Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC) in inviting members to swing by our new facility in Newport for tours, food, and to check out a range of electric vehicles on display at our “Open House/Open Hoods event Tuesday, September 27 between 3-6 pm. The event will be held at 334 Citizens Road – halfway between Pine Hill Road and VT Route 191.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont-based public relations firm, Junapr has been named as a 2023 Agency Elite Top 100 by PRNEWS for the second consecutive year. This annual roster highlights the most innovative PR & communications firms in the United States. Junapr was founded in mid-2019 and has experienced tremendous growth within the past 24 months. The team now boasts 13 communications professionals, with nine working from the Vermont office. PR News is the leading source of information, education, recognition, and data for Fortune 1000 professionals, agencies, and government/non-profits.

Vermont Business Magazine Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Wednesday praised the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) publication of six reports tracking the implementation of Congressionally Directed Spending and Community Project Funding in the Fiscal Year 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act. The reports were published at the direction of the Chairman under new rules to increase transparency and accountability on the process commonly referred to “earmarking” in fiscal year 2022.

Public Assets Institute Vermont’s median household income passed $70,000 last year, for the first time ever. This means half of Vermont households took in more than $70,000, and half got less. Household income rose by about $5,700 between 2019 and 2021, after adjusting for inflation, according to U.S. Census Bureau numbers released last week. That was the largest two-year increase since 2000. The Census skipped reporting state-level median income in 2020, when the pandemic interrupted data collection.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and Housing and Community Development Commissioner Josh Hanford today joined community partners in West Rutland to discuss the impact of the Vermont Housing Improvement Program (VHIP). VHIP is an important tool in the State’s toolbox for increasing the usable housing stock, in addition to new construction. The program helps bring vacant rental units back to the market. In the 2022 legislative session, $20 million was appropriated for the program.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Business Magazine Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger will call a Special Election to fill the East District City Council seat, following the resignation of Councilor Jack Hanson. In accordance with all applicable City Charter and State Statute provisions, the Special Election will take place on December 6, 2022. Hanson, a Progressive, announced he was stepping down on September 13 to apply for a job at the Burlington Electric Department.

Vermont Business Magazine The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announces the formation of the Chittenden County Gun Violence Task Force. The Chittenden County Gun Violence Task Force was developed, in conjunction with the Burlington Police Department and partnerships with numerous other local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, to address the rapid and disturbing increase in firearm-related violent crime in Chittenden County. The Chittenden County Gun Violence Task Force is a team of investigators from several partner agencies who will utilize various investigative techniques and leverage their collective resources, including Crime Gun Intelligence (CGI), to target individuals who are actively involved in, or associated with, firearm-related violence in Chittenden County.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) Wednesday applauded the announcement by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development that nearly $3 million combined across three grants has been approved for Vermont health care organizations in Wells River, Springfield, and Brattleboro. These Emergency Rural Health Care Grants (ERHC), a part of the American Rescue Plan’s emergency relief funding that Sanders helped to pass in 2021, will expand critical health care services for thousands of Vermonters in rural communities.

Vermont Business Magazine The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) today named the University of Vermont (UVM) as regional winner of the 2022 W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award in recognition of the extraordinary community engagement of the Agroecology and Livelihoods Collaborative (ALC), a community of practice at UVM working to advance participatory agroecology research and solutions around the world. UVM is one of four land-grant universities to receive the award. As the northeast regional winner, UVM receives a $5,000 prize for the ALC to further its work and advances the institution to compete for the national C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award, which will be announced in November.

by C.B. Hall, Vermont Business Magazine Twenty-nine months after an organization known as the Democracy Builders Fund purchased the campus of Marlboro College and commenced an ill-fated educational project known as Degrees of Freedom on the property, stability has returned to the scenic campus under the aegis of a newly formed nonprofit called Potash Hill, Inc. Potash Hill, which acquired the real estate in September 2021 and takes its name from the hill that dominates the campus, is an offspring of Marlboro Music, the Philadelphia-based nonprofit that has been leasing space on the property for its world-renowned music festival since 1951.

Vermont Business Magazine At the annual national America’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC) conference in San Diego, the board of directors re-elected Linda Rossi, State Director of Vermont’s Small Business Development Center (VtSBDC), as national Board Chair for a second term. Rossi was elected at last year’s national conference which took place virtually. She also previously served as both Secretary and Vice-Chair for the national board. As State Director of VtSBDC since 2013, Rossi has led her high-performing team to provide no-fee, one-to-one confidential advising, market-demanded training, and a vast array of digital and in-person resources that have inspired thousands of business owners, start-ups, and student entrepreneurs who now thrive in the Vermont marketplace and serve their customers with pride and quality.