Current News

​Vermont Business Magazine The sixth annual Vermont’s Greenest Building Awards, hosted by the Vermont Green Building Network (VGBN), recognized seven projects and design/build teams. The projects received awards for achieving the highest standard of demonstrated building energy performance for residential and commercial buildings, and were judged based on an expanded definition of “green” building.

by Adam Grinold Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation Each summer college students search for opportunities that allow them to apply their education and gain hands on experience. Internships are also important to businesses, especially in Vermont’s Windham region where low unemployment means employers compete hard to secure talent. The BDCC & Six College Collaborative Internship program works to partner currently enrolled college students and recent college graduates with local Windham County businesses through paid work opportunities. The BDCC Paid Internship program benefits both intern and employer. Almost 25% of interns have stayed on to accept a permanent position.

Vermont Business Magazine Seven Days, Vermont’s free and independent weekly newspaper, is excited for the 9th Annual Vermont Restaurant Week, a celebration of the state’s vibrant food scene presented by the Vermont Federal Credit Union. For 10 days, April 20 to 29, 115 restaurants from Brattleboro to St. Albans will offer special prix-fixe dinners at three price points — $20, $30 or $40 per person. Lunch, brunch and breakfast specials at select locations will also be available. The diversity in cuisine and participating restaurants will whet the appetites of diners across the state. The full list of menus can be found at vermontrestaurantweek.com.

Vermont Business Magazine FirstLight, a leading fiber-optic bandwidth infrastructure services provider operating in the Northeast, has announced that Tri State Area Federal Credit Union, formerly Hoosick Federal Credit Union, has selected FirstLight for Internet and Voice services for its Bennington, VT location. Tri State Area Federal Credit Union (FCU) is a small, up and coming ($24M) community chartered not-for-profit doing business in the Tri State area of New York, Vermont and Massachusetts. The company will utilize FirstLight’s services to support data processing in the cloud.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont will be represented at the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games by 19 athletes, Unified partners, and coaches competing in athletics (track and field events), Unified basketball, and swimming. Every four years, Special Olympics presents the USA Games where athletes from across the country compete in 14 team and individual sports. Over 4000 Special Olympic athletes are expected to participate in the USA Games this July in Seattle, Washington.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today signed an executive order creating a Community Violence Prevention Task Force. The Executive Order, he said in a statement, is one part of the governor’s broader efforts to ensure Vermont continues to be one of the safest states in the country.

Vermont Business Magazine The state Senate has quickly overridden Governor Phil Scott’s veto of bill S103, which sought to give the Vermont Health Commissioner more flexibility in regulating consumer goods, with special concern regarding those for young children. The bill also follows along from the PFOA contamination in Bennington from the ChemFab plant, discovered in 2016. The bill would require testing of new groundwater sources and potable water supplies for specified chemical parameters. The governor vetoed S103 last Monday night. In doing so, he said the bill is duplicative to the state's already strong standards on hazardous materials and could increase costs of goods to consumers and businesses.

Vermont Business Magazine Representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont) is calling for the immediate resignation of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt. Welch has co-sponsored a House ‘no confidence’ resolution (H.Res. 834) in response to Pruitt’s reported ethics violations, misuse of taxpayer funds, and policy actions that have undermined the agency’s core mission at expense of the environment, public health and science.

“Enough is enough,” Welch said. “In 14 short months, Administrator Pruitt has gutted the EPA’s core mission to safeguard the air we breathe and the water we drink. Throughout his tenure, he has defiantly thumbed his nose at the taxpayer with reckless spending on travel, security and office amenities. He will go down as the worst Administrator in EPA history. It’s time for him to go.”

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), joined by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont), announced a $792,000 grant to bring the medical records system at the Vermont Veterans’ Home in Bennington into the 21^st century. The grant meets a longstanding priority of the Bennington facility and was made possible by new funding for veterans in the bipartisan budget agreement reached by Congress in February. Leahy, Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, played a leading role in those negotiations.

Leahy said: “It was one of our highest priorities in the bipartisan budget agreement to improve the quality of care available to our nation’s veterans. This goal is now becoming a reality at the Vermont Veteran’s Home and for our Green Mountain veterans.”

Vermont Business Magazine On Monday, Governor Scott, along with representatives from the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD), participated in the Aerospace Innovation Forum 2018, hosted by Aero Montreal. Scott and ACCD were joined by seven Vermont businesses in the aerospace industry: MSI, Stephens Precision, Sathorn Corporation, Microwire Transmission, Liquid Measurement Systems, SemiProbe, and Vermont Aerospace.

Vermont Non-Profit Leaders The Vermont House has passed H.911, which we believe, if enacted, will fundamentally change the nature of charitable giving in Vermont. Its negative effects will hurt Vermont non-profits, and more importantly, diminish our ability to serve Vermonters in our communities.

Vermont Business Magazine After many months of planning, fund-raising and anticipation, a major renovation project was launched this week at Helen Porter Rehabilitation and Nursing in Middlebury. This $900,000 project will result in a state-of-the-art post-acute unit for residents recovering from surgery or other conditions requiring short-term rehabilitation, and a new end-of-life suite offering a comfortable and family-centered environment for residents and their loved ones which, for the ARCH organization, represents the realization of their founding mission.