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.
Challengers step up in Grafton, Chester Select Board races
By Cynthia Prairie and Shawn Cunningham ©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Incumbents on both the Grafton and Chester select boards will face challenges to their seats when voters go to the polls on Town Meeting Day, which this year falls on Tuesday, March 1. In Grafton, chair Sam Battaglino has decided not to seek re-election after […]
Ian McGrath, 52, loved coaching, was devoted to his four children
©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Ian Bernard McGrath died suddenly at his Chester, VT, home on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016. He was 52. Mr. McGrath was born on Sept. 1, 1963 in Edinburgh, Scotland, to Bernard and Mary Donaldson McGrath. Mr. McGrath, a 1981 graduate of Bellows Falls Union High School, was employed by the Vermont […]
Foodbank Mobile Pantry to drop off in Springfield
On the second Friday of every month, the Vermont Foodbank “Veggie VanGo” Mobile Food Pantry will be at the Springfield Hospital Meeting House, on the hill opposite the hospital on Ridgewood Road, to distribute food for those who need it. Its next visit is from 10 to 11 a.m. tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 8. The Foodbank […]
Grafton Select Board rejects initial Planning Commission changes, asks for full Town Plan revision
By Cynthia Prairie ©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Eric Stevens, the head of Grafton’s Planning Commission, says he was at first angered, then baffled by the Select Board’s recent rejection of the changes his group had made to the Town Plan, which is actually the 2008 Town Plan that was re-adopted in 2013. Vermont requires towns […]
Grafton group agrees to pick up annual insurance tab, half of pay phone fee
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC It was a short pre-Christmas Grafton Select Board meeting that was well-attended as a number of residents who had come to two earlier meetings stayed on. Those earlier meetings included a short one held by the Capital Budget Committee seeking public input and a longer one by the […]
Police arrest suspect in knife robbery of Cavendish store
©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC A 33-year-old Springfield man has been charged with assault and robbery and aggravated assault in the knifepoint robbery of the Cavendish General Store on Monday. According to the Vermont State Police, Joshua Corliss was picked up by Chester Police late last night and taken to the Vermont Police Barracks in Rockingham. […]
A dustup in Grafton: Select Board chair, Treasurer spar on proposed wind panel
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC A cold wind blew through the Grafton Select Board meeting Monday night, generating electricity between two elected officials: the Select Board chair and the town Treasurer. Grafton Treasurer Kim Record proposed creating a subcommittee to research financial benefits and proposals to present to the Iberdrola wind energy company […]
Iberdrola letter to Grafton outlines 2016 timeline for wind project; says it won’t build on a ‘nay’ vote
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC In a letter to Grafton residents sent just before Thanksgiving, Iberdrola Renewables, the Spanish energy company that hopes to build a wind farm with 28, 492-foot-high turbines in Grafton and Windham, has outlined its plans for next year that include a timeline on proceeding with the project and […]
POLICE UPDATES: Burglary arrest; bottle rocket fires and mailbox vandalism
UPDATE – Nov 25 8:45 a.m. Chester Police have announced three more arrests in the burglaries reported below. Also arrested on the same charges are David Farnsworth, 59, Zachary McNeill, 23 and Paige Hillock, 24 all of Springfield. © 2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC Police have arrested one man and hope to have two more in […]
Grafton to begin offering some cellphone coverage
By Cynthia Prairie ©Telegraph Publishing LLC Grafton is about to enter the 21st century with better cellphone coverage, at least in the 1-mile radius around Town Hall. On Monday night, the Select Board approved a contract with Delaware-based Vanu Coverage Co., which touts itself as providing cellphone coverage in difficult-to-cover areas throughout the world. The […]
Health, environmental concerns aired at Grafton wind meeting
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC In a wide-ranging meeting, Grafton residents gathered Monday to discuss everything from possible health effects of wind turbines on surrounding residents to suggested economic benefits of cutting taxes with yearly payments from wind companies. But what much of the discussion boiled down to is a Vermont town’s inability […]
Firefighters in Londonderry, Chester throw open doors to trick-or-treaters
For the second year, South Londonderry’s Champion Fire Company teamed up with the nearby First Baptist Church to put on an all-encompassing Halloween gala for kids and adults alike. The church sponsored the trunk-or-treat, getting more than 20 cars to line Thompsonburg Road between the firehouse and Route 100, an area that the Fire Department […]
Minor injuries in mini-van dump truck collision
©2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC No one was seriously injured in the mini-van-dump truck collision on Route 103 this morning. According to police, at 8 a.m. Thursday, a mini-van traveling north toward Chester crossed the center line and collided head-on with the southbound dump truck, owned by the Town of Chester, in front of the Chester-Andover Family […]
Bewitching weekend in Chester for kids and adults alike
©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC It was a day of feasting and an evening of frights for more than 400 folks who descended upon Chester-Andover Elementary School last Saturday to take part in the pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving meal and the annual Trunk or Treat Halloween festivities. According to Chris Meyer, more than 400 meals were served up […]
Osso bucco to bibimbap: Chester cook vies for ‘Master Chef’ slot
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 – Telegraph Publishing LLC She was hoping her osso bucco with white bean puree was good enough. As she walked toward the Doubletree Suites in Times Square carrying her dish on that early October Saturday, Christine Anderson of Chester was set on winning a spot on season seven of Master Chef. […]
Board member’s answer to wind project zoning question spurs debate; capital budget proposed
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC About 15 Grafton residents squeezed into the Grafton Elementary School Library then folded themselves into teeny chairs for the Monday night meeting of the Grafton Select Board. The Select Board then proceeded to squeeze a long agenda into less than an hour, before going into executive session on a […]
Big Buzz Chainsaw Fest is carving a niche among Chester events
©2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC For the second year in a row, the six-year-old Big Buzz Chainsaw Carving Festival has found a comfortable home on the grounds of a former cornfield next to the American Legion on Route 103 South in Chester. Click here to go to the Big Buzz Photo Gallery below. The event, which began […]
Grafton Select Board OKs $30,500 for new salt shed
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 — Telegraph Publishing LLC The Grafton Select Board approved two capital expenditures at its Monday, Oct. 5 meeting, including $16,184 for guard rail replacement along Route 121 and $30,500 for a new salt shed. The guard rail work was awarded to Lafayette Highway Specialities of Massachusetts, while the salt shed – […]
Crowds flood Peru streets for 36th annual fair
A cool but sunny Saturday greeted the 36-year-old Peru Fair. With 100 vendors selling everything from pottery to dumplings, music filling the air from several stages and the aroma of fire-roasted pig wafting through the crowds, it was bound to be a success. Proceeds from the fair go to the Peru Scholarship Fund, a non-profit […]
Info meeting primes Chester for 3rd water project vote today
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 – Telegraph Publishing LLC In a 40-minute informational meeting – the third held since May 18 — about 30 Chester residents Monday night listened as Town Manager David Pisha and engineer Naomi Johnson offered a more focused explanation of the project and its funding than given in earlier meetings. Town voters […]
