Current News

Vermont Business Magazine As Vermont students headed back to school, some of them enjoyed a quieter, cleaner ride on the first electric school buses to be used in Vermont. State officials, clean energy proponents, elected officials, and educators gathered at Bellows Free Academy in Fairfax today to commemorate this milestone toward decarbonizing transportation in Vermont.

Champlain Valley School District and Franklin West Supervisory Union each welcomed two new electric school buses in time for the start of the school year. Student Transportation of America in partnership with the Barre Unified Union School District anticipate their buses will arrive in November and look forward to the educational opportunities the buses will provide for students.

Vermont Business Magazine VPR and Vermont PBS are accepting applications for its Community Forum, a volunteer group that will help Vermont’s new, unified public media organization assess its service and ensure it is representative of the whole community.

“Our new organization is founded on a commitment to represent and celebrate our entire community,” said Scott Finn, VPR & Vermont PBS president & CEO. “To accomplish this, we must broaden and diversify our audience, and engage community members we have failed to reach—while continuing to serve our existing supporters. The Community Forum is an essential link in this process and key to our future success.”

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has joined the Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food and Markets (VAAFM) in announcing the latest round of grants available to dairy farmers, value-added dairy producers and agricultural service providers through the Northeastern Dairy Business Innovation Center (DBIC).

A wide range of grants and contracts, from implementing on-farm grazing practices, to food safety, to business technical assistance, are available at levels of up to $150,000 each.

Leahy worked to establish the DBIC, as the most senior member of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee and has seen to its annual funding in his role of Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and supported the location of this regional program at VAAFM in Vermont.

Farmers and producers from across New England, as well as in Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania are eligible to apply.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Professionals of Color Network (VT PoC) announced the launch of their redesigned website with the goal of increasing visibility of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) statewide, and increasing access to statewide resources to the BIPOC community.

“Our primary goal during the redesign process was to create a more valuable, user-centric and responsive resource across all platforms and devices,” says Tinotenda Charles Rutanhira, Co-Founder and Chair of VT PoC. “Specifically, we wanted to focus on making it easier for our users to learn and locate valuable information about our organization, our resources, and our members.”

Features and benefits of the new website include:

· Directory of BIPOC-Owned Businesses, a way for Vermonters to support BIPOC-owned businesses across the state.

Vermont Business Magazine Linked to occupational asbestos exposure, malignant mesothelioma (MM) is an aggressive cancer arising primarily from the outer lining of the lungs with a dismal five-year survival rate of only five to 10 percent. Since 2004, only two therapies have been approved for the treatment of MM, which affects about 3,000 people a year in the United States. Now a promising new therapy for mesothelioma and metastatic cancer, arising from laboratory investigations at the University of Vermont, is about to enter a Phase I clinical trial.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont National Guard seeks to increase participation in the VA Airborne Hazards and Open Air Burn Pit Registry.

Any veteran who qualifies should contact the Vermont National Guard Veteran Outreach Specialist within their respective county by calling 888-607-8773.

‘“Burn-pits” are open air burn sites, most in Southwest Asia, where all manner of trash is incinerated on both large and small military bases,” said Maj. Gen. Greg Knight, Vermont adjutant general. “In an effort to increase awareness about the possible risks associated with burn pits, we worked closely with the Vermont Legislature to pass a bill that requires medical providers to educate patients on the risks, as well as to increase participation in the burn pit registry located on the VA website.”

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Transportation (AOT) is pleased to announce the 25th year of funding to support projects on municipal roads that improve water quality and result in maintenance cost savings. The grant funds are provided by AOT in partnership with the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. The Vermont Better Roads Program promotes the use of erosion control and maintenance techniques that save money while protecting and enhancing water quality around the State.

Vermont Business Magazine New York’s Empire State Passengers Association and the Vermont Rail Action Network today jointly called for the swift restoration of Amtrak’s Adirondack train to Montreal along with Amtrak’s Maple Leaf train to Toronto with the November 8th reopening of the U.S.—Canadian border for vaccinated travelers.

Both trains ceased operating in March of 2020 as a result of the CoVid-related closure of the international border. Amtrak resumed operation of the Maple Leaf between New York City and Niagara Falls in July, but the Adirondack service remains fully suspended.

“While we realize there is a certain lead time required and a checklist of preparatory actions that Amtrak must take before trains can start running again, ESPA calls upon Amtrak, its host railroads and New York State to move swiftly to restore these important international travel options,” said ESPA President Gary Prophet.

Vermont Business Magazine iSun, Inc (NASDAQ: ISUN), a leading solar energy and clean mobility infrastructure company based in Williston, with 50-years of construction experience in solar, electrical and data services, today released certain preliminary operating results for the third quarter ending September 30, 2021. Third quarter revenues are estimated to be between $6.2 million and $7.2 million, gross margin between 18% and 20% and net loss between approximately $1.2 million to $1.5 million. Margins are anticipated to return to more normal pre-COVID pandemic levels as the company works through its backlog.

​Vermont Business Magazine The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will conduct a comprehensive review of previously completed site cleanup work at both the Pine Street Canal Site in Burlington and Commerce Street Plume Site in Williston this year. The sites, listed as National Priorities List (NPL) Superfund sites, will undergo a legally required Five-Year Review to ensure that previous remediation efforts at the sites continue to be protective of human health and the environment.

by Lori Fisher, Lake Champlain Committee Since the time of European settlement, Vermont has lost half of its wetlands in the Champlain Basin to development and agriculture, and more than a third of wetlands that existed statewide. Wetlands are known by a lot of different names – swamps, marshes, peatlands, sloughs, bogs, fens, and potholes, among others – and are a critical part of Vermont’s landscape. Wetlands comprise just 4% of Vermont’s land area, yet they serve an outsized role.

by Rob Roper In the spring of 2011, then Governor Peter Shumlin signed into law the bill that was supposed to set Vermont off leading the nation to a single payer healthcare system. The activists rejoiced, the politicians puffed their chests, the bean counters got to work. Then, in December 2014 the three-year adventure in denying reality came to an end. Shumlin was forced to admit the whole scheme was too expensive, too disruptive, and simply wouldn’t work. So, never mind! A similar scent of impending failure is beginning to seep out from the (virtual) chambers of the Vermont Climate Council.