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From sidewalks to stop lights, Chester residents weigh in on priorities for ARPA funding

From sidewalks to stop lights, Chester residents weigh in on priorities for ARPA funding

By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC With $900,000 on the table to fund most anything that could be labelled “government services,” around 20 residents came together – in person and on Zoom – on Monday evening to lend their ideas on how the money should be spent. There are only a few restrictions […]

Derry Town Meeting scuttles dam article

Derry Town Meeting scuttles dam article

By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC On a sunny but cool and blustery Saturday morning a little over a hundred residents of Londonderry gathered in the parking lot of Town Hall on Middletown Road to hold their Town Meeting, which had been postponed from early March due to Covid worries. Ironically, they were […]

Omicron variant spurs rise in Covid cases locally, statewide

Omicron variant spurs rise in Covid cases locally, statewide

©2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC Although Vermont officials, including those with the Health Department, have given less focus in their weekly press conferences to discuss Covid-19 numbers, cases per week have nearly doubled since the end of March,while hospitalization numbers have tripled, driven largely by the Omicron BA.2 variant according to reports from the Center for […]

GM girls softball shuts down Mill River 21-2

GM girls softball shuts down Mill River 21-2

By Evan Chadwick © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC The depth of a roster is always tested when X factors come into play. For the Green Mountain girls softball team, this X was vacation, as two starters were still away when Mill River came to Chester on a cold Tuesday night. No worries. GM had an […]

Chester board begins to set up cannabis panel

Chester board begins to set up cannabis panel

By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Select Board took up the task of forming a local cannabis control commission at its Wednesday, April 20 meeting and while everyone agreed that such a commission has little real power, the discussion quickly turned to whether there would be representation of “both sides” on […]

Derry voters seek answers as they consider future of Williams Dam

Derry voters seek answers as they consider future of Williams Dam Vote to be held on Saturday during Town Meeting

By Cynthia Prairie ©2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC LONDONDERRY To a number of speakers at last Wednesday’s informational meeting on the future of the 1883 Williams Dam on the West River in Londonderry, the dam and the pond it creates at Route 11 and Route 100 north are a scenic, bucolic setting that attracts birds and […]

Chester to hold public forum on use of $900k in ARPA funds

Chester to hold public forum on use of $900k in ARPA funds

By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC On Monday, May 9 Chester residents and property owners will be able to to weigh in on how the town will use $900,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds. The brainstorming session is part of an outreach effort to get the public’s ideas for the best use […]

News Analysis: Legislature shuffles the districts in spite of local wishes

News Analysis: Legislature shuffles the districts in spite of local wishes Local towns need to leverage new representation

By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC While the text of House Bill 589 said that lawmakers would be seeking public — and municipal — input on their reapportionment plan to determine what State House districts will look like for the next 10 years, for officials in most area towns, they apparently were not […]

GMUSD board chair asserts ownership of buses

GMUSD board chair asserts ownership of buses LMH members nix re-registration, titling in GM name

By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC In a 3-3 tie vote, the board of the Two Rivers Supervisory Union  defeated a motion to re-register and re-title eight school buses in the name of Green Mountain, the district that bought them for $684,000 back in 2019. The buses are currently registered to TRSU. All […]

Driver in Rt. 103N crash pleads not guilty to two charges

Driver in Rt. 103N crash pleads not guilty to two charges

By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC One month to the day after the crash that left Chester bookstore owner Vicki Thornton severely injured, Travis Stella, 27, of Wilton, Conn., was arraigned on charges of DUI-1 and grossly negligent operation with serious injury resulting in Windsor County Superior Court in White River Junction. Represented […]

Chester panel mulls zoning change for Baba A Louis buyer

Chester panel mulls zoning change for Baba A Louis buyer

By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC With adjustments to the Village Green District proposal finished at its Monday April 4 meeting, the Chester Planning Commission turned its attention to a request from  Robert “Sugar Bob” Hausslein for a change of zoning to accommodate food manufacturing in the long shuttered Baba A Louis bakery […]

Detour & delay season is right around the corner

Detour & delay season is right around the corner Here's a short guide to avoiding the worst of it

By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC Every year as the weather warms, we begin to look around to see where the public works construction season will give us delays and detours. Here are some of the projects you may run into this summer. Andover The major project in Andover will be a relatively […]

Andover Select Board replaces another member, talks short-term rentals again

Andover Select Board replaces another member, talks short-term rentals again

By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC Just as things seemed about to settle down on the Andover Select Board, on Monday night another resignation put a fourth new member on the panel, leaving chairman Chris Plumb as the only one with substantial experience in town government. As the meeting got under way at […]

GM board nixes early release, forms study committee

GM board nixes early release, forms study committee

Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC In a long and winding meeting on Wednesday night, the Green Mountain Unified School District board eliminated the Tuesday early release for professional development at Cavendish Town Elementary School for the 2022-23 school year and, with the Ludlow Mount Holly Unified Union School District, voted to set up […]

Chester board re-appoints Hudkins, sets up local cannabis commission

Chester board re-appoints Hudkins, sets up local cannabis commission

By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC Judging by the people attending last Wednesday’s Chester Select Board meeting, the main event appeared to be the three-year Planning Commission appointment that had just one candidate, incumbent Peter Hudkins. With commission members Hugh Quinn, Barre Pinske and chair Cathy Hasbrouck in the audience, the board had […]

GM board hears comments on early release for teacher training

GM board hears comments on early release for teacher training Decisions to be made at meeting with LMH board on Wednesday

By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC There was plenty for the Green Mountain Unified School Board to do last Thursday night, with its annual reorganization, its regular slate of reports and a lengthy executive session to discuss not renewing the contract of a teacher. But the board allowed extra time to take public […]

It's the mud, it's the mud: Warm temps, March rains bring heavy duty mud season

It’s the mud, it’s the mud: Warm temps, March rains bring heavy duty mud season

By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC Vermont’s fifth season is in full swing in Chester and most of  the town’s 75 miles of Class 3 roads are dirt, which have turned to mud in many places. Road Foreman Kirby Putnam says this is one of the worst mud seasons in years for a […]

New Andover board OKs fire/ambulance contract, mulls reappraisal

New Andover board OKs fire/ambulance contract, mulls reappraisal

By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Andover Select Board on Monday — in its first meeting since the Town Meeting Day election — approved the emergency services contract with the Town of Chester that includes fire, ambulance and dispatch. With Richard Griswold, Melissa Gates and Robin Trask as newly minted members, the […]

UPDATED: School schedule change considered, public input welcomed

UPDATED: School schedule change considered, public input welcomed Weekly early release for teacher development proposed across the SU

By Shawn Cunningham © Telegraph Publishing LLC The boards of the Green Mountain Unified School District and the Ludlow Mt. Holly Unified Union School District will meet on at 6 p.m. on Wednesday March 23 at Cavendish Town Elementary to decide if they will make a substantial scheduling change that would increase professional development time […]

GM basketball coaches praise this year's teams, expect lessons learned to spill into next season

GM basketball coaches praise this year’s teams, expect lessons learned to spill into next season

By Evan Chadwick © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC For all who experience the highs and lows of a high school basketball season, the end can be abrupt, leaving the athletes, coaches and fans adrift as to what they can do to fill the cold dark nights that for more than four months have been spent […]