Seems to be a bit of a kerfuffle down Chester way. It goes back a couple weeks, but it hasn’t been noted beyond local press accounts.

At its March 18 meeting, the Chester select board was doing a bit of routine annual business: designating newspapers of record, where official notices are to be published. And boy, did board chair Lee Gustafson try to pull off an unconstitutional power play. His behavior ought to warrant an ethics investigation except that, well, the underfunded, understaffed state Ethics Commission has washed its hands of local ethical issues due to a lack of resources. So he’s probably off the hook.

The select board ultimately voted to continue with two papers of record: The Chester Telegraph and The Vermont Journal. But Gustafson used his position of authority to try to kneecap The Telegraph’s journalistic independence. If he’d had his way, The Telegraph would have been cut out.

The Telegraph is a proud independent local paper that often punches above its weight. The Vermont Journal, generally speaking, is not much of a paper. It describes itself as an “upbeat” publication and most of its content is more fluff than substance. (Its “News” section consists largely of repurposed press releases.) However, it did itself proud in reporting on Gustafson’s attempted bullying of The Telegraph. The Journal’s was the most complete account, since The Telegraph took a very restrained approach for some understandable reasons.

But let’s get back to what happened, viewable on the select board’s YouTube channel.

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