Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott, Jake Steinfeld, Chairman of the National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness Councils (NFGFC), dignitaries and students will cut the ribbon on Missisquoi Valley Union School’s new DON’T QUIT! Fitness Center at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, October 19, 2023.  The school was one of three Vermont schools selected as the state’s most outstanding schools for demonstrating leadership in getting and keeping their students fit.  The other two winning schools were Essex Middle School in Essex Junction and Milton Middle School in Milton. Governor Scott signed a proclamation declaring October as "DON’T QUIT! Fitness Month."

Vermont Business Magazine At the VNA & Hospice of the Southwest Region (VNAHSR), volunteers play a critical role in enhancing the end-of-life experiences of people facing serious illness and their families. Volunteers represent all life experiences and are drawn to hospice for a variety of reasons, but the defining characteristics that unite them are compassion and the desire to help others. Their many skills are matched to important tasks within our mission. VNAHSR provides training for those interested in becoming hospice volunteers. 

Vermont Business Magazine BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE: BDX), a leading global medical technology company, and Rutland, Vermont-based Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CWST) (Casella), a solid waste, recycling, and resource management services company, have announced the most recent results of a recycling pilot to manage discarded syringes and needles that led to 40,000 pounds of medical waste being recycled and diverted from disposal.  Health care facilities are a major consumer of syringes, which have been particularly difficult to recycle due to the various components and steps involved in the process, including safe handling of medical waste and treating and sterilizing materials before they can be re-introduced for recycling. This recycling pilot helps address a historic challenge within the health care industry – which generates more than 3 billion pounds of plastic waste in the U.S. alone.1 

Vermont Business Magazine In advance of the cold and flu season, Rutland Regional Medical Center is updating their visitor guidelines and asking the public’s help in curbing the spread of infectious diseases. The hospital relaxed some of their visitor guidelines this past summer and has extended visitation hours from 9am to 9pm seven days a week, as well as reopening its Allen Street entrance. Some of the nuances to the visitor guidelines include clarification around the number of visitors who can visit an individual patient or go to a particular unit. This may also include a restriction to the amount of time that a patient may have a visitor.

Vermont Business Magazine Ninety days after the federal disaster declaration for the state of Vermont following July’s severe storms, flooding, landslides and mudslides, more than $78.3 million in federal assistance has been provided by FEMA and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) directly to Vermonters to aid in their recovery. The funds include grants from FEMA, payouts from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and long-term, low-interest disaster loans from SBA. Residents of nine Vermont counties are eligible to apply for Individual Assistance: Caledonia, Chittenden, Lamoille, Orange, Orleans, Rutland, Washington, Windham and Windsor. Homeowners and renters whose homes and property were damaged by the storms now have until October 31, 2023, to apply.

The Vermont State Police investigation is continuing into the suspicious death that occurred early Monday, Oct. 16, 2023, at a home on Vermont Route 16 in Wheelock. Detectives from the Major Crime Unit and Bureau of Criminal Investigations have spoken with witnesses and nearby residents in the rural area where the incident occurred. VSP asks members of the public who might have video, including security systems and game cameras, showing Route 16 and neighboring roads to contact investigators. Detectives are particularly interested in any video from early Monday morning but would also like to speak with anyone who has video footage from recent days.

Vermont Business Magazine Champlain Housing Trust announced today that the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board (VHCB) approved a new round of funding totaling $2.45 million for the organization’s Farmworker Housing programs, building upon the successful pilot project in partnership with the UVM Extension program initiated in 2022. The program includes allocations for both repair of existing housing, and for the replacement of housing that is beyond repair or not suitable for habitation. Both options are available throughout the State of Vermont. The program grew out of a report completed in 2021 for VHCB that identified the need for improvements to the housing of farmworkers. The report estimated that 2,000 farmworkers lived on farms.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM) announces the release of a request for applications (RFA) for farmers, producers, and organizations to apply for Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) Plus funding. Approximately $400,000 will be awarded to farms and organizations that demonstrate an ability to purchase and distribute Vermont sourced food from socially disadvantaged producers to underserved community members across Vermont. Awards will range from $15,000 - $60,000 with no match requirement.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont State Treasurer Mike Pieciak today announced the hiring of Rebecca (“Becky”) Wasserman of Burlington as the first Executive Director of Vermont’s new public retirement-savings program, VT Saves. VT Saves is an automatic enrollment Roth IRA savings vehicle for employees who do not currently have access to a workplace savings plan.

Vermont Business Magazine Kalow Technologies, a leading contract manufacturer of packaging, beverage dispensing, ag tech, and 3D printing equipment recently leased and began renovation work on an additional 30,000 square feet at 155 Seward Road in Rutland. Additional space was acquired to meet their expanding manufacturing needs and to develop new Engineering offices and a dedicated lab space for early-stage projects.   

Vermont Business Magazine Average gasoline prices in Vermont have fallen to $3.68 per gallon, down 6.1 cents per gallon from last week's $3.74/g. The lowest price in the state yesterday was $3.19/g while the highest was $3.89/g, a difference of 70.0 cents per gallon. The national average price of gasoline has fallen 11.3 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.55/g today. The national average is down 29.9 cents per gallon from a month ago and stands 30.9 cents per gallon lower than a year ago.

Vermont Business Magazine In its heyday – its first heyday, that is – Burlington’s Goethe Lodge was a happening place. Established in 1896 as the Vermont Chapter of the German Order of Harugari, a national German-American cultural association, the Goethe Lodge social club hosted music, dances, and celebrations. For this growing community of new American immigrants, it provided fellowship, connection, mutual aid, and, an anomaly in late 19th century society, even admitted women(!). Across the decades, the Goethe’s popularity ebbed and flowed. In the 1960s, when membership lulled, the club dropped its German-descent requirement and eventually renamed itself the Champlain Club. But by the early 2000s, a fundraising effort to pay back taxes spurred new community excitement, as dance clubs, arts classes, and community groups came to embrace the space.