own. Kyle Rogstad, one of the partners […]
Grafton residents petition junk ordinance to town-wide vote
By Mark Burbela Grafton ©The Chester Telegraph – 2014 Although the Grafton Select Board meeting on Monday, Aug. 4 was slated to be short because of an executive session to discuss a personnell matter and a proposal that a portion of a public roadway be turned into a private road, there was much discussion about […]
After tanker wreck, homeowner keeps his sense of humor
By Shawn Cunningham ©The Chester Telegraph – 2014 When Joel Brookes sat down to his morning coffee and looked out the window on Friday, May 16, he had no idea he was about to begin a journey that would stretch two years into the future. After watching the 10,000-gallon P&H tanker turn over and slide […]
Flood cleanup estimates over $1.5 million; FEMA tours damage
By Cynthia Prairie ©The Chester Telegraph – 2014 Preliminary figures indicate that the Chester-Andover-Windham area suffered between $1.5 million and $1.8 million in damage from the torrential rain storm and subsequent flooding of Monday, July 28. These figures also include $100,000 in damage to both Reading and Weathersfield. On Tuesday morning, Aug. 5, representatives from […]
Crews work to repair road damage in Andover, Chester
By Shawn Cunningham © The Chester Telegraph 2014 Clickable photo gallery is below the article. Photos by Shawn Cunningham, The Chester Telegraph T own road crews, VTrans and private contractors were busy Tuesday morning as they continued to put local roads back together after Monday’s torrential rains (Click here for Monday’s story.). In Andover, Simmonds […]
Grafton Select Board OKs junk vehicle regulations
By Mark Burbela Grafton ©The Chester Telegraph – 2014 Despite objections from some of the 25 residents in attendance, the Grafton Select Board on Monday, July 21, passed a new ordinance regulating the storage of junk and junk vehicles, in an attempt to address numerous complaints about junk stored at private residences and to ensure […]
Torrential rains wash out Route 11, a number of Andover roads
By Shawn Cunningham ©The Chester Telegraph – 2014 A clickable photo gallery is below the article. Thanks to our photo contributors: Mark Burbela, Stacie Goodman Hill, Melissa Ryan and Marc Thomas. The skies opened up over Chester on Monday, and stayed that way, warranting the largest flood response since Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011. […]
Wetlands delay Popple Dungeon repairs; education taxes discussed by Select Board
By Shawn Cunningham ©The Chester Telegraph – 2014 Proposed work to the decaying portion of Popple Dungeon Road has been put on hold because the Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Vermont have declared that an area that would be used to straighten the road and pull it away from a hillside is […]
Public questions lot size, noise proposals in Chester zoning regs
By Shawn Cunningham ©The Chester Telegraph – 2014 The Chester Select Board reconvened its public hearing on new zoning regulations on Wednesday, July 16 with a much larger crowd than had attended the July 2 meeting, in which only two members of the public attended. At that July 2 meeting, some thought the sparse attendance […]
Part III: Dining out on the lure of a restaurant
By Cynthia Prairie ©The Chester Telegraph – 2014 T he Chester Green not only has two new antique stores – the Bargain Corner, just east of the Moon Dog Cafe, and VintageVermont, opened by a Bartonsville family in the Spater Building. But its new restaurant – in the Victorian house at 90 The Common that […]
Part II: It’s not easy being The Green; Defining a unique space
By Cynthia Prairie © The Chester Telegraph – 2014 When Vermonters talk about their town’s “Green,” they are speaking of a gathering place, one that likely sports a large bandstand on an expansive lawn — more square than long and narrow. Typically, public buildings or churches and some homes surround these greens, while the town’s […]
Part I: Chester’s Green a window on the health of local economy
By Cynthia Prairie © The Chester Telegraph – 2014 With three new businesses opening this summer along Chester’s Green in what had been empty storefronts, many merchants in and outside the immediate downtown area are sighing with relief. It’s not that businesses along The Green are any more important than those, say, along the Route […]
