All Entries in the "Chester" Category

Dollar General foes end four-year fight; hope to see stronger zoning regulations in Chester
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC After a four-year battle, the Chester group fighting the construction of a 9,100-square-foot Dollar General has decided to not seek a motion to re-argue the case before the state Supreme Court, giving the green light to the Zaremba Group out of Ohio to construct the building on Main […]

Long-delayed Popple Dungeon work begins
By Shawn Cunningham ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC Popple Dungeon residents are holding their breaths and crossing their fingers as work gets underway on the long delayed project to reroute about 950 feet of crumbling paved roadway and improve the drainage under it to stabilize and preserve the road. This section of roadway stands above the […]

Chester public records get room to grow
By Shawn Cunningham ©2015 Telegraph Publishing The records of a town take up a lot of space after 254 years. And during her tenure as Chester Town Clerk, Deb Aldrich has watched the 162-square-foot vault used to protect town records grow tighter and tighter. A Vermont statute mandates that a town have “a fireproof safe […]

Chester sets tax rate, agrees to title search on Yosemite Fire House
By Shawn Cunningham © 2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Select Board set this year’s tax rate, approved a contract for a title search to determine the ownership of the Yosemite Fire House, heard an update on Merritt Edson day festivities and discussed the options to move the proposed water project forward at its Wednesday, […]
Chester Police ask for help with break-ins, burglaries
Chester Police are asking that anyone with information regarding a recent series of burglaries in the Smokeshire area of Ludlow and Chester to contact police at 875-2035. Police Chief Rick Cloud says that five or so camps have been broken into and brush hogs, riding lawn mowers, copper piping and “anything and everything that isn’t […]

Chester Select Board agrees to water project ‘do-over’
By Shawn Cunningham © 2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC In the wake of last Tuesday’s defeat of a vote to ratify the May 19 water project passage, the Chester Select Board met in a sparsely attended noon meeting on Thursday July 2 to affirm that it is behind the project and will bring it to another […]

Chester Select Board calls special meeting on water project
On the heels of the defeat of a ratification vote on the water system upgrade funding, the Chester Select Board has called a special meeting for noon on Thursday, July 2 at Town Hall, 556 Elm St. The meeting agenda includes an update/discussion on the project and a public comments. According to Town Manager David […]

Peer review questions proposed Chester Jiffy Mart’s traffic numbers
By Shawn Cunningham ©2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC A privately commissioned peer review of the traffic study submitted by Jiffy Mart has called into question the numbers on which the convenience store chain has based its assertion that its proposed store would have no impact on congestion and crashes. The review was presented on Monday night, when […]

Chester voters overturn earlier vote approving water project
By Shawn Cunningham © 2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC A vote to ratify the Chester water bond vote of May 19 went down to defeat today, Tuesday, June 30, in an anemic turnout of 143 voters out of a checklist of more than 2,000. The final tally was 69 yes to 74 no. The ratification vote was […]

Q&A: Attorney Alan Biederman on the latest Zaremba/Dollar General victory
Alan Biederman represented Zaremba Group, the developer of the proposed Dollar General store in Chester, during the Act 250 appeals brought by opponents of the project. He is a lawyer in Rutland who is happily heading toward retirement. Four questions were posed by email by Telegraph editor Cynthia Prairie. Biederman also responded by email. Except […]

In OK’ing Dollar General ‘warehouse,’ state Supreme Court affirms ‘adverse effect’
NOTE: Zaremba Group attorney Alan Biederman answered several questions for The Chester Telegraph concerning the appeals and other issues. You can read that article here. By Cynthia Prairie 2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC T he Vermont Supreme Court has given a green light for the construction of a Dollar General store on Main Street in Chester, after […]

Water main break in Chester means ‘all-nighter’ for town crew
By Shawn Cunningham © 2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC A break in an 8-inch water main on Depot Street near Maple Street in Chester around 4 p.m. yesterday brought out a town crew that was expected to work through the night to make repairs. Until Water Superintendent Jeff Holden found the break and shut off the […]

Chester board reappoints DRB members without advertising openings
By Shawn Cunningham ©2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC Several pending issues including action on the disposition of the Yosemite Fire House and a board member’s request to discuss the formation of a fire district were missing from the agenda for the Wednesday, June 17 meeting of the Chester Select Board. But the board re-appoinnted members of the […]

Families crowd GMUHS for graduating Class of 2015
By Leah M. Cunningham ©2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC On Friday, June 19, overcast and rainy skies cleared in time for the evening’s ceremonies, as Green Mountain Union High School awarded 57 diplomas to students heading to either college, the work force or the military. (See photo gallery below) Despite adding 200 chairs to bring audience seating […]

Chester to hold two public meetings and a vote next week
©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC Two public hearings and a townwide vote will be held in Chester next week: Monday, June 29 – The Town of Chester will hold an informational meeting ahead of a second vote on the town’s $4 million water project. This is happening because the first vote was not properly warned for […]

DRB to keep flood hazard review open on Chester Jiffy Mart
By Shawn Cunningham © 2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC After a contentious hearing on June 1, this past Monday’s Chester Development Review Board meeting was polite and even relaxed in portions as the town’s quasi-judicial land use arbiters once again took up the application of Robert Record and Champlain Oil for a conditional use permit to […]

Chester Select Board member pushes fire district; board still unclear on ownership of historic firehouse
By Shawn Cunningham © 2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC At its June 3 meeting, the Chester Select Board set up a busy session for June 17, when the meeting time will return to 7 p.m. from 6:30 at the request of chairman John DeBenedetti. Among the discussions at last week’s meeting that will be on the […]

Chester alumni celebrate reuniting with a holiday-themed parade
By Leah M. Cunningham ©2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC T he unsettled weather of the morning cleared up just in time for Chester’s annual Alumni Day parade, which kicked off at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 6. This year’s theme was Holidays, and several returning classes went all out with their floats, including an Earth Day float, one […]

Jiffy Mart developer sees new store as improvement to area’s character
By Shawn Cunningham ©2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC Pointing to a “very old service station, a very old metal diner, an abandoned pizza parlor that’s overgrown, a dollar store site and a rental house that’s not in very good shape,” Matt Wamsganz, the point man overseeing constructing a 5,000-square-foot Jiffy Mart for Champlain Oil, told the Chester […]

VTel responds to Big Pole controversy in Chester; Andover-Chester MOUs still in play
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 – Telegraph Publishing LLC Following two executive sessions to discuss legal issues with town attorney Jim Carroll, the Chester Select Board reconvened its public session after almost a 90 minutes on Thursday, May 21. After the first executive session, the board authorized Town Manager David Pisha to sign an amendment to […]