Current News

Vermont Business Magazine In recognition of National Consumer Protection Week, Attorney General Charity Clark announced the top 10 consumer complaints received by her office’s Consumer Assistance Program (CAP) in 2023. Claiming the list’s top spots are consumer complaints involving vehicles, home improvement, and retail, which collectively represent 43 percent of all complaints filed in 2023. Attorney General Clark also today released CAP’s 2023 Annual Report in which the program details its record-high recoveries and savings for Vermont consumers, totaling more than $1.89 million.

Vermont Business Magazine Building a brand new internet network involves both small steps and large ones. The latest NEK Broadband service expansion involves 100 miles and over 400 potential customers in Barnet, Peacham, Walden and Danville. Key parts of a fiber-optic cable network are the electronics cabinets that direct the signal from sender to intended recipient. The latest cabinet, also known as an OLT, has been set up at the fire department in Peacham. Crews continue to expand the network as cable is hung on utility poles along these initial routes. The mission of this Vermont-based organization is to make sure every address where there is electric utility service in Caledonia, Essex, and Orleans counties, plus Wolcott in Lamoille county.

Vermont Business Magazine President Joseph Biden on Saturday declared that a major disaster exists in the State of Vermont and ordered Federal assistance to supplement state, tribal, and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by a severe storm and flooding from December 18 to December 19, 2023. Governor Scott made a formal request for the designation on February 20, 2024. The aid is to help communities in Essex, Lamoille, Orange, Orleans, Rutland, Windham, and Windsor counties recover costs for repair of public infrastructure damage.

Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food & Markets The Farm to School and Early Childhood Vision Grant supports innovative projects that address contemporary issues facing communities, agriculture, health, and Vermont youth through farm to school and early childhood initiatives. A total of $150,000 is available through this competitive funding opportunity. The minimum award is $5,000 and the maximum award is $50,000. Schools, school districts, early childhood educators, afterschool programs, and non-profits working in partnership with other organizations in the Vermont Farm to School and Early Childhood Network are eligible to apply. 

Vermont Business Magazine At a time when rising demand for healthcare and a retiring nursing workforce are contributing to a critical need for nurses nationwide, the University of Vermont’s new Direct Entry Master of Science in Nursing program offers a fast track for career-changers looking to enter the nursing profession. Vermont has approximately 11,000 nurses working statewide, according to VT AHEC, and another 9,000 nurses are needed in the next seven years to fill projected workforce shortages. Vermont nursing schools see between 500 and 600 new nurses graduate per year — less than half the number needed to keep up with workforce demands. Designed for students who hold bachelor's degrees in fields other than nursing, the new direct entry program offers a partial solution to increase the nursing workforce through an accelerated path for those with non-nursing backgrounds to enter the profession.

by Brooke Burns, Community News Service Documents in Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark’s lawsuit against Meta reveal that even with around 80% of Vermont teens using Instagram in 2020 — one of the highest rates in the country — the company was still working on ways to get those teens to spend more time per day on the app. It’s amid those revelations that a new Senate bill aims to protect Vermont’s kids from predatory data collection and online content designed to take advantage of their vulnerabilities. Colloquially called the Vermont Kid’s Code, the bill, S.289, would ban big tech companies from collecting kids’ data, or designing their products, in ways that would create a reasonable risk of material physical harm, severe emotional distress, financial harm, a highly offensive intrusion to the expectation of privacy — or in any way that would discriminate based on a protected class.

Vermont Business Magazine The Made in Vermont Marketplace at the DoubleTree Hotel in South Burlington April 6 & 7 is an extraordinary opportunity for Vermont companies to showcase their Made in Vermont products to an audience of thousands of prospective customers in one weekend. The trade show is dedicated to promoting the great variety of Vermont-made products . . . from furniture, specialty foods, clothing, wines and so much more! Only Vermont based companies that make their products in Vermont are eligible to exhibit. Showcase your products at the Made in Vermont Marketplace event and on www.madeinvermontmarketplace.com

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by Christine Werneke, MS, and Stephen Leffler, MD Every day, too many Vermonters are suffering because they cannot get access to the right level of care they need after a hospitalization, after they’ve gotten too sick to be safely cared for at home, or because they’re waiting for a hospital bed that is not yet available. This is because Vermont has a severe lack of capacity for patients who need long-term care outside of the hospital. The situation has become chronic and is causing constant overcrowding in our hospitals across the state, straining our health care staff, and negatively impacting our patients and all of the communities we serve across our region. As we write this today, 65 patients at the University of Vermont Medical Center are ready to leave and head to their next level of care, such as a nursing home or rehabilitation center. Some will wait days, weeks, months – or, shockingly, more than an entire year – for the right care setting with the right supports. 

Leonine Public Affairs The Vermont legislature wrapped up the first half of the 2024 legislative session this week. Next week lawmakers will be on break - heading home to attend town meetings, meet with constituents and catch their breath. When legislators return on March 12 policy committees will finalize their bills and pass them by March 15. Any policy bill that does not meet the deadline is dead for the year, unless leadership grants an extension or if the language is added to another bill that has made crossover. The FY2025 state budget and all tax legislation have a crossover deadline of March 22. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Transportation has announced that on I-91 northbound from Exit 14 (Thetford) to Exit 16 (Bradford) will have rolling roadblocks beginning Sunday, March 3, 2024. The rolling roadblocks will continue through Thursday, March 7, 2024, unless work is completed early. Rolling roadblocks will occur during the daytime hours each day, Sunday through Thursday at varying times.

by C.B. Hall, Vermont Business Magazine Established in 1951 with a few dozen employees in a plant in Center Rutland, employee-owned Carris Reels has grown into one of North America's largest producers of industrial reels, with 19 plants in Mexico and Canada and across the United States and a total of some 820 employees, expressed as full-time equivalents. In the Green Mountain State, the company's payroll totals 135 FTEs, at five Rutland-area locations. In addition to the big wooden reels that the company's name brings to mind, Carris also manufactures reels made from plastic, metal and plastic-metal hybrids. Wire ties, barrels and other accessories round out the product line. Sales in 2023 totaled an estimated $174 million, down from $222 million in 2022.

by Jonah Frangiosa, Community News Service The Winooski City Council has adopted new regulations for short-term rentals, including a steeper annual licensing fee for owners who don’t live on the property. The new rules, which the council approved earlier this month, define the categories of short-term rental properties, such as Airbnb sites, as either owner-occupied or non-owner-occupied. Hosts have to register with the city and apply for a license. Non-occupying owners will pay an annual fee of $1,400, up from the council’s initial proposed fee of $1,000. The fee for hosts who live in the home where they offer short-term rentals is $250 per year.