Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Today Attorney General Donovan called upon the Legislature and the Governor to pass a bill that would provide free hunting and fishing licenses to citizens of Vermont’s State-recognized Native American Indian Tribes. The bill, H.716, will add citizens of Vermont’s State-recognized Native American Indian Tribes to the list of people eligible for a free permanent license from Vermont’s Fish and Wildlife Department.

Vermont Business Magazine On February 3^rd, the Working Communities Team of Southern Vermont was invited to the planning phase of the Working Communities Challenge, an initiative of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston “to support diverse, local collaborative leadership teams to tackle complex challenges facing their communities.” The six-month planning phase consists of a $15,000 planning award, and the opportunity to apply for the full 3-year, $300,000 grant to implement the project.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released several per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) reports today. The reports will help DEC continue to investigate PFAS in landfill leachate, to evaluate the impact of landfill leachate on PFAS concentrations at wastewater treatment facilities, and to evaluate treatment alternatives for PFAS leachate. The study concluded that while substantial PFAS entered the Coventry landfill and 95 percent of the samples found it, "the data indicate that a small fraction of the PFAS entering the landfill in wastes leave it in leachate."

Vermont Business Magazine Robert E "Bobby" Miller, community leader; philanthropist; businessman; devoted husband and family man died Tuesday, February 4, 2020 at the UVM Medical Center surrounded by his family. He was 84 years old. Born in Rutland, VT on August 9, 1935, he was the third of six children born to Ruth and Charles Miller.

Vermont Business Magazine Easing trade tensions with China, increased consumer spending and a more stable interest rate environment helped improve US business sentiment in the fourth quarter, according to the Citizens Business Conditions Index from Citizens Bank. Citizens has branches across Vermont. In the latest report released by Citizens Commercial Banking, the index increased from 60.2 to 61 and remained well above 50, showing growing confidence in the US economy.

“Progress toward the first phase of a China trade deal, more clarity around Brexit, improved consumer spending and a stable rate environment took some of the uncertainty off the table for business leaders in the fourth quarter,” said Tony Bedikian, head of Global Markets for Citizens Commercial Banking. “Of course, this quarter the coronavirus is having an impact on certain sectors and markets, but the overall economic trend so far is still positive.”

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont’s Office of Student and Community Relations (OSCR) and the Neighborhood Group Isham Street Gardening and Other Optimistic Doings (ISGOOD) were recently awarded a $2,250 Grow Grant from the New England Grassroots Environment Fund. The grant will fund materials to expand their work from Isham Street in Burlington, where they’ve focused in the past, to neighboring Hickok Place.

Vermont Business Magazine Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President and CEO Eric Rosengren, Vermont Governor Phil Scott, and public and private funders announced eight regional teams have been selected to receive $15,000 planning grants and move forward in Vermont’s Working Communities Challenge. The challenge, launched last May, is a grant competition that supports local collaborative efforts to build strong, healthy economies and communities in Vermont’s rural towns, regions and smaller cities.

Vermont Business Magazine The Bennington Regional Chamber of Commerce announced to a crowd of over 200 of its members and stakeholders on Friday night that the 109 year old organization would now be known as the Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce. The name change comes as a final initiative of the 2020 Vision that the chamber board of directors laid out at their 2017 annual membership meeting. At the 2017 meeting Matt Harrington, executive director of the regional chamber of commerce, announced that the chamber organization would, “embrace a 2020 vision to become a regionally recognized Chamber for membership growth & assistance, operational & leadership excellence, and a catalyst for Southern Vermont economic development.”

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont held a ceremony on February 4 formally inaugurating a new Mamava lactation pod in UVM’s STEM complex, one of two new pods the university recently added to campus. The other is located in Patrick Gymnasium. Burlington-based Mamava is the country’s leading provider of lactation suites that enable parents to pump breast milk or breastfeed their infants in private, comfortably and with dignity.

Vermont Business Magazine Ledyard Financial Group, Inc (ticker symbol LFGP), the holding company for Ledyard National Bank, based in Hanover, NH, with a branch in Norwich, Vermont, is reporting record earnings for 2019 of $5,816,163, a 12.9% improvement over 2018. Key contributors to reaching this milestone were: total revenue grew by over $1.1 million for the year; net Interest Income was over $16 million for the first time; Ledyard Financial Advisors assets under management exceeded $1.7 billion; and the company completed a successful migration to a new core processing system during the second quarter of 2019.

Vermont Business Magazine Erica Havers has been promoted to President of Blodgett Oven Group, effective immediately. In her new role she will direct and oversee the Middleby brands Blodgett, Perfect Fry, Marsal and BKI, all of which are manufactured in Essex, Vermont. Under her leadership, the Blodgett engineering team has introduced and expanded the industry-leading Hoodini Ventless series of products ranging from combi to convection ovens solutions.

Vermont Business Magazine Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) has been named one of the 2020’s Best Places to Work for the sixth year in a row. SVHC received the honor for the first time in 2015. It remains the only hospital in the state of Vermont to be recognized by the awards program.