Current News

Vermont Business Magazine An acoustic stone wall at a public amphitheater in Killington, a mural by a local Abenaki artist at the Retreat Farm in Brattleboro, and plans from the locally owned electric utility in the Town of Stowe to engage a stone mason to re-envision public access are among the projects recently awarded Animating Infrastructure grants from the Vermont Arts Council. Strengthening the connection between people and place, these award-winning public art projects promise to bring vibrancy and vitality to their communities. From conception and design to implementation and programming, creative placemaking has been shown to foster social connectedness, improve livability, and enhance a sense of community pride and identity. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Women’s and Children’s Services (WCS) nursing team at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC) were honored in November with the DAISY Team Award for Extraordinary Nurses. The DAISY Award is an international recognition program honoring clinical excellence and outstanding compassionate care provided by nurses. SVMC, a member of Dartmouth Health, selects honorees through patient nominations. WCS provides care for approximately 400 births per year, serving patients and families from Vermont, New York and Massachusetts.

Vermont Business Magazine The Champlain Housing Trust and Evernorth has announced the completion and occupancy of Stuart Avenue Apartments and the beginning of construction of 10th Cavalry Apartments which collectively will bring over 100 new permanently affordable apartments to the Town of Colchester. The two developments were supported by the Town of Colchester, which recognizes and has prioritized the need for more housing in the community and more broadly in Chittenden County, which has a county-wide rental vacancy rate of 1% or less. Completed in September, Stuart Avenue Apartments are home to 36 households in the Sunderland Farms neighborhood, a new mixed-use neighborhood located in Colchester’s designated Growth Center, adjacent to Severance Corners, and was developed by SD Ireland.

Vermont Business Magazine Rutland County Head Start, which operates within the Rutland Community Programs division of Community Care Network (CCN), today announced the implementation of its new Early Head Start program designed to provide high-quality care for infants and toddlers. The new Early Head Start program, which will be hosted at Rutland County Head Start’s Meadow Street and Discovery Center facilities in Rutland beginning in late-December, will offer 27 openings for children ages birth to 3, in addition to the 45 existing openings currently offered to children ages 3 to 5 through the traditional Head Start program.

Senator Bernie Sanders Let me say a few words to express my concerns about the $106 billion emergency foreign aid supplemental bill that we may soon be considering. There are pieces of this bill I strongly support, but in its present form I do not think it serves the interests of the American people. Let me explain why. First, while I strongly support Ukraine’s valiant efforts to defend itself against Putin’s invasion, and Israel’s need to defend itself against incoming rocket and missile attacks, I am deeply concerned that this legislation has no investments to address the needs of working families in the United States – 60 percent of whom are living paycheck to paycheck. Let’s be clear: it is not only foreign countries that face emergencies. We face enormous emergencies in this country right now in terms of child care, primary health care, housing, and much more. The American people do not want us to continue to ignore these issues.

Vermont Business Magazine The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) has recognized Rutland Regional Medical Center, as one of 78 ACS NSQIP participating hospitals that have achieved meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care in 2022. As a participant in ACS NSQIP, Rutland Regional is required to track the outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical procedures and collect data that assesses patient safety and can be used to direct improvement in the quality of surgical care.

Vermont Business Magazine Copley Hospital’s expanded Infusion Center, scheduled for completion in spring 2024, will be named The William B. DeLaney Infusion Center after the late Bill DeLaney, a longtime supporter and former patient. DeLaney’s wife, Beverly Vahlteich DeLaney, made the $200,000 gift after learning about the project. Though Bill and Beverly lived for over 50 years in Cleveland, Ohio, they spent their annual summer vacations in Craftsbury. “Bill counted the days to when we could travel to Vermont,” said Beverly, who shared that as Bill’s health declined, he needed weekly blood transfusions. Beverly says she was relieved to learn that Bill could get his required care at Copley. “Thanks to Copley, a happy decision was made that we’d be able to spend another summer at our favorite place.” When Beverly received a notice about the Infusion Center expansion, she quickly jumped at the opportunity to give back.

Vermont Business Magazine Registration is open to join Vermont educators, government officials, business advisors, business leaders, and students on Feb. 7, 2024 from 8:30 to 11 a.m. for the free 15th annual and fourth virtual Vermont Student Entrepreneurship Day. In the spirit of bringing forward-thinking Vermonters together to encourage exploration of entrepreneurship through creative expression, the theme of this year’s event is, “Vermont Entrepreneurs – Finding Your Groove.”  Vermont students in grades 9 through 12 will hear from enterprising Vermont entrepreneurs and learn from outstanding keynote speakers. More than 300 students and educators participated in last year’s Entrepreneurship Day.

Vermont Business Magazine Berkshire Bank, a leading community bank with financial centers in New England and New York and branches in southern Vermont, has been included on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the nation’s foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality. Berkshire Bank joins the ranks of 1,384 major U.S. businesses that were also ranked in the 2023-2024 CEI. 

by John McClaughry The 2024 Vermont legislature will convene a month from now and its members will have to laser focus on the shocking increase projected for education spending. On November 30 Commissioner of Taxes Craig Bolio delivered the projected education tax rates for FY2025. Despite the use of unallocated funds from previous years ($215 million), he projects that next year’s spending will cause an average increase of 18.5% in education tax liabilities. That projection is an unprecedented 12. 01% rate of spending over this year’s. Average per pupil spending is projected to increase by 12.8% (to $22,953) - while the number of pupils will keep sliding down, from 84,009 to 83,433. Commissioner Bolio explains why this is happening. Many districts committed the fiscal sin of funding new services and personnel with one-time Federal money. With those funds disappearing, those districts are now looking to their taxpayers to support the expansion.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) today applauded the announcement of $635,465 in federal grant funding to Vermont State University (VTSU) to expand educational opportunities and workforce development in rural communities. The grant is authorized through the USDA’s Distance Learning & Telemedicine (DLT) grant program, which provides rural communities with key resources to access advanced telecommunications technology and promote more opportunities in rural America.  

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts visited Paine’s Tree Farm in Morrisville today to celebrate the arrival of the 2023 Christmas season with the help of Vermont’s tree farmers. The Christmas 8trees cut during this visit will decorate the Pavilion Building in Montpelier, which houses the Governor’s Office. According to the most recent USDA Agriculture Census completed in 2017, there are 3,650 acres of Christmas tree production in Vermont across 70 farms with a crop worth more than $2.6 million. Many more Vermonters bring to market Christmas trees, wreaths, garland and other decorator items each year.