Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The US Department of Agriculture announced the selection of recipients for approximately $4.1 million in grants and cooperative agreements through its new Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production. These are the first-ever recipients of these grants and cooperative agreements, which will enhance urban agriculture efforts in Vermont and across the country. The Association of Africans Living in Vermont (AALV) received $300,000 for their project titled, New Farms for New Americans: Improving Lands, Improving Lives. They were one of ten recipients selected from 500 applicants through the national competitive grant program. The effort will provide 80 garden plots to approximately 70 households on five acres of leased land to support food production and community building for New Americans.

Vermont Business Magazine Mass testing of Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield conducted Monday, August 24 showed no new positive cases of COVID-19 among the 455 staff and inmates tested. This latest round of testing was conducted as part of Vermont Department of Corrections and Vermont Health Department’s plan to test all Vermont facilities on a rotating basis. Chittenden County Regional Correctional Facility (South Burlington) will be tested on Monday, August 31. At Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, another Vermont inmate tested positive for COVID-19 during follow-up testing of all negative inmates.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Education, working in close cooperation with the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC), is working to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and other resources to support Vermont schools as they prepare to reopen next month. These resources include PPE kits for school nurses and school COVID-19 coordinators, hand sanitizer, cloth face coverings, posters and other mask campaign resources to remind and encourage all Vermonters that face coverings are required in all Vermont schools to protect students, staff and their families.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s Killington Resort, the largest mountain resort in Eastern North America, today announced a Farm-to-Trunk Community Grocery Giveaway happening on Thursday, September 3 from 3 pm to 6 pm, or until all 700 bags have been given away, at Pico Mountain, 73 Alpine Drive, Mendon, Vermont. The 100% locally sourced grocery giveaway is in partnership with VFFC and funded by a $50,000 donation from the Killington Play It Forward Fund at the Vermont Community Foundation to VFFC and Thomas Dairy.

Vermont Business Magazine The Agency of Commerce & Community Development will be hosting an overview webinar for businesses interested in participating in the new Buy Local Vermont Gift Card Program on Wednesday, August 26th at 3:30pm. The program is intended to bring needed foot traffic and increase sales for local restaurants, retail stores, entertainment and performing arts venues, lodging and tourism-related businesses. Businesses can enroll to take part in the program starting today. The Buy Local Vermont Gift Card Program will launch to consumers on September 8th.

Vermont Business Magazine It has been over a month since the City sent a default notice to BTC Mall Associates – the developer of the former mall site and partnership between Brookfield and Devonwood – under the 2017 Development Agreement. The mayor said that to date, the developer has taken no actions to cure that default. In response, the City has taken the following steps in recent days: Retained the services of Downs Rachlin and Martin PLLC (DRM) to represent the City in the litigation of this matter; issued two letters on August 21 to BTC Mall Associates and Brookfield.

Vermont Business Magazine Health Commissioner Mark Levine, MD, said a recent report indicated that child care programs that resumed operations at a time of low community spread of coronavirus infection and followed strict protocols were successful at limiting new infections. As for colleges reopening, the governor said that they need to be firm in dismissing students that do not follow guidelines because it puts everyone in Vermont at risk, and that includes the local economy. Meanwhile, the VDH today reported seven new cases of COVID-19 statewide with hospitalizations at three and deaths unchanged at 58.

Vermont Business Magazine After repeatedly pressing the Trump Administration, Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) announced Tuesday that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has canceled its scheduled furlough of more than 13,000 dedicated public servants. The furlough was set to take effect on August 30. About 1,100 workers in Vermont, concentrated in St Albans, would have faced job loss if the threatened furloughs had been fully implemented.

Vermont Business Magazine Dartmouth engineers have been awarded a $2.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to develop and test a device that could be used by surgeons to detect prostate cancer still left in the body during surgery.

Currently, 6.5 to 32 percent of patients undergoing radical prostatectomy each year come out of surgery with positive surgical margins (PSMs), according to a 2014 European Urology study, meaning cancer is still left in the body, increasing the likelihood of disease recurrence. These patients often choose to undergo radiation, hormonal therapy, or chemotherapy to treat the leftover disease, which can lead to physical and/or financial hardship.

Vermont Business Magazine The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recognized 13 WIC clinics in New England and New York with Loving Support Awards of Excellence for exemplary efforts in supporting breastfeeding mothers. These awards, presented during a virtual recognition ceremony today, mark USDA’s Breastfeeding Month, celebrated each August. Four from Vermont were honored: Middlebury District Office, in Middlebury; Rutland District Office, in Rutland; St Albans District Office, in St Albans; and Burlington District Office, in Burlington.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) today announced the reopening of the Montpelier, South Burlington, and Rutland offices to the public by appointment only using a new online scheduling system. Customers can schedule appointments online beginning Thursday, August 27. The first appointment times available will be for Monday, August 31. The hours of operation for appointments at all three locations for appointments will be 8 am to 4 pm. Customers with appointments are asked to arrive ten minutes before their appointment so DMV staff can review and verify all required paperwork prior to the appointment.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine State Auditor Doug Hoffer issued a non-audit report last week on the cost of health care in Vermont. He determined that the increase in health care costs was more than double the overall increase in all other goods and services over the last two decades and also was out-of-scale to neighboring states. This problem appears to stem, he said, in part from convoluted systems and powerful institutions – not from the people who provide direct health care services, who are paid relatively less than in those nearby states.