Author Archive for Cynthia Prairie
Cynthia Prairie has been a newspaper editor more than 40 years. Cynthia has worked at such publications as the Raleigh Times, the Baltimore News American, the Buffalo Courier Express, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Patuxent Publishing chain of community newspapers in Maryland, and has won numerous state awards for her reporting. As an editor, she has overseen her staffs to win many awards for indepth coverage. She and her family moved to Chester, Vermont in 2004.
Grafton residents to vote on using surplus to buy tractor
By Cynthia Prairie ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Grafton Select Board Monday night decided to ask town voters to approve using funds from the town surplus to help pay for a new tractor and attachments that would help the town comply with Act 64, which was signed into law in summer of 2015 and is […]
Chester commission disabled as member quits after walking out on meeting
By Cynthia Prairie ©2017-Telegraph Publishing LLC Chester Planning Commission member Tom Hildreth walked out of the panel’s Monday Feb. 27 meeting, declaring to the remaining two members “you don’t have a quorum,” as he packed up to leave. The following day he turned in his resignation to Town Hall. His action leaves just two members […]
Meadowsend Timberlands buys 600 acres; looks to renewable project down the road
By Cynthia Prairie ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Meadowsend Timberlands has purchased 600 acres of land adjacent to the southern portion of its Stiles Brook Tract, straddling Grafton and Townsend, Jeremy Turner, managing forester for the company, confirmed on Tuesday. He added that a quarter of the tract is in Grafton, with the remaining acreage n […]
Weekend cannoli shop opens in Chester
© 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Catherine Marino of Andover has opened the Vermont Cannoli shop in downtown Chester, serving up traditional Sicilian cannoli filled with homemade ricotta. The shop is located at 145 S. Main St., behind Chester Flowers and Village Children’s Shop. It is open from 3 to 7 p.m. on Fridays and 11 […]
Chester Police Log for Dec. 2, 2016 to Jan. 31, 2017
© 2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC Editor’s Note: The Chester Telegraph Police Log is a sampling of incidents directly from Chester Police reports. In general, we do not identify individual victims of crimes nor those who have been arrested. Friday, Dec. 2, 2016 8:51 p.m. Police were sent to Kevadus Circle for the report of a […]
Locals turn out in force to Montpelier, D.C. marches for women
By Cynthia Prairie ©2017 Telegraph Publishing LLC MONTPELIER Saturday Jan. 21, 2017 was a day of surprises for many attending the Women’s March on Montpelier, just one small portion of a world-wide protest that began as a suggestion on Facebook after the election of Donald Trump to the presidency in November. Organizers and participants said […]
CAES assembly suits kids to a T
© 2017 Telegraph Publishing Photos by Cynthia Prairie Wearing bright red T-shirts and filing into the auditorium at Chester-Andover Elementary School, the 200 pupils were ready to take their places for the first all-school picture that anyone could remember. Older students came first, followed by the younger, then the youngest — and the most fidgety […]
Telegraph Business Ticker
Stone Hearth donates to Chester Rec Dept. Sheldon Ghetler and Francy Anderson, owners of Stone Hearth Inn and Tavern in Chester, donated $1,000 on Friday night to the Chester Recreation Department. Walker Farm theater construction under way Despite the chill and snow, construction work has begun on the new theater at Walker Farm in Weston, […]
2016 Telegraph Gift Guide: Share Your Blessings
This year, we decided that the annual Chester Telegraph Gift Guide would take a different view and look at the organizations that do so much to help others in our communities. In myriad ways, these organizations are there to help us and our families, friends and neighbors as well as the animals in our lives. […]
Grafton addresses solar energy in Town Plan, grant for possible project
By Cynthia Prairie ©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC The public vote against a proposed wind farm for Grafton in early November did not dampen the interest nor the need to address renewable energy in its Town Plan. On Monday night, the Grafton Select Board voted — 3 in favor with 2 abstaining — of backing the […]
‘Once’ kicks off Weston theater season that ends with Walker Farm opening
©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Weston Playhouse Theatre Company will lead off its 2017 season with the Vermont premiere of the 2012 Tony Award winning musical Once and conclude with the opening of the company’s new second stage on the Walker Farm property in Weston, which has been 10 years in the making. “We’re planning a […]
Stiles Brook landowner, wind foes take a breath, consider next steps
By Cynthia Prairie ©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC While Iberdrola Renewables has said it will not move forward with a 24-turbine wind project straddling the Windham and Grafton line following a decisive vote, the owners of the 5,000-acre project site have made no such promise. When asked on Monday, what happens next, Meadowsend Timberlands’ managing forester […]
Second-homeowners against Iberdrola wind project as well, surveys find
By John Hoover and Cynthia Prairie © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Like their full-time resident counterparts, second-homeowners in both Windham and Grafton overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by Iberdrola Renewables to build a 24-turbine wind farm on property straddling the towns. Second-homeowners in both towns had been mailed surveys asking whether they were for the proposed […]
Grafton, Windham voters deal fatal blow to Iberdrola wind proposal
By Cynthia Prairie © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC In a decisive blow to a proposed industrial wind project, the voters in Windham and Grafton have voted against putting a 24-turbine industrial wind project along the Stiles Brook tract of land that straddles the two towns. When the votes were counted on Tuesday night, Grafton defeated […]
Wind tax info meeting canceled on legality concern
©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC What was intended as an informational workshop for Grafton property taxpayers to show them how to figure out the impact of the tax benefits derived from the proposed Iberdrola wind proposal on their personal property taxes did not come off as planned on Saturday. The meeting had been warned as a […]
Ornithologist downplays turbine danger to rare bird
By Cynthia Prairie © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC A Vermont ornithologist is downplaying concerns that the at-risk Bicknell’s thrush will be imperiled should the 24-turbine Stiles Brook wind project go through. Some in the anti-wind community in Grafton and Windham are hoping to use the plight of this small songbird as the Nov. 8 vote […]
Grafton sets wind project info meeting dates
©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Grafton Select Board on Monday has set dates for meetings and workshops to disseminate information on the effects of a proposed industrial wind project on taxpayers, homeowners and residents when it comes to economics, health and the environment. With only 20 days before the Nov. 8 election, which will include […]
Citizen Matt: Chester Det. Wilson takes on a new beat
By Cynthia Prairie ©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC In just a few days, Matt Wilson will no longer be a Chester Police detective. The 15-year veteran of the force will be leaving the department in late October to take a position a little closer to home — as a matter of fact, in his home, where […]
Chester Police Log, July 1 through Oct. 5, 2016
© 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Editor’s Note: The Chester Telegraph Police Log is a sampling of incidents directly from Chester Police reports. In general, we do not identify individual victims of crimes nor those who have been arrested. Friday, July 1, 7:04 a.m. An Andover resident reported that her home had been broken into, cabinets […]
Iberdrola offers ‘partnership’ payment to Grafton voters
By Cynthia Prairie ©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Iberdrola Renewables is offering the registered voters of Grafton a minimum $428 annually in “partnership” payments should its pared down 24-turbine ‘industrial wind farm be built on the Stiles Brook property that straddles Windham and Grafton. EXCLUSIVE: Iberdrola sweetened the pot, but Windham residents stirred it. On Wednesday […]
