Current News

The St Albans Rotary Club has announced that it has raised a record $59,000 with over 4,500 visitors to the Club’s Annual Home and Recreation EXPO, held this past Spring. “It was a tremendously successful weekend for our local vendors and our community” said Carrie Johnson, co-chair of the expo organizing committee. This is the St. Albans Area Rotary Club’s only large fundraiser. In addition to selling booth space at the expo, the club offers a silent auction, grab bags and a raffle all sponsored by local businesses.

Proceeds from the expo will be used to fund Rotary’s numerous charitable and community
activities. Rotary provides financial support to area organizations including Martha’s Kitchen, Little
League and operation of the Ski Bus, providing access to Smugglers Notch for local children and
teens. The Club has also recently taken on the challenge of restoring the fountain in Taylor Park.

In March, a series of milestones were outlined for improved customer service for Vermonters using Vermont Health Connect. The first of these milestones occurs on June 1 when systems updates are scheduled to go live, allowing customer service staff to process consumer requests more quickly. The deployment of this upgrade will require the Vermont Health Connect health insurance application and user accounts to be unavailable starting this evening and running through the weekend.

The following information is intended to help Vermonters understand what to expect during that time period.

The Transition

by Morgan True vtdigger.org Governor Peter Shumlin remains “cautiously optimistic” the state and its contractors will complete the needed functionality for Vermont Health Connect, the state’s troubled health care exchange, by the May 31 (Sunday) deadline. Shumlin said he receives daily, sometimes multiple, updates on VHC and the progress of its primary contractor, Optum, in automating the process for changing personal or plan information online.

“As you know, with any major technology project you can hit a glitch at any time, but we’re cautiously optimistic” that the state will meet a self-imposed May 31 deadline for completing the function, the governor said at a Wednesday news conference in Waterbury Center.

Public Assets Institute Vermont’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.6 percent in April, its lowest level in nearly nine years. But while joblessness hit a low last seen in June 2006, the number of Vermonters working still lags. The spring and summer of 2006 marked Vermont’s all-time employment peak, when more than 344,000 people were working. Last month, the number of employed stood at 335,673.

Lingering recession

The City of Burlington will implement the public outreach phase of a plan to improve water quality through a new, integrated planning approach for wastewater and stormwater management in Burlington. The City’s Water Resource Division will be seeking public input on its upcoming water quality efforts by attending Neighborhood Planning Assemblies (NPAs) and meeting with nonprofit organizations and other public agencies to learn how Burlingtonians would like to see their stormwater and wastewater utility fees spent in the fight for improved water quality.

“We need to be very strategic in how we proceed from here,” said Laurie Adams, Department of Public Works (DPW) Assistant Director for Water Quality. “We must ensure that each project we pursue – wastewater, stormwater, stream improvement, or other – will give us the best results, the biggest bang for the buck.”

AirShark, LLC has been granted the first exemption in Vermont that permits commercial operations of small unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly called "drones". Under the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, this Section 333 exemption permits AirShark to offer commercial aerial inspection services to clients in multiple industries.

“Our nation’s infrastructure is incredibly complex, aging, and often difficult or dangerous to assess. Small drones offer a faster and safer way to inspect bridges, power lines, and other hard to reach locations." said AirShark's co-founder Ian Ray. "High resolution visible and thermal sensors help spot issues quickly, while also providing a detailed historical record."

Governor Peter Shumlin today signed the FY 2016 Transportation Bill, which builds on recent years of progress in improving the overall condition of Vermont’s transportation infrastructure. Joined by legislative leaders and Transportation Secretary, Sue Minter, the Governor signed the bill to authorize $616 million in infrastructure improvements in support of the Agency of Transportation’s (VTrans) vision of a safe, efficient, multimodal transportation system that promotes Vermont’s economy and quality of life.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont) Thursday announced that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has selected six Vermont communities to receive a total of $2 million for grants under the Brownfield Grant Program that will help them assess and clean up contaminated properties to facilitate their redevelopment and reuse.

In a joint statement, Leahy, Sanders and Welch said: “These investments protect public health and the environment in communities. But even beyond those benefits, they also help turn these community liabilities into job-creating and revenue-generating community assets. The Brownfields Program is a template for partnerships that empower communities and private organizations to work together in forging solutions and getting results.”

A ceremony to celebrate the start of construction of Southwestern Vermont Medical Center’s (SVMC) new Pownal Campus was held Wednesday, May 20, at the building site on Route 7, just north of the Massachusetts border. The new 5,000-square-foot primary care office building is expected to open in the fall of 2015 with two providers and the capacity to see hundreds of new patients.

“The preventive and early care patients receive from primary care providers make centers like this one the best starting points for high quality medical care. We are excited to expand this important service in Pownal,” said Thomas A. Dee, FACHE, president and CEO of Southwestern Vermont Health Care.

Solar projects in communities throughout Vermont will be open for public tours the third Saturday in June. “Celebrate Solar Tours” will take place across the state on Saturday, June 20, the weekend of the Summer Solstice. Like open sugarhouse weekend in the spring and open art studio weekend in the fall, the summertime tours will give Vermonters the opportunity to get an up-close view of solar systems to learn about the technology, solar economics, and the benefits of solar to our community.

Solar customers, host farmers, and owners alike will be on-hand to speak with the public – with many of the sites offering fun events, also.

Following doctor’s orders is about to get more fun thanks to a new initiative announced Wednesday by Governor Peter Shumlin. Under the new “Park Prescription” program, physicians around the state will prescribe to their patients time outdoors in Vermont State Parks as a way to promote healthy lifestyles and prevent chronic health issues.

Sixteen doctors’ offices around Vermont will issue Park Prescriptions, which will entitle patients to free entry at any Vermont State Park. The program is a partnership between the Vermont State Parks, the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, the Department of Health, and physicians across Vermont.

“We all know that the one of the best ways to stay healthy is to stay active,” Shumlin said. “Luckily we live in Vermont and are surrounded by natural resources that make staying active easy and fun. So listen to your doctor and get outside this summer!”

After a slow start to the year, Vermont's housing market has strengthened and in April out-performed every other state in New England. Vermont was the only state with an increase in both sales and median price. For New England overall, year-over-year sales decreased by -2.5% according to the RE/MAX INTEGRA, New England April Monthly Housing Report. Pending sales were up 11.4% over April 2014 and up 19.5% over March 2015.