All Entries in the "Featured" Category
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Snow ‘dump’ sends a chill through s. Vermont, causes widespread power outages, car accidents
By Cynthia Prairie and Shawn Cunningham ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC For those in the southern Vermont region straddling Windham and Windsor counties, you know you got hit with snow – anywhere from 18 to more than 36 inches of it. Can’t open the front door snow; trees and power lines are down snow; don’t care […]
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 […]
Cavendish passes $1.95 million budget; discusses ARPA fund use
By Cara Philbin © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Monday night’s Cavendish Town Meeting attracted about 50 residents to the Cavendish Town Elementary School and 15 on Zoom, mostly to discuss the proposed budget, which was among items to be voted on by Australian ballot on Tuesday, and uses of funding received from the federal pandemic […]
Chester votes to make clerk, treasurer appointed posts; approves $3.7 million town budget
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC More than 85 residents turned out — in person and via Zoom — for Chester’s annual Town Meeting on Monday night. Town Moderator Bill Dakin kept the evening moving with most of the questions passing without debate or discussion. Those on Zoom were not allowed to vote […]
Andover votes out Fromberger from longtime school board service Re-elects incumbents elsewhere; OKs first million dollar budget
By Cynthia Prairie © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Andover Town Meeting, rescheduled from this past snow-bound Saturday, went off without too many hitches on Tuesday afternoon as 60 plus voters gathered at Town Hall and almost a dozen showed up on Zoom to hear the proceedings. But in a surprise action — once the […]
Prosecutor concerned over ‘lingering’ Rt. 103 murder case Two to three week spring 2024 trial is anticipated
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC More than three years after the murder of Boston trucker Roberto Fonseca-Rivera, Windham County Deputy State’s Attorney Steven Brown told Judge Katherine Hayes that he was concerned that the case against Jozsef Piri is not moving at the pace the prosecution thinks it should and that it […]
Select Board candidates outline views in Chester forum
By Shawn Cunningham © 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC On a snowy, slushy Tuesday night, 35 Chester residents turned out at Town Hall to hear four of the five candidates running for two one-year seats on the town’s Select Board say why they want to be elected. SAPA-TV streamed the event which was available to residents […]
