Chester continues budgeting, hears Class 4 road complaint

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Every year, the Chester Snowmobile Club comes before the Chester Select Board to request the use of certain town roads to link together private properties and Class 4 roads to complete the trails used by its members and by other members of the statewide VAST trail system.

It’s a routine approval with a little discussion of culverts or bridges the club has worked on during the summer. But last Wednesday’s meeting took an unexpected turn.

When the subject came up, Paul Bidgood, a Massachusetts attorney who owns property in Chester and Cavendish, asked for 10 minutes to once again state his case about why Bailey Hill Road is not a town road, a contention he has brought to the board multiple times since January.

Board chair Arne Jonynas explained he would allow him to speak, although the motion to grant the club’s request for the use of active town roads had nothing to do with Bidgood’s claim.

Bidgood began by saying he would be civil and not name names, but went on to accuse former Select Board members — including Dick Jewett, who is also a member of the snowmobile club — of colluding with members of the Cavendish Select Board decades ago to make Bailey Hill Road a Class 4 road. Referring to it repeatedly as a “fateful day,” Bidgood went well past his 10 minutes, often turning to the audience to state his case and staring at Jewett, who sat in the back of the downstairs conference room.

Jonynas told Bidgood that the town had reviewed the documents he had provided as well as other information and that the board will be making a decision with the help of the town’s attorney shortly. But Bidgood, who had demanded a decision, nearly a year ago was not satisfied.

“You’re putting me in the predicament of having to stand in the road and say ‘no, you can’t come through,” said Bidgood spreading his arms wide as if to say stop, and adding that he did not want to be “accosted or arrested” when he stops snowmobiles coming from the “Chester side into Cavendish.”

According to a 2005 Rutland Herald article, Bidgood, filed a lawsuit in 1997 against Chester and Cavendish seeking them to maintain the road year-round, saying that he planned to move there and reestablish the family farm. He tried to make Cavendish plow a portion of the road on its side beginning in the late 1990s contending that, since it was a Class 3 road, it should be plowed. Cavendish responded by reclassifying it a Class 4 road, which meant it did not have to maintain it at all. More litigation ensued.

The Herald reported that Bidgood could access his property on the snowmobile trail by joining VAST and that in a court filing Bidgood said that VAST “is not a good organization. I would shoot myself before I had to join VAST.”

When Bidgood had finished his presentation, the board voted unanimously to allow the club to use the portions of the roads they requested.

Budgets: Library, Recreation, Facilities

With budgeting season now in full swing, the board heard from the Whiting Library and the Recreation Department as well as a spending plan for taking care of the town’s facilities, which include the Whiting Library, the Pinnacle Recreation Area and other town buildings.

Whiting trustees and the librarian asked for an additional $19,000 to cover employment costs in an effort to keep up with the market for trained personnel. That amount would bring the total for two librarians – including salary, Social Security, unemployment and workers comp taxes and a stipend to buy healthcare insurance – to $120,356.

Jonynas kicked off the conversation by saying that the library is an extremely vital part of the community. Board member Lee Gustafson agreed, but said that he had asked for the library’s profit and loss statement in the past and the board had never received it. Gustafton said that while he was inclined to vote for the organization’s budget, he needed to do the due diligence.

After more discussion, Jonynas thanked the library for turning out so many board members and staff – in the room and online – and said the request would be considered in the overall budget discussion over the next several meetings.

Recreation Director Matt McCarthy and Facilities Director Steve Vertifeulle walked the board through their budgets, which got generally positive reactions including work to keep the pool house viable for another five to eight years.  With just a few questions, the board even absorbed the idea of a $60,000 capital expense for repairing the ailing sprinkler system in the library.

But the board balked when it reached the proposal for a “splash park” addition to the pool area. A splash park features ground nozzles that spray water in the air, allowing people to walk through it and cool off. Water doesn’t accumulate on the ground, minimizing the risk of drowning.  The water can be collected and recirculated through the swimming pool’s chlorine treatment.

McCarthy explained that there are two phases to its completion:

1. Constructing the water system features and
2. adding above-ground structures to it.

Each phase costs about $150,000. While board members thought the idea was interesting, they were put off by the cost.

Board member Tim Roper compared the $19,000 ask from the Whiting Library, which operates year round, to the cost of the splash park which would only be used for three to four months.  Jonynas said he had a hard time with that expense. Final decisions on the budget requests are made when all of the departments have presented their budgets to the board.

Housing panel asks to add trust fund to Town Meeting ballot

The Chester Housing Commission came before the board to ask it to put an article on the March Town Meeting warning to create a Housing Trust Fund that could be used to help get housing projects going in Chester.

The group, whose mission is to create affordable housing in the town, believe that the money that can be brought to the trust fund would help in streamlining development of parcels that would be appropriate for affordable housing.

The commission had a menu of possible sources for income including a 1 percent local option tax on rooms and meals, the sale of some smaller property owned by the town, interest on loans from the town’s Economic Development Fund and appropriations from the Trustees of Public Funds.

The board voted to put an article on the Town Meeting Warning to create the fund. It will be up to voters to say yea or nay.

Update on Act 181 from regional planning

Jason Rasmussen of the Mount Ascutney Regional Commission, which includes the southern part of Windsor County, told the board that Act 181 modifications to Act 250 and local and regional plans are coming and that he was there to  help the town with its response to the new law.

In addition to changing the structure for administering Act 250, the law also establishes a tier system that will identify areas where development – especially of housing – will have fewer permit obstacles while other areas may get stricter treatment by the law.

Rasmussen’s presentation included a timeline for the work that must be done locally to comply with the law including creation of a Future Land Use map and setting housing targets. It’s unclear from reading the legislation whether meeting such targets is required. On Tuesday Rasmussen told The Telegraph that the targets would be gleaned from housing needs assessments by county and then by town. At that point regional and town plans would need to reflect the targets as a planning tool and a metric by which to measure progress.

The Act 181 process is intended to have public input and be finalized next fall with an adoption process that goes into the summer of 2026.

Request for power upgrade in Town Hall on hold

The board deferred talking about a request from Town Manager Julie Hance on behalf of an independent group that is putting on events in Town Hall to take $31,000 from the Economic Development Fund for electrical upgrades that include installing three phase power in the building. There is currently $346,000 in the fund.

Three phase is generally used for industrial applications that demand a lot of power. The board heard that this would be used for sound and lighting in the auditorium but several board members questioned the need for it.

Board member Arianna Knapp – who has experience with theatrical shows – was not at the meeting and the board decided to put a decision off until she was in attendance. The board seemed supportive of a portion of the request that would upgrade an electrical panel in the balcony and add 16 outlets on the main floor of the auditorium.