Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Southwestern Vermont Health Care understands that everyone could use a little guidance and encouragement in their efforts to make healthy choices.  To support community members, SVHC has launched a new service that sends healthy and inspiring text messages to participants’ cell phones three times per week.  Each one offers a health-related timely, friendly tip or reminder.

“We hope the messaging service encourages members to make healthy choices while also showing that we care about their long-term health,” said James Trimarchi, SVHC’s director of planning.  “We want our community to know that we care about them all the time—not just when they visit their doctor’s office.”

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Foodbank’s Veggie VanGo, a mobile food pantry, will deliver its first round of healthy groceries to the University of Vermont Health Network – Central Vermont Medical Center in partnership with Hunger Mountain Coop on Friday, Jan. 22. All families and individuals in need are invited to pick up free, fresh produce and other groceries from 9 to 11 a.m. in Conference Rooms 1 and 2 on the lower level of the hospital in Berlin. Veggie VanGo will distribute food at the hospital on six Fridays throughout the winter and spring: Jan. 22, Feb. 26, April 1, April 29, May 27 and June 24. In addition to the Veggie VanGo distribution, Hunger Mountain Coop representatives will be available to provide nutritional information and sign people up for their Coop Cares program, a 10% discount supplemental program for patients receiving 3SquaresVT (formerly Food Stamps) or who participate in WIC.

Vermont Business Magazine Ledyard National Bank has been recognized by the American Heart Association as a Gold Level Fit-Friendly Worksite. Ledyard has been working towards this achievement over the past few years as they have taken steps to encourage, motivate, and educate their employees and clients about the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle. With leadership from their Wellness Committee, Ledyard met criteria across the lines of physical activity, nutrition, smoking policy, and workplace culture to accomplish this recognition. 

Vermont Business Magazine The ZabCab Taxi App, which makes summoning a taxi a snap for passengers, announced Monday that it has completed its 10,000^th ride in Burlington, a city it has served since last year. To celebrate this milestone, ZabCab said all new customers who signup for the app using code “VT” will get their first ride for free through January 31. Today, ZabCab also announced it is now the exclusive technology provider of Dunwright Taxi Company, and is providing ZabCab technology to independent drivers in Burlington as well. ZabCab introduced its app in Burlington as a national pilot for other small U.S. cities. In major markets where the smartphone app operates, ZabCab is credited with dramatically reducing customer-taxi wait time--nearly 80% in Miami—down from an average of 20-30 minutes to just 4-6 minutes on average.

Vermont State Police Jan 11, 2016, 4:41 pm Interstate 89 north in the area of mile-marker 91 is blocked by a jack-knifed tractor-trailer. This is just north of Exit 16 in Colchester (Costco exit). Traffic is currently backed up to at least exit 15.  Currently there is no time estimate for the roadway to be reopened.  Updates will be provided when available. No injuries have been reported. On 1/11/16 at approximately 1612 hours, a white Ford Superduty towing a trailer with steel beams was traveling Northbound on I89 North of exit 16. The tow-hitch on the vehicle snapped off, causing the vehicle to fishtail and slide sideways into the guardrail. The vehicle came to rest blocking the right-hand lane for a few hours while wreckers removed the vehicle and trailer. No other vehicles were involved and there were no injuries. There was minor damage to the vehicle and the guardrail.

Vermont Business Magazine Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS) has announced the projects submitted for inclusion in the 2015 CEDS (Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies) along with the list of 14 projects ranked at Vital Projects at a Press event held at the New England Center for Circus Arts at the Cotton Mill Hill studio. Vital Projects are the top ranked projects in terms of alignment and potential to advance the goals and objectives of the CEDS.   

Vermont Business Magazine In January 1987, VBM ran its first Vermont 100, predicated on 1986 revenues. Since then there have been only four companies that have been Number One: C&S Wholesale Grocers, National Life Group, Fletcher Allen Health Care (now The University of Vermont Medical Center) and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc (now Keurig Green Mountain). Keurig Green Mountain has pulled away from the field with over $4 billion in revenues. It also boasted revenue growth of 62,000 percent over the last 25 years. You read that correctly. But because in our first year we asked for 1985 revenues also, we can now produce a 30-Year Growth Chart (see page 26). Keurig’s growth over that period of time? 146,178 percent. Yes, that cup of coffee Bob Stiller once had has certainly turned into something. And now his company is being sold to a European holding company for $13.9 billion).

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont licensed 33 new captive insurance companies in 2015, according to data released by the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation. The new captives were made up of 12 pure captives, 7 Risk Retention Groups (RRGs), 7 sponsored captives, 4 special purpose financial insurers, 2 industrial insured captives, and 1 association captive. There were 11 "redomestications," which is when an existing captive moves from another captive domicile to Vermont. That is the largest number ever to occur in a single year in Vermont. The redomestications came from the following jurisdictions: South Carolina (3), Arizona (3), Bermuda (2), Cayman Islands, Nevada, and Kentucky. 

Vermont Business Magazine Financial wellness ـ like physical fitness – doesn’t happen overnight. To be financially well is to be confident that everyday financial choices create financial flexibility to manage unexpected financial challenges and to make the most of financial opportunity. “Financial wellness, like physical fitness, isn’t simply a matter of what you do,” said Don Baker, President, Vermont Market, KeyBank. Baker added, “It’s what you do every day that matters. Financial wellness requires consistent and continuous activity. But the payoff for financial wellness, just like the payoff for physical fitness, is well worth the effort.”

In celebration of Financial Wellness Month, KeyBank offers the following five steps toward becoming financially well:

Vermont Business Magazine ANEW Place homeless shelter in Burlington’s Old North End has recently received a $5,000 gift from TD Charitable Foundation, the charitable giving arm of TD Bank. This gift will help to foster the 4-Phase Program at ANEW Place which was implemented in 2014 when they rebranded from Burlington Emergency Shelter. This 4-Phase Program focuses on long-term solutions and is designed to address the root causes of homelessness. With the expansion of their programming, ANEW Place continues to provide emergency care while also cultivating personal long-term growth, so that each person can make a successful, sustainable transition toward wellness and independence.  They are helping homeless individuals to build a strong foundation with the tools needed to start ANEW life. ANEW Place is motivated by their desire to see an end to the cycle of homelessness in which so many adults find themselves trapped.  

Northeastern Vermont Development Association The Northeastern Vermont Development Association has released its updated economic development report for the three-county region (Caledonia, Essex and Orleans). Authored by David Snedeker, Executive Director, it includes EB-5 immigrant investor programs and other development projects and news. EB-5 Regional Center Program Extended - In December, when the federal government approved an omnibus year-end spending bill, the EB-5 foreign investment program was extended until September 30, 2016. The EB-5 program was created by Congress in 1990 to promote economic growth by providing investment money for job creation in rural parts of the country and specific geographic areas with higher than average levels of unemployment. Proposed revisions to the existing program that would have provided more oversight and measures to benefit rural areas were not included in the temporary funding bill.

by Mike Smith Some Vermonters have a problem with doublethinking. In George Orwell’s classic novel “1984,” he defines the word “doublethink” as “the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” Here’s a relevant example: those that say they believe in the First Amendment of our Constitution — and will often seek its protection of speech, religion, and assembly — but want to restrict or prevent others from exercising those same rights. That’s doublethinking, and both the left and the right engage in it.

For some, prohibiting the speech of those whom they find offensive, or those who express a different opinion, supersedes the constitutionally protected right of speech. Such thinking elevates the act of blocking or restricting unwelcome speech to the same level, or possibly above, the exercise of free speech.