Current News

Vermont Business Magazine For the second straight day, Burlington Electric Department (BED) issued a peak alert for today, Tuesday, June 23, as part of its Defeat the Peak program launched during summer 2017, encouraging members of the Burlington community to reduce their energy usage from 5-9 pm this evening.

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is proposing to offer $146 million to help communities make improvements to water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure. The funding would allow communities to make major infrastructure improvements while keeping costs affordable for users. The money is available in the form of low- and no-cost loans, many of which include substantial loan principal forgiveness. Funding through the State Revolving Fund (SRF) is available to municipalities, non-profit and private community water and wastewater systems.

Vermont Business Magazine The Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission has been awarded a Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) award for development of a Food Access Map for the Hunger Council of Washington County. The SAG award is given annually to a limited number of ESRI’s GIS clients around the world to recognize outstanding work with Geography Systems Technology (GIS) technology in a field of over 100,000 organizations.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a framework using hardware, software, data, and people to gather, manage, analyze, and visualize data. The resulting maps provide deeper insights into data and help users make informed decisions.

“Helping the Council visualize food access was a natural fit with the Commission’s GIS skills. The map demonstrates that decisions related to community design can affect people’s health,” said Bonnie Waninger, Executive Director of the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission.

Vermont Business Magazine The VNA & Hospice of the Southwest Region (VNAHSR) has announced this year’s Employee of the Year and HEALTH Matters Award Winners. Thirty-eight employees were recognized for years of service including Sharon Davis, Utilization Review Specialist for 35 years of service. Davis was also recognized as the VNAHSR’s Employee of the Year.

Vermont Business Magazine Health Commissioner Dr Mark Levine provided an update on the ongoing outbreak that first emerged in Winooski. There are now 110 COVID-19 cases associated with the outbreak, 65% of them adults. The Health Department has identified 126 contacts, 19 of which have gone on to become cases. They are also involved in small investigations in Rutland (two cases so far) and Windham (two adults and four children) counties and set up a small pop-up test site to meet local needs. Pop-up testing has commenced there. Total statewide cases only increased by four since Sunday. Pop-up testing in Winooski will continue through Wednesday and in Burlington from Wednesday to Friday.

Vermont Business Magazine Middlebury College was the first college in Vermont to close down at the beginning of the pandemic and one of the first in the nation to announce that students would not return to campus for the rest of the semester. Today, they announced their reopening plan and like most colleges and universities, it will come with enhanced health protocols and a semester that will end by Thanksgiving. Students will arrive on campus in three groups, with the first as early as August 18.

Vermont Business Magazine Representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont) held a press conference Monday afternoon on Church Street with local restaurant owners to unveil bipartisan legislation that he recently introduced in Congress to create a $120 billion grant program specifically to help local restaurants survive during and after the coronavirus pandemic. Welch has held numerous e-meetings with restaurant owners throughout Vermont since the start of the pandemic and he has heard a consistent message, “we need help.” This legislation was introduced in direct response to those pleas for help.

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington Electric Department (BED) issued a peak alert for Tuesday, June 23 as part of its Defeat the Peak program launched during summer 2017, encouraging members of the Burlington community to reduce their energy usage from 5:00-9:00pm on that day.

Public Assets Institute The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out more than 63,000 Vermont jobs in April, but employers began to increase their payrolls again last month. Jobs rose by 15,700 in May, by far the biggest monthly increase in at least 30 years. But even if this growth continues, it will be mid-September before the lost jobs are recovered. The service sector gained 7,700 jobs, a fraction of the nearly 50,000 lost in April. Meanwhile, Vermont’s unemployment rate dropped to 12.7 percent last month from 16.5 percent in April.

Vermont Business Magazine The Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that Bhaskar Patel, 69, of Horseheads, New York, was sentenced Friday in federal district court in connection with a kickback and bribery scheme conducted in connection with federal energy savings performance contracts (“ESPCs”). This includes a $42.4 million case in Vermont. While employed by Schneider Electric Buildings America, Patel unlawfully solicited and accepted $2,536,119.19 in bribes and kickbacks associated with ESPCs from subcontractors to Schneider.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Vermont recorded a historic maple syrup crop this year, resulting in over 2.2 million gallons. This represents over half the official US crop and by far the most of any state. The other two big maple producers, New York and Maine, saw a slight decrease from last year, but like Vermont has seen production growing in recent years. The total US crop total also increased. The total value of the maple crop in Vermont in 2019 (the 2020 value has not yet been established) is $57.96 million and the US value is $129.5 million. The lower relative price in Vermont versus production is because Vermont sells most of its production in bulk, which goes for a lower price.