Chester Vermont

My first thought is: Why do we need another Dollar General when there is one in Springfield only 10-15 minutes away from Chester? I also believe that a Dollar General would hurt our local grocer (Lisai's) and hardware store (Chester Hardware), who are very important to our community. I am personally opposed to a Dollar General coming to Chester for the reasons listed above.

I concur completely with Mary's concerns. Why let a big box entity kill our important local small businesses? And right smack in the middle of the town!

I too am against a dollar store in Chester. Chester is all about being "the quintessential Vermont town"

with a dollar store? I don't think so. There are plenty of dollar stores close enough. And I think it will have a negative impact on the small local businesses and the feeling of Chester in general.

My first thought was, yes, Chester needs more shops or businesses. However, a dollar store competes against the already established local businesses. We need stores that will attract people and their business to our Victorian/Stone Village and create more jobs for the residents who support business owners. I don't believe that a Dollar General will attract business for Chester, with what it has to offer.

I know quite a number of folks are for the development. What are your reasons? This is a perfect place for a polite dialogue on the matter.

Why doesn't the town of Chester worry first about cleaning up the neighborhood beginning at the laundromat all along Depot Street and restoring Chester's charm and beauty! Have they not noticed the for sale signs? Chester has lost its appeal! First Dollar General then Walmart then Dunkin Donuts! What a disaster!

A Dollar General in Chester? How preposterous! The first time I heard it I thought it was a joke. And there is already a Dollar General down the street in Springfield as well as a Family Dollar. I have spoken with a lot of people about this and have not heard one person in favor of this! Let us continue to grow, but not in the wrong direction. We have a nice, quaint town with a lot of businesses that we enjoy patronizing. Let's not ruin our beautiful town and hurt the businesses that we enjoy so much.

Please keep your town as the wonderfully quaint town that it is.... Stores of this size and nature WILL kill your local family-run businesses, and it will certainly have an impact upon us out-of-town tourists who love to come to visit the town that you have now.

I came to Chester from away. The town's quaint feel, the friendly store owners and farmers market vendors spoke volumes for the area -- Chester was a true community where people knew one another and cared about their village.

I fell in love with the area, and respected the way things are done around here as I wanted to be a part of Chester, and not some bossy outsider seeking to change things for the worse.

I realize that man cannot live on charm alone, and that good jobs are needed and essential. Dollar General might create minimum wage paying jobs but when other locally run business see a drop in sales, or worse yet -- are forced to close, the minimum wage jobs created will not offset the gross losses created.

Couple that with the fact that tourists are not going to find charm in a town with a dollar store (often associated with low rent areas). Tourist dollars will find their way elsewhere.

How many of the nicer tourist areas have Dollar Generals? Manchester? Woodstock? Do any ski towns have one? How many innkeepers will be forced to close their doors? How many restaurants will have to scale back or close?

By that time, those who have lost their jobs will be counting their pennies hoping to have enough to spend at the Dollar General.

Very well thought out and spoken argument. Thank you. Says all I wanted to say.

If you check, Manchester does have a Dollar Tree store right in downtown. Is that not a very similar type of store as a Dollar General? And how has that store had a negative impact on that quaint tourist-attracting Vermont village?

I was born and raised in Chester, lived in Chester and have lived in other states and areas from city to small town, and have not sensed it being more negative than positive, and am not aware of local businesses being forced out of business.

If you are concerned that allowing a Dollar General in town will bring the large box stores that can mar the quaint Vermont village, I do not believe that this area has the population density that will cause large box stores to want to locate in our rural town and cause our local business to close.

I believe that a store of this type would be a plus for the area and not affect the specialized local businesses significantly. Also, where is the concern for our senior citizens who do not have easy access to shop?

My belief is that the positives out-weigh the potential negatives and my family and I do not oppose this business in Chester.

One aspect to consider when comparing Manchester and Chester is the proportion of contemporary corporate retail content to small town, local business.

Manchester has compromised much of its character due to allowance of a corporate, out-of-state retail infusion. To add another scrap of litter into a full garbage can (the existing strip mall east of Malfunction Junction, for example, composed of architectural elements that are more Disney stage set than any genuine architectural interpretation) is relatively insignificant, much we'd all agree, as in North Springfield.

To toss a piece of litter on a clean floor is more noticeable. Chester is at a tipping point in this regard. To those who might suggest that a Dollar General or any other corporate retail store has done no harm to a community such as Springfield, I'd challenge with the question: How has the uncontrolled strip mall growth in North Springfield helped the area? Welfare families have increased there in the past decade. (What's happened to the claim that cheap goods stores help the economy?) The downtown is a classic case of post-industrial struggle, despite its having wonderful potential.

Had smaller, locally owned businesses been aggressively attracted instead to the center of town, together with imaginative parking and pedestrian amenities (a well-known and successful design process) the whole region - including Chester - may have been weathering the current Depression (which I think we all know it really is) much more robustly.

Diverse communities of small businesses and retailers have been shown, nationwide, to be a much healthier environment for small towns than singular corporate entities that have no vested interest in the communities. They encourage pedestrian traffic, they enjoy a far lower crime rate, the monies stay in the communities, the tax base is much more stable, the property values rise, not decline, employment tends to increase, not decrease, more residents and successful businesses are attracted to the community ... the list is very long and uplifting.

*Claudio Veliz is an architect and member of Smart Growth Chester.

A Dollar General store seems to me to be totally out of character for Chester. With Dollar General and Family Dollar stores located nearby in Springfield, what can one in our little town possibly contribute?

I agree with Mary. There is already a Dollar General in Springfield. A different store chain, one to draw the people to Chester, one that isn't offered in the next town. But I also have to agree that it will kill the small town feel if anything like that does go there. Chester is my hometown. I grew up there and it is the place I love because of the small-town feel.

What could a Dollar General store add to Chester? A few minimum wage jobs? A large, generic box construction that deviates little no matter where it is planted? An eyesore in the midst of a town that has fought hard to maintain her identity as the "quintessential Vermont town?"

Why does Dollar General feel the need to build a store one town over from where another exists? Can our small, locally owned businesses compete against a company of Dollar General's size and buying power?

Has anyone looked closely at the towns where Dollar General currently operates; and if so, what adjectives best describes those towns? Depressed, shabby, run-down, borderline and dismal are a few that spring to mind.

What image would do the residents, business owners and elected officials want tourists to come away with: A town full of inns and Victorian grace so charming that a Hallmark movie was filmed there or another forlorn town on its way downhill?

Choose wisely dear neighbors. Once Pandora's box has been opened, you can't turn back.

If you really want to see more for sale signs in town (and houses that sit and never sell), by all means open a Dollar General Store. Ultimately, this will result in less tax revenue for the town, as housing prices and sales will drop. We need to work to rebuild this town through more businesses with local character -- newer places like the Pizza Stone, MacLaomainns, Country Girl and Stone Hearth succeed with local appeal. Dollar General is a disaster for Chester -- a long, slow trek to becoming a formerly wonderful town.