All Entries in the "Featured" Category
Merrill pleads not guilty, ordered to remain in custody
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing, LLC Appearing in prison-issued clothing and a surgical mask from a visiting room at Northwest Correctional Facility in St. Albans, Norman Merrill, 45, of Chester, this afternoon entered a plea of not guilty before federal Judge Kevin Doyle, who was in Burlington via video conference. Doyle then went […]
Weston Library hosts Drag Queen Story Hour to much enjoyment
By Cynthia Prairie ©2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC Weston’s Wilder Memorial Library had no qualms about holding a Drag Queen Story Hour on Saturday, attracting around 50 kids and adults, including several Wilder board members. The drag queens — Katniss Everqueer and Emoji Nightmare — arrived around 1:30, batting wickedly long eyelashes, their makeup contoured […]
GM middle school teacher arrested on federal charges of creating child pornography
By Cynthia Prairie and Shawn Cunningham ©2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC Norm Merrill, a longtime 8th grade teacher and Middle School coordinator at Green Mountain High School, was taken into custody today, Thursday, May 19, by Chester Police on federal charges of “producing child sexual abuse material.” The U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont announced […]
Library director resigns amid questions of board censorship
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC The director of Chester’s Whiting Library tendered her resignation on Thursday, May 12, on the eve of the Whiting’s board of trustees second executive session to discuss a scheduled library event that at least one member found “too controversial” and wanted cancelled. But board chair Robert Nied […]
GM boys baseball stings Woodstock Wasps 13-3
By Evan Chadwick © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC If there is one thing that Coach Matt McCarthy is above all else in leading his GM boys baseball team, its being practical with his expectations. He has long focused on his boys doing the little things, which when added together, equate to success on the diamond. […]
Chester board appoints cannabis commission, talks police assessment
By Shawn Cunningham © 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC At its May 4 meeting, the Chester Select Board formally created a local cannabis control commission, then appointed five of the seven residents who applied to serve on it. That included some who urged voters to reject the opt-in measure for retail sales of cannabis that was […]
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
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
©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
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
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 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
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 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 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
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
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 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
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
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 […]