Current News

The Board of Directors of the High Meadows Fund has named Gaye Symington as its Executive Director. The Fund, a supporting foundation of the Vermont Community Foundation, has awarded grants since 2004 to improve the lives of Vermonters through a better environment. Its grantmaking aims to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, encourage renewable energy development, and promote sustainable agriculture and land use practices in Vermont.
Symington s twenty years of leadership in energy and rural economic development policy will bring new knowledge and experience to the High Meadows Fund s evolving work. President of the Fund Carl Ferenbach said, We were in search of a leader who is passionate about addressing the environmental challenges we all confront and for whom the specialness of Vermont is second nature. We wanted a person who would be capable of leading Vermont toward solutions, and we are pleased to say that Gaye Symington is that person.

Governor Douglas today announced that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has awarded over $1.2 million in grants to the Vermont Homeland Security Unit to assist with increased interoperability and improvements to the state s emergency operations center. In November of 2008 FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security made available over 3 billion dollars in grant funding for fiscal year 2009. The Vermont Homeland Security Unit, a division of the Vermont State Police and Vermont Emergency Management (VEM) qualified for and applied for several programs.
These funds are critical to our emergency response system, said Governor Douglas. Grants will be used to improve interoperability among emergency responders and ensure that we have the tools we need to handle any emergency.
Based on qualifications, applications were submitted and the following three programs, to date, have been awarded:

Williston, VT Jeff Nick, president of NAI / J.L. Davis Realty, is pleased to announce that as of June, 2009, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services will take occupancy of its new 25,450 SF building at 225 Harvest Lane in Williston. The building has been designed by Wiemann ¢Lamphere Architects as a LEED-certified project.
This location is a perfect fit for the USCIS, Nick said. They will consolidate several offices under one roof, which means a more efficient operation. Additionally, the employees will provide a boost to the local economy by taking advantage of the local shopping and dining options.
Taft Corners Associates (TCA) is the landlord for the building, and DEW Construction of Williston is the contractor. NAI / J.L. Davis Realty represented TCA in the transaction.

US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is recommending veteran economic development specialist Molly Lambert to President Barack Obama as Leahy's choice to be the USDA's State Director for Rural Development for Vermont and New Hampshire. The senior senator of the President's party recommends candidates for this and other federal leadership posts in his or her home state, subject to approval of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the President. Leahy also is the most senior member of either party on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, And Forestry, which has jurisdiction over USDA and its programs.

Governor Jim Douglas today announced that $300,000 in brownfield grants have been awarded to help revitalize former industrial and commercial properties in Barre, Brattleboro, Burlington, Johnson Village, Springfield and Wells River.
Brownfields are properties where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant.
“The brownfield program is a great example of our ability to balance environmental protection and economic development,” Governor Douglas said. “Redevelopment of brownfields properties stimulates local economy by getting unproductive properties back on the tax rolls, strengthening downtowns and creating jobs.”
The brownfield reuse program at the Department of Environmental Conservation has awarded almost $1 million in grants in the last three years to 20 projects across Vermont.
The following projects received grants:

Grafton Village Cheese Co., makers of award-winning, handcrafted Vermont cheddar cheese, announced today it will begin paying its local milk suppliers a special premium while milk prices are below the cost of production. The Company is working in concert with its two milk co-ops Agri-Mark and DMS, both of which have given Grafton Cheese permission to send checks directly to the farmers.
Grafton Village Cheese is a major business of the Grafton, Vermont-based Windham Foundation whose mission is to promote Vermont s rural communities. All of the milk used for Grafton Cheese is from Vermont family farms, located primarily in southern and central Vermont.

President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin will be joined by members of IBM's development team and health care specialists tomorrow at noon to discuss how Vermont can develop a state of the art health care billing system. The system will include health care insurance cards, a health care payment card and an established network where providers and payers can connect via a central hub. This new structure will fix our broken collections system by improving efficiency and saving Vermonters money.
The Senate Appropriations and Health and Welfare committees will hear testimony on the development of this health care billing system tomorrow at 1:30 in the Senate Appropriations committee room.
What: Press conference on the development of Vermont's health care payment system.
Where: Senate Chamber
When: Thursday, April 9 at noon

Award-winning author Andre Dubus III will be awarded an Honorary Degree from Southern Vermont College and will address the graduating class on Sunday, May 17, for the school s 82nd commencement. Dubus is the author of House of Sand and Fog (a Finalist for the National Book Award and an Oprah s Book Club selection which was made into a major motion picture), Bluesman and The Cage Keeper and Other Stories. His most recent and widely acclaimed novel, The Garden of Last Days, dramatically weaves a tale about the intertwining lives of several characters leading up to 9/11.

Visitors to the Green Mountain State spent more than $1.61 billion for goods and services in 2007, according to a recent study that measures the impact of visitor spending on the Vermont economy.
The study, prepared by Economic and Policy Resources (EPR) of Williston, shows that visitors made an estimated 14.3 million trips to Vermont in 2007, an increase of 7 percent from 2005.
Vermont s travel and tourism industry continues to experience steady growth, said Gov. Jim Douglas. Vermont has outstanding brand recognition and is fortunate to have more than 80 million people living within a day s drive.
Visitor spending in Vermont supported approximately 37,490 jobs for Vermont workers and business owners. There are nearly 60,000 jobs in the Vermont hospitality sector, many of which are supported locally.

Week Ending April 04, 2009. There were 1,370 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, a decrease of 191 from the week before. Altogether 18,500 new and continuing claims were filed, 99 less than a week ago and 7,555 more than a year earlier. The Department also processed 1,979 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 24 more than a week ago. In addition, there were 1,184 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program which is an increase of 44 from the week before. The Unemployment Weekly Report can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/ Previously released Unemployment Weekly Reports and other UI reports can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/lmipub.htm#uc

The House Corrections and Institutions Committee yesterday unanimously passed the yearly Capital Bill, which includes $11.8 million for Speaker Shap Smith's Vermont Investment Program jobs package that he outlined on the opening day of the legislative session.
"I'm very pleased with the work of the House Corrections and Institutions Committee to craft a Capital Bill that makes strategic investments in Vermont and creates jobs for Vermonters in these challenging economic times," said Speaker Smith. "On the first day of the session, I said that the number one priority of the House is helping Vermonters and Vermont businesses weather the economic storm, and this bill does just that."

The chief executives of Vermont s leading businesses seem cautious over sales prospects and employment levels for the spring and summer when compared to their fourth quarter 2008 forecasts, and they are unlikely to make broad capital investments. But the attitude of the business community appears to have stabilized. The mood was assessed at the end of the first quarter and released today by Vermont Business Roundtable Chair Bill Stritzler and President Lisa Ventriss.
Interestingly, our members responses appear to be very similar to last quarter, which suggests that employers are in a wait and see frame of mind.With economic stimulus monies and the summer tourism season on the horizon, employers are not ready to commit themselves until they see further developments. Ventriss said.