Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Community Loan Fund and longtime partner the Champlain Housing Trust collaborated on two affordable housing projects in the fourth quarter of 2015, helping create and preserve 38 Vermont homes to remain affordable in perpetuity. Winchester Place in Colchester, operated by the Champlain Housing Trust (CHT) and Housing Vermont, stands as one of Chittenden County’s largest and most critical affordable housing properties, providing 166 rental units for lower-income Vermonters. Until 2015, Winchester placed occupied land leased from St. Michael’s College; at the expiration of the lease, the structure was slated to become property of the college, leaving the future of a large stock of affordable homes uncertain.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Kombucha brewing company Aqua ViTea has expanded its production to Middlebury. Since 2012, the company has based its operations out of an 8,000-square-foot brewing facility located at the Bristol Works complex in Bristol, VT. Consecutive years of increased production and significant growth have escalated the company’s infrastructure needs and necessitated new equipment investments. Middlebury’s burgeoning Exchange Street corridor offered a local solution. When Aqua ViTea Founder and Owner Jeff Weaber learned that the Middlebury-based Vermont Hard Cider Company (VTHCC) was opening a new cidery, he inquired about the use of their old facility at 153 Pond Lane. On the lookout for local growth potential, Weaber recognized this as an opportunity to keep his company’s business and jobs close to home.

Vermont Business Magazine In 2015, the Chittenden Solid Waste District received a grant worth $72,650 from the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to help fund the hazardous waste management program in Chittenden County for that year. The grant is part of a $411,000 solid waste assistance fund provided by the state to help towns uphold the state-wide ban on disposing of hazardous waste in landfills. The grant is awarded annually to towns by the DEC, an arm of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.

Vermont Business Magazine In preparing for the possibility of an antibiotic onslaught, some bacterial cultures adopt an all-for-one/one-for-all strategy that would make a socialist proud, University of Vermont researchers have found. This finding, published January 13 in the journal Scientific Reports, could have application for how persistent infections like those associated with cystic fibrosis are treated. The paper's conclusions are based on a series of time-lapse videos showing that single cells within a community of bacteria randomly use a cascade of proteins to become more or less antibiotic resistant, even when the community is not threatened by an antibiotic. A bacterial colony can regenerate if only a few cells survive antibiotic treatment.

by John McClaughry An intriguing battle is shaping up in the legislature, over industrial wind power. On one side is the Shumlin administration, wind developers, and pro-renewable energy lobby groups like VPIRG. The Governor has been a consistently outspoken advocate for renewable energy. He issued an edict in 2011 that Vermont must be made to obtain 90% of its total energy from renewables by 2050, in the name of defeating the menace of “climate change." Last year the Governor asked the legislature to pass a Renewable Portfolio Standard (renamed RESET) to mandate utilities to steadily increase their purchases of wind, solar, hydro, wood, and landfill methane power, until 75% of their power comes from these sources by 2032.

Vermont Business Magazine Local small business owner, Paul Ralston, who previously served two terms in the Vermont Legislature, has created a new radio program which will commence on WDEV on (this Thursday) January 21st from 1-2 PM.  “I’m trying to decide if I should run for office,” he said, “and if so, which office.” WDEV’s Ken Squier said “The Reluctant Politician” is one of the most original concepts for a news talk radio format we have come across."

Vermont Business Magazine Last October, Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Michael Yudin, sent a letter to states reminding them to use the terms “dyslexia”, “dysgraphia”, and “dyscalculia” in Individualized Education Programs and in evaluations determining a student’s eligibility for special education services. Since then, talk has been more frequent in regards to how these diagnoses can benefit the development of programs to support students with learning disabilities. Before Yudin released the letter, many states and schools did not openly acknowledge an identified diagnosis of dyslexia. The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) provided guidance to the Office of Special Education Programs and found that the same was true of dysgraphia and dyscalculia. 

Vermont Business Magazine Mach7 Technologies has been awarded a United States Patent for handheld medical imaging modality.  Core to Mach7’s iModality mobile application, this technology strengthens and advances Mach7’s leadership position in enterprise image management and further demonstrates the company’s belief that the patient should always be at the center of care delivery. 

Vermont Business Magazine The RehabGYM and Peak Physical Therapy are excited to announce a business merger effective January 25, 2015. Susan Dodge PT, owner of Peak Physical Therapy, and Sharon Gutwin PT, owner of the RehabGYM, look forward to providing more comprehensive rehabilitation and programing to a wider customer base. The team from Peak Physical Therapy brings added experience and passion in the rehabilitation of athletes, active individuals, and those with MS. This partnership provides an exciting opportunity to grow and solidify innovative physical therapy practices in Vermont. Peak Performance Sports will continue to offer performance enhancement classes, personal training, Vo2 max testing and RMR testing, and yoga at Perk Fitness in South Burlington with plans to merge with the RehabGYM when their new facility is built in 2017.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Medical Center and The University of Vermont College of Nursing and Health Sciences have received a total of $175,000 from the KeyBank Foundation to strengthen the nursing profession and support construction of a new inpatient bed facility. The College of Nursing and Health Sciences (CNHS) will receive $75,000 to match a grant from the AARP/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation “Future for Nursing: Campaign for Action”. These funds will help spur an increase in the number of nurses who pursue baccalaureate degrees in Vermont, implement a program to educate nurse practitioners about establishing their own practices, and increase educational opportunities for “New Americans” interested in nursing and health careers.

Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility Vermont legislators heard two sides of the divestment debate last week as a Senate committee began testimony on a bill that would see the state cease investing in fossil fuel stocks, according to VBSR's Week 2 legislative newsletter. Eric Becker, the chief investment officer at Clean Yield Asset Management in Norwich, a VBSR member, spoke to both the Legislature's Climate Caucus and the Senate Government Operations Committee last week. He said that fossil fuel investments have become risky financial bets and that the industry is offering more fossil fuel-free funds due to investor concerns over the economic and environmental consequences of investing in coal, oil, and gas.

Vermont State Police Interstate 89 sb between exits 7 and 6 are now re-opened with traffic flowing. Interstate 89, south, in the Montpelier & Berlin area was shut down due to multiple vehicle crashes between exits 7 and 6, in a statement issued by the VSP at 2:36 pm Monday. Traffic is being diverted off the interstate at exit 7. Currently, there’s no estimate on when the roadway will reopen, but efforts to remove the vehicles and treat the ice are underway. Motorists should find alternate routes and expect delays in the area.  No serious injuries have been reported and specific details are not yet available. Updates will be provided as appropriate. Motorists should expect delays in the area, or seek alternate routes. Please call 511 for road conditions and drive carefully.