Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded $46,669,040 to the Vermont Agency of Human Services for the state’s Hotel/Motel Vouchers Program for individuals who were high risk populations and required non-congregate medical sheltering. The approved participants in the state program were able to stay in hotels and motels statewide.

Vermont State Police Shortly before 3:30 pm Wednesday, April 13, 2021, Harley Breer surrendered peacefully to a uniformed Vermont State Police trooper in Marshfield. He was taken into custody without incident. No further information is currently available. The Vermont State Police had been investigating an assault that occurred Friday evening, April 9, 2021, and sought Breer since that time.

Vermont Research News A recent study of a random selection of patients at the Community Health Center of Vermont in Burlington examined how well Vermonters sleep. Seven of the 30 respondents reported having a formal diagnosis of sleep apnea and about half (16/30) reported having trouble falling asleep at least several times each week. The most common barriers to sleep included the use of electronics in the sleep environment (60% ), caffeine use and co-sleeping arrangements. Other high barriers included insomnia due to COVID-19 worries and financial concerns.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont business organizations and advocates, representing cumulatively more than 9,500 employers with more than 200,000 employees, are urging the Vermont Legislature to conform with the federal treatment of forgiven Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in the tax year 2021, just as they did in tax year 2020.

Vermont Business Magazine The Burlington International Airport (BTV) announced today that American Airlines will be offering service to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) beginning in July 2021. The new service complements American’s service between Burlington and its hubs in Philadelphia (PHL), Chicago (ORD), Charlotte (CLT) and Washington National (DCA). Service to Dallas/Fort Worth provided by American will be seasonal, with weekly Saturday service beginning July 3rd, 2021.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Housing & Conservation Board has awarded $846,500 in state funding and $2,588,327 in federal funds for projects in Windham, Windsor, and Lamoille Counties. The VHCB awards will help to create and rehabilitate 30 homes and apartments affordable to low- and moderate-income Vermonters and will conserve 270 acres of farmland.

Vermont Business Magazine In 2016, The Vermont Futures Project set a target for 5,000 new and retrofitted housing units per year to meet the critical need for homes across Vermont. This was a need five years ago, and as we strive to recover from the pandemic-caused economic downturn, the health of Vermont’s housing market is under more stress than ever.

Vermont Business Magazine Bob Zider, Director & CEO of the Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center (VMEC), has publicly announced his plans to retire on June 30, 2021 after 25 years with the Center.

At a VMEC Board meeting held on April 13, VMEC Assistant Director Patricia Giavara received a unanimous vote of approval to succeed Bob Zider as Interim VMEC Director & CEO effective July 1.

VMEC’s federal stakeholder partner, the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), was represented in the April 13 VMEC Board meeting by Acting MEP Director Dr. Rob Ivester and MEP Resource Manager Tom Williams. Patricia Giavara has been part of the VMEC team for more than 18 years, and she has served as VMEC Assistant Director since 2009 while also delivering a range of client services and support in the areas of innovation, growth, process improvement, coaching and more.

Vermont Agency of Commerce & Community Development Out of an abundance of caution, Vermont will be following the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and the Food & Drug Administration and has paused the administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to extremely rare instances of adverse reactions. Also, ACCD will host a webinar today, April 14th at 3 pm to answer questions about the Vermont Forward Plan as it relates to business operations, events, and cross state travel.

by Don Turner The last thing you do in the middle of a crisis is kick the can down the road. Yet, that's exactly what the Legislature just did on Vermont's mounting pension liabilities. Earlier this year, State Treasurer Beth Pearce delivered a long overdue message to the Legislature--calling for painful cuts in order to keep the state employees' and state teachers' pensions operation. This comes years after resisting calls for structural reform to the pension system.

by Rob Roper While Vermont public school officials are carping about returning to the classroom post Covid, calling for higher taxes to pay for their pensions, and are otherwise consumed with controversies over mascot names and what flags get to fly on school grounds, Vermont families have been driving an interesting trend – using Vermont’s 150 year old school choice “tuitioning” program to put their kids into independent schools.

“Tuitoning” is a benefit in 45 of Vermont’s school districts (out of 110) that do not have public schools at one or more levels, so parents are allowed to use their child’s per pupil portion of the education fund to pay for access to any public or approved independent school, in state or out. It is very popular in the communities that have it.

Vermont Business Magazine As a football coach who has led his teams to seven national championships, Nick Saban knows a little something about traveling the road to success. And in Saban's eyes, success in football or in business isn't achieved by focusing on the prize but rather by giving attention to all the steps that must be taken on the journey toward winning the prize.

"One of the things I always struggle with," Saban said, "is we live in such an outcome-oriented world. People want to focus on outcomes, and I think outcomes are a bit of a distraction."