Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Northeast Kingdom Young Professionals Network (NEK YPN) recently received a $3000 grant from the Vermont Community Foundation's Northeast Kingdom Fund. The grant will help further NEK YPN’s mission of supporting young professionals both socially and professionally by expanding outreach efforts and promoting a new Welcome Wagon Program.

by C.B. Hall, Vermont Business Magazine Kingsbury Companies, LLC, a Middlesex construction firm founded in 2005, saw a big leap in revenues in 2019, as good fortune pushed gross income from 2018's $18.3 million to an estimated $32.0 million, measured on a calendar-year basis. By way of explanation, CEO Travis Kingsbury points to "a couple of larger projects that we landed," and to the acquisition of Johnson's D Tatro Construction. The diversified enterprise has seen revenues grow 106% since 2014.

Vermont Business Magazine Marathon Health LLC is a Winooski workplace health and wellness services for midsize and large employers: primary care, coaching, and disease management. The Vermont 100+ with full stories, industry rankings and growth charts can be found in the January 2020 issue of Vermont Business Magazine.

Vermont Business Magazine For The Biome, the Vermont-based wellness and skincare company launched last year by Paul and Barbi Schulick, has announced a partnership with the JHCapital family office of Jim Crook and Allison Maino. With over 35 years of leadership experience and a strong track record of growing companies in Vermont and beyond, Crook is the former CEO of IDX Systems Corporation and plays lead governance roles in Aspenti Health, DealerPolicy, RCxRules, MediRevv and Greensea Systems, among others.

The Schulicks are the acclaimed natural products industry leaders who originally founded the iconic New Chapter supplement company in 1982, which was acquired by Procter & Gamble seven years ago. They left P&G last year to launch their latest venture, For The Biome, which they are positioning to impact the wellness/skincare space in the same way that New Chapter led the natural products industry.

Vermont Business Magazine In response to its growing medical device business, advanced contract manufacturing and injection molding company GW Plastics, Inc. has completed the latest expansion of its Royalton, Vermont Manufacturing and Technology Center. GW Plastics has added a 30,000 ft² expansion to accommodate the growth of its thermoplastic injection molding and medical device contract assembly business.

by Representative Pattie McCoy, R-Poultney, House Minority Leader As readers may know, legislators recently finalized a mandatory Paid Family and Medical Leave bill (financed by a new payroll tax) that has been a year in the making. This effort has not been without contention; in fact, last May legislative leaders were unable to come to terms on what the final bill would look like, kicking the fight to this year. Vermont Legislative Republicans have been unified against this bill because we believe it makes our state less affordable--not more--and that the structure of this particular bill is fatally flawed.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG) today announced the formation of VPIRG Votes – a nonpartisan political action committee focused on electing public interest champions to Vermont state offices. In a video message shared with VPIRG’s 50,000 supporters and posted at www.vpirgvotes.org, Board President Ashley Orgain explained the reason for the organization’s entry into the electoral arena. “We face an unprecedented climate crisis,” she said. “To protect our economy, our environment and future generations we have to make changes.”

Leonine Public Affairs The campaign announcements kept on rolling in week two of the 2020 legislative session. Senator Debbie Ingram, D-Chittenden, formally announced her campaign for lieutenant governor, joining Senate president Tim Ashe, D-Chittenden, in the primary race. The announcement means two of the six Senate seats from Chittenden County will be vacant. Representative Dylan Giambatista, D-Essex, a deputy leader in the House announced his candidacy for the Senate as did former Burlington Democratic representative Kesha Ram. Two vacant seats in the Chittenden County Senate District creates the possibility for a somewhat crowded field with the likely addition of Progressive and Republican Party candidates down the line.

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General TJ Donovan on Friday joined a coalition of 14 attorneys general to halt federal immigration arrests of noncitizens without a judicial warrant or court order in and around state courthouses. In an amicus brief filed in State of Washington v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; et al., the coalition argues in support of Washington State's request for a preliminary injunction to immediately halt such arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The case is pending in US District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Vermont Business Magazine Allison Kuklok of the Saint Michael’s College philosophy faculty learned this month that she is the recipient of a prestigious, highly competitive $60,000 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) year-long Fellowship, which she will use to work on a book about the status of the human being in John Locke’s natural philosophy.

by Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore I am a civil engineer, a matter of considerable personal pride. And when I think about some of the significant challenges that Vermonters have met and overcome, many of the most impressive that come to mind (or at least the mind of a civil engineer) are feats in which engineering had a central role. Among them are the construction of the interstate highway system in the 1960s, the construction of the massive flood control dams and reservoirs in Waterbury, East Barre and Wrightsville following the 1927 floods, and, earlier still, the Cornish-Windsor covered bridge that crosses the Connecticut River and was the longest wooden covered bridge in the United States for most of its 150+ year history.

Vermont Business Magazine Cellular Sales, one of the country’s largest Verizon Wireless retailers, announces their expansion in Vermont with a new store in Colchester. The store located at 18 Lower Mountain View Drive, across from Shaw’s and CVS, welcomed its first customers in November. This is Cellular Sales’ 5th store in Vermont and the first in Colchester.
“Opening a new location in Colchester is really exciting, both for us and for the community,” said Cellular Sales regional director Anthony Mills. “We can give our customers the personalized service they deserve and show them all the awesome new technology on the horizon.”