All Entries in the "Chester" Category
Gravity + water + frigid temps = winter art
By Shawn Cunningham © 2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC One of the joys of driving on Popple Dungeon Road every day in the winter is watching the evolution of self-creating ice sculpture at Peter Delaney’s place, where the blacktop ends and the gravel road begins. Each fall, Delaney brings out a wooden structure he’s created that […]
Chester Select Board, Water Commission agendas for Jan. 21
The Chester Select Board will hold a meeting as the Water and Sewer Commission at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday Jan. 21 at Town Hall, 556 Elm Street and remotely via Zoom. The Select Board will hold a meeting directly after the Water and Sewer meeting. Below are the meeting agendas. Water and Sewer Commission 1. […]
Chester Board adds vote on local option tax to Town Meeting warning
By Shawn Cunningham © 2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC More than a year after it was originally brought up and after several months of discussion with the public, the Chester Select Board decided at its Jan. 7 meeting to put the question of adding 1 percent to the current sales tax on rooms, meals and alcohol […]
Candlelight vigils held in Chester for Minnesota ICE shooting victim
By Shawn Cunningham © 2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC Over the weekend, about 150 people gathered on Chester’s Green to hold two candlelight vigils for Renee Nicole Good, the 37-year-old Minneapolis mother of three who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent last Thursday morning. Both vigils started at 5 p.m. and […]
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 […]
Agendas for Dec. 17 Chester Select Board and Water/Sewer Commission meetings
The Chester Select Board will hold its regular meeting following their meeting as the Town’s Water and Sewer Commission meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025 at Town Hall, 556 Elm Street and via Zoom. Below are their agendas. Water and Sewer Commissioners Meeting 1. Citizen’s Comments 2. 2026 Budget Discussion – Water Department […]
Santa lights up the Chester Green
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC Carolers, bundled up against the chill, gathered around a blazing firepit on the Chester Green last Saturday afternoon singing songs of Christmas while across Main Street, Laurie and Samantha Vertefeuille were putting the finishing touches on Santa’s house. Cookies, candy canes and hot chocolate were ready. All […]
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 […]
Snowy morning crash blocks Rt. 103N in Chester Car-tractor trailer collision sends two to hospital
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC Tuesday’s snow storm was four hours old when it caused a two-vehicle crash that shut down Route 103 north in Chester into mid-afternoon. Both drivers suffered injuries and were transported to Springfield Hospital. There were no passengers in either vehicle. At just before 11 a.m. Chester Police […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
E-Court rejects Julian Quarries appeal of ‘stop work’ order
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC On Sept. 30, Environmental Court Judge Joseph S. McLean sided with Vermont’s Land Use Review Board — and by extension a number of Chester residents — by rejecting Julian Materials’ appeal of the board’s “stop work” order at its three Gassetts Quarries. The LURB posted its stop […]
Act 181 is coming: How will it affect your property? Details of this Act 250 reform are being defined as law is rolled out
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC In 2024, the Vermont Legislature passed Act 181 that makes a number of changes to the state’s laws on land use with special attention to encouraging new housing in downtowns. But there may also be changes to the way rural land is treated and landowners should pay […]
Is Chester’s long-delayed sidewalk project in the Depot finally a go?
By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC Children in second grade at Chester-Andover Elementary today had not been born when the Town received an $800,000 grant to build a sidewalk from Bargefrede Road at the lower portion of Depot Street to Town Hall. But after an eight-year delay that doubled the project’s cost, the […]