Current News

VermontBiz Today, the Green Mountain Care Board completed its review and approval of the Fiscal Year 2023 budgets for Vermont’s 14 community hospitals.

“Like households and other businesses, Vermont hospitals have been challenged by historically high inflation rates, supply chain breakdowns, and workforce shortages,” said Jessica Holmes, Interim Board Chair. “The continuing impacts of COVID-19 have led hospital costs to outpace revenues, with 9 of our hospitals currently experiencing operating losses. Every year, we work hard to balance cost containment with the need to ensure that Vermont’s hospitals have the resources necessary to provide high-quality care in their communities. This year, we paid close attention to restoring the financial stability of the hospital system and preserving access to care.”

VermontBiz Special Olympics Vermont has announced that Brattleboro Union High School, a Special Olympics Unified Champion School, is receiving national banner recognition for its efforts to provide inclusive sports and activities for students with and without disabilities. Brattleboro Union High School is receiving this honor as a result of meeting national standards of excellence in the areas of inclusion, advocacy, and respect. Brattleboro Union High School plans to celebrate the award throughout the school year with a kick-off event open to the community in the next few weeks.

Brattleboro Union High School is amongst a select number of schools to receive this distinction. They will be presented with a banner to hang in their school and be included on a list of other schools around the country who have achieved this distinguished status.

VermontBiz Creative Futures Grants, with $9 million in funding from Vermont’s last legislative session, will be available beginning Thursday, Sept. 15, to help the creative sector recover from economic losses due to the pandemic.

Grants of up to $200,000 will be available to creative sector non-profits and for-profit entities, including sole proprietors, that have sustained substantial losses from the pandemic. Losses include decreased revenue or gross receipts; financial insecurity; increased costs; and challenges covering operating expenses.

Grant amounts, which will be based on pre-pandemic operating revenue from 2019, may be used to cover a wide range of regular operating expenses, including payroll and office expenses; rent, mortgage, and utilities; and costs associated with ongoing Covid-19 mitigation and prevention.

VermontBiz The Attorney General’s Office today announced it charged four caregivers after Vermont Superior Court, Franklin Criminal Division, found probable cause for multiple criminal charges. The charges, including abuse and neglect of vulnerable adults, are against David Mumley, 29, formerly of Swanton, Vermont; Heather Mumley, 30, formerly of Swanton, Vermont; Krystal Grenier, 30, of Milton, Vermont; and Nicholas Grenier, 29, of Milton, Vermont. The charges brought against the four caregivers are the result of an investigation conducted by the Medicaid Fraud and Residential Abuse Unit of the Attorney General’s Criminal Division.

David Mumley was paid to provide care to a vulnerable adult who lived in the home of David and Heather Mumley and was dependent on Mr. Mumley for feeding, toileting, and other personal hygiene necessities. David Mumley was arrested in Florida and has been charged with:

VermontBiz “We are extremely disappointed and concerned that the Green Mountain Care Board has dismissed the severity of the financial situation facing Vermont’s hospitals – and with it, our patients’ ability to access the care they deserve – with today’s decision to make deep, arbitrary cuts in the UVM Health Network’s carefully constructed FY2023 budgets for the UVM Medical Center and Central Vermont Medical Center.

These budgets included what was needed to protect critical services while continuing vital work to improve access. After finding reductions, tightening our belts, and significantly dipping into our reserves, these were the most responsible budgets possible given ongoing steep inflation in the cost of providing patient care.

VermontBiz The Vermont State Police is asking for the public’s assistance locating missing 81-year-old Beverly Ross. It is reported Beverly has dementia, along with additional mobility issues. Beverly was last seen at her home on U.S. Route 7 in the town of Ferrisburgh at about 9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. Her family reported her missing at about 9:06 a.m. Monday. There are concerns for Beverly’s welfare due to health issues.

Beverly is described as about 5 feet 5 inches tall and has mid-length reddish hair. Beverly was reported to be wearing a teal nightgown with half-length sleeves, white and pink socks, and brown slip-on slippers when she was last seen. Beverly also may be carrying a black purse. It is presumed Beverly left the residence on foot.

Anyone with information that might help investigators in locating Beverly is asked to call the Vermont State Police in New Haven at 802-388-4919.

VermontBiz After a decade of ownership, and successfully securing the collections of the Vermont Marble Museum, the Preservation Trust of Vermont has transferred ownership of the former Vermont Marble Company facility in Proctor to ZION Growers, a Vermont- based industrial hemp processing company.

“Our partnership with ZION Growers achieves the goals that the Trust identified when it stepped in to purchase the 52 Main Street building,” said Preservation Trust of Vermont President Ben Doyle. “As a result of our efforts, the building and collections of the Vermont Marble Museum will be preserved so that residents and visitors alike can understand the important history of the marble industry in Vermont. In addition, the Trust is proud to bring economic opportunity to Rutland County with a promising new business coming to Proctor.”

VermontBiz United Way of Northwest Vermont (UWNWVT), an organization dedicated to improving lives in Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle counties, is excited to announce the theme of our 2022 Community Campaign: Community Power Amplified.

“Community power – people helping people – is what United Way of Northwest Vermont is all about. It’s the coming together of local people to find local solutions that address the community’s most complex problems,” said UWNWVT CEO Jesse Bridges.

Our world looks different than any of us could have imagined a few years ago.

From social, racial and health inequities exposed and exacerbated by COVID to continued economic uncertainty – the challenges our community faces are great.

At the same time, our community’s ability to come together to address shared priorities has never been more inspiring – or more essential.

VermontBiz The Attorney General’s Consumer Assistance Program (CAP) is warning Vermont business owners, non-profits, and employees about an uptick in business imposter email scams. In the last two months, CAP has received five reports of business imposter email scams resulting in a total loss of $210,799. Scammers are impersonating employees or familiar business representatives’ emails and contacting company bookkeepers and office administrators asking them to change bank account information, direct deposit information, or asking them to write checks. By impersonating an employee’s email address or creating a fake personal email for the employee, scammers can steal money from businesses and steal paychecks from employees.

Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food & Markets Applications are now open for the Capital Equipment Assistance Program (CEAP). The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets' Water Quality Division has funding for new or innovative equipment. The funding is for equipment that will aid in the reduction of surface runoff of agricultural waters, improve water quality, reduce odors from manure application, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and more! Vermont farms required to comply with the Required Agricultural Practices, custom operators, non-profit organizations, and phosphorus extraction equipment producers are welcome to apply.

by Rob Roper The mood at recent Vermont Climate Council committee meetings is bleak as the folks tasked by the legislature to come up with a plan to meet the greenhouse gas reduction mandates of their Global Warming Solutions Act do not have one. It’s not entirely their fault. The task is and always was politically and logistically impossible. The whole thing has echoes of the legislature passing a law to deliver a single payer healthcare system before looking at the details of what it would cost and what it would take. When the public finally saw the price tag, dreams of single payer very quickly evaporated.

Vermont Business Magazine The US Army and GlobalFoundries (GF) signed off Friday on a partnership agreement that could boost jobs as the semiconductor plant in Essex Junction. The deal would put servicemembers leaving the Army front and center with job openings at GF's plant in Vermont. There are about 200 job openings. GlobalFoundries VP and GM Kenneth McAvey told VermontBiz at the signing that many of the technical skills servicemembers are a perfect fit for positions available at the Vermont plant. They also bring a great work ethic.