Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The GMCB announced their hospital budget decisions today for Vermont’s 14 community hospitals. The FY 2017 budgets are effective October 1. The Hospitals initially requested a 5 percent or roughly $114-million-dollar increase to health care costs within the state. After a thorough review, the Board approved a 3.9 percent Net Patient Revenue increase. The Board made reductions to budgets for volume overages and bad debt and free care estimates, and adjusted for the hospitals’ physician acquisition dollars.

Vermont Business Magazine US Department of Agriculture officials from across the country visited the Center for an Agricultural Economy in Hardwick Thursday to announce grant funding to two farms connected with the Center: Snug Valley Farm of Hardwick and Sweet Rowen Farmstead of Glover. Both farms received Value Added Producer Grants from the USDA to strengthen their businesses through product development, distribution and marketing. Snug Valley Farm will get nearly $200,000 and Sweet Rowen Farmstead will get nearly $50,000.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Technical College kicked off its sesquicentennial celebrations today with anniversary events throughout the state at its various campus locations. Alumni and community members will be welcome to attend receptions and events in Williston, Randolph Center, Bennington and Brattleboro. Founded in 1866 as the Randolph Normal School, it served the community in educating teachers. The Randolph Center hilltop school had previously been the Orange County Grammar School from 1806-1866. On November 17, 1866, the Vermont State Legislature passed Public Act No. 1, authorizing three public schools in Randolph, Johnson and Castleton, the same three public colleges still serving Vermonters.

Vermont Business Magazine University of Vermont alumnus Stephen Ifshin ’58 has pledged $1.75 million to support a proposed expansion to Kalkin Hall, home of the Grossman School of Business on the UVM campus.  Ifshin’s commitment brings total support for the anticipated $11 million project to over $7 million. Stephen Ifshin is chairman of DLC Management Corp, which he founded with his son, Adam, in 1991. DLC Management Corp. is now one of the nation’s preeminent shopping center developers. Headquartered in New York, the firm has regional offices in Atlanta, Chicago and Washington, DC.

Stephen Ifshin, UVM ’58. UVM photo

Vermont Business Magazine Thursday afternoon brought together scores of interested onlookers as two local nonprofit housing organizations marked the completion of construction of 23 new apartments in the center of Hinesburg’s village. Green Street Apartments were developed and built by Snyder Homes and purchased by Champlain Housing Trust and Housing Vermont to add to the stock of affordable housing in the region. Affordable housing is generally considered to represent 30 percent or less of household income. The housing will include a range of bedroom sizes to house both individuals and families. Rents for the two-bedroom apartments range between $800 and $945, heat and hot water included. In comparison, the average market-rate rent for 2-bedroom apartments in the greater Burlington area is $1,394.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin today announced the allocation of $2.25 million in state tax incentives for 21 projects, supporting over $47 million in downtown and village center construction and rehabilitation projects. Two municipalities will receive sales tax reallocation dollars. In Winooski, the award will be used in conjunction with a new mixed use development and function venue “The Strand” at the city’s Circle, and in St Albans, reallocated taxes will support public infrastructure improvements associated with the new Hampton Inn on Lake Street. 

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin today announced that Secretary of Administration Justin Johnson will be leaving state government on Sept. 30 to join Montpelier lobbying firm MMR, LLC. At MMR, he will be heading up a new practice focused on international projects, helping businesses and governments meet their goals and obligations under the Paris climate accord signed by more than 170 countries since last November. The governor said Trey Martin, Deputy Secretary at the Agency of Natural Resources, will replace Johnson. Martin has been responsible for overseeing the Agency’s administrative functions, budget, IT, legal and policy work, as well as coordinating the work of ANR’s three commissioners. He has also been key in projects including Vermont Yankee Decommissioning and the Lake Champlain TMDL funding and Clean Water Act.

Vermont Business Magazine To assist in Vermont’s on-going battle against opiate and heroin abuse, Governor Peter Shumlin today accepted a $25,000 donation from President and CEO of Subaru of New England Ernie Boch Jr to Youth Services of Brattleboro to create a youth counseling program to treat addiction.

“Once again I stand here thanking Ernie and Subaru of New England for a generous donation to tackle an issue here in Vermont,” Gov. Shumlin said, noting that Boch has donated to Irene Recovery efforts, Green Up Day and the Vermont Universal Children’s Higher Education Savings Account Program. It marks his second donation to combating opiate addiction in Vermont, following last year’s commitment to Recovery House Inc. in Rutland.

Vermont Business Magazine Southern Vermont College (SVC) is proud to announce its participation in the local effort that is bringing back hydroelectric generation to Vermont. SVC and its campus neighbor Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC) have both signed on as part of the Pownal Tannery Hydroelectric Net Metering Group, which will help offset some of their electrical use with a local renewable resource.

Vermont Business Magazine Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson will present a lecture on the subject of her much heralded recent book, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, at The University of Vermont's  Ira Allen Chapel on Wednesday, October 5 at 5 pm. The event is free and open to the public. Wilkerson, it was just announced, will be awarded the 2015 National Humanities Medal at a special White House ceremony presided over by President Obama on today, September 22.

Isabel Wilkerson (credit: Joe Henson)

Vermont Business Magazine The US Small Business Administration announced September 21 that federal Economic Injury Disaster Loans are available to small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture and private nonprofit organizations in Caledonia, Essex, Orange and Windsor counties located in Vermont as a result of the drought that began on January 1, 2016.

“These counties are eligible because they are contiguous to one or more primary county in New Hampshire. The Small Business Administration recognizes that disasters do not usually stop at county or state lines. For that reason, counties adjacent to primary counties named in the declaration are included,” said Frank Skaggs, director of SBA’s Field Operations Center East in Atlanta.

Vermont Business Magazine Climate change is really taking its toll on Mother Earth. Average global temperatures have risen sharply in the past few decades. Warming oceans are melting away the polar ice caps at unprecedented rates. And natural disasters are becoming more frequent and intense. For many, those impacts may seem a world away from daily life, but the truth is that climate change is creeping closer and closer to home. And it's headed straight for your freezer.