Current News

Kenneth Wheeling, the former director of the Shelburne Museum, has established a new UVM scholarship exclusively for Vermont students from Monkton, Vermont. The gift was made in honor of Wheeling’s late parents, Kenneth John Wheeling and Loretta Marie Wheeling. The estimated value of this endowment is $1 million.

“I owe them. I owe them big time,” Wheeling says of his mother, and his father – a doctor who practiced OBGYN at Saint Francis Hospital in Port Jervis, NY. “They saw that I got educated, and my brothers and sisters. And who remembers?”

Wheeling, the zoning administrator for the town of Monkton for over 40 years, with more than 30 years as Monkton’s town moderator, feels strongly about giving back.

“I hope some deserving students from Monkton will benefit,” he says. “Maybe not just yet,” he siad, “but some day.”

Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims continue to spike and for the week of April 25, 2015, surpassed 1,000 for the first time this year. The transition from the end of the winter recreation season is resulting in a seasonal increase in unemployment claims. There were 1,087 new, regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance in Vermont, an increase of 107 from the previous week's total and 101 more than they were a year ago. Claims had been running below last year's numbers.

Altogether 7,111 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 97 from a week ago, but 909 fewer than a year ago. The Department processed 0 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), the same as the previous week.

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) is reminding small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small aquaculture businesses and most private nonprofit organizations located in Caledonia, Essex, Orange, Windham and Windsor counties in Vermont that June 1, 2015, is the deadline to apply for a working capital disaster loan as a result of extreme temperature fluctuations, excessive cold, frosts and freezes from Dec. 1, 2013, through April 30, 2014.

"These counties are eligible because they are contiguous to one or more primary counties in New Hampshire. The Small Business Administration recognizes that disasters do not usually stop at county or state lines. For that reason, counties adjacent to primary counties named in the declaration are included," said Frank Skaggs, director of SBA's Field Operations Center East in Atlanta.

On May 1st, International Workers’ Day, hundreds of people from Vermont’s labor, disability rights, climate justice, migrant justice, and human rights movements will rally and march on the Vermont State House. March begins at 11:30 am at Montpelier City Hall. Participants will march to State House for a rally on the lawn.

Participants are denouncing Vermont’s political leadership for its failure to equitably address the revenue shortfall and healthcare crisis, instead choosing to attack state workers and cut funding for public services for the most vulnerable. The organizations are calling for a grassroots-led transition towards real democracy and an economy that works for people and the planet.

Featured at the rally, dairy farmworker leaders with Migrant Justice/Justicia Migrante will publicly launch their “Milk with Dignity” campaign, calling upon large dairy corporations to commit to a set of human rights standards in their milk sourcing.

Montreal-based Gaz Métro inc (GMi), as General Partner of Gaz Métro Limited Partnership (Gaz Métro), has announced that Gaz Métro completed an equity offering by issuing by way of a private placement 8,181,818 new units from its treasury at a price of $16.50 per unit to GMi and Valener Inc. (Valener), pro rata based on their respective share of units outstanding, for aggregate gross proceeds of $135 million. The proceeds of the offering will be used for the re-establishment of its capital structure and for its general corporate purposes. Gaz Metro is the parent company of Green Mountain Power and Vermont Gas Systems.

GMi financed its subscription of new units by way of issuance of common shares to Noverco Inc for gross proceeds of approximately $96 million.

Overview of Valener

Crowe Horwath LLP, one of the largest public accounting, consulting and technology firms in the U.S., has reached an agreement with Saslow Lufkin & Buggy, LLP (SLB) to have its partners and professionals join Crowe on July 1. Based in Simsbury, CT, with an additional office in Burlington, Vermont, SLB is an accounting and consulting firm serving clients throughout the country, mainly in the insurance industry. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Established in 1999 by Richard A. Buggy, Glenn D. Saslow and Robert F. Lufkin, SLB is one of the nation's leading providers of accounting, tax and consulting services to the property and casualty insurance industry. The firm, which has 90 professionals, including eight partners, also serves a variety of New England healthcare entities and hospital systems and has a well-developed employee benefit plan practice.

President Obama signed into law on Thursday Representative Peter Welch’s (D-Vermont) energy efficiency bill. The bill was sponsored in the House by Welch and Representative David McKinley (R-WV) and in the Senate by Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) and Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH). Below is a transcript of the President’s remarks from the bill signing ceremony in the Oval Office.

The Energy Efficiency Improvement Act (H.R.1802/S.535) certifies the energy performance of commercial rental properties, removes a regulatory barrier to the use of large scale water heaters, and encourages energy efficiency improvements in federal buildings.

A recently announced $7.4 million, five-year grant from the US Department of Agriculture will place the University of Vermont at the forefront of a national effort to reduce the impact of catastrophic disease outbreaks within the US livestock industry. UVM will lead the multi-institutional effort, multi-disciplinary biosecurity initiative. The end-product will be a variety of research-based messaging strategies, educational programs, Web modules and other initiatives designed to protect food-producing livestock from new, emerging or foreign diseases and pests.

Norwich University Applied Research Institutes (NUARI) named Northfield Savings Bank President and CEO Thomas S Leavitt, of Waterbury Center, to the NUARI board of directors. Leavitt joins 10 directors on the board, bringing 22 years of banking experience, including oversight of all functions and a history of community and board involvement.

A Burlington, Vermont, native, Leavitt holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of New Hampshire’s Whittemore School of Business & Economics and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Leavitt will bring significant insight to NUARI’s focus on supporting the U.S. financial sector with unique cybersecurity tools.

On Thursday afternoon, April 30, the Director of the Vermont State Police Colonel Tom L'Esperance and the Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety Keith Flynn accepted the resignation of Corporal Jon Graham, effective immediately. After an initial review of the case by the Internal Affairs Department, it was determined that many of the social media posts were egregious, and rose to a level of extreme concern for the Vermont State Police.Not only were there alleged violations of the Department's Social Media Policy, but also there were alleged violations of Vermont State Police's Code of Conduct. Corporal Graham was notified of the evidence to support a continued department action against him.

Colonel Tom L'Esperance expressed his apologies to anyone who had been offended by any of Corporal Graham's posts made while employed as a state trooper, and reinforced his accountability message to all citizens.