Current News

Vermont Business Magazine A new Center for Global Engagement at Saint Michael’s College is set to receive $400,000 in federal funding from the Omnibus Appropriations Bill, signed on March 15. The support, championed by Senator Patrick Leahy, D-VT ’61, will help to expand student international internship opportunities to Europe and Latin America. It also will pay for programming on international issues and cover operating costs for the Center.

Vermont Business Magazine Starting Wednesday, March 23, patients at Rutland Regional Medical Center were able to have more friends and family visit than earlier this year when COVID rates were high. The hospital has relaxed its visitation policy to allow two visitors per patient during regular visiting hours. In addition, the hospital has reopened surgical waiting areas. Prior to this change, each patient was limited to two designated visitors for the duration of the patient’s stay. The new policy also allows children to visit as well.

University of Vermont Feeling unhappy? Go find a city park—the bigger the better—and try taking a walk outdoors. That’s the upshot of a major new study that measures the happiness effects of city parks in the 25 largest U.S. cities, from New York City and Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. The happiness benefit of urban nature on users was so strong—the team of University of Vermont scientists discovered—it was roughly equivalent to the mood spike people experience on holidays like Thanksgiving or New Year’s Day.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Transportation will be opening the drawbridge at 12:00 PM on April 1, 2022 and April 4, 2022. This opening will allow vessels to travel through in advance of the height restriction, effective May 15, 2022. Due to material fabrication and fit up issues, we are making a request to the Coast Guard to allow the new drawbridge to remain in the closed position from May 15 through June 30, 2022, in order to enable the completion of steel work and concrete work. The navigational channel will remain open to mariners, but we are requesting a height restriction of 14 feet to be in place from May 15 through June 30, 2022.

Vermont Business Magazine Washington Superior Court has issued a judgment in the civil lawsuit brought by Attorney General TJ Donovan against Missouri-based Karabell Industries and its owner, Eli Karabell, for making repeated illegal telemarketing calls and harassing state legislators to pay exorbitant sums of money. The Consent Judgment, issued yesterday, resolves the Attorney General’s lawsuit by requiring the Defendants to cease all business and telemarketing activity in Vermont and refrain from contacting anyone in Vermont about any marketing, sales, offers, or otherwise.

Vermont Business Magazine Currently, under 30 percent of Vermont's households have access to fiber-optic broadband. Limited internet access and cell phone service is a major contributing factor to the digital divide, especially in rural areas. To help meet this challenge, Esri, the global leader in location intelligence, and Stone Environmental—a science, engineering, and field services firm that provides dynamic web-based geographic information system (GIS) solutions—have collaborated to provide Vermont's nine Communications Union Districts (CUDs), towns, and private telecommunications companies with the tools and information needed to enhance development of fiber-optic broadband in all areas of Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Four candidates are vying for three seats up for election this year on the board of directors of the Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC). The candidates are: Carol Maroni (District 3); Mark Woodward (District 4); Charles “Charlie” Van Winkle (District 5); Art Woolf (District 5).

Vermont Business Magazine The Hammond Cove Shooting Range in Hartland, Vermont will open on April 1, at 10 am. The range operates under rules set by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. Range users must sign in with an onsite range safety officer and have a valid Vermont hunting or fishing license or be the guest of someone who does.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Fish and Wildlife is asking drivers to be cautious when travelling at night in early spring or to take alternate routes to avoid driving near ponds and wetlands where salamanders and frogs are crossing during their breeding season. Vermonters are reporting a particularly horrendous mud season this year, keeping some off the roads. But the warm, rainy nights in early spring give us another good reason to avoid even the paved roads: breeding frogs and salamanders that are on the move.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health today is reporting 200 cases of COVID-19 for Tuesday (87 Monday, 56 Sunday, 104 on Saturday and 143 Friday.) Cases have fallen by 11 percent in the last week (131 cases). The VDH reported no additional deaths today for 617 statewide. There have been 13 fatalities in March. The state is on pace for the fewest COVID-related deaths since last July.

Vermont Business Magazine Today the Vermont Senate voted on S.226, an omnibus housing bill that reforms permitting and land use regulations to make it easier to develop new housing, provides tax incentives and grants to promote housing development, and makes housing more affordable for the middle class. The bill reads in part: "The purpose of this chapter is to enable formation of special municipal and 16 regional land banks to revitalize communities by vesting the banks with the 17 authority to purchase, own, and convey real property that is blighted or vacant."

Average Health Insurance Premiums and Cost Burden Fall; Areas of Needed Improvement Emerge

Vermont Business Magazine Nearly 97% of all Vermonters have health insurance, matching the state’s highest insured rate on record. According to the 2021 Vermont Household Health Insurance Survey released today, almost 600,000 Vermonters are covered. The data is consistent with studies from the US Census Bureau which found that, in 2020, Vermont ranked second in the nation for its percentage of people with health insurance