Current News

The Vermont Agency of Transportation will close both northbound lanes of Interstate 89 between Waterbury exit 10 and Richmond exit 11 from 8 pm Wednesday, July 6, to 5 am Thursday, July 7 to enable the contractor to build an access road to transport materials to the construction site for the ongoing culvert replacement project. During the closure, a signed detour will be in place routing traffic to US Route 2 between Waterbury and Richmond. The 13-mile detour is expected to add 10 minutes of travel time due to the lower speed limit on US 2. Traffic delays are not anticipated given the volume of traffic typically traveling on I-89 at that location during the night.

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington City Arts (BCA) in collaboration with The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, The Current, and Hall Art Foundation, is thrilled to announce the winner of the first annual Vermont Prize: renowned Brandon-based visual artist, graffiti scholar, and educator Will Kasso Condry. As the recipient of this prize, Condry receives a monetary prize of $5,000, and his work will be showcased and archived on vermontprize.org and on social media. Launched in 2022, the prize is a partnership between four Vermont arts organizations, The prize winner is selected on the basis of artistic excellence, regardless of career stage.

Vermont Business Magazine Lawson’s Finest Liquids is thrilled to announce that it is accepting applications from Vermont nonprofit organizations for the 2023 Sunshine Fund calendar. Created to assist nonprofits that support the environment and the people of Vermont, the Sunshine Fund is the heart of the company’s Social Impact Program (SIP). Lawson’s Finest Liquids is proud to support its staff through a generous living wage and benefit package. This approach enables the company to leverage the generosity of its Taproom and Retail Store guests by accepting donations—in lieu of tips—for the Sunshine Fund. All of the money raised through the Sunshine Fund goes directly to Vermont-based nonprofit organizations.

Vermont Business Magazine The US Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) estimated 178 thousand acres of corn planted for all purposes in New England for 2021, up 6% from last year’s acreage of 168 thousand acres. Vermont corn planted for all purposes in 2022 is estimated at 90 thousand acres, up 6% from 2021; growers expect to harvest 165 thousand acres of hay, up 3% from 2021 acreage of 160 thousand acres.

Vermont Business Magazine Let’s Grow Kids Action Network announced the launch of the Vote Child Care Fund Political Action Committee. The Vote Child Care Fund was created to support candidates who prioritize passing laws that aim to transform Vermont’s child care system. The Vote Child Care Fund is a separate segregated fund of Let’s Grow Kids Action Network which is a 501(c)(4) organization building the political will necessary to pass laws that fund and sustain a high-quality, affordable child care system.

Vermont Business Magazine In response to reduced on-site visitation by the public beginning long before the pandemic, the Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation (FPR) will be closing the Morrisville office at 29 Sunset Drive, Suite 1 in Morrisville, on August 1, 2022. This change will support enhanced coordination among staff within the Agency of Natural Resources, reduce the Department’s footprint, and allow reallocation of resources, ultimately improving FPR’s ability to serve private forestland owners.

Vermont Business Magazine The Fourth of July Holiday brings together friends and family for barbeques, camping and fireworks. The Division of Fire Safety and your local emergency service personnel want everyone to have a safe holiday season by following a few seasonal safety tips. In Vermont, it is illegal to purchase, possess, transport, store or discharge fireworks without first obtaining a local permit from your municipality. Novelty type devices such as sparklers, snakes, party poppers, glow worms, smoke devices, string poppers, snappers, or drop pop with no more than 0.25 grains of explosive mixture can be purchased without a permit but should only be used by children under close adult supervision. Nationally, the 4th of July holiday is when emergency services experience a large spike in firework related injuries.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont State Police on Friday, July 1, will mark the 75th anniversary of the agency’s creation, a watershed moment that arose from tragedy and laid the groundwork for a proud legacy of dedicated service across generations. State leaders established the Vermont State Police on July 1, 1947, in the aftermath of the disappearance of Paula Jean Welden, an 18-year-old Bennington College student who vanished the year before. When local officials were unsuccessful in pursuing the case, they called in state police investigators from Connecticut and New York — because Vermont had no similar agency. The case, which remains unsolved, rallied Vermonters and their political leadership to finally launch the Vermont State Police after many years of hesitation and debate.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Attorney General’s Office and the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced the approval of a settlement in Vermont’s first-ever joint state/federal employment discrimination lawsuit. The settlement requires Coughlin, Inc, a McDonald’s restaurant franchisee, to pay $1.6 million in damages and state penalties and substantially reform its business practices under a five-year consent decree. Friday’s announcement marks the largest public sexual harassment settlement in the history of the Attorney General’s Office and one of the largest reported employment discrimination settlements in Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont farmers who withdraw any surface waters ( definition:10 V.S.A. § 1002(20) ) for farming are advised to begin keeping records of irrigation events this summer if a farm does not already do so. A new state law goes into effect today, July 1, 2022, which requires annual reporting of surface water withdrawals used for farming to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets (VAAFM). The first such annual report for farmers who qualify (**see below) will be due to the VAAFM on January 15th, 2023. Vermont agriculture is the first new sector of surface water handlers to report usage of waters to the State of Vermont based on Act 135 of 2022.

Vermont Business Magazine KSV, a full-service marketing & advertising, women-owned, B Corporation-certified agency just powered-up with a heaping can of (organic) spinach—also known as We Ride at Dawn (WRAD), an award-winning creative content outpost specializing in outdoor, active lifestyle based out of Boulder, CO. The KSV + WRAD partnership was born out of a desire to bring decades of sustainability expertise into the outdoor space. And with the month of June recognized as Great Outdoors Month, the announcement could not come at a better time.

Vermont Business Magazine Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc (NYSE: BHLB) announced today the completion of the public offering and sale of its inaugural Sustainability Bond, offering $100.0 million of its 5.50% fixed-to-floating rate subordinated notes due 2032. The Notes were sold at par, resulting in $98.3 million in net proceeds, after underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses. The company intends to use an amount equal to the net proceeds to finance or refinance new or existing social and environmental projects consistent with its Sustainable Financing Framework. Berkshire is the first public U.S. community bank holding company with under $150 billion in total assets to issue a Sustainability Bond. Berkshire has branches in southwest Vermont.