All Entries in the "Chester" Category
Hazardous waste disposal days, hours to change Chester Select Board discusses special town meetings on EMS building, loader
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The hazardous household waste collections that have been held at the Springfield Transfer Station a couple of times a year are in for a big change, which may make them both harder to access and more expensive. Last Wednesday night, Derek Suursoo, who represents the Town of […]
Chester solons mull water, gravel and Hogs
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing, LLC Acting as the town’s Water and Sewer Commission, the Chester Select Board, at its April 17 meeting, approved taking out a $45,000 from the state’s Drinking Water and Groundwater Protection Division to inventory and map the entire water system. The Asset Management Planning loan is offered to […]
Early morning flooding hammers area towns
By Shawn Cunningham ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Overnight rains and melting snows combined on Monday morning to cause flooding and close roads throughout the area. Luckily, it was also the first day of the spring break for local schools. At 6:24 a.m., a Weston firefighter asked the Keene Mutual Aid dispatcher to tone fire department […]
Car fire at CAES disrupts dismissal, no injuries
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC A car fire at 3 p.m. threw the afternoon dismissal for Chester-Andover Elementary School into disarray while firefighters blocked the driveway to extinguish the blaze. As parents in cars lined up behind the school to pick up their children, the car at the front of the line […]
Chester Board to begin reviewing Town Plan changes
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing, LLC The Chester Select Board held its statutory Town Plan public hearing before beginning to review changes proposed by the Planning Commission at its Wednesday, April 3 meeting. There are substantial changes to four chapters of the plan – Utilities and Facilities, Education and Child Care Facilities, Energy […]
Volunteers sought for focus groups on healthcare related issues
The Springfield Area Community Collaborative is conducting focus groups regarding health related matters including, unmet health needs, access to services and barriers to care. Groups will be held in Springfield, Chester, Ludlow, Londonderry and Bellows Falls in Vermont and in Charlestown, N.H., in mid-May, 2019. The focus groups will include a light dinner, and a […]
Spring snow turns roads treacherous
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing, LLC Freezing rain and snow turned area roads slick this April Monday afternoon. Accidents were reported in Chester, Landgrove and Weston among others. According to witnesses and a State Police press release, at about 1:13 p.m. a 2006 Subaru Impreza was being driven west on the Weston Andover […]
Lowell Lake group to begin researching park
By Bruce Frauman ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The March 28 meeting of the Lowell Lake Working Group, held at Neighborhood Connections in Londonderry, revealed a nascent organization with lots of questions seeking answers. Robert Nied, a Chester resident and former town administrator of Londonderry, began pulling together the organization after the state Department of Forest […]
Chester board notes historic moment First time two women have served on select board
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The reorganization meeting after each year’s select board election is seldom exciting unless you find the reappointment of the fence viewers and the weigher of coal to be riveting. But Wednesday night’s edition of the Chester Select Board was the exception. Shortly after the meeting began, board […]
Dakin, Whalen, Gustafson take Chester Select Board seats; road bond issue passes in Chester
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Veteran office holder Leigh Dakin cruised to a write-in victory over political newcomer Scott Blair, co-owner of the Southern Pie Company and the Main Street Coffee & Scoop Shoppe, on Tuesday evening making the composition of the Chester Select Board 40 percent female for the first time. […]
Chester voters establish emergency reserve fund, pass climate resolution
By Leah M. Cunningham and Cynthia Prairie ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC More than 120 Chester residents turned out on Monday night for Town Meeting, passing 21 articles, including setting up a town reserve fund and a much discussed climate resolution, and tabling one before adjourning the meeting after two and a half hours. Tabled was […]
Chester updated on Depot St. sidewalk project
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The main event at Wednesday’s Chester Select Board meeting – a public hearing on the federally funded sidewalk project along Depot Street – almost didn’t happen when the presenters were unable to make their PowerPoint presentation work. But when the situation seemed darkest, outgoing board member Dan […]
1 incumbent, 2 write-ins vie for Chester seats Whelan hopes to retain Select Board post as Dakin, Blair seek victory as write-ins
Over the last four years, Chester’s races for Select Board have gotten a bit more competitive than in years past, bringing in contenders for the open seats as more voters seek to get involved in government. But when Ben Whalen petitioned to be on the March 5 ballot to seek a fourth one-year seat on […]
Ben Whalen: Chester needs to be good for people and business
By Shawn Cunningham ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Ben Whalen is seeking a fourth one-year term on the Chester Select Board after having won low-key campaigns in contested elections in 2016 and 2017 and an uncontested one in 2018. This year, Whalen’s name stands alone on the ballot for two one-year terms after incumbent Lee Gustafson […]
Scott Blair: Chester is a family town, not just a historic place
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Scott Blair sees Chester as a family town that attracts tourists, but he does not see tourism as the town’s primary economic driver. Instead, he says, that economic driver is small business and he believes the town needs to do a better job encouraging them. “The town […]
Leigh Dakin: Role of Select Board in economic development should be high
By Cynthia Prairie ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Leigh Dakin is ready to get back into the game. In the 1980s, she served nine years on the Chester Select Board and, more recently, six as a state representative in Montpelier. With her new grandson, she’s been enjoying a retirement from a long career in nursing. But […]
Pisha rebukes Grafton board on Rt. 35 facts Grafton Administrator Kearns seeks 'date certain' on repairs
By Cynthia Prairie ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC In a forceful letter, Chester Town Manager David Pisha has rebuked the Grafton Select Board for discussing Chester’s plans regarding repairs to Route 35 without calling the town first “to find out the facts.” “That is not how I would expect neighbors to behave,” he wrote in a […]
Grafton board chair ‘as private citizen’ starts drive to force Chester to repair Route 35
By Cynthia Prairie and Shawn Cunningham ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Members of the Grafton Select Board are hoping to push the Chester Select Board to expedite repairs to Route 35 from the Williams River bridge to the Grafton line, after its chairman, Joe Pollio, mounted a petition drive that could possibly lead to court action. […]
Chester board picks ‘design/build’ for emergency services building Reviews no bid contract with Russell Construction in executive session
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Select Board voted to go with a “design-build” process rather than traditional bidding for the proposed emergency services building, but not without objections by one member. “I believe in process and I don’t think we did our due diligence here,” said board member Heather Chase, […]
Chester gets state grant for EV charging station Hopes to have Cobleigh site up by late summer
By Cynthia Prairie ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Chester is one of nine towns and organizations to be awarded a state grant to install an electric vehicle charging station. Gov. Phil Scott announced the $400,000 in Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment Grant Program awards last week. Town Administrative Assistant Julie Hance, who wrote the grant proposal for […]
