Current News

by Todd Heyman With the conclusion of Vermont’s first ever agritourism month and the second International Workshop on Agritourism held in Burlington, it’s time to chart a path to grow Vermont agritourism. Unfortunately, the Legislature is already off-course. Rather than pass Rep. Charlie Kimbell’s bill that would have limited Act 250 jurisdiction over small agritourism projects this past session, it assigned the Natural Resources Board authority to develop a report to “support” the industry by recommending appropriate Act 250 regulation. The NRB seems an odd choice. Neither the agency nor its staff seem to have any experience running businesses, let alone agriculturally based businesses. And in the past, the Legislature has repeatedly passed laws to keep the NRB off of farms as much as possible.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Woodlands Association recently welcomed Kate Forrer as the group’s new executive director. Kate joins the VWA after working in forestry outreach & education at the University of Vermont Extension. Through her work at UVM Extension, Kate partnered with VWA in the past on many projects that served Vermont’s forests.

Kate’s passion for forestry comes from a personal as well as a professional place as she and her husband recently became owners of 130 acres of forest in Tunbridge, VT. Stewarding and exploring their property is something she enjoys along with her husband and three children. As a woodland owner herself she understands the rewards and challenges of caring for forest land.

Vermont Business Magazine Your employees may present the biggest risk in network security, according to Consolidated Communications (NASDAQ: CNSL) a leading broadband and business communications provider in Vermont. October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and in addition to serving business customers with best-in-class broadband and security services, Consolidated is aiming to educate businesses and individuals on safe online practices. Passwords continue to be the top cause of cyber breaches, and for good reason. Faulty memories lead the majority of people to reuse passwords across platforms, and three in four people say they aren’t sure how to create a secure password at all. This creates an ideal scenario for hackers, and once they are in, new forms of attack are making them harder to detect than ever before.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Public has announced a new local radio host lineup for All Things Considered, the afternoon news magazine program from NPR, and weekend mornings. Co-hosts Jenn Jarecki, a Vermont Public producer, and Mary Williams Engsich, weekend host since 2019, will shape the local news and sound of All Things Considered, which airs weekdays from 4-6:30 p.m. Jarecki will host Mondays and Fridays with Engisch hosting Tuesday-Thursday. Engisch also will continue hosting on Saturdays from 6 a.m. - 2 p.m. Vermont Public News Fellow Marlon Hyde joins the lineup on Sundays from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mitch Wertlieb will continue to host Morning Edition.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced the Fiscal Year 2022 recipients of the EPA's Clean School Bus Program rebate competition, awarding $4,345,000 from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to four school districts in Vermont. The grants will help school districts purchase 11 clean school buses that will accelerate the transition to zero emissions vehicles and produce cleaner air in and around schools and communities. The investment will also drive demand for American-made batteries and vehicles, boost domestic manufacturing, and create good-paying jobs.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) today announced that nearly $30 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, appropriated for the village water and wastewater (VWWW) initiative, has now been committed to towns across the state. The VWWW Initiative will help municipalities develop new public drinking water systems and community wastewater disposal systems where this critical infrastructure is lacking. This grant funding will bridge the affordability gap, protect public health, increase affordable housing, support economic development, and incentivize compact growth in Vermont’s designated villages and neighborhoods.

Vermont Business Magazine Ledyard Financial Group, Inc (ticker symbol LFGP), the holding company for Ledyard National Bank, today announced financial results for Q3 2022 and Q3 2022 YTD. The results confirmed the strength and resiliency of the company’s core businesses. ROA, ROE, and key capital ratios all exceeded figures for comparable prior periods. Net income for Q3 2022 was $2.08 million or $0.64 per share compared to $1.97 million or $0.61 per share for Q3 2021, an increase of $105 thousand or 5%. Net income for Q3 2022 YTD was $6.20 million or $1.90 per share compared to $5.77 million or $1.80 per share for the comparable prior year period, an increase of $429 thousand or 7%.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Transportation (AOT) is once again inviting Vermont schools to name the State’s big orange snowplows. Last year, participating public and private schools, homeschooling students, and nursery schools named 163 of the State’s fleet of full-sized plow trucks. This year, AOT is asking Vermont’s students to name the remaining 87 trucks in the fleet.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Attorney General’s Office has reached a settlement with a New Hampshire-based staffing agency that employed a temporary caregiver to multiple Vermont long-term care facilities despite knowing that the caregiver had financially exploited at least two older Vermonters while employed on the agency’s watch. The settlement requires SSVT to pay $100,000 to the State of Vermont, with $60,000 of the penalty suspended based on SSVT’s cooperation with the Attorney General’s investigation and inability to pay. The settlement also requires SSVT to overhaul the processes by which it (1) conducts employee background checks and (2) communicates background check results to its long-term care facility and individual clients.

Vermont Business Magazine Four times each year, New England Federal Credit Union (NEFCU) selects four recipient organizations at random to receive $625 each, for a total of $10,000 annually. NEFCU’s community giving donation recipients for the third quarter of 2022 were: HOPE—Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects, Addison County Communication Action Group; Ronald McDonald House Charities of Burlington; St. Albans Museum; Franklin County Senior Center.