Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Electric Co-op (VEC) today announced the addition of an exciting new benefit for co-op members: special discounts at businesses across the region. The new VEC Member Discount Program offers a wide range of deals, including bargains on outdoor fun and entertainment, clothing and shoes, hardware, motorsports gear, and more.

Vermont Business Magazine Unfortunately, as the Administration and others have noted, H.13 leaves in place an automatic $23 million (5.5 cent) property tax rate increase on non-residential payers - our rental property owners and renters, camp owners, and employers. Without a commitment from legislative leaders that we can achieve level property tax rates, or an amendment that would prevent the automatic 5.5 cent property tax rate increase on non-residential payers, I cannot support H.13. As a result, pursuant to Chapter II, Section I I of the Vermont Constitution, I am returning H.13, An act relating to making appropriations for the support of government, without my signature because of my objections described herein.

Vermont Business Magazine As the child detention crisis created by the Trump Administration’s “zero tolerance” policy intensifies, Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) will travel Sunday to the U.S.- Mexico border near McAllen and Brownsville, Texas. Welch and six Congressional colleagues will investigate the effects of the policy of separating children from mothers and fathers seeking asylum at the border crossing.

Vermont Business Magazine The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday approved the Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples (CREATES) Act by a strong bipartisan vote of 16 to 5. The legislation, sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and cosponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), would combat anticompetitive practices used by some brand-name pharmaceutical and biologic companies to block lower-cost generic drugs.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Labor announced today that the seasonally-adjusted statewide unemployment rate for May was 2.8 percent. This reflects no change from the revised April rate. The national rate in May was 3.8 percent. As of the prior month’s preliminary data, the Burlington- South Burlington Metropolitan NECTA was tied for the eighth lowest unemployment rate in the country for all metropolitan areas. Overall, Vermont’s unemployment rate was tied for the fifth lowest in the country for the same time period. Commissioner’s Message

by Bruce Edwards Vermont Business Magazine Challenges are nothing new for the state’s second largest county. Over the years the industrial, commercial and retail landscape has changed in Rutland County. Major employers like Tambrands, Metromail, Skyline and the Brandon Training School left, leaving a void that was filled in part by new and existing employers: GE Aviation, Ellison Surface Technologies, Killington Resort, The Vermont Country Store and Hubbardton Forge.

by Bruce Edwards Vermont Business Magazine The College of Saint Joseph, facing a financial reckoning, caused by declining student enrollment and a failed attempt to offer a physician’s assistant program, has found a way to remain open. Given the school’s financial predicament it was uncertain whether the school would remain open. But the board of trustees in May came up with a plan to generate more income and keep the liberal arts college in business. Declining enrollment is not unique to the College of Saint Joseph. It’s a national problem with enrollments in the fall of 2017 down at the nation’s college and universities for the sixth straight year, according to the National Student Clearinghouse.

Students, neighbors and Office of Student and Community Relations staff create one of the nine Neighborhood Grant-funded greenbelt gardens on Isham Street. (Photo: John Meija)

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont’s Office of Student and Community Relations has received the Presidential Excellence Award from the International Town Gown Association for its work on Burlington’s Isham Street. The program the office implemented there led to large decreases in noise tickets, vandalism and burglaries after it was launched in 2012.

In its award letter the association, the leading higher education organization focusing on colleges’ relationships with their communities, described the office and its staff as "trail blazers in doing new and innovative work."

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Senior Games Association (VSGA), a program of the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, announces its summer season of competitive athletic events for people over 50. VSGA is also affiliated with the National Senior Games and 2018 is a qualifying year for the 2019 National Senior Games which will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico in June of 2019. In the 2017 National Games, held in Birmingham, Alabama, 31 Vermont athletes competed bringing home 21 gold, silver and bronze medals

Hundreds of Vermonters over 50, as well as senior athletes from neighboring states, are expected to register and compete in a wide range of sports from Pickleball to Golf over the next three months.

Vermont Business Magazine This Saturday, June 16th, Small Town Monsters (2017’s The Mothman of Point Pleasant) and filmmaker Aleksandar Petakov will release "On the Trail of… Champ," an examination of the legend and the ongoing search for a bizarre, aquatic creature said to live in the depths of New York and Vermont’s Lake Champlain. On the Trail of… Champ is a five episode mini-series filmed during the summer and early Fall of 2017. Petakov was on and around Lake Champlain for one of the largest, most well-funded searches for Champ in history.

Vermont Business Magazine Berkshire Bank, with offices in southwestern Vermont, will once again participate in World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on Friday, June 15, by hosting free informational seminars at local senior centers and libraries across its footprint. World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) is acknowledged annually in June as a call-to-action for communities to address the issues surrounding the physical, emotional, and financial abuse of elders.

Vermont Business Magazine For the fifth consecutive year, FreshTracks Road Pitch, will take place July 30th through August 2nd, 2018. Road Pitch is a four day motorcycle tour of Vermont in which a gang of “business bikers” (comprised of investors, entrepreneurs and business advisors) ride around the state and stop in 8 towns to listen to entrepreneurs pitch their business concepts. This year, the tour will stop in Essex Junction, Hyde Park, Lowell, Bennington, Rutland, Brattleboro, St. Johnsbury and Barre. The schedule tab on the Road Pitch website: www.roadpitch.co has a detailed listing of the dates and times for each event. There are still pitch slots available in some of the eight towns and entrepreneurs interested in pitching should apply to pitch by contacting the local organizers listed in the “find out more” link next to each event listing in the schedule tab.