At Town Meeting, Chester voters OK $4.225M budget, discuss sewer, solar bond issues Tuesday's vote: Sewer, solar field bonds approved; Roper, Knapp, Gustafson re-elected

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC

More than 100 people turned out for Chester’s Town Meeting on Monday night to vote from the floor on 18 published articles including the town’s $4.225 million budget. All passed on voice votes, although some got a bit more scrutiny from the assembly than others. For results of Tuesday’s Australian ballot in Chester go to the bottom of this story.

Town Manager Julie Hance outlined town employees’ accomplishments over the past year, then pointed out that the budget — although about $250,000 higher than last year — does not represent any increase in programs or personnel, calling the total “the cost of running the town.” Asked how much the town had received in grants, which Hance writes, she said about $3 million.

One factor that increases the rate for the state education property tax is the Common Level of Appraisal — known as the CLA — that evens out the differences in assessment across the state’s 250 municipalities. Chester’s is currently at a level that pushes taxes up and Hance said a reappraisal to even that out would begin in 2027. Many towns in Vermont are in the same situation.

The gathering also heard presentations on the two bond issues that are on the town’s Australian ballot for Tuesday March 4.

Naomi Johnson of Dufresne Group, which is a consulting engineer, explained the work necessary to replace and upgrade portions of the town sewer system. She told the meeting that a failure of the system would result in greater expense than the $2.9 million bond. And she pointed to state subsidies of around $847,000 that would reduce the cost of the project.

Select Board member Tim Roper, who has worked in the solar industry, explained the board’s reasoning behind its proposal to purchase of the solar field on Route 103 north of the Stone Village. He said that the board’s analysis shows that the field will generate enough money to make the bond payments for 10 years and give the town $140,000 per year after the bond is paid off. Most of the audience questions regarded the lifespan of the solar panels, which Roper said still had 15 years on their 25-year warranties. He added that many panels continue to generate power after 40 years.

You can see a detailed explanation of these bonds here.

The meeting quickly approved borrowing $70,000 for a new police cruiser and the establishment of a Housing Reserve Fund that will be able to receive grants for the work of the town’s Housing Commission. The town will transfer $24,000 the short-term rental registration fees to get the housing fund started.

Three organizations that have traditionally received exemption from property taxes – Gassetts Grange, Chester Rod & Gun Club and Green Mountain Softball – asked that their exemptions be renewed for five years. Representatives of each organization spoke about their contributions to the community and the financial stresses they are under. After some questions, the assembly approved the exemptions.

A dozen community service organizations asked for a total of $41,811. Most of the groups asking for funding had representatives present to make their cases and all had submitted letters that were printed in the town report. The requests were approved, although the few that did not send representatives came in for some push-back by voters. In an interesting moment when a voter asked about the location of the Women’s Freedom Center (Page 105 in the report) another voter – Larry Semones – recalled that a few years back Police Chief Rick Cloud had vouched for the organization’s work helping abused women and children in the area. That article then passed.

As happens each year, the legislators whose districts include Chester spoke to the meeting. This year it was Rep. Tom Charlton of Chester and Sens. Allison Clarkson of Woodstock and Joe Major of Hartford. Sen. Becca White did not attend. Charlton, a member of the House Housing Committee, spoke of his work on affordable housing and the workforce to build. He also asked constituents to contact him with thoughts and questions at his legislative email address — tcharlton@leg.state.vt.us. Charlton said he gets about 200 emails a day so if you don’t get a response in 24 hours, send another email.

When his five minutes was up, Charlton said he was going to run past the limit to praise outgoing Town Clerk Debbie Aldrich, noting that a joint resolution with all the “whereases and wherefores” would be presented to her at retirement party. Hance told the gathering that would be from 5 to 9 p.m. on Saturday April 26 at the American Legion.

Clarkson and Major spoke of their priorities in the current session and also encouraged voters to contact them with their concerns. Clarskson’s email address is AClarkson@leg.state.vt.us; Major’s is jmajor@leg.state.vt.us.

Tuesday’s Results

By very wide margins, voters in Chester approved the $2.9 million sewer bond and the $1.1 million bond to buy the solar field on Route 103. The same was true of the borrowing for a new grader and some paving on Flamstead Road. There was only one contested race for public office in which incumbents Tim Roper and Arianna Knapp were re-elected to their 1-year seats over Julian Sottovia. Lee Gustafson handily won his 3-year term.

Katie Murphy won re-election to the Green Mountain Unified School District Board while Lois Perlah – who had said she was retiring from the board waged a write in campaign for re-election when no one ran for the vacant seat. It appears that Perlah was victorious with an unofficial result of 64 votes.