Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Empowered Ventures, a 100% employee-owned holding company based in Carmel, Indiana, today announced the acquisition of Benoure Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, a leading residential and commercial mechanical contractor based in South Burlington, Vermont. Founded by Robert Benoure, Sr. in 1966 and led by President Brad Benoure since 2018, Benoure has grown to become the largest company in Vermont doing both residential and commercial plumbing, heating, and air conditioning. With over 80 licensed plumbers and HVAC technicians in the field, and a talented back-office staff, Benoure handles all aspects of contracted work consistently, reliably, and with a long-standing reputation based on superb quality. Leadership, name and employment will remain unchanged with the acquisition.

VermontBiz Last month, Meals on Wheels America celebrated the historic day in 1972 when a national nutrition program for older adults was added to the Older Americans Act.  

Central Vermont Council on Aging (CVCOA) celebrates the work done every day by staff and volunteers at local nutrition program sites to source, prep, cook, package, and deliver meals to our neighbors. In Central Vermont, 12 area nutrition programs at a total of 13 locations activate a small staff and a strong force of volunteers each week to get about 4,800 meals delivered to their communities.  

by Devon Green, VP of Government Relations, VAHHS I need to correct the record! Thank you to Rep. Scheu who wrote in to let me know that I got it wrong last week—House Appropriations always formally votes on the budget on the Monday after the money crossover deadline. They do a straw poll vote on Friday and then Joint Fiscal all weekend to finalize the budget for a formal vote on Monday. I appreciate the clarification—and, I’ll try to restrain myself from slipping in occasional errors to see who’s paying attention. With that, let’s dive into the budget details and everything else that happened last week: Budget: The House passed the FY’25 Budget on Friday, appropriating $8.58 billion in total, including: $9.9 million for rate increases at skilled nursing facilities; $3.55 million for a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility for Youth at the Brattleboro Retreat; $1 million towards hiring and other start-up costs for the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center’s psychiatric inpatient facility for youth and adolescents.

by Mike Del Trecco, CEO, VAHHS It was another very busy week last week, as you’ll read in our legislative report and in the headlines of today’s Update. We’re over the midway point of the legislative session and those at the State House are working feverishly to get things done. We’re also just starting our hospitals’ budget review process. There’s a lot on the line in both areas. Folks on all sides of the biggest issues like housing, public safety and education have strong opinions about what we should do, but progress requires creativity, nuance and compromise. That’s especially true in health care. There is an affordability crisis everywhere we look—health care, housing, fuel, groceries and the list goes on from here and Vermonters are feeling the pinch. Despite many well- meaning ideas, there’s a limit to the money available to fund them. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Labor Relations Board invites qualified individuals to apply for current vacancies on the Board. Current openings on the Board included a “neutral” seat and a “management” seat.  Complete applications are due no later than April 12, 2024, at 4:30 pm. The Vermont Labor Relations Board determines appropriate bargaining units, conducts union representation elections, adjudicates unfair labor practice charges, and hears grievances in cases involving relations between employers and employees of the State of Vermont, Vermont State Colleges, University of Vermont, municipalities, school districts, and small private operations. 

Vermont Business Magazine The M&T Charitable Foundation, the philanthropic arm of M&T Bank (NYSE:MTB), today announced $900,000 in grants to commemorate its 30th anniversary. Through the 30 & 30 Giving Initiative, 30 organizations throughout the company’s footprint received $30,000 to support their efforts to build and develop affordable housing and to fight homelessness in underserved, low- to moderate-income communities. This includes Rebuilding Together of Greater Burlington.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Representative Becca Balint (VT-AL) today issued the following joint statement: “After eight long months, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has finally signed a lease on a new home for Montpelier’s post office after the devastating floods displaced their downtown location last summer. This is an important step in the right direction and as a Delegation we welcome this news. We were proud to work with the people of Montpelier, advocates, and community and state leaders to ensure the return of a fully operational post office to our state’s capital and its community."

VermontBiz Vermont’s winter manure spreading ban ends today, April 1st, but challenging field conditions may exisit in many parts of Vermont.  With a winter storm predicted for the middle of this week, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM) is issuing a spring stewardship reminder to Vermont farmers and custom manure applicators to adhere to the RAP’s.

VermontBiz State Treasurer Mike Pieciak and Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) Executive Director Maura Collins joined local stakeholders today to announce housing investments made through the Treasurer’s 10% in VT local investment program.  

The $50 million loan awarded to VHFA in September 2023 will help fund a spectrum of housing initiatives including deeply and perpetually affordable rental housing, housing for Vermonters exiting homelessness, manufactured home communities, homeownership, and middle-income rental units in Vermont’s economic centers. The funding is often the missing piece enabling projects to be feasible. 

VermontBiz The Attorney General’s Office announced that Robert E. Bowdish, 77, of Weybridge, Vermont, was arraigned today on seven felony and two misdemeanor counts of Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material. The charges brought against Mr. Bowdish are the result of a criminal investigation, including the execution of search warrants conducted by the Vermont Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (VT-ICAC), which included personnel from the Attorney General’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations, and Vermont State Police.

VermontBiz  Friday, Mayor Weinberger was joined on a video conference by Serhiy Palamarchuk, Head of Kuyalnyk Community, and the leaders simultaneously signed the new Kuyalnyk-Burlington Partnership Agreement. Oleksiy Goncharenko, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament representing the Odesa region, also attended and spoke at the ceremony. The signing follows the unanimous approval of the new Sister City relationship by the Burlington City Council on March 25 following a presentation and deliberation which was watched live by Kuyalnyk officials at approximately midnight their local time.    

VermontBiz Governor Scott and the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) are celebrating the success of more than three years of the Vermont Housing Improvement Program (VHIP) as DHCD launches VHIP 2.0.

“The Vermont Housing Improvement Program has been incredibly successful and an essential tool expanding Vermont’s housing stock,” says Governor Scott. “By bringing existing units that have fallen into disrepair back online, we create housing at a fraction of the cost and much faster than other programs, while also revitalizing neighborhoods.”

VHIP and VHIP 2.0 are a cost-effective and reliable way to bring housing units online quickly. The programs grant an average of $38,400 to get one apartment up and running, compared to the $450,000 to $600,000 it costs to build one new unit.