CHESTER, Vt. – Hundreds of people in Chester remember the remarkable Barbara Westine, whose enthusiasm, energy, and positive spirit encouraged and supported so many worthwhile causes. As one of the founding members of Chester Townscape, Westine provided both dedicated personal and professional support.
Chester Townscape (CT) is known for its many beautification projects around town – seasonal floral decorations in public places, such as bridge boxes and barrels of flowers; Christmas wreaths and greenery; perennial plantings at the information booth, Chester-Andover Family Center, Brookside Cemetery wall, pocket parks, and village gazebos; as well as larger projects, such as the restoration of the Hearse House and Public Tomb. Westine was involved in many of those efforts – but especially in the regular planting, tending, and watering of the flowers at the cemetery wall and information booth. She also arranged for NewsBank, for whom she worked a record number of years, to provide Townscape with meeting space for board meetings, and to supply printing, copying, and lamination services for the informational displays at CT’s restored Hearse House.
In recognition of her many kinds of help, Chester Townscape sought to create a lasting memorial to this outstanding citizen. A subcommittee of Nancy Chute, Cheryl LeClair, Ann Summers, and Rosann Sexton – CT volunteers who are also involved with the very same efforts around the Village Green – contacted the town and Scott Wunderle of Terrigenous. Wunderle had donated his services for the creation and installation of a stone bench beside the Public Tomb in honor of Suzy Forlie, another CT founder who was cochair of that CT renovation.
The chosen Westine memorial is a black, powder-coated, ductile-iron-and-steel bench in the same style as that at the information booth garden, another CT project for the town. The town agreed on the bench’s location, and contributed granite for the foundation of the base. Wunderle and Rachel Diak of Terrigenous contributed the labor for the placement, and the bench was donated by Chester Townscape with the generous support of additional memorial contributions. A cast-bronze plaque on the bench commemorates that collaboration with this wording: “Given by Chester Townscape and the friends and family of Barbara Westine, 2024.” The position of the bench is significant – beside the restored Hearse House, and welcoming every passerby to that area of town where Westine was so personally involved in caring for its beauty, history, and central importance to the town and its residents.