Current News

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.

Vermont Business Magazine Sunday marked the end of the 2022 Fox US Open of Mountain Biking event at Killington Resort. Making its return to Killington for the first time since 2018, nearly 600 athletes joined the family-friendly mountain bike festival Sept 15-18. Sunday concluded with the Open Class Downhill race where Dakotah Norton (USA) and Nina Hoffmann (DEU) took the top step of the podium, each taking home the $15,000 cash prize. The fan favorite Red Bull Best Whip, presented by YT Industries, took place on a perfect late summer Vermont evening as the massive crowd watched Eddie Reynolds and Brooke Anderson take first place in the men’s and women’s categories among invited athletes. With the largest ever Fox US Open cash purse of $80,000 on the line, athletes came to win and put on an epic show for the 7,000 spectators at Killington during the event.

Vermont Employee Ownership Center The New England architecture firm has long taken a different approach to its design work. Now it has joined the movement for a different type of ownership. A sampling of words that came to mind for Austin Design’s architects and designers when asked to briefly describe what architecture means to them: Purpose-driven. Enhanced living. Life-focused. Collaboration. The words stand out not only as helpful descriptions of what high-quality architecture can achieve, but also as reflections of some of the core ideals that continue to shape and propel forward the movement of companies becoming employee-owned, a movement which the team of 10 workers at Austin Design has joined as of early September.