Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Community Health welcomes Donald Reuther as the health network’s Chief Executive Officer. Reuther comes to the Rutland-based organization from the Baltimore Medical System FQHC where he was Chief Operating Officer and brings with him 17 years of FQHC experience. At Baltimore Medical System, Reuther was responsible for the day-to-day operations of Maryland’s largest FQHC serving over 47,000 patients and offering primary care, pharmacy, behavioral health and substance abuse service lines.

Senator Patrick Leahy For the first time in decades, Congress will fund $25 million for gun violence research by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the NIH. This funding is a significant step to combat the gun violence epidemic and rash of school shootings facing our nation. It has been a long time coming, and I am proud we were able to include this funding for the first time since 1996. This is a good bill that will improve the lives of Vermonters and millions of Americans, provide support for working families, and support and promote our economy. In a few moments we will vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to concur. I urge an AYE vote.    

Vermont Business Magazine With the help of Citizens Bank, the Vermont Foodbank will continue to keep a new truck on the road delivering food to people in Vermont struggling with hunger. Thanks to a generous donation toward the lease of this truck, it is on the road bringing food to people this holiday season. The new, co-branded 26-foot refrigerated box truck joins the Foodbank’s fleet of eight trucks that move food throughout the state. It will support the Vermont Foodbank’s work delivering food to 215 food shelves, meal sites, senior centers and after-school programs. It will also travel monthly to schools and hospitals providing a mobile pantry of fresh food directly to families, children, older adults and individuals in need. Last year with the help of its fleet of trucks, the Vermont Foodbank shared 11.7 million pounds of food with people in need of food assistance.  

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) confirmed that three public drinking water systems have per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) levels above Vermont’s 20 parts per trillion (ppt) standard. The three systems with exceedances are Fiddlehead Condominiums (Fayston), Killington Mountain School, and Mount Holly Elementary School. Each water system has notified its users and issued a Do Not Drink notice.

The system information and test results are as follows:

Vermont Business Magazine Highview Power Storage, Inc, a global leader in long duration energy storage solutions, and Burlington-based Encore Renewable Energy, a developer of renewable energy generation and storage projects, today jointly announced plans to develop the United States’ first long duration, liquid air energy storage system. This facility will be a minimum of 50MW, provide in excess of eight hours of storage (400MWh) and will be located in northern Vermont. The Vermont facility will contribute to resolving the longstanding energy transmission challenges surrounding the state’s Sheffield-Highgate Export Interface (SHEI) and enable the efficient transport of excess power from renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power to help integrate them on the power grid.

Vermont Business Magazine A University of Vermont team, led by food systems professor Ernesto Méndez, has been awarded a $660,000 grant from the McKnight Foundation to advance research and sustainable practices across its global Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP), which “works to ensure a world where all have access to nutritious food that is sustainably produced by local people.”

Vermont Business Magazine The New York Council of Trout Unlimited, a national non-profit that conserves, protects and restores North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds, has given UVM professor Ellen Marsden its 2019 Professional Achievement Award. The group honored Marsden, a wildlife and fisheries biologist in UVM’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, for her decades-long work studying trout populations in Lake Champlain and sea lampreys, their natural predators.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced the appointment of Craig Bolio as the commissioner of the Department of Taxes. Bolio joined the Department in 2011 and has served as acting commissioner since June. Much of Bolio’s time with the Department has been dedicated to supporting and improving the operational side of the Department, both as deputy commissioner and in his prior work where he focused on ensuring successful implementation of the state’s new online filing site, myVTax.

Representative Peter Welch "We, the people, have a common tie that binds us together now as it has since the founding of this country -- our shared respect for the Constitution of the United States. Let us all step back from the maelstrom of the moment to recall that, at our country’s inception 243 years ago, the concept of democratic, self-governing rule was a breathtaking and idealistic aspiration..."

Vermont Business Magazine The Agency of Natural Resources Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced today that Peter and Robin Klein of Rye Brook, NY, were fined $22,500 for releasing hazardous heating oil to the environment from a derelict underground storage tank on a property in Dover, Vermont, and for failing to take emergency clean-up action upon discovery of the release in 2016.

Many single and multi-family residences in Vermont use underground storage tanks (USTs) to store home heating fuel. Heating fuel is a hazardous material that, when released to the environment, can contaminate drinking water or surface water, release odors that affect residents, and impact home values. 

The Agency’s investigation into this matter revealed that before switching to propane in 1986, the Kleins used an underground storage tank to hold home heating oil to serve a condominium on their Dover property.

Vermont Business Magazine AARP Vermont State Director Greg Marchildon released the following statement on yesterday’s passage of FY 2020 appropriations bills HR 1158 and HR 1865: “AARP commends the bipartisan work that led to this agreement on federal spending for the 2020 fiscal year, and we are encouraged by the extra attention provided to health, housing and social services programs serving seniors. AARP is particularly pleased that roughly 4.4 million Americans with high health care costs can continue to deduct medical expenses on their taxes for another two years..."

Vermont Business Magazine Wednesday, Governor Phil Scott issued the following statement on the Trump Administration’s notice of public rulemaking on the safe importation of prescription drugs: “We’re encouraged by the continued progress the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration make towards safe importation of prescription drugs..."