Current News
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Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC) will present this year’s Arthur Gibb Award for Individual Leadership to Madeleine Kunin, former Governor of Vermont. The award will be presented at VNRC’s annual meeting on Thursday, September 12 at the Coach Barn at Shelburne Farms.
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Vermont Business Magazine The Burlington Electric Department (BED) today announced that it has extended a power purchase agreement for renewable wind power with the Sheffield Wind Farm, a 40 megawatt, 16-turbine wind farm in northeastern Vermont originally developed by First Wind. The current agreement delivers 16 megawatts of Vermont-produced electricity to BED’s 100 percent renewably-sourced portfolio. By extending the contract for five years, BED was successful in optimizing the price per megawatt hour (MWh) for the remaining and extended contract terms.
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Vermont Business Magazine People's United Bank, NA, a subsidiary of People's United Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ: PBCT), today announced the pending sale of its Two Burlington Square location in Burlington to Nedde Real Estate. Built in 1970, the 95,000 square-foot building is located at the corner of Bank and Pine Street and contains five floors of office space. People’s United Bank will continue to maintain its Vermont headquarters at the location, as well as drive-up banking services, a full-service branch and three floors of offices. Financial terms were not disclosed. This formerly was the headquarters of Chittenden Bank, which was acquired by People's in 2007.
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Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) today announced Andrea Gagner has been appointed to its Board of Directors. Gagner is the Chief Executive Officer of 14th Star Brewing Company in St Albans.
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by Jeff Tieman, VAHHS President and CEO Eight hospitals last week presented their 2020 proposed budgets to the Green Mountain Care Board. I attended all the hearings and will again this coming week when the remainder of hospitals will explain their budgets in Vermont's very transparent and thorough public process. Leaders from each organization have thoughtfully described how they work to strike a balance between controlling costs, ensuring quality, planning for long-term stability and leading the way through challenges and opportunities.
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Dr Suresh Garimella, UVM's 27th President. UVM's classes, and Garimella's first semester leading the university, begins Monday, August 26. Photo by Andy Duback.
by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Inevitably Dr Suresh Garimella can be and will be compared to his two predecessors, who are vastly different themselves. All three of these University of Vermont presidents have different academic backgrounds, while of course being highly accomplished. Dan Fogel (2002-2011) is a presence in any room he enters and is someone with a towering intellect. Tom Sullivan (2012-2019) is cool, efficient, lawyerly and, as it turns out, a phenomenal fundraiser.
Garimella, who took over July 1, is more casual than either and quick with a quip. He clearly enjoys engaging with the press and has an easy touch with anyone he meets.
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by Brandon Arcari, Vermont Business Magazine UVM President Suresh Garimella Q&A from his first press conference on July 1 conducted in his office in the Waterman Building.
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Vermont Business Magazine On average only three in 10 students attending public colleges graduate in four years, with each additional year of college representing both an extra expense and a delay in the earning power a college degree confers. The University of Vermont is near the top of a new list of public universities that do the best job of helping students avoid these pitfalls and graduate on time.
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Vermont Business Magazine UVM’s Convocation ceremony, which formally launches the academic year, will be held on Sunday, August 25, at 6:30. The event culminates with a walk down Main Street – by new students, faculty, staff and UVM leadership – to the UVM green, where a twilight induction ceremony will be held.
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Brandon Arcari, Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Medical Center broke ground on a new primary care facility in Essex Thursday, Aug. 22, a new building nearly double the size of the current leased space. The new facility, which will fully replace the aging leased building currently in use, will offer 12,500 square feet of space to allow for more spacious exam rooms, as well as more of them. The facility was designed to be LEED certified, and will offer telemedicine services for patients to talk to their healthcare providers from home.
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Vermont State Police At 6:52pm on the night of August 23st, the Orleans Fire Department responded to the report of an explosion at a single-family home on 2056 Chapdelaine Road in Brownington (Orleans County). Upon arrival they found an explosion had occurred causing extensive damage to the building. A small fire in basement had self-extinguished. There was no one home at the time of the incident.
It was discovered by the owner Mr. Bowen upon returning home. The residence is not habitable due the structural damage. The family of five is being assisted by the Vermont Red Cross with temporary housing. The Fire Chief contacted the Department of Public Safety Fire & Explosion Investigation Unit and requested an investigation.
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by Roger Allbee Congress is finally taking steps to end surprise medical billing, a longstanding issue that for years has caused needless stress and financial woes for Vermont patients as well as patients across the country. No one should be subjected to the pain and hardship that comes with surprise billing. Yet, due to a number of factors—including insurance companies that continue to shrink their provider networks—more and more patients find themselves stuck with exceedingly high bills for treatments and services they assumed would be covered by their health care plans.