Author Archive for Shawn Cunningham
Chester Select Board suggests alterations to zoning proposals
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC At its Wednesday, May 3 meeting, the Chester Select Board held a hearing to review a set of amendments to the town’s zoning regulations known as Unified Development Bylaws. And while they thanked the Planning Commission for its work, in the end they sent the amendments back […]
Chester board hears legal processes to address Julian quarry violations
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC In a memorandum to the Chester Select Board, municipal attorney Jim Carroll characterized the process for enforcing violations of land use rules under the town’s Unified Development Bylaws as “often-lengthy” and “expensive.” The memo was reviewed by the board in executive session on Wednesday, May 3 and […]
School restructuring panel begins discussing ‘right-sizing’ of Cavendish, Chester-Andover elementaries
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC After a struggle in which the Cavendish members of the board of the Green Mountain Unified School District lobbied for more representation on the new school restructuring committee because the results would impact their elementary school the most, the first meeting of the committee as originally proposed […]
Chester Select Board, Planning Commission to hold hearings on land use changes
By Shawn Cunningham 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Select Board and the Planning Commission will be holding separate hearings in the next two weeks on proposed changes to the Unified Development Bylaws that land owners will want to pay attention to. At 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 3 the Chester Select Board will hold […]
Chester planners propose new district to spur housing
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC After internal dissension of Chester’s Planning Commission burst into the open two years ago, with that panel removing its chair and the Select Board declining to re-appoint one member, the group seems to have found its focus. At first, the commission looked at ways to amend the […]
Cavendish school concerns rise to top at GM board meeting
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The agenda for last Thursday’s Green Mountain Unified School District board meeting looked pretty tame compared to recent meetings but, as it unfolded, the board’s discussion was described by some in terms of “animosity” and by others in terms of “intensity” and passion. The difference depended on […]
Chester board makes planning appointments, reduces cannabis commission
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Select Board’s April 19 meeting was pretty much an exercise in housekeeping with some interviews and appointments for town boards as well as routine approvals and updates on old business. After public comment and old business, the board appointed Deb Aldrich to the positions of […]
Merrill sentenced to 10 years in prison for possession of child porn
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Former Green Mountain middle school teacher Norman Merrill, a Chester resident who plead guilty to possession of child sexual abuse material, was sentenced on Monday afternoon to 10 years in federal prison by Judge Christina Reiss in Burlington. On May 19, 2022, a federal grand jury in […]
Chester Citizen Police Advisory Committee holds its first meeting
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The newly appointed members of Chester’s Citizen Police Advisory Committee came together for an initial meeting Tuesday night at the Public Safety Building on Pleasant Street. The committee’s members — Frank Kelley, Samantha Snedorf-Bailey, Roy Spaulding, Wendi Germain and Vincent Buckholz — were appointed by the Chester […]
GM board hears complaints that Chieftain name violates policy
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC On Tuesday night, Chester resident Matt Gorsky told the Green Mountain Unified School Board that the harm in using the Chieftain name is “in the inescapable connection between it and 50 years of a racist mascot depicting people this country has conducted cultural genocide against….” He was […]
Fierman to TRSU board: departures are for individual personal reasons
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC At the regular monthly meeting of the Two Rivers Supervisory Union Board last Thursday, Superintendent Lauren Fierman briefed that body on the recent spate of administrators departing the system. “I know from the outside it looks like as though there must be something awful happening that all […]
ARPA tour stops at Sugar Bob’s in Chester
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Rob Hausslein had his mini evaporator – a demonstrator model fired by propane – steaming when his guests arrived at the former Baba A Louis Bakery that has become home to Sugar Bob’s – Hausslein’s rapidly expanding food company. The sap was boiling as Hausslein explained how […]
Potash Brook residents list concerns about neighbor’s behavior
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Residents of the Potash Brook Road area brought a long list of complaints to the Chester Select Board last Wednesday concerning a neighbor they say has problems with mental illness that have manifested in break-ins, thefts and other criminal and nuisance behaviors. However, all who spoke said […]
3 complaints target ‘Chieftains’ name; to be considered at April 11 hearing GM District Board, AOE to contemplate next steps
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC At a special meeting next week, the Green Mountain Unified School District Board will hear three complaints alleging that the continuing use of the “Chieftain” name for the Green Mountain Union High School is a violation of a school district policy adopted earlier this year. This “quasi-judicial” […]
Hill, Donohue departures from GM mark latest changes at TRSU 3 of 5 schools must find new principals; 1 coming on board
By Shawn Cunningham and Cynthia Prairie © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Green Mountain High Principal Keith Hill has announced that he is leaving the school at the end of this school year, almost two years to the day that he was first appointed in April 2021. He announced to parents of students his decision in […]
5 chosen for Chester Police Advisory Committee
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC At it’s March 22 meeting, the Chester Select Board chose five of the 10 residents interviewed to serve on a new committee to advise the town’s Police Department and communicate with their community. After the interviews, the board went into executive session to discuss the appointments, then […]
Residents near Julian quarries haul in truckload of complaints to Chester board
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Gassetts residents turned out in force for the Chester Select Board’s Wednesday, March 22 meeting to complain that quarry operations in their area is in violation of its permits and that the noise, traffic, unsafe blasting and pollution have become too much to bear. Listed on […]
Short-term rentals: Towns’ pace for regulation between snail and speedy State legislature, however, puts the onus on local jurisdictions
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC While the growth in the number of homes in area towns that are being converted into short-term rentals — like Airbnb and VRBO — is concerning to many residents, state and local governments are moving at different paces to address the trend. The Vermont legislature has taken […]
Chester native Travis Van Alstyne awarded grant to complete film on Romaine Tenney
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC A Chester native who has been painstakingly working on a short, animated film, Love of the Land, since 2019 has been recognized for his work with a $4,100 grant from Vermont Public’s “Made Here Fund.” The grant will help Travis Van Alstyne, who now lives in Burlington, […]
Election results: Andover, Cavendish, Chester, Grafton, Weston, GM District budget
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Residents in area towns made some big changes and rejected others as Town Meeting 2023 unfolded. Chester voters chose two new select board members out of a field of five — Arianna Knapp and Peter Hudkins — and gave that body the power to appoint the town […]
