Author Archive for Shawn Cunningham
New efforts to clean up Chester properties
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Town of Chester is looking at alternative strategies beyond its salvage ordinance for getting properties where owners have accumulated a lot of junk cleaned up. Earlier this year, Town Manager Julie Hance asked the Select Board to approve the town’s participation in the state’s Hazardous Waste […]
Chester planners send ordinance regulating short-term rentals to Select Board
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC At a special meeting held on Monday, Aug. 22, the Chester Planning Commission put the final touches on an ordinance to register and regulate short-term rentals (such as those offered via Airbnb and VRBO) and voted to send it to the Select Board for review and adoption. […]
With a red carpet, cookout and tours, GM schools ready for reopening
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC Next Wednesday, Aug. 31 will be the first day of schools for children in the Green Mountain Unified School District and unlike so many schools around the country, not one of the three has a teacher vacancy. But the high school is down two para-professionals and […]
Derry board asks One Londonderry to remove liaison following email kerfuffle
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC Concerns over the relationship of a private organization with a mission to improve aspects of Londonderry and the town government and its transparency responsibilities prompted the Select Board at its Monday, Aug. 15 meeting, to take the unusual step to ask One Londonderry to remove one of […]
Popple Dungeon bridge reopening set for Sept. 5 Construction firm had sought three to five weeks more time
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC The replacement for the culvert bridge across the south branch of the Williams River a little over 3 miles out on Popple Dungeon Road has been under construction since early June and was due to reopen this weekend. But Alpine Construction was pouring concrete for abutment #2 […]
Turnout is high in local primary voting; November matchups decided
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC Held in the hot and vacation rich month of August, Vermont’s primaries are generally sleepy affairs in which a relatively small number loyalists from the state’s three parties – Democratic, Republican and Progressive – come out to reaffirm the incumbents and chose the occasional challenger. But this […]
Chester planners wrestle with scope of short-term rental ordinance
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC While the main event was a warned public hearing for an amendment to the town’s Unified Development Bylaws — which includes its zoning regulations — Monday night’s Chester Planning Commission meeting spent far more time and energy on the undercard — a discussion of the latest draft […]
After 20 years, Chief Cloud to retire from Chester Police
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC After nearly 20 years with the Chester Police Department, Chief Rick Cloud has told the town he intends to retire. In a July 18 letter to Town Manager Julie Hance, Cloud said he was resigning effective Jan. 7, 2023 and appreciated the opportunity the town had afforded […]
Popple Dungeon bridge construction falls behind schedule
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC A nine-week bridge construction job in Chester may stretch to 12 if the company doing the work up on Popple Dungeon Road has its way. According to Town Manager Julie Hance, Alpine Construction of Schuylerville, N.Y., has asked for three more weeks to finish the installation of […]
Chester Business Coalition talks business growth, affordable housing, state funding
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC Saying that there is no one – such as a chamber of commerce or other organization – representing businesses in Chester, Steve Mancuso kicked off the July meeting of the nascent Chester Business Coalition at the American Legion on Monday night. Founded by Mancuso, an electrician who […]
Chester planning panel to hold public hearing on zoning change
© 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Planning Commission will hold a public hearing concerning a proposed amendment to the town’s Unified Development Bylaws (which includes zoning regulations) at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 1 at Town Hall, 556 Elm St. The amendment concerns legacy uses and adaptive reuses and the change would affect every […]
Wayward semi snags Chester traffic
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC A tractor trailer trying to make a tight turn in downtown Chester got hung up on guardrails and snarled traffic at Routes 103 and 11 for about three hours last night. At 9:43 p.m. the State Police dispatch center in Westminster announced that Route 103 in the […]
Chester planning panel kicks off zoning rewrite with first public workshop
By Shawn Cunningham © 2002 Telegraph Publishing LLC In preparation for a new re-write of the town’s zoning regulations — known as the Unified Development Bylaws — the Chester Planning Commission held the first of several workshops with consultant Jason Rasmussen Monday night. Rasmussen is the executive director of the Mount Ascutney Regional Commission, which […]
Heavy rain, winds wallop Chester
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC Yesterday afternoon Chester got the worst of a storm which swept across Vermont taking down many trees, knocking out power to more than 56 percent of Green Mountain Power’s Chester customers and sending more than two dozen firefighters from Chester and Proctorsville out on “a month’s worth […]
Chester board hears from neighbors of proposed garden/greenhouse
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC A project to create community gardens and at some point erect a large, historic greenhouse on town land was on the Chester Select Board’s agenda again at its July 6 meeting as the panel heard from abutters to the 3-acre site that is under consideration for the […]
Marry Me A Little: Sondheim’s ‘songs that got away’ shine at Walker Farm
By Shawn Cunningham © Telegraph Publishing LLC At first blush, the idea of spending an evening of theater consisting of songs that were cut from eight musicals might give one pause. But in this case it shouldn’t. Marry Me A Little, now being performed on the Weston Theater Company’s Walker Farm stage, is made up […]
Chester Planning Commission moves toward regulating short-term rentals
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC With a growing number of homes in the area being used as short-term rentals booked through such organizations as Airbnb and VRBO, the question of whether such a use should be regulated and even restricted has become a hot topic for area select boards and planning commissions. […]
Whiting Library board reorganizes with six new members
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC One week after being appointed by the Chester Select Board, six new trustees of the Whiting Library joined Donna McNeill-Hudkins — the sole remaining trustee — to reorganize the board. The appointments became necessary when six out of seven trustees resigned in the wake of controversy over […]
Jeld Wen lays off 80, shutters N. Springfield plant Work will move to Ludlow and other locations
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC On Wednesday, most employees at the North Springfield Jeld Wen Door Systems plant learned that they would be losing their jobs and that their workplace would be closed immediately. Also happening immediately will be consolidation of the Springfield operations into the company’s Ludlow plant. The company employed […]
Chester board hears community garden proposal, appoints six library trustees
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC At its June 15 meeting, the Chester Select Board appointed six new trustees to the Whiting Library board and received a request for the use of the Canal Street well site from the group that wants to put community garden plots – and eventually a greenhouse – […]
