Chester board reopens vicious dog hearing for new testimony; orders Beau euthanized Interim fire chief, two housing commission members named

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Last Wednesday, Sept. 4, the Chester Select Board reopened a vicious dog hearing from early August to take testimony from the dog’s owner, accept documents into evidence and consider an alternative to euthanasia, which the board had ordered.

Terri Steele, the owner of Beau, a white dog who had bitten Karen Orchitt on Aug. 5, sought the appeal, saying she was unable to attend the Aug. 9 hearing because she was caring for her mother at the time. In the end however – and in light of new evidence given to the board – the decision to put the dog down remained.

The board accepted into evidence Steele’s appeal by email, the required dog bite report form from a doctor who examined Orchitt and more than a dozen complaints and traffic incident reports from this year. According to Town Manager Julie Hance, the board learned that when Chester Police went to collect Beau from the Steeles’ Andover Road home following the Aug. 9 hearing, officers were told that the dog had been taken to Windham.

“That’s a violation of the town’s dog ordinance,” Hance told The Telegraph, who also noted that Tom and Terri Steele had repeatedly ignored the town’s requirement that the dog be restrained and kept on their property.

Steele told the board that Beau was 2 years old and that she didn’t think he was a bad dog. She added that she wanted to avoid having him euthanized and said she had found a canine behaviorist who would evaluate him for $150. However, the behaviorist couldn’t evaluate him for a couple of weeks due to an outbreak of kennel cough at the Springfield Humane Society, where he is being housed.

She said if the behaviorist found that Beau could be rehabilitated, they would send him to a facility in Laconia, N.H., for that process. Steele said she would love to take him back, if that was an option, or find him another home upon rehabilitation.

According to Hance, Beau is being kept in a “double kennel” so the Springfield Humane Society staff do not have to handle him. Hance later told The Telegraph that Humane Society staff told her that Beau is aggressive, growls at them and cannot be handled by staff.

In light of the additional evidence of aggressive behavior toward pedestrians and cyclists on Andover Road, as well as the staff of the Humane Society, and the failure of the Steeles to restrain the dog, the Select Board reconfirmed its decision to have the dog put down.

Interim fire chief, grant possibilities, housing commission members

Prior to the dog hearing, Hance announced that the town has hired Scott Richardson, retired deputy fire chief in Springfield, as interim fire chief while the search continues for a full-time, paid chief. Hance said Richardson is well-known to the department and does not want to be full-time while he is in the job. When Matt Wilson retired as chief, Ben Whalen had stepped up as interim chief and has since taken a job as Ludlow’s first full-time, paid chief.

Select Board member Tim Roper noted that the hiring of Richardson takes some of the pressure off for finding a permanent, full-time chief.

As part of old business, Hance told the board that the Department of Buildings and General Services had put out funds for energy audits and is now opening a grant of up to $500,000 with no match to implement items that have been identified in those audits. The town had energy audits performed at Town Hall, the Whiting Library and the Academy Building. There is some urgency in this because these are ARPA funds that need to be obligated by Dec. 31, 2024 and spent by the following Dec. 31. The priority is for insulation, fuel switching and energy-saving lighting.

Hance said the state considers Chester to be a high energy user, which gives the town preference in being considered for the funding. She said that if they got the grant, the town would insulate the Town Hall’s second floor ceiling and switch from propane to heat pumps, while keeping the propane in place for emergencies. The library would get funding to make its ventilation system more efficient, while funds could also be used to insulate and install heat pumps at the Academy Building. That led to a discussion of the future uses of the Academy Building, which came to no conclusions.

The board also appointed two new members to the town’s housing commission, one to fill a vacancy and one to fill the seat of Joel Feinberg, who was stepping down because he travels for work and found attending meetings over Zoom was difficult since much discussion also involved maps and drawings. Hance did say Feinberg would continue to advise the commission.

The two people who applied were approved by the board: Caroline Morgan, who moved to Chester with her husband in 2021 and built their own house since they couldn’t find one. She works with Lincoln Street in Springfield; and Lauren Fierman, who until July 1 was superintendent of the Two Rivers Supervisory Union. She also is a lawyer who said she is interested in getting involved with in the town.