Current News

Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC) announced today that Andrea Cohen, Executive Director of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR), will be joining VEC’s senior leadership team at the end of the legislative session. Cohen will serve as Manager of Government Affairs and Member Relations. Cohen is stepping down as the executive director of VBSR at the end of May, where she has been for five years.

Governor Peter Shumlin has appointed Shawn Straffin, a resident of West Burke, to fill the seat vacated by Bryon Quatrini, who recently retired from the Vermont Economic Progress Council (VEPC). The Council is an 11 member board that authorizes job creation incentives and oversees the Tax Increment Financing District program and the Windham County Economic Development Program. Shumlin also re-appointed Stephan Morse of Newfane, Emma Marvin of Hyde Park, and John Davis of Williston, to new terms ending March 2019. Morse was also re-designated as Chair.

Straffin, an entrepreneur and head of production development, design, marketing and technologies for Lyndon Furniture monitors industry trends daily. Armed with this information Straffin is able to design furniture that meets the diverse needs of people and businesses across the United States and the world.

Vermont is the undisputed snowfall champ this season. Jay Peak Resort leads the way with 357 total inches as of April 13, 2015, far outpacing western resorts in accumulated snow, and at 100 percent open, the resort doesn’t plan to close until May. Other resorts in Vermont have similar stories of record snowfall. Killington Resort, supplementing their nearly 200 inches of natural snow with efficient snowmaking, has snowpack of up to 30 feet - enough to plan to keep the mountain open for skiing and riding until June.

As one final tribute to its 60th anniversary season, Mount Snow Resort is offering an advance purchase lift ticket deal to come celebrate the final day of winter operations on April 19. Paying homage to the year the resort first opened, skiers and riders can hop online and pay just $19.54 for a lift ticket to enjoy some turns before lifts stop spinning for the season.

Frequent natural snowfall throughout the winter added up to a season total of 193”, which is the most amount of snow recorded at the mountain since the 2000/2001 season. February was the star of the winter with a record-breaking 76” of snow making its way to the ground in just a 21-day span (Feb. 2 – 22).

by Governor Peter Shumlin A young woman suffering from an opiate overdose was recently brought to the Howard Center, an addiction recovery center in Chittenden County. The young woman had blue lips, was unresponsive, and was not breathing. Luckily, an opiate overdose reversal drug called naloxone was on hand. After receiving three doses of the drug, the young woman started breathing again and the overdose was reversed. She is now in treatment and recovery. The presence of naloxone meant the difference between life and death for this young woman, and it put her on a path toward recovery. As this incident shows, naloxone is an incredible tool in our battle against opiate addiction in Vermont.

The National Gardening Association (NGA), located in Williston, Vermont, has entered the Seeds of Change Grant Program for an opportunity to win one of two $20,000, five $10,000 grants, or ten $1,000 grants and is asking the community to get out and vote for their application. The national grant program aims to enhance the environmental, economic and social well-being of gardens, farms and communities. The grants will be awarded to organizations that help support sustainable, community-based gardening and farming programs that focus on teaching people about the food they eat and how it’s grown.

Award-winning filmmaker, author, and mountaineer Jennifer Jordan ’76 will deliver the commencement address at Sterling College’s 16^th baccalaureate commencement ceremony, to be held at the College’s Houston House Gardens at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 9, 2015. The College will confer degrees on 20 students.

“We are honored to have Jennifer Jordan serve as Sterling’s commencement speaker. She is an alumna who has credited Sterling with connecting her to the Vermont environment. She is a model of positive environmental stewardship for our students,” said President Matthew Derr.

BioTek Instruments, based in Winooski, will demonstrate their latest microplate-based imaging, detection and liquid handling solutions for cancer research at the AACR Annual Meeting to be held April 18-22 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Featured at BioTek’s booth #1463 will be the award-winning, second generation Cytation™ 5 Cell Imaging Multi-Mode Microplate Reader. Cytation 5 is a configurable system that combines automated digital widefield microscopy with conventional multi-mode microplate reading to provide phenotypic cellular information and well-based quantitative data. This single instrument platform can process workflows that would traditionally require multiple instruments and software interfaces, and is simple to setup and operate.

by Timothy McQuiston If you build it, they will come. That was message from Jay Peak’s Bill Stenger and his team of scientists and marketing specialists regarding the proposed AnC Bio plant in Newport. And for the first time, Stenger put a date on when it would be built. At a press conference Monday in Jay, Stenger said they would break ground on the $100 million project May 14 and be open for business in the fall of 2016.

“The ground is ready and we will commence construction on May 14. We’re very, very excited about this,” Stenger said.

Britton Lumber Company announced today it plans to rebuild its sawmill. Since the devastating fire on March 28 that totaled its sawmill, the company has met with Town of Fairlee and State of Vermont representatives and have been assured that they will work closely with the company to help rebuild and to potentially save up to 40 jobs at Britton, as well as to support the many loggers, truckers and local businesses with whom we do business.

Britton Lumber President Robert Moses said, “We are still in the early stages of our economic analysis and conversations with regulatory authorities and with our insurance carrier are ongoing, however we thought it was important today to tell our employees and the community that it was our intent to rebuild the sawmill.”

Early Friday, the McNeil Generating Station completed its longest continual operating stretch – 93 days – in the plant’s 30-year history. Operators took the plant offline on Friday morning in preparation for its annual spring maintenance outage.

“Our hats are off to the dedicated team at McNeil Station,” said Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger. “McNeil is a key part of BED’s achievement of sourcing 100% of its electricity from renewable generation.”

Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims edged up again for the week of April 4, 2015. There were 601 new, regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance in Vermont, an increase of 33 from the previous week's total, but 230 fewer than they were a year ago.

Graph shows private employment (nonfarm, nongovernment)