Author Archive for Shawn Cunningham
SAPA-TV announces video on demand; seeks donations to further broadcasting
By Shawn Cunningham ©2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC If living on a Class 3 road out in the woods has always meant missing the thrill of watching a Chester, Springfield or Weathersfield select board meeting in your pajamas, you won’t be deprived any longer. As Springfield Area Public Access Television begins its video on demand service, […]
Chester board considers eliminating votes during town meeting; adopts budget proposal for voter approval
By Shawn Cunningham ©2015 The Chester Telegraph The Chester Select Board is considering whether voting from the floor at town meeting should be eliminated. Two articles were proposed for consideration at the Monday March 2 meeting. Article 2 asks “Shall the Town of Chester vote on all public questions by Australian ballot.” Article 3 asks […]
Public Funds bring tidy return, Hearse House project to receive grant
By Shawn Cunningham © 2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC The three-member board that oversees more than a dozen funds given to the town for designated purposes met Tuesday to hear from representatives of People’s Bank who manage the $660,000 public funds portfolio and to announce a grant to support the rehabilitation of the Hearse House at […]
Our year in review: Land rights, wrecks, fires, floods and friendships
©2014 Telegraph Publishing LLC When The Chester Telegraph began publication three years ago, more than a few people (including the publisher of a local newspaper) warned us that “nothing ever happens” in these communities. And yet, over the past year, keeping up with “nothing” has often been hectic work. Here’s a selection of some of […]
Chester board delays budget decisions; discussed land purchase in questionable executive session
By Shawn Cunningham ©Telegraph Publishing LLC – 2014 The Chester Select Board took up the 2015 budget at its Wednesday Dec. 17 meeting, discussing several issues from earlier meetings. But it was agenda item No. 7 – the proposed purchase of land – that raised questions about transparency in the town government of Chester. Town […]
Chester Planning Commission looks at signs, ponders ‘appropriate funkiness’
By Shawn Cunningham © 2014 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Planning Commission continued to take comments from the public, especially small business people, regarding new sign regulations that the commission is beginning to work on. While the crowd was not as large as the previous meeting, several who were not at the Monday, Dec. 1 […]
Paving, police, library and health insurance among Chester budget topics.
By Shawn Cunningham ©Telegraph Publishing LLC – 2014 Taking up next year’s budget first on the agenda again at its Wednesday, Dec. 3 meeting, the Chester Select Board looked at issues from the cost of changing police and fire dispatch from Springfield to Hartford, to the need for a fifth full-time police officer and whether […]
Chester business owners seek changes to sign regulations
By Shawn Cunningham ©Telegraph Publishing LLC — 2014 About 25 people, most of them local business owners, attended the Chester Planning Commission’s Dec. 1 meeting to tell members about problems they have had with the current and past sign laws and offer advice on what they think is needed in the new sign ordinance that […]
‘Guys & Dolls,’ ‘Glass Menagerie’ on tap for 2015 Weston season
Pointing to its new slogan – Celebrating the Classics, Nurturing the New – Steve Stettler, resident producing director of the Weston Playhouse, introduced the theater company’s 79th season at the new Manchester Community Library on Saturday Nov. 29. Stettler also announced the expansion of discount programs to encourage locals and families to attend this summer’s […]
J&L shelves Armory expansion plan; 2nd snafu, VTrans objection arise
By Shawn Cunningham ©Telegraph Publishing LLC — 2014 Peter and Nathalie Klepp, owners of J&L Metrology, continue to work at securing the permits needed to move their business to the former Chester Army Reserve Center on Route 11 west. But as soon as one problem was set aside, two more arose at a meeting of […]
Chester board addresses school funding, police resources, Popple Dungeon Road
By Shawn Cunningham ©Telegraph Publishing LLC — 2014 At its Nov. 19 meeting, the Chester Select Board continued to review a proposed town budget and received updates on a number of projects including the solar farm to be built on town land behind the Jeffrey Barn, the long delayed Popple Dungeon Road project and improvements […]
Chester voters keep new auto uses in Residential-Commercial zones
By Shawn Cunningham ©2014 – Telegraph Publishing LLC A 3-to-1 majority of Chester voters who turned out to cast ballots at town hall on Tuesday voted against leaving a 40-year-old prohibition on automotive uses in the town’s new zoning bylaws. The 160 to 460 vote was colored by a number of issues including a proposed […]
An explainer: Clearing up some confusion surrounding Chester’s referendum
By Shawn Cunningham ©2014 — Telegraph Publishing LLC On Tuesday Nov. 18, Chester voters will have the opportunity to cast a ballot – Yes or No – on a zoning issue. Over the past few weeks, there have been many posters, letters to the editor, Facebook posts, a petition and even a mailing from the […]
Chester Select Board raises sewer rates, green-lights design of water system upgrade
By Shawn Cunningham © 2014 – Telegraph Publishing LLC In a busy Nov. 5 meeting run by vice chair Derek Suursoo, the Chester Select Board raised sewer rates effective immediately for its 600 users, gave a nod toward hiring Golden Cross for a winter ambulance restructuring and OK’d a $155,000 contract to design a $4.6 […]
New zoning bylaws complicate Chester armory development
By Shawn Cunningham © 2014 – Telegraph Publishing LLC An application for a conditional use permit to convert the former Army Reserve armory on Route 11 west for light manufacturing met with a friendly reception from Chester’s Development Review Board on Monday night. But a snafu in the new Unified Development Bylaws made the process […]
Grafton Select Board mulls Town Office repair bids, new town garage
By Shawn Cunningham @The Chester Telegraph – 2014 The Grafton Select Board opened bids for repairs to the town offices at its Tuesday, Nov. 3 meeting, but the project ended up back on the table when one of the bids failed to include major portions of the work. The town received two bids for the […]
Chester planning board to send referendum info letter to homeowners
The Chester Planning Commission met Monday, Oct. 27 to discuss the wording of a letter to be mailed to residents regarding the referendum on a zoning issue to take place on Tuesday, Nov. 18. The vote is a result of a successful petition drive signed by 148 registered voters to remove “automotive sales/service/fuel” use that […]
Overturned truck closes Route 11 for five hours
By Shawn Cunningham © 2014 The Chester Telegraph A clickable photo gallery follows the story. A tractor-trailer carrying a load of 2 by 4 lumber west on Route 11 left the pavement yesterday, spilling its cargo and closing the road from Church Street to Andover Road in Chester for about five hours in the afternoon. […]
Chester Select Board talks budgets, sets date for referendum
By Shawn Cunningham ©2014 The Chester Telegraph The Chester Select Board set 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17 for a special town meeting and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18 for the vote on the question of whether the sales and service of automobiles and other vehicles and the sale of fuel should be […]
Automotive section of Chester zoning changes to go to referendum
Chester Town Clerk Deborah Aldrich said the town has certified the signatures of 148 voters on a petition submitted on Tuesday, Oct. 7 asking for a town-wide vote on the question of whether to add automotive sales, service and fuel sales to the Residential/Commercial district of Chester. That district runs from the St. Joseph’s Catholic […]
