Current News

by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org A new advocacy group for “socially responsible” small businesses in Vermont was announced Monday morning. Vermont’s Main Street Alliance, headed by Lindsay DesLauriers, will be part of a national network of state and local small business coalitions. The group will endorse initiatives for statewide single-payer health care and mandatory paid sick leave for Vermont employees. The group’s strategy is to recruit small business owners into advocacy coalitions organized around each topic.

“The Main Street Alliance will create an avenue for small business owners to speak for themselves through this coalition model,” DesLauriers said.

DesLauriers worked for Voices for Vermont’s Children in 2014 and led an unsuccessful legislative push for paid sick leave. She said the experience convinced her that a small business niche was not being met by other business organizations or issues groups.

A school-based health center at Barre City Elementary & Middle School is an extension of the Central Vermont Medical Center’s pediatric primary care practices. It will operate at the school on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30am to 12:30pm providing primary health care to students. Participation is voluntary and the goal is to keep kids healthy and in school, and as much as possible to maximize their learning potential.

“Kids spend a considerable part of their day in school so providing health care there makes good sense,” said Kathleen Bryant, FNP.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org Vermont signed a revised contract with the tech firm Optum that expands its role in Vermont Health Connect’s operations. Optum already had a contract worth $5.6 million for consulting work, and the latest deal, signed Aug. 15, is worth an additional $9.5 million for a total of $15.1 million. Lawrence Miller, chief of health care reform, said Optum’s contract is “open-to-buy” meaning its scope can broaden as needed.

“We’re pleased with the progress that’s been made, so we’re taking additional steps forward,” Miller added.

In the near-term the company will help the state prepare for open enrollment and make the transition away from CGI, but the two parties could eventually arrive at a “fixed cost” contract for Optum to complete the project, he said.

Brattleboro Retreat President and Chief Executive Officer Dr Robert E Simpson, Jr, has been named by Behavioral Healthcare magazine as a 2014 Behavioral Healthcare Champion along with four other leaders in the field of mental health from across the nation. The 2014 Champions were selected from outstanding nominees across the country who, according to the magazine, are making a difference in the development, delivery, and effectiveness of mental healthcare services.

“True leaders create lasting impact, and our 2014 Behavioral Healthcare Champions all have an eye on the future,” said Editor-in-Chief Julie Miller of Behavioral Healthcare magazine. “Their drive to find new and more effective ways to serve their clients is reflected not just in their own organizations’ success but also in the progress they’ve witnessed in their communities.”

Northfield Savings Bank Board Chair Nancy Pope announced today that Thomas S Leavitt will be the company's 14th President & Chief Executive Officer. Leavitt will succeed Thomas N Pelletier in the final quarter of 2014. Leavitt previously was a long-time executive at Merchants Bank. Pelletier is leaving the $750 million institution after more than 16 years at the helm. Leavitt has served two years as President & CEO of MountainOne Financial in North Adams, MA. He has led the advancement of MountainOne Bank along with its insurance and investment divisions. Prior to MountainOne, Leavitt was on the senior management team of Merchants Bank for 16 years. He has extensive non-banking experience, having performed in national leadership roles in the industrial distribution field. Leavitt earned a BS from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org This primary season there are two major write-in campaigns under way, and while town clerks will make results available within a week of the election, as required under state deadlines, it’s likely that the vote tallies won’t be ready in time for press reports on Tuesday night. Jim Condos, the Vermont Secretary of State, says while his office and town clerks will know the total number of write-in votes on Tuesday, the names that are written in have to be hand counted.

His office won’t start receiving results from towns until Wednesday afternoon. Some town clerks will send faxes and hard copies of the results on Thursday or Friday, Condos said, and it will be a week after the election — September 2 — before they have final results for write-in candidates.

“We will be working over the Labor Day weekend to work on finalizing everything,” Condos said.

The Vermont Retail and Grocers Association (VRGA) has announced the co-winners of the 2014 VRGA Person of the Year Award: Marcel Marquis, with Shaw’s Supermarkets, and Bonnie Hawley, owner of Hawley’s Florist in Rutland. According to Jim Harrison, President of VRGA, “Both Bonnie and Marcel have been active members and participants in the predecessor organizations (Vermont Grocers Association and Vermont Retail Association) and continue to be so with VRGA. Each has a long resume of service to their communities and to their associations.”

As the political season warms up as the nights cool down here in Vermont, the political parties are offering their takes on the state of the economy. Republicans and Democrats both released statements recently following the release of the July unemployment rate, which went up three-tenths to 3.7 percent, tied for fourth lowest in the nation. You may see a link to the original story below with related articles and the political responses below.

REPUBLICANS: Vermont’s Working Families Continue to Suffer While Shumlin Administration “Hopes” Conditions Will Improve

The Brattleboro Retreat’s 5^th Annual Ride for Heroes, held on Saturday August 16^th, exceeded all previous attendance and fundraising records by attracting 287 participants and raising more than $20,000 for the hospital’s Uniformed Service Program.

The ride, with an escort from the Windham County Sheriff’s department, began on the Retreat’s campus and continued on a 70-mile tour through Wilmington, Whitingham, and Searsburg, before returning to the Retreat for a barbeque lunch.

The day began with Retreat employee, Donny Richard, welcoming the riders and speaking about the needs of uniformed professionals everywhere who have experienced trauma in their public service.

Keurig Green Mountain, Inc (NASDAQ: GMCR), based in Waterbury, Vermont, continues to change the way consumers in the United States and Canada brew coffee at home with the release of the new Keurig 2.0 hot beverage brewing system. This weekend, Keurig 2.0 made its debut on Keurig.com and national retailers' websites, as well as at the flagship Keurig Store in Burlington, MA., where consumers can be among the first to experience the new system in person. Roll-out at retail partners nationwide will follow in the coming weeks.

Sugarbush Resort has invested over $4.5 million on improvements this summer in preparation for the upcoming winter. The resort has invested $1.8 million in snowmaking equipment, completing a five-year, $5 million capital project that delivered upgrades in snowmaking at both Lincoln Peak and Mt Ellen including the purchase of over 500 low-energy snowguns. This latest investment includes the purchase and installation of 351 new Snow Logic, HKD, and Ratnik snowguns, as well as significant improvements to infrastructure, with the replacement of a variety of pipes, pumps, valves, and compressors. The new snowguns are expected to help reduce statewide energy consumption by saving an estimated 1,998,256 kWh of electricity and 2,324,392 pounds of carbon emissions per year.

by Rob Roper Over 85 percent of Vermonters agree that employees should have the right to decide, without force or penalty, whether to join or leave a labor union. That number is slightly higher than the national average of 83 percent, according to new polling released in conjunction with National Employee Freedom Week. (500 Vermonters were polled as part of the study).

This reflects first and foremost a sense of fairness. We live in a free country, and the freedom to join, not to join, or leave any association or organization without paying a fine or a fee or losing one’s job should be considered a basic, inviolable right. Unfortunately, Right to Work laws, which guarantee workers the right to not join unions as a condition of employment and which prohibit the coercive collection of dues from workers who choose not to join, exist only in twenty-four states. Vermont isn’t one of them.