Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Consolidated Communication's Fidium Fiber is celebrating one year of bringing a better internet experience to customers across Northern New England with a fun-filled celebratory tour throughout the region. Now through November 17, the Fidium truck will be posting up at local businesses, giving away prizes and helping people learn how they can get a better internet experience with Fidium Fiber. The tour kicks off in Bennington, Vt., and wraps up in Bangor, Maine, with stops in West Dover, Wilmington and Brattleboro, Vt.

Vermont Business Magazine The proposed merger of Vermont State Employees Credit Union (VSECU) and New England Federal Credit Union (NEFCU) was approved by VSECU members who voted during a period that began on September 20 and concluded November 8 at a VSECU Special Meeting held at the Barre Opera House. The final vote was 7,622 in favor and 7,304 opposed. The VSECU membership vote was the culmination of a months-long process that began in February 2022, when both credit unions’ Boards of Directors unanimously supported the agreement to merge. Although the merged credit union is effective January 1, 2023, uniting the two credit unions will be a gradual process over several months and a new name will be created and announced later in 2023 for the merged credit union. The merged entity will be Vermont’s largest credit union with 165,000 members, 460 employees, 17 local branches, and $3 billion in assets.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos this morning released the unofficial results of the General Election held Tuesday, November 8. The results become official after the Canvassing Committees meet to certify the election. They will meet on Tuesday, November 15, beginning at 10 am at the Secretary of State's offices in Montpelier. The public is invited. Below are the results for governor (Phil Scott), lieutenant governor (David Zuckerman), secretary of state (Copeland Hanzas), treasurer (Pieciak), auditor of accounts (Hoffer) and attorney general Clark), as well as US Senate (Welch) and US House (Balint) and the two statewide ballot items regarding Amending Article 1 (Slavery prohibition) and Adding Article 22 (Reproductive liberty), which both passed.

The results for all statewide and local races can be found HERE.

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington voters have spoken and have approved moving forward with construction of a new high school and technical center. Burlingtonians overwhelmingly approved the $165 million bond measure, which passed with more than 75% of the votes. Flanagan noted that the positive vote clears the way for work to begin in earnest. The District plans to publish an RFQ on Wednesday asking for qualified subcontractors to begin working on the project and plans to move forward with plans to begin demolition by January. BSD will also continue to push for external funding to support the clean-up of toxic chemicals (like PCBs) and the construction of the new facility. Flanagan noted that he empathizes with those who voted against the bond and hopes those residents will help the District to identify those alternative funding sources.

Vermont State Police Following an autopsy performed Tuesday, November 8, 2022, at the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner's Office in Burlington, the Vermont State Police is able to identify the victim of Monday's homicide in Rutland City as Jonathan Naranjo, 26, of Brooklyn, New York. The autopsy determined the cause of death to be gunshot wounds to the torso and upper extremity, and the manner of death to be a homicide. Initial investigation by the Vermont State Police and Rutland City Police department indicates the victim appears to have been targeted. No one is currently in custody.

VermontBiz The business landscape is littered with the carcasses of companies (think Sears and Blockbuster Video) that failed to transform their operations to keep up with a changing marketplace. Adapting to such change is hard, says Lamar Advertising president and CEO Sean Reilly, which is why "every organization needs to be a learning organization."

But learning and changing do not come without risk, according to Reilly, who knows firsthand from the transformation of his 120-year-old billboard advertising company that you need to instill a corporate culture "that encourages people to take a chance" if you are going to innovate and stay ahead of the pack.

Reilly offered his insights into innovation and organizational transformation in the November episode of the 21st Century Business Forum, a webcast that features monthly one-on-one interviews with some of the nation's most prominent business minds and thought leaders.

by Dan Smith, President and CEO, Vermont Community Foundation Wednesday, November 9, is “the day after” for all of us. I won’t hazard a guess about the landscape we will see that morning, nor do I subscribe to the oft-repeated refrain that “this election is the most consequential”—even though there may be good, objective evidence that it is. Every election is consequential because a functioning democracy requires care, attention, and restraint to sustain it. Turning every election into the “most important” may be effective for fundraising and turnout but it also accelerates the disaffection and disengagement among those who lose. When political loss feels eviscerating there is no incentive for concession or compromise. This is not to say the stakes aren’t high—they are—but as the stakes have risen and been amplified, our ability to remember that there is a “we,” beyond an “us versus them,” has been pushed further out of reach. The one guess I’d hazard is that few of us will wake up on November 9 more confident about the stability of our democracy than we were a decade ago. So, what can we do about it?

Vermont Business Magazine The US Department of Agriculture's Vermont Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is accepting applications from landowners interested in restoring, enhancing, and protecting wetlands with financial and technical assistance through the Wetlands Reserve Easement component of the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP-WRE). While applications for ACEP-WRE are taken on a continuous basis, the deadline to be considered for Fiscal Year 2023 funding is February 10, 2023.

Vermont Business Magazine Way back in 2014, a handful of staff and board members at the Vermont Electric Co-op launched the VEC Community Fund. The idea was to create a way for VEC members, if they so desired, to support non-profit organizations in the VEC region. In early 2015 with $646 in hand, the fund made its first two awards: one to Capstone Community Action and another to the Johnson Historical Society. Today, more than 2,600 VEC members support the fund, raising over $30,000 a year for grants. More than 80 different non-profits in the VEC area have received grants.

Vermont Business Magazine With branches across Vermont, Bar Harbor Bank & Trust employees recently presented more than $13,000 in donations collected in Q3 2022 through the Bank’s employee-driven charitable giving program, Casual for A Cause, to six Northern New England nonprofit organizations. The recipients of the donations are: Boys & Girls Club of Souhegan Valley (New Hampshire); Family Violence Project (Maine); NeighborWorks of Western Vermont (Vermont); Partners for Peace (Maine); Regional Medical Center at Lubec (Maine); and Women for Healthy Rural Living (Maine).

by Jill Olson, Executive Director of VNAs of Vermont Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released the final home health Medicare payment rule for calendar year 2023. The news is alarming. The rule temporarily blunts the immediate impact of the original proposal for a “permanent adjustment” (cut) but leaves it intact. A plan to claw back payments dating back to January 1, 2020 (a “temporary adjustment”) is still being considered. Put another way, at a time when home health and hospice agencies are responding to double digit inflation for wages, benefits and transportation, CMS is proposing to cut rates and keep Medicare spending on home health services nearly flat.