Chester board to re-approve budget after spreadsheet glitch

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC

A programming glitch in Chester government Excel spreadsheets detailing the proposed 2025-26 operating budget is forcing the Select Board to revote that proposed budget this morning. The new budget will be slightly higher  — about $50,000 — than the one that the board earlier approved to send to voters for approval Monday, March 3.

That amount will be $4.225 million or 5.89 percent more than last year according to Town Manager Julie Hance.

Bonds to be voted on by Australian ballot on Tuesday, March 4 including:

• • a seven-year bond for $150,000 for paving three sections of Flamstead Road
  • a 10-year bond to purchase a new grader for $380,000.
  • purchase of the Route 103 solar field for $1.14 million and
  • a $2.38 million bond to replace the Depot Street force main and the First Avenue pumping station, both of which are at the end of their useful lives.

Some of the highlights of the 2025-26 budgeting process are:

SAPA-TV, ambulance transfers and Whiting Library

Among items discussed during the Wednesday, Jan. 15 meeting was a request by SAPA TV Executive Director Aimee Parnell  for an increased annual appropriation for the public access station from $2,000 to $5,000. Parnell cited the assistance SAPA has given the town in setting up and operating its remote meeting hardware as well as storing the board’s meetings, which a fulfills a state requirement at a lower cost than other methods available, Hance said. Parnell said the organization is doing a great deal with less cable revenue and needs the assistance.  The board approved the request, which will be added to the budget proposal.

The town has also begun using its old ambulance to  transfer people between hospitals or other health-care facilities. Hance said in the four weeks of the program’s operation, it had brought in $35,000. Because of that, she raised the estimated income in the town budget  from $60,000 to $100,000. While that income could be much more, Hance said she wanted to be cautious since the service is still in its early days.

Board chair Arne Jonynas also cautioned that there would be other expenses connected to the transfers and, at some point, the town would have to replace the old ambulance to continue with the service.  Hance agreed but said a new transfer ambulance would not have to be as robust as a 911 emergency response vehicle. The town recently took delivery of a new ambulance,which cost around $350,000.

At an earlier meeting, members of the Whiting Library Board of Trustees had asked the Select Board for a 19 percent increase in the town’s support, bringing that figure to just over $120,000. The increase would bring staff pay closer to the average in Vermont. Board member Lee Gustafson  asked why the library couldn’t use its endowment  rather than ask the taxpayers for an increase. He added that last year he had asked for but never received a profit and loss statement from the library.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Hance said she placed a figure of $115,000 in the budget for discussion. Whiting board President Bill Dakin then told the Select Board that because its fundraising had been more successful than last year, they were asking for a reduction to that of about $4,000, which is about $10,000 more than asked for last year.

Select Board members praised the profit and loss statement the library had submitted and OK’d a $111,000 appropriation for the library.

Details on the sewer project bond

The replacement of the Depot Street force main and the First Avenue pumping station will ensure that a large section of users of the Chester sewer system — those along Depot Street and its environs —  will continue to be able to flush their toilets.

All registered voters can cast a ballot on the bond, which is not to exceed $2.38 million. But, only those property owners who use the sewer system will be making the bond payments. You might ask why a large number of Chester voters are able to have a say in what others will pay for. Well, the Water and Sewer departments have to be self-supporting and are therefore separate from the town’s general fund. It’s like they are stand alone businesses within town government and as such do not have the legal standing to “go out to bond.”  Only municipalities like towns and school districts can bond.

So for the sewer to get fixed, the town uses its bonding power on behalf of the sewer system like a parent might sign a guarantee on a loan for a child’s first car. In the unlikely case that the users don’t pay their sewer fees, the town as a whole is on the hook for the money.

In the past, there have been discussions about having non-users chip in to maintain the water and sewer systems. The argument for this – often put forward by large scale water/sewer users – has been that the system is a inducement for businesses to move to Chester. The argument against has been that property owners outside the village have to maintain their own wells and septic systems without help from town.

Solar field purchase bond

Long time watchers of Chester Select Board may remember the interminable back and forth debates in 2013 about whether to allow a private developer to build a solar field on town property at the Jeffrey Well site on Route 103, just north of the Stone Village. An agreement was struck and the panels were put up. Part of that agreement gave Chester the option to buy the field after seven years. The town exercised it option and research and negotiations began in early 2022. The town is now hammering out final details.

The price at the moment is $1.14 million for the nearly 10-year-old facility, from which the town takes 36 percent of the electricity generated, offsetting utility costs for town buildings. The board is looking at a 10-year bond and its members believe that the numbers line up so that the proceeds from its operation will make those payments. After that, the proceeds will go to the town’s coffers. According to Jonynas and Gustafson the panels have a 25-year warranty but many solar panels are twice as old and are still producing power, including those on  spacecraft traveling throughout our galaxy.

Other articles

Aside from financial requests from a baker’s dozen or so social service and community development organizations, the remainder of the warning asks if the town should:

• borrow $70,000 for a new police cruiser,
• establish a reserve fund for the Housing Commission so that it can receive funding to support affordable housing and
• exempt three organizations from property taxes on their lands and buildings. These exemptions spread the property taxes owed – including the state education tax – across the rest of the taxpayers of the town. Those organizations are:
• 1. The Gassetts Grange
  2. The Chester Rod and Gun Club
  3. Green Mountain Softball Inc.

Jonynas noted that in past years, representatives of these organizations or those asking for an annual donations have not come to the meeting and voters have rejected their requests. He encouraged representatives to attend Town Meeting to explain their benefit to Chester residents.

Chester has two days of Town Meeting. At 6 p.m. on Monday March 3, there will be an in-person meeting where Hance and the board will present the budget and it and other articles will be voted on from the floor.

Four articles — including the bond votes and election of town officials — will be voted by Australian ballot on the following day from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Both will take place at Town Hall, 556 Elm St.