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.
Commentary: Save Yosemite Firehouse, save Chester’s history
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC This past weekend Chester memorialized the late Merritt Edson with a stone monument on the Green. Edson, a Chester resident and Marine Corps general who won a Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in World War II, was also the founder of the Vermont State Police, which […]
Hot dog lovers raise $7,000 for Boosters, CAFC at annual Stone Hearth Inn event
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Awesome Sauce Dog created by Shona Grill of Bellows Falls was named “Top Dog” by the diners during the Stone Hearth Inn’s 4th Annual Hot Dog Cook Off on Sunday. The Free Range restaurant of Chester took away the “Best in Show” award with its Gyro Dog […]
Grafton Select Board OKs liquor license for new market owners, allows Fire Department to use FEMA house for rescue exercise
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC On Monday Aug. 17, the Grafton Select Board met in the picturesque Town Hall for the first time in more than a year since the meeting moved to the Grafton Elementary School. At that brief, 19-minute meeting, it found a useful purpose for a FEMA house and began […]
Chester police chief recovering from serious injuries
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC Chester Police Chief Rick Cloud is out on medical leave for at least the next eight weeks following a fall in late July or early August that sent him to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center with serious injuries, including seven broken ribs, Town Manager David Pisha said Tuesday. The fall […]
Chester road work completion expected by mid-October
CORRECTION: The article in last Wednesday’s Telegraph incorrectly spelled Jacquie Dagesse’s last name. Also, the map in last Wednesday’s paper was taken from a Pike Industries illustration. We have updated it with current information. See map below. By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC The 2.7 miles of road work that begin last Wednesday in […]
2.7 miles in downtown Chester to be repaved
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC Resurfacing work along 2.7 miles of Routes 11 and 103 in Chester Depot and downtown Chester will begin in the next week with completion expected by early fall, according to Jacquie Degasse Dagesse, of EIV Technical Services of Williston, which is handling communications for the project. Specifically, work […]
Green Mountain Flyer excursions extended two weeks, adds Fireworks train Aug. 1
The Vermont Rail System has ramped up its tourism train service in Chester this year, coordinating with the Chester Rotary to begin its Green Mountain Flyer Fall Foliage excursions a week earlier than last year then extending the excursions one week longer. It has also decided to restart its Fireworks Train on Aug. 1 to […]
Dollar General foes end four-year fight; hope to see stronger zoning regulations in Chester
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC After a four-year battle, the Chester group fighting the construction of a 9,100-square-foot Dollar General has decided to not seek a motion to re-argue the case before the state Supreme Court, giving the green light to the Zaremba Group out of Ohio to construct the building on Main […]
Q&A: Attorney Alan Biederman on the latest Zaremba/Dollar General victory
Alan Biederman represented Zaremba Group, the developer of the proposed Dollar General store in Chester, during the Act 250 appeals brought by opponents of the project. He is a lawyer in Rutland who is happily heading toward retirement. Four questions were posed by email by Telegraph editor Cynthia Prairie. Biederman also responded by email. Except […]
In OK’ing Dollar General ‘warehouse,’ state Supreme Court affirms ‘adverse effect’
NOTE: Zaremba Group attorney Alan Biederman answered several questions for The Chester Telegraph concerning the appeals and other issues. You can read that article here. By Cynthia Prairie 2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC T he Vermont Supreme Court has given a green light for the construction of a Dollar General store on Main Street in Chester, after […]
Lisai’s taps into new market with draught craft beer to go
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC Lisai’s Chester Market has just become one of the few groceries — two as far as can be determined — in Vermont to sell growlers — those 64- and 32-ounce bottles of specialty beers tapped from a keg at the time of sale. After spending the winter rearranging and […]
Londonderry residents seek answers, tell State Police of fears of arsons, burglaries
Cynthia Prairie © 2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC Emotions burbled beneath a surface of congeniality as more than 200 Londonderry residents jammed Town Hall on Middletown Road Monday night to hear from Vermont State Police and its fire investigators concerning a recent spate of burglaries and the long history of suspected arsons in the area. State Rep. […]
West River Farmers Market kicks off season in Londonderry
The West River Farmers Market, at the flashing light at Route 11 and 100 in Londonderry, kicked off its 2015 season under bright but chilly skies. That didn’t dampen the spirits of the 40 or so vendors and their eager customers who all seemed pleased to be back after a long cold winter. Farmers offered […]
VTel responds to Big Pole controversy in Chester; Andover-Chester MOUs still in play
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 – Telegraph Publishing LLC Following two executive sessions to discuss legal issues with town attorney Jim Carroll, the Chester Select Board reconvened its public session after almost a 90 minutes on Thursday, May 21. After the first executive session, the board authorized Town Manager David Pisha to sign an amendment to […]
Chester Select Board revisits Andover MOU; ice cream truck permit will have to wait
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC The ongoing negotiations with the Town of Andover over a Memorandum of Understanding concerning the cost of providing emergency fire and ambulance service to that town of 500 is looking more like a duel with paper swords. Since the 2007 budget, Chester has charged Andover $9,300 (up from […]
Saturday night fire destroys garage, ignites brush along Route 10
By Cynthia Prairie © 2015 Telegraph Publishing, LLC UPDATE – 8:30 a.m. Sunday May 3: The Chester Fire Department reports that the cause of the fire has been determined but it is not being released and that the scene has been turned over to the Chester Police Dept. The fire department also explained that downtown […]
Grafton Select Board OKs local input resolution; approves historic preservation plan for Daisy Turner property
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC At its Monday, March 16 meeting, the Grafton Select Board approved – with vocal disagreement from some of the attending public – a resolution created by Rutland Town government to attempt to give local jurisdictions a stronger say with the Public Service Board over the siting of renewable […]
Squeaker of a write-in contest for Grafton Select Board; sale of Town Garage OK’d
It was a quiet day for Grafton officials as voters met at the Grafton Elementary School Tuesday for a less than hourlong Town Meeting, then sporadic visitation during daylong Australian balloting. The Grafton Select Board will have a new member with the write-in candidacy of Ron Pilette, who won a tight race 69 to 67 […]
Budget passes at relocated Andover Town Meeting
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC Failure of the Town Hall heating system forced the Andover Town Meeting to be moved to a hall at the Andover Community Church across the street, resulting in a standing room only crowd and prompting a joke from moderator Jon Bliss about the separation of church and state. Despite […]
From the editor: No surprises in complaint rejection, but hope for transparency lives on
By Cynthia Prairie ©2015-Telegraph Publishing LLC Two weeks ago, the Chester Select Board unanimously adopted a motion from a letter by town attorney Jim Carroll as a reply to The Chester Telegraph’s complaint that it had held an illegal executive session back in November. The Chester Telegraph claimed that the Nov. 19 executive session was […]