Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Community Bank is proud to serve as the presenting sponsor of the 2022 Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival for the fourth consecutive year. Established in 2006, this team-based charity event raises money to support local cancer survivors. Since its conception 16 years ago, the Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival has raised and donated over $1 million to benefit cancer survivors in the community. All funds raised during this year’s event will go to support Dragonheart Vermont, a nonprofit breast cancer wellness organization, and its Pledge Partner, Cancer Patient Support Foundation (CPSF). Donations will be allocated for the Emergency Fund, CPSF’s largest program that provides financial support for local cancer patients and their families while they are undergoing treatment.

Public Assets Institute Since the pandemic began, there’s been a lot of talk about people moving to Vermont. New Census Bureau data verify the rumor: Vermont’s population netted a gain of nearly 4,900 via migration between the summers of 2020 and 2021. Newcomers were spread across the Vermont counties, ranging from less than a half a percent of the population in Chittenden County to 2.1 percent in Grand Isle. Although Census estimates for smaller counties tend to be less accurate, a clear pattern of net in-migration emerges statewide.

​Vermont Business Magazine Southwestern Vermont Health Care’s (SVHC) Foundation Board President Bob Van Degna announced Thursday that $24 million has been quietly raised over the last four years toward the goal of $25 million for the Vision 2020, a Decade of Transformation Capital Campaign. The multi-phased project will renovate and expand the Emergency Department and front entrance to the hospital, and construct a new Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center on the health system’s main campus.

Vermont Business Magazine The Agency of Natural Resources Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced today that The Forest Farmers, LLC, was fined $6,750 for clearing trees and placing fill within a wetland and its 50-foot buffer on an over 2,300-acre property it owns in Marshfield, Vermont. The company agreed to resolve the enforcement matter by paying a penalty of $6,750 and restoring the property as required by the permit.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Vermont Department of Labor announced that the seasonally-adjusted statewide unemployment rate for June was 2.2 percent. This reflects a decrease of one-tenth of one percentage point from the prior month’s revised estimate. The civilian labor force participation rate rose to 61.6 percent in June. ​All three major metrics showed improvement, as the total labor force and employed increased and the number of unemployed fell. The state jobless rate is now back to its very low, pre-pandemic level and is fifth lowest in the nation. Minnesota is lowest at 1.8 percent and New Mexico is highest at 4.9 percent. New Hampshire is third lowest at 2.0 percent. The comparable United States rate in June was 3.6 percent, which experienced no change from the revised May estimate.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Creamery, B Corp-Certified makers of consciously crafted artisanal cheese and butter has once again earned national and international acclaim, winning nine International Cheese & Dairy Awards (ICDA) and eight awards at the 39th Annual American Cheese Society (ACS) Awards. In addition to Vermont Creamery, Vermont cheese and butter makers won a total of 40 awards, as well as multiple firsts, at the ACS Awards, including Best of Show for Jasper Hill Farms.

Vermont Outdoor Guide Association Vermont Trails and Greenways Council Annual Meeting Follow-Up Survey deadline is today, July 22. Coming out of the Annual Meeting, it was decided that a broader poll of past, present, and potential future VTGC members was needed in order to both prioritize the Councils roles in supporting trail organizations in Vermont and to help determine the advocacy outcomes we collectively would most like to see.

​Vermont Business Magazine On Sunday, July 24^th, more than 60 Vermont and New York children who have or have had cancer, will gather at Camp Ta-Kum-Ta in South Hero, Vermont for Camp’s signature Summer Program. Joined by more than 125 volunteers from all over the country, This will be the first time that Camp Ta-Kum-Ta has had a full residential program since February of 2020 and organizers say that everyone is excited.

by Kevin Chu, Executive Director of the Vermont Futures Project In true Vermont fashion we have come together, regardless of political party, on the top threats facing our state. From the State House to the kitchen table, Vermonters agree that something must be done to fix the workforce and housing crises. The data circulated in recent months has rapidly become common knowledge; 26,000 open jobs, 2.2% unemployment, meaning that even if every unemployed person in Vermont finds a job in the state, there would still be over 18,000 open jobs. Furthermore, workers need more housing options so as we attract more people to the workforce, we don’t exacerbate the issues in our tight housing market. This seems like a people paradox with no good answer.

Vermont Business Magazine The Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation announced Thursday that a total of $20,000 is being granted to two local nonprofits to bring health and hunger relief to kids in Vermont. This month, the Foundation celebrates its July of Joy summer grant cycle, which includes $894,000 in grants to 86 health and hunger relief-based nonprofits nationwide.

​Vermont State Police Autopsies were completed Thursday, July 21, 2022, at the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Burlington on Mary Anderson and Matthew Davis. Anderson, 23, of Harvard, Massachusetts, died of a gunshot wound to the head, and the manner of her death is a homicide. The Vermont State Police is working with other law-enforcement agencies in Massachusetts and New Hampshire to investigate the circumstances surrounding her death, including when and where she was killed and whether she was abducted.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation (FPR) is set to launch an initiative to develop a Forest Future Strategic Roadmap to identify actionable strategies to strengthen, modernize, promote, and protect Vermont’s forest products sector and the broader forest economy. The initiative was authorized by the Vermont Legislature and signed into law by Governor Scott in Act 183 of 2022. Vermont’s private and public forestlands provide a wide range of unique and irreplaceable resources and benefits, including protection of wildlife habitat, conservation of air, soil and water, mitigation of the effects of climate change, as well as providing necessary forest products and the natural infrastructure of Vermont’s economy. They also support a forest products sector which provides nearly 14,000 jobs and generates $2.1 billion in annual sales.