Current News

The Vermont State Colleges Board of Trustees at its Thursday, July 31, 2014 meeting voted to approve a process for selecting an Interim Chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges. The Interim Chancellor would serve for up to and possibly beyond one year while the Board searches for a permanent replacement for retiring Chancellor Timothy J. Donovan. Each of the fourteen Trustees and each of the five member college Presidents will be permitted to submit to Board Chair Martha O’Connor by September 1, 2014 up to three nominations for an Interim Chancellor. Nominations will be confidential. The Executive Committee of the Board will review the nominations and send to the full Board its recommended list of nominees for Board consideration at its meeting in late September. The Board will select the most promising candidates and then hold interviews and conduct other inquiries before selecting the Interim Chancellor.

Champlain College continues to be one of the country's best institutions for undergraduate education, according to 2015 edition of Princeton Review's annual college guide, "The Best 379 Colleges." Champlain College President Donald J. Laackman said, "Champlain College endeavors to be a leader in educating today's students to become skilled practitioners, effective professionals and engaged global citizens. Preparing students for the working world is at the heart of what we do and this recognition only reinforces our commitment to that goal," Laackman said.

Image courtesy of Champlain College

Three Vermont Tech students received third place in the 2014 ASHRAE Student Design Competition. The team includes recent graduates Constantin Condrat and Tyler Gendron, as well as current senior Stephen Wichmann, who are all part of the bachelor degree program in Architectural Engineering Technology at Vermont Tech. The students submitted their senior project in the American Society for Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) HVAC Design Calculations category competition in May 2014. This is the second year in a row that students from Vermont Tech have placed in the top three in the international competition.

“We’re very proud of Constantin, Tyler and Stephen,” said Scott Sabol, professor of Architectural & Building Engineering Technology at Vermont Tech. “They worked extremely hard to earn this award and it’s exciting to see our students competing and receiving recognition on such a large, international scale.”

Bluebird Barbecue has been named a winner of OpenTable Diners’ Choice Awards for Top BBQ Restaurants in America. The list of winners is derived from more than five million reviews submitted by OpenTable diners for more than 19,000 restaurants in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

“We are honored to be named as a top BBQ restaurant by OpenTable diners,” said Sue Bette, President of Bluebird Vermont. “At Bluebird Barbecue our goal is to create a fun and memorable dining experience where our guests can dig-in and enjoy our traditional and handcrafted barbecue. Our team sends much gratitude to our loyal and enthusiastic guests.

"These winning restaurants have perfected the art of grilling and smoking using techniques both classic and unique," said Caroline Potter, OpenTable Chief Dining Officer. "It is our great pleasure to congratulate the inaugural award winners on their pursuit of excellence in and around barbecue pits across the nation."

Woodchuck Hard Cider officially opened its new cidery Wednesday morning, August 6th. Before the official ribbon cutting Dan Rowell, Vermont Hard Cider President and CEO introduced US Senator Patrick Leahy and Commissioner, Vermont Department of Economic Development, Lisa Gosselin. Rowell thanked all the people involved in the project including Design Group Facility Solutions, the project managers and the 45 Vermont subcontractors that they used to build the facilities.

“Through the years Woodchuck has had a couple different houses, but Vermont has always been our home,” said Woodchuck CEO, Dan Rowell. “We consider this cidery a $34 million investment in ensuring Vermont remains at the forefront of cider movement in the United States, because we ‘give a ‘chuck’ about craft cider, our people, our partners, and our community.”

FairPoint Communications, Inc (Nasdaq: FRP), a leading communications provider, today announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2014. Shares rose slightly Wednesday to $14.55. "Once again, we delivered Adjusted EBITDA and Unlevered Free Cash Flow in line with our expectations despite continued pressures on legacy revenue," said Paul H Sunu, Chief Executive Officer. "We see positive signs in the business including continued growth in Ethernet revenue and broadband subscribers and we expect rate increases implemented in the second quarter and the return of seasonal customers to help support second half revenue. In addition, we believe a continued focus on expenses should help drive Adjusted EBITDA and a strong back half of the year."

Home prices in Vermont rose 4.4 percent, including distressed sales, in June 2014 compared to June 2013. Nationally, prices increased 7.5 percent. This change represents 28 months of consecutive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally.

by Representative Patti Komline (R-Dorset) and Representative Heidi Scheuermann (R-Stowe) Since its debut 2013, Vermont’s health insurance Exchange, Vermont Health Connect, has been a management disaster. From the rollout of the website to the growing difficulties today – over $71 million later – Vermonters are frustrated and angry. Recent news highlighted the negative impacts ongoing mismanagement and problems with functionality are having on the care thousands of Vermonters receive. Replacing the primary contractor, CGI, is a start. Replacing them with Optum without competitive bids and without agreed upon cost for services, however, is ill-advised when one considers Vermont’s experience with Optum in the last month.

In June, the Shumlin administration signed a 6-month, $5.69 million contract with Optum for additional help. Since then, a problem that started with 10,000 Vermonters with coverage problems grew to over 14,000.

Secretary of State Jim Condos announced Tuesday the launch of the Vermont Campaign Finance Information System (CFIS). The new system provides candidates, PACs, and political parties the ability to maintain their financial activities and file their campaign finance reports online. At the same time, it allows all Vermonters to have real time access to the information as reports are filed.

Secretary Condos expressed his excitement at what he calls “a big step forward for financial transparency of political campaigns in Vermont.”

Use of the system is voluntary for candidates, PACs, and parties for the remainder of the 2014 election cycle and will become mandatory on January 1, 2015. Until the next cycle when use of the system is mandatory, the only searchable data will be from entities that have chosen to use the system during the 2014 cycle.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org The Brattleboro Retreat is in hot water with the federal government again. The state’s psychiatric hospital has lost its “deemed status” with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. The retreat must make safety upgrades and improve treatment protocols in order to restore its standing with the federal agency. Federal funding for the retreat will end on October 6 unless the hospital can show it has met federal standards. CMS sent the funding termination letter to the hospital on July 8. The retreat has since filed a plan of correction with the state to address the deficiencies. That information was shared with state officials and lawmakers.

Retreat officials neglected to mention the funding termination letter to lawmakers at the Mental Health Oversight Committee on July 22.

Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, says the omission is significant.

National Life Group executives have signed an agreement to boost its recruitment of military veterans, and to make their work experience at the Montpelier-based company even more fulfilling. “We’re proud that we already have an active group of military veterans among our employees and we look forward to welcoming even more as our company continues to grow,” said Mehran Assadi, president and CEO of National Life Group. “Veterans are a natural fit with our company, which is committed to the corporate values to Do good. Be good. Make good.”

Under the terms of a charter signed by Assadi, other National Life Group executives and state and federal labor officials, the company committed “to create an organization of employee Veterans who will help to carry out and oversee the implementation of a robust and comprehensive program to widen recruitment, improve new hire integration and strengthen the military community at National Life Group.”

Crystal Hathaway-Therrien, age 31, of Bradford, Vermont, was convicted on August 5, 2014, in the Windsor Criminal Division of the Vermont Superior Court, of five misdemeanor counts of False Pretenses. The convictions stemmed from Ms. Hathaway-Therrien’s submission of false timesheets in order to obtain payment for services that were not provided to a child enrolled in the Children’s Personal Care program, a Vermont Medicaid program. Hathaway-Therrien signed and submitted the timesheets in her capacity as the employer-of-record and received the proceeds.