Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC) has announced a new incentive program to assist maple sugaring operations to move to a future of lower production costs and lower carbon emissions. VEC, with over 400 maple sugar producers in their service territory, is committed to identifying and assisting members that can benefit from fuel switching and emission reduction opportunities through new technology and customized solutions.

Vermont Business Magazine When the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity’s Growing Money Program surveyed participants in September, one challenge voiced by many was “staying ahead of it all.” The “all” they refer to includes paying bills on time, curbing spending, paying down debt, creating an emergency fund, building the credit score, putting money away for retirement and managing new information in our fast-changing financial culture. Staying “ahead of it all” is especially important and difficult for Vermonters with low incomes, the primary target of Growing Money’s financial classes and coaching services. Merchant’s Bank is donating $10,000 to help fund this vital effort.

Vermont Business Magazine NextCapital, a leading enterprise digital advice firm, has completed its Series B Preferred Stock financing and raised $16 million. The Chicago-based firm is planning to expand in Vermont by establishing an office in Burlington, which will be led by Vermont native Rob Foregger, co-founder of the firm. Vermont is home to a robust technology community and NextCapital’s expanded presence signals the firm’s intent to attract software engineers in the region.

The funding was led by AllianceBernstein (AB), Manulife and Route 66 Ventures. NextCapital's existing shareholders include Transamerica Ventures, Russell Investments, FinTech Collective, Kelvingrove, and Vermont Seed Capital Fund.

"Large financial institutions will win the big shift to scalable personal advice," said John Patterson, Chief Executive Officer of NextCapital.

Vermont Business Magazine Local and State emergency responders will team with the Vermont National Guard (VNG) and federal agencies in a full-scale emergency exercise in Vermont in the summer of 2016. Operation Vigilant Guard will be carried out for one week at the end of July, 2016. 4,000 responders from municipalities, state and federal agencies, the Vermont National Guard, hospitals, utilities, airports, and others will be in emergency operations centers and in the field performing tasks in response to a simulated disaster in Vermont. Crews will be clearing debris, distributing emergency provisions and supplies, and arranging assets from out of state to assist in the response.

Vermont Business Magazine The Boys & Girls Club of Burlington announced today that they received a $20,000 grant from the Comcast Foundation to help expand the My.Future technology initiative, a hands-on technology training to equip Club kids with the skills needed to compete in a 21^st century economy. In celebration of the one-year anniversary of the launch of My.Future, Comcast announced the grant which will provide the Club with funding needed to purchase state-of-the-art equipment and program supplies that allow better academic support for the children and youth who come to the Boys & Girls Club of Burlington.

Vermont Business Magazine VSECU, a credit union for everybody in Vermont, has been awarded a $125,000 grant from the Vermont Public Service Department’s Clean Energy Development Fund to help Vermont residents reduce financing costs for investments in community solar arrays. The funding, available only through VSECU, will be available for a limited time to buy down interest rates on loans used to purchase shares in, or portions of, community solar projects.

“VSECU is committed to helping our members and employees live greener lifestyles, and working to protect our environment through our products and our operational practices,” said Rob Miller, CEO of VSECU. “We are proud to partner with the Clean Energy Development Fund to help power this interest rate buy down program and help make community solar purchases more affordable for Vermonters.”

Vermont Business Magazine Contracts to develop an Economic Development Marketing Plan for the State of Vermont have been awarded to Spike Advertising of Alburgh, Vermont and Development Counsellors International (DCI) of New York, NY, as announced today by the Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD). The contract awards, which totaled $60,000, are the result of a competitive bid process following a request for proposals (RFP) to procure consulting services to develop a strategic and tactical economic development marketing plan to promote Vermont as a great place to live, work and do business. There were 13 bidders. The two firms will be working collaboratively to create one final Economic Development Marketing Plan.

Vermont Business Magazine US Senator Bernie Sanders on Thursday welcomed the endorsement of the Communications Workers of America. CWA’s endorsement comes after tens of thousands of members participated in an online vote that lasted six weeks. Sanders, an Independent in the Senate, is running for president as a Democrat. His chief rival is former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. CWA represents 700,000 Americans who work in telecommunications and information technology, the airline industry, news media, broadcast and cable television, education, health care and public service, law enforcement, manufacturing and other fields. The union has more than 300,000 active and retired members in the states that will hold primaries between now and April 1.

by Mike Faher/The Commons Last month, state officials launched the equivalent of a Hail Mary pass in their attempt to curb spending of the Vermont Yankee decommissioning trust fund. Now, Nuclear Regulatory Commission staffers and Entergy administrators are playing defense, deploying a variety of unflattering terms – “duplicative,” “impermissible,” “alarmist,” “meritless” and “vague,” to name a few – to urge the NRC’s commissioners to reject Vermont’s trust fund petition. Both the federal agency and the energy company take pains to say the scenario state officials are imagining – exhaustion of the Vermont Yankee trust fund before radiological cleanup is finished at the Vernon plant – simply won’t happen.

“The commission’s regulations are specifically structured so as to prevent this scenario,” the NRC’s filing says.

Vermont Business Magazine The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) today announced that the Vermont Action Coalition is receiving a second two-year grant through the Future of Nursing State Implementation Program (SIP). The $8.85 million initiative is helping states prepare the nursing profession to promote healthy communities and address our nation’s most pressing health care challenges: access, quality, and cost. Vermont is one of seven states that will receive a second two-year grant of up to $150,000; the others are Alabama, Maryland, Nevada, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia. In addition, RWJF announced that Oregon is joining the SIP program this month, bringing the number of state Action Coalitions it supports to 34.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin cut the ribbon Monday and officially reopened the newly renovated and state-of-the-art Waterbury State Office Complex that was heavily damaged in 2011 when the Winooski River overflowed its banks during Tropical Storm Irene. The new, $130 million complex was built to weather a 500-year storm. The first state employees will begin moving into the Office Complex next week. In total, about 900 state employees will move into the new workspace by the spring of 2016. Attendees at the ceremony included representatives of US Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders, Congressman Peter Welch, Mark Landry of FEMA, Vermont legislators, and Waterbury Select Board Chair Chris Nordle.

by Erin Mansfield vtdigger.org Hospital administrators in Vermont make six-figure salaries, and many earn more than a half-million dollars per year. Most get raises annually, and some receive large bonuses. In 2013, the average chief executive officer at Vermont’s 14 hospitals and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire made $514,977. The median total compensation package was $355,326. The numbers include base salaries, bonuses, retirement benefits and other compensation. The data show that hospital CEO pay is more than double what CEOs in other industries in Vermont make each year. The average CEO compensation was $162,210 in 2013, and the median was $141,050 that year, according to data from the Vermont Department of Labor.