Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Two large, national, deep-discount chains, with 24 combined stores in Vermont, will merge after selling some stores to maintain competition, according to a settlement between Dollar Tree and Family Dollar with the Federal Trade Commission, Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell, and 16 other States. Dollar Tree and Family Dollar operate stores throughout Vermont. Dollar Tree typically prices its merchandise at $1, while Family Dollar stores offer additional merchandise for higher prices. The settlement announced today requires Dollar Tree to sell two Family Dollar stores in Vermont and more than 300 stores across the country to a new competitor.

by Guy Page, Communications Director, Vermont Energy Partnership Just because it’s summer doesn’t mean Vermont has taken a holiday from energy deals and projects. Far from it! In June alone, the wheels were turning to bring more hydro, nuclear (you read correctly), natural gas, and solar power to – or in the case of hydro, at least through - Vermont.

NUCLEAR – in June both Green Mountain Power (GMP) and Vermont Electric Co-operative (VEC) petitioned the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) to buy nuclear power from Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire. Both deals would run from 2018 – 2034. Details are preliminary at present, but VEC’s petition calls for up to 10 MW of power. GMP, for its part, hopes the contract will help cover peak load needs. This will be the second GMP contract with Seabrook; the state’s largest utility entered into a baseload power contract in 2011.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine In a conference room at the Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation last October, a grim-faced group of Vermont’s political and business leaders were trying to put the best possible spin on the sale of IBM’s semiconductor division. Governor Shumlin told me later that IBM has kept governors awake at night since the second Snelling administration in the early 1990s. But last fall Shumlin and others did their best to say the sale of the plant to GlobalFoundries was good news for both employees and the state, even though IBM had to pay GlobalFoundries $1.5 billion to take the money-losing division off their hands.

Seldon Technologies, a leading developer of water purification systems based in Windsor, Vermont, is partnering with Mexican based water fountain manufacturer, Bebederos Ecologicos/Ottone Meloda to provide clean drinking water to millions of children throughout Mexico. Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, who is ranked among the top environmental legislators by the nation’s foremost conservation organizations, will speak at the signing ceremony.

Officials from the socially responsible Mexican company were in Vermont July 1 to sign the agreement that will allow public schools in Mexico to comply with their government’s recent legislation requiring all public schools to provide clean drinking water, free of contaminants, as part of a process to address health issues including childhood obesity. The agreement will include the installation of up to 500,000 Seldon WaterTap filtration systems inside Bebederos’ water fountains in Mexican public schools.

Jess Wisloski vtdigger.org State officials may be facing a highway construction work stoppage this fall if federal funds that pay for most of Vermont’s transportation projects continue to dry up – which they will do if Congress fails to act by the end of the month. While most members of Congress enjoyed a break this week, state leadership is scrambling to line up the temporary funding sources that will be needed in the event that Washington doesn’t reauthorize the surface transportation bill and the funding for the Highway Trust Fund dries up.

The Vermont Veterinary Medical Association (VVMA) has awarded $58,000 in grants to three Vermont food animal veterinarians: Dr Alison Cornwall of Middlesex, Dr Megan Foy of Danville, and Dr Jennifer Hull of Enosburg Falls. These grants were made possible through funding by the Vermont Legislature to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. The program is administered by the Vermont Agency of Agriculture and the Vermont Veterinary Medical Association.

This is the third round of awards for the Loan Repayment Program which began in fiscal year 2012. The veterinarians commit to a year of service in food animal practice in underserved areas of the state in return for the award which is used to pay off their student loans.

Vermont Business Magazine Rising Tide Vermont, which has opposed the Addison County natural gas pipeline, said Friday that it will hold a rally and symbolic blockade of oil trains carrying fracked oil down the shores of Lake Champlain. Rising Tide said the blockade will last 47 minutes, honoring the 47 people who lost their lives when a train carrying fracked oil derailed and exploded in the town of Lac Megantic, Quebec, in 2013. It said there may also be other civil disobedience actions nearby.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont says it will not seek further payment from health care providers or its customers for money owed on Vermont Health Connect accounts that weren’t terminated in a timely fashion. The state’s largest health insurer, and the dominant player in Vermont’s exchange, said it will hold the state responsible for any money it is owed once the insurer and the exchange reconcile their books — a process that is ongoing.

Blue Cross last month had sought payment from physicians for $514,000 in claims submitted for patients whose accounts were retroactively terminated. State officials said those claims were made on 600 of 6,000 policies from the past two years that were canceled retroactively.

by Bernard Markstein Associated Builders and Contractors Vermont's construction-related unemployment rate fell two points in May to 4.8 percent, the 17th best in the US and well below the national average of 6.7 percent. The Vermont rate, however, was up 1.2 points from the same time last year. Vermont was one of the few states to see an increase year-to-year. For the US, the non-seasonally adjusted construction unemployment rate for the country and 40 states declined in May, while the rate for one state (South Carolina) remained unchanged from April. The report, issued July 1, provides further evidence that construction and the broader US economy appear to have rebounded from the unusually brutal winter. On an annual basis, construction unemployment rates for 44 of the 50 states fell in May 2015 compared to May 2014. The construction unemployment rate for two states—North Dakota and Utah—were unchanged.

Retail Confectioners International, a trade association serving the chocolate and confectionery industry, recently awarded the 2015 Henry J Bornhofft Memorial Award at their 95th Annual Convention. Brothers, Bill and Jeff Birnn of Birnn Chocolates of Vermont in South Burlington were the honored recipients.

Jeff Birnn (third from left) and Bill Birnn (third from right) take home RCI's 2015 Bornhofft Award.

Vermont Business Magazine Campaign for Vermont announced Friday the release of a citizen petition and website focused on Vermont ethics reforms. “The time has come. Public support for these reforms is growing and this petition will quantify that support in a way that the Legislature will hear loud and clear” says Cyrus Patten, the Campaign’s Executive Director.

The group pointed to Vermont’s poor ranking on ethics issues, building on their 2013 proposal for comprehensive ethics reforms. For example, Vermont received a failing grade from the Center for Pubic Integrity for legislative accountability. Vermont also received a failing grade for ethics enforcement capabilities.

Vermont Business Magazine Iberdrola Renewables, of Portland, OR, on Thursday filed a potential 25-year contract to supply Vermont’s largest utility, Green Mountain Power (GMP), with wind energy from the permitted Deerfield Wind Farm. GMP would purchase 30 megawatts (MW) from the wind farm, under the contract submitted to the Vermont Public Service Board for review. The Deerfield project would be built near the existing Searsburg wind project, in Readsboro and Searsburg. The project would include 15 wind turbines, eight in Searsburg and seven in Readsboro, which would produce enough energy to power about 14,000 average Vermont households. The towns combined would receive more than $400,000 in direct annual payments, totaling approximately $7.8 million during the life of the proposed power agreement.