Current News

Vermont Business Magazine VSECU distributed $50,000 in grants to eight Vermont nonprofits significantly impacted by COVID-19. The $5,000 and $10,000 grants will help preserve and create job opportunities, support local economic development, and further important community services. The grants are funded by Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston’s Jobs for New England Recovery Grant program. The program was specifically created in 2020 to provide member financial institutions with grants to support local small businesses and nonprofit organizations experiencing significant losses because of COVID-19. This is the second round of funding FHLBank Boston and VSECU are providing to Vermont nonprofits through the Jobs for New England Recovery Grant program. They also gave $100,000 in grants to seven nonprofits in November 2020.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Green Mountain Care Board, in consultation with Vermont’s Agency of Human Services, submitted the Annual ACO Scale Target and Alignment Report for Performance Year 3 (2020), as required by the Vermont All-Payer Accountable Care Organization Model Agreement with the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. OneCare Vermont, based in Colchester, is the only ACO operating in Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington Electric Department (BED) issued a peak alert for today/Wednesday, June 30 as part of its Defeat the Peak program launched during summer 2017, encouraging members of the Burlington community to reduce their energy usage from 4-7 pm today. Among other measure, BED requests customers wait until after 7 pm or later to use washing machines, clothing dryers, dishwashers, and other appliances.

Vermont Business Magazine Through its Agency of Human Services, the State of Vermont recently received a $14,305,846 FEMA grant for community-based, COVID-19 testing of Vermonters. The Vermont agency contracted with Cambridge, Massachusetts-headquartered CIC Health to provide coronavirus testing throughout the Green Mountain State.

Vermont Business Magazine Head Chef and Co-Owner of Blake Hill Preserves, Vicky Allard, excitedly announced the local English preserve maker has won two Gold Medals, two Silvers and a Bronze at 2021’s World Artisan Marmalade Awards. This is their most successful year yet, and follows five previous years’ of Gold Medal wins for Blake Hill - the US’ leading artisan maker at these prestigious international awards. The Worldwide Marmalade Awards was founded in 2005 by Jane Hasell-McCosh to preserve, grow and widen one of the most British of customs – marmalade making.

Vermont Business Magazine The Central Vermont Chamber of Commerce will be hosting the 3rd annual ATHENA Leadership Awards Gala.

As we begin to lift restrictions and open back to business as usual, we can look back over the past year and see the value of great leadership and be a witness to those who are true leaders. On behalf of Vermont women leaders who are striving every day to make a difference, we ask that you please consider promoting the ATHENA Awards® throughout your network of family, friends, and business/professional colleagues.

To that end we are announcing a CALL FOR NOMINATIONS for potential recipients of these prestigious awards. Completed nomination forms must be submitted to Central Vermont Chamber of Commerce by 5pm on September 1, 2021.

by Bradford J Worthen We are fortunate to have two Amtrak train services in Vermont. It is the hope of the Vermont Rail Action Network (VRAN) that more people will discover the train as a viable upgrade to traveling by car, bus or airline. On July 19th, the Vermonter will return to St Albans with service to Washington, DC, and the Ethan Allen will return to Rutland with service to the newly renovated Penn Station in New York City.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Community Loan Fund (VCLF) has been awarded $1.8 million dollars from the US Department of the Treasury’s CDFI Rapid Response Program, to deploy to Vermont businesses and communities hit hardest by COVID-19. VCLF is among 863 CDFIs nationwide awarded a total of $1.25 billion dollars in Rapid Response Program funds, to aid underserved communities across the country negatively impacted by COVID-19. Awards were announced by Vice President Kamala Harris, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, US Senator Mark Warner, and US Representative Maxine Waters on June 15th.

Vermont Business Magazine The VDH is reporting today four new cases of COVID-19 (24,406 total) and no deaths, which are holding at 256. There has not been a COVID-related fatality in three weeks and only one in the last six. Cases across the Northeast and Quebec also have declined rapidly, though the Canadian border is expected to remain closed at least through July.While Vermont leads the nation in all vaccination measures, state officials continue to urge the 99,605 Vermonters who have not yet been vaccinated to get a shot in the arm. There are many walk-in clinics and pharmacies across the state available and the vaccines are free.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) Tuesday visited the Huntington Community Forest to coincide with the release of a special report, "Community Forests: A Path to Prosperity and Connection” by the Trust for Public Land. The property, immediately adjacent to the Brewster-Pierce Memorial School, is one of many forests in Vermont and across New England and the nation that offer community members and students the opportunity to learn, play, and connect with nature and each other. Vermont has completed seven CFP projects, more than nearly any other state — most recently the Huntington Community Forest.

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington Electric Department (BED) issued a peak alert for today/Tuesday, June 29 as part of its Defeat the Peak program launched during summer 2017, encouraging members of the Burlington community to reduce their energy usage from 4-7 pm today.

Vermont Business Magazine The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud and Residential Abuse Unit (MFRAU) today announced a settlement with Health Care & Rehabilitation Services of Southeastern Vermont (HCRS) of Springfield resolving allegations that HCRS violated the Vermont False Claims Act. The settlement, reached in collaboration with the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont, resolves claims that HCRS improperly submitted Medicaid claims for services provided by an employee who was on the Office of the Inspector General, US Department of Health and Human Services (OIG-HHS) exclusion list and barred from receiving payments from federally funded health care programs. HCRS has agreed to pay to the State of Vermont and the United States a total of $170,037.76, of which Vermont Medicaid will receive $101,254.61 in program restitution.