Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC) is encouraging members to conserve electricity Thursday and Friday evenings as demand for electricity across New England is expected to spike because of high temperatures. Specifically, VEC asks members to conserve electricity both evenings from 4-9 pm. That’s when demand is expected to be highest.

When VEC can reduce the cost to buy and transmit electricity during these periods, it helps control electricity rates for all co-op members over the long term. Since the electric grid is regional, the co-op can save money by reducing demand when there are high temperatures throughout the region.

Members can help “beat the peak” by:

· Delaying the use of major appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines, and clothes dryers as well as the charging of electric vehicles until the peak period has passed.

Vermont Business Magazine FreshTracks Capital has launched a new venture fund designed to help grow business in Vermont. The FreshTracks Growth Fund – the fifth fund in FreshTracks Capital’s family of Vermont-based investment funds – will target investment in approximately 10 growing companies over the next few years.

While the first four of FreshTracks Capital’s funds were focused on local start-ups, this new fund is geared towards larger investments in growth-stage businesses that already have some traction in the marketplace, and can benefit from additional capital investment to accelerate further growth and scale. The FreshTracks Growth Fund has already invested in five area companies, DealerPolicy, Zero Gravity, Mamava, Caledonia Spirits, and Faraday. FreshTracks is looking for additional growth-stage companies in the area that could benefit from new investment to help them grow further.

Vermont Business Magazine This afternoon Protect Our Care’s “Care Force One'' arrived in Burlington to demonstrate the need for lowering Vermonter’s health costs, expanding coverage, and reducing healthcare disparities. Headlined by Rep. Peter Welch and Lieutenant Governor Molly Gray, the event highlighted how Democrats are leading the charge to advance American health care and held Republicans accountable for continuing to reject measures to improve care and lower costs for all Vermonters.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced a series of walk-in vaccination clinics that will be open at schools and other sites across Vermont this week. You can either walk-in, or visit healthvermont.gov/MyVaccine to make an appointment, either online or by phone.

“Vermont continues to have the highest vaccination rate in the nation and among the highest in the world,” said Governor Scott. “This is helping to dampen the impacts of the Delta variant, as we see its effect across the country. If you have not been vaccinated yet, now is the time to protect yourself.”

Below is a list of the vaccination sites available this week.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is hailing Senate passage Tuesday of a bipartisan bill to help build back the United States’ crumbling infrastructure. The infrastructure package includes $550 billion in new federal investments over five years and $650 billion in authorizations.

Leahy, who chairs the Appropriations Committee, said: “Once again, the Senate has shown that infrastructure is – as it always has been – a bipartisan issue. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act offers a once-in-a-generation vision for America’s infrastructure that is long overdue. This bipartisan infrastructure package makes the largest federal investment in public transit, passenger rail and bridges in more than 50 years.”

Vermont Business Magazine In response to its growing medical injection molding business, advanced manufacturing company Nolato AB is finalizing two expansions in North America. Nolato GW and Nolato Contour, both leaders in plastic and silicone injection molding, have expanded to create space for multiple new programs Nolato is launching to support its steadily increasing medical business.

Nolato GW, formerly GW Plastics, recently completed a 3,000 ft² expansion of Class 8 cleanroom space for their silicone molding division, Nolato GW Silicones, in Royalton, VT. This addition is capable of housing up to 8-10 new silicone injection molding machines. This is the fourth expansion of Nolato GW Silicones since its inception in 2008 and comes on the heels of 30,000 ft² expansion of Nolato GW’s Manufacturing and Technology Center in Royalton, VT last year.

Vermont Business Magazine Fifty-Nine small businesses involved in the performing arts throughout 36 Vermont cities and towns have received more than $18.7 million in federal grants as of Aug. 3.

“We were thrilled to learn that we were among the many worthy venues in our home state of Vermont and across the nation who were awarded a Shuttered Venues Operators Grant. This infusion of funding will further stabilize our organization as we continue to navigate the pandemic and plan to resume in-person operations as soon as it is safe to do so for our audiences,” said Alissa Mello, Managing Director of Sandglass Theater in Putney. Sandglass Theater, which started in 1982 is a 60-seat theater specializing in puppetry.

Vermont Business Magazine When Rose Lucenti’s mother, Barbara Greenslit, unexpectedly needed end of life care last May, Barbara chose Gifford Health Care’s main campus to spend her remaining days.

“She insisted on coming to Gifford,” Lucenti said. “Because she preferred the care she received.”

Just as Barbara was settling into her room, the staff at Gifford was arranging for Rose’s sister to fly in from Arizona to be with her mother. It’s one example of how Gifford’s annual fundraiser, Last Mile, supports families and their loved ones going through this stressful time.

“None of this would have been able to happen without the Last Mile, the sponsors and the amount of money donated and raised every year at this event,” Lucenti said.

In its 16^th year, the Last Mile has raised more than $1 million for end of life care. This year’s event will take place over two weekends:

Vermont Business Magazine Many weather experts predict a destructive wildfire and hurricane season this year. The American Red Cross needs volunteers to help on the ground and blood and platelet donors to roll up a sleeve to maintain a stable blood supply in the face of emergencies.

“We’re preparing for another extremely busy disaster season, and it’s critical to have a trained, ready volunteer workforce to make sure we can provide relief at a moment’s notice,” said Kevin Mazuzan, Executive Director, American Red Cross Vermont Chapter. “This year’s wildfire season is already very active and dangerous because of the severe drought and dry woodlands across the west. And experts are predicting we could see 10 or more hurricanes in the upcoming weeks.”

Do you remember where you were one year ago challenged by a pandemic and wondering how to navigate your family’s health care? Community Health, Vermont’s largest Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) never closed, remaining safe and accessible throughout as a center for health care and wellness.