All Entries in the "Featured" Category
Weston board considers reappraisal, tables municipal tax-rate decision
By Shawn Cunningham © Telegraph Publishing LLC Last Tuesday evening, the Weston Select Board heard from Listers Greg Carroll and Dan Hanenberg who suggested that the town might want to consider a reappraisal of properties for the grand list. Noting that last appraisal was in 2005 and that the “cost table” and “land value schedules” […]
31 area restaurants OK’d for Covid relief grants worth $4.2 million
By Cynthia Prairie ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC Thirty-one restaurants, bars and food trucks from Bellows Falls to Manchester, including four in Chester, have been approved to receive portions of the $28.6 billion federal Restaurant Revitalization Fund to help them recover from the effects of restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. The total funding those […]
Chester taxes jump as reassessment cancels CLA cushion
By Shawn Cunningham © 2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC Last Wednesday night, the Chester Select Board set tax rates and, even though municipal and school budgets have seen only minor increases for this year and the 2021-22 school year, Chester taxpayers are looking at an increases of about 13 cents per hundred of assessed value (or […]
TRSU boards look at their roles during retreat Association continues to push for less hands-on approach
By Shawn Cunningham © 2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC School boards don’t operate schools.” If there is one takeaway from a presentation that facilitator Susan Holson of the Vermont School Boards Association gave to members of the Green Mountain and Ludlow Mount Holly district boards during their June 30 retreat, it was that school boards hire […]
Fourth fireworks finally on Fifth
After a rain delay from the planned July 3 events, the American Legion in Chester had a perfect evening on Monday to hold the town Independence Day fireworks, bringing the long weekend to a close. If you didn’t get a chance to watch them live, Dennis Kopacz of Sculpted Physiques in Chester viewed the display […]
Weston considers replacing Zoning Board with Development Review Board
By Mallory Hopkins ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC During the Weston Select Board meeting on Tuesday, June 22, members began discussing replacing the Zoning Board of Adjustment with a Development Review Board, which would allow landowner to have a “one-stop shop” when it comes to seeking decisions on land-use issues. Board vice chair Jim Linville said […]
Greenhouse siting takes center stage at Chester Select Board meeting
By Shawn Cunningham © 2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC The question of where to put a large greenhouse for community use was once again front and center on at the June 15 meeting of Chester’s Select Board with some questions and and a bit of push back from neighbors at each of the sites under consideration. […]
Green Mountain graduates 50 in a return to normal commencement
By Shawn Cunningham 2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC Green Mountain High’s commencement exercises on Friday were a welcomed return to normal compared to last year’s drive-thru graduation. Hundreds of parents and friends watched as 50 members of the class of 2021 received awards and diplomas. (A gallery of graduates is at the end of this story.) […]
GM board wrangles over approval of minutes from Hill appointment
By Shawn Cunningham © 2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC At its first in-person monthly meeting in more than a year, the Green Mountain Unified School Board on June 17 continued its rumpus over the minutes taken during the meeting in which Keith Hill was named high school principal. For 45 minutes, the members wrangled over parliamentary […]
Weekly Covid Update: Most counties, including Windham, Windsor, lag behind state vaxx goal
©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC Although Vermont may be the first state in the country to reach the 80 percent threshold for Covid-19 vaccinations, nine of the state’s 14 counties, including Windham and Windsor, remain within the 70 to 79 percent Covid-vaccination range. Windsor County’s vaccination rate is currently at 73.7 percent, Windham County is at […]
Weston board continues speed sign discussion; Act 64 compliance road work continues
By Mallory Hopkins © 2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Weston Select Board met for the first time since the delayed Weston Town Meeting on May 25. Members opted out of their regularly scheduled meeting that would normally have taken place the same day. The town’s annual meeting had been postponed from March, due to Covid-19. […]
GM student represents Vermont in Smithsonian History Day exhibition
By Shawn Cunningham © 2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC A Vermont History Day presentation on Suzy ‘Chap Stick’ Chaffee researched and created by Andover student Violet Haight at Green Mountain High School has been selected to compete in the National History Day Contest. It was also chosen to be showcased virtually by the Smithsonian’s National Museum […]
Scott lifts restrictions as state hits 80% vaxx goal State of emergency to expire at midnight Tuesday; businesses can retain masking
By Shawn Cunningham © 2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC At a press conference called for this morning, Gov. Phil Scott announced that Vermont has reached the goal of 80 percent of all residents ages 12 and older having received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and followed through on his promise to lift all […]
Vermont closing in on 80% vaxx rate for lifting of all Covid restrictions
©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC With Vermont just 0.2 percent shy of the 80 percent vaccination rate goal as of numbers through Thursday, June 10, state officials announced the addition of dozens of walk-in clinics at state parks and other venues throughout the state this weekend. The coordination with state parks coincides with the annual Vermont […]
Chester board looks at possible greenhouse locations
By Shawn Cunningham © 2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Select Board took a field trip before its meeting last Wednesday night, visiting two town-owned properties that have been proposed as possible sites for a large public greenhouse and gardens project that has come before the board in the past. Identifying the sites follows a […]
Flood Brook’s first-time softballers discover hidden talent for the game
By Christian Avard © 2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC What are the odds that a group of girls who never played softball before could learn the game on the fly and dominate their opponents? Pretty good if those girls play for Flood Brook School. There’s no rhyme or reason to explain the team’s success. They just […]
Weekly Covid Update: State within 8,000 of 80% vaccination rate, remains safest in nation
©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC Health officials announced on Friday that 78.6 percent of eligible Vermonters have been vaccinated with at least one dose, leaving just 7,878 more to go, as Vermont inches closer to the 80 percent vaccination rate threshold that will result in Gov. Phil Scott lifting all remaining Covid-19 health restrictions. To visit […]
State panel finds ‘reasonable grounds’ in Chester Police discrimination case
By Shawn Cunningham © 2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Vermont Human Rights Commission has found “reasonable grounds” that a Chester police officer illegally discriminated against a Black man when it stopped him in May of 2019, a claim that the Town of Chester strongly denies. The commission investigates allegations of discrimination under state law to […]
Pandemic postponed annual meetings take place under sunny skies After 3-month delay, Weston, GM school district meet
By Shawn Cunningham © 2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC As the Covid-19 pandemic seems to be winding down, a number of municipalities are catching up with meetings (under sunny skies) that could not be held in their traditional March time slots this past winter. By the time the country was shutting down in mid-March 2020, most […]
Weekly Covid Update: Scott lifts curfew on restaurants, looks to 80 percent goal next week
© 2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC On Friday, Gov. Phil Scott announced he was lifting curfews on restaurants, bars and social clubs beginning Saturday, May 29, allowing those establishments to return to their normal business hours. Local municipalities are still allowed to place their own restrictions on businesses if desired. In what had been an optimistic […]
