Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department and Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board will hold two more public hearings on May 10 and 12 to solicit input on deer and the department’s 2022 Antlerless Harvest and Youth Season Recommendation. The hearings are scheduled for 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. at the following locations: Tuesday, May 10 – Bellows Falls Union High School, 406 High School Rd, Westminster, VT 05158; Thursday, May 12 – Vermont Fish and Wildlife Dept., 111 West St, Essex Junction, VT 05452.

Vermont Business Magazine The Burlington Board of School Commissioners has selected a conceptual design for a new high school and technical center in Burlington School District. The board voted unanimously to support what had been known as “Option C”, a building that would run parallel to Institute Road with Burlington High School (BHS) located in the eastern portion of the building and Burlington Technical Center (BTC) located in the western portion of the building. This option was recommended by both Superintendent Flanagan and the BHS/BTC 2025 Design Team.

Vermont Business Magazine Former gubernatorial candidate John Klar seeks support for his election bid to become Orange County’s next Senator. In a statement Klar said, "Challenging a seat long held by Democrat Mark MacDonald, farmer, writer, and attorney John Klar offers creative ideas and strong criticism of a bloated state bureaucracy as alternatives for consideration by all Vermonters."

Vermont Business Magazine Members of the Highgate community came together Tuesday, April 26, for the second step of the Highgate: Reaching New Heights community visit process and set four concrete and actionable priorities for the future of the town: Advance Career Training, Workforce Development, and Agricultural Career Pathways; Expand Community Events and Boost Volunteerism and Engagement; Recruit and Support Local Businesses; Expand the Highgate Library and Community Center.

Vermont Business Magazine TDS Telecommunications LLC will begin construction on a high-speed, all-fiber internet network in portions of several Vermont communities later this year. The projects will deliver what’s known as the “gold standard” of internet connections to residents and businesses in communities including Baltimore, Cavendish, Ludlow, Perkinsville, Plymouth, Weathersfield, Northfield, and Roxbury. More than 9,000 addresses within TDS’ footprint will have access to the network. The network will feature up to 2Gig internet download and upload speeds.

Vermont Business Magazine As part of its ongoing commitment to support training and workforce development, Advantage Truck Group will host the Diesel Equipment Technology competition for the 2022 SkillsUSA Massachusetts and SkillsUSA Vermont State Championships at its Shrewsbury facility. High school students from Vermont will compete on Thursday, April 28, and students from Massachusetts will compete on Friday, April 29. The winner from each competition will represent their state at the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference diesel competition in June.

Vermont Business Magazine Population Media Center (PMC), a Vermont-based global sustainability nonprofit and broadcast production partner, has submitted an endorsement of Vermont’s proposed Reproductive Liberty Amendment protecting reproductive liberty. Simultaneously, in other regions of the United States, PMC staff are on the ground documenting the arduous journeys of real people seeking abortion care despite legislative, geographic, socio-economic, and other barriers for a 10-episode, docu-style PMC podcast, Crossing The Line.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Warden Service has completed a multi-month poaching investigation resulting in the arrest of five Windsor County males suspected of taking 14 illegal deer in Vermont during the fall of 2021.

Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department Game Wardens and Detectives worked alongside Conservation Officers from the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, and Special Agents of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service through the investigation. In addition to the 14 illegal deer taken in Vermont, those involved are suspected of taking multiple illegal deer in New Hampshire. They are facing additional charges in that jurisdiction.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced Commissioner Mike Pieciak will be stepping away from his role leading the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation (DFR) next month to pursue other opportunities. Pieciak, along with Health Commissioner Mark Levine and former Human Services Secretary Mike Smith, was a familiar face at the governor's pandemic response press conferences beginning in March 2020. Pieciak provided data modeling related to the rise and recent decline of COVID-19. Commissioner Pieciak was appointed to lead the consumer watchdog agency by Governor Scott in January 2017. He joined DFR in 2014 as Deputy Commissioner of the Securities Division, appointed by Governor Peter Shumlin.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health today is reporting 424 cases of COVID-19 for Tuesday (327 Monday, 179 Sunday). There were 251 on Saturday and 372 last Friday, as cases have edged up in recent weeks and 8.5 percent in the last week. The seven-day positivity rate keeps rising and is now 12.9%; the record was 13.8% set January 8.

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) has funded an additional 18 projects in a second round of Municipal Planning Grants. The 2022 Budget Adjustment Act (Act 83) appropriated an extra $250,000 for municipal planning which allowed for DHCD to review and fund the highest scoring applications that were not funded in the first round. This second round of awarded projects range from creating an outdoor recreation plan, identifying ways to enhance existing and future recreational amenities, updating town zoning and subdivision regulations to support smart growth, developing a village center streetscape and green space improvement plan, and developing a bicycle and pedestrian connectivity plan.

Vermont Business Magazine On April 27, Governor Scott signed bills of the following titles: H.461, An act relating to excluding the income of asylum seekers and refugees from household income; H.718, An act relating to approval of the dissolution of Colchester Fire District No. 1; S.74, An act relating to modifications to Vermont’s patient choice at end of life laws; S.163, An act relating to State court petitions for vulnerable noncitizen youth; S.239, An act relating to enrollment in Medicare supplemental insurance policies.