Author Archive for Shawn Cunningham
Fire danger high today, may be higher this weekend
© 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC The National Weather Service and several Vermont agencies are announcing that this weekend a high danger of brush and forest fires will exist. With just a few days sunny days with lower humidity and higher winds, dead grass, leaves and brush can become prime fuel for fires. These agencies are […]
Select board hears of fund-raising event for Chester kids; again questions Academy Building lease
By Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC The agenda for last Wednesday’s Chester Select Board meeting looked mostly like routine housekeeping: grant applications to sign, a couple of liquor licenses to renew, the annual update of the local emergency plan and a review of new cemetery policies. But the meeting was anything but routine. […]
Andover Town Clerk Linda Bargfrede to retire
By Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Andover Town Clerk Linda Bargfrede announced on Monday night that she would be retiring from her post effective June 1. “You know I have been thinking about this for a while,” Bargfrede told the Andover Select Board. For a number of reasons, I think this is the […]
Vermont State Police Log for April: Feb. 2- March 31, 2016
© 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Editor’s Note: The Vermont State Police incident report is a sampling of incidents directly from Vermont State Police. We do not identify individual victims of crimes nor those who have been arrested. Tuesday, Feb. 2, Londonderry — A caretaker reported that someone had broken into a barn in the Landgrove […]
Grafton Select Board tussles over wind project issues
By Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Grafton Select Board zipped through the first seven items on its Monday, April 4 agenda with unanimous votes and even some friendly banter, but got mired on the next two, which asked if a lawyer should be hired to represent the town and if the Select […]
Break-in in Windham; police ask for help
© 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Vermont State Police are reporting that on Sunday April 3, they were called to investigate a burglary at a house on Abbott Road in Windham. At this time, the only thing that seems to have been taken is a 55-inch flat screen television. The crime occurred on the night […]
Andover board accepts culvert bids, work to begin in summer
By Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC In a brief meeting Monday night, the Andover Select Board accepted the low bids of Ameden Construction of Jamaica for three culvert projects to be started in June. Consulting engineer Everett Hammond pointed to the complexity of the culvert work done last year on Lowell Lake Road […]
Dollar General, Jiffy Mart could go head-to-head on construction
By Cynthia Prairie and Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Gird yourself Chester. If all goes as stated, heavy equipment will descend on Main Street as two large construction projects – within spitting distance of each other – begin in mid-April. After an unexplained delay, the developer the Zaremba Group is expected to start […]
Bondville pizza restaurant owner faces federal drug charges
By Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing, LLC The U.S. Attorney for Vermont announced yesterday that Marco Antonio Lam Peralta, 42, of South Londonderry was arrested Tuesday and charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin. Lam Peralta was arrested in connection with a shipment of 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of heroin seized in Miami last October. […]
Sandri floats idea of purchase, lease of town land;
historical society says Yosemite will have new owner
By Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC The president of Sandri Cos. asked the Chester Select Board last Wednesday if it was open to selling town land so the company could add a Dunkin Donuts franchise to the convenience store and liquor outlet that it already runs at its Sunoco gas station on Main […]
Low-income heating program benefits from bank’s challenge
© 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Merchants Bank and the Champlain Valley Office for Economic Opportunity have announced the results of their fundraising for WARMTH, a program to help low-income Vermonters pay home heating bills. The statewide fund received a $40,000 challenge grant from Merchants Bank and went on to raise a total of $107,000. The […]
VSP unveils new website, includes cold case info
By Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC As part of its announcement of a website update, the Vermont State Police today unveiled a new tool for soliciting public help in working on 55 unsolved homicide and 35 missing persons cases. The “unsolved” page features Vermont maps with clickable figures, each representing a case that […]
Champlain Oil donates, dismantles house to make way for larger Jiffy Mart
By Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC After unsuccessfully offering to give the Burbank house at the corner of Main and Pleasant streets to anyone who would move it from the site, Champlain Oil has donated the structure to a not-for-profit — EcoBuilding Bargains — and contracted with another company to dismantle it. EcoBuilding […]
Sandri probes land buy for Dunkin Donuts drive-thru in Chester
By Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC With construction of a new Jiffy Mart across the street just a month away, Sandri, the owner of the Sunoco station on Main Street in Chester, is asking the Select Board if it would sell a strip of town-owned land so the company could add a Dunkin […]
Chester welcomes new Select Board members, considers new paper of record
Editor’s Note: The Chester Telegraph has reported on most Chester Select Board meetings since 2012. In the interest of full disclosure, we want readers to know that in our coverage of the March 2, 2016 meeting, we are reporting on an issue in which we are involved. To ensure that the information available to our […]
Kids build a universe of worlds at annual LEGO contest
The fifth annual St. Luke’s Episcopal Church LEGO contest drew 47 entries from 19 towns in Vermont and two towns in New Hampshire to the NewsBank Conference Center in Chester on Saturday. With construction categories from pre-kindergarten to seventh grade plus family entries, the clever uses of the little plastic blocks included large buildings, fantasy […]
Londonderry accepts one-year State Police contract, votes to study gravel pit purchase
By Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Wendell Coleman’s last Town Meeting as Londonderry’s moderator turned out to be a six-hour doosie that saw a controversial proposal to hire state police to patrol the town turn victorious on the impassioned speech of a just-defeated select board member. The meeting was more than three hours […]
Andover Town Meeting addresses status as education tax ‘sending town’
By Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC The single longest discussion at Saturday’s Andover Town Meeting was for an article funding early education to the tune of $21,077. But it wasn’t the amount of the article that was at issue, but education funding in general. Gordon Payne rose to ask several questions about the […]
Chester board raises water rates, hears grant request from Rod & Gun Club
By Shawn Cunningham © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Select Board began its Feb. 17 meeting in the guise of its mild-mannered alter ego, the Chester Water and Sewer Commissioners, which voted to raise the price of water by $2 per quarter. The hike is one step in reaching the rate structure required by […]
Truck accident closes Route 103 in Wallingford
UPDATE: Feb. 23, 3 p.m. According to Vermont State Police, one lane is now open on Route 103 in East Wallingford. There were minor injuries in the crash, but no one was transported to the hospital. Traffic is moving, but the log truck is resting on its side. © 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC Vermont State […]
