Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Today, AARP announced the awardees for its 2020 AARP Community Challenge grant program, including five recipients right here in Vermont. A total of nearly $2,4 million will be distributed to fund 159 “quick action” projects across the country, helping communities make immediate improvements and jumpstart long-term progress to support residents of all ages. In Vermont, grants totaling nearly $45,000 were awarded to five organizations across the state. Some 32 applications were received from a variety of communities and statewide entities. Each of the projects must be completed by December 18, 2020.

Vermont Business Magazine The Public Service Department today announced $3,926,650 in grant awards to Internet Service Providers to serve over 5,800 eligible locations with broadband connections in response to COVID-19. Of those slated to receive service from the grant-funded projects, more than 2,200 lack a connection of 4/1 Mbps and 465 were identified as having a telehealth, distance learning, or telework need. The goal of the COVID-19 Emergency Connectivity Initiative is to use Federal Coronavirus Relief Funds to build high-speed broadband service to unserved and underserved locations by December 30.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health is clarifying who is a close contact. Both time and distance matter. Close contact generally means being within six feet for 15 minutes or more, of the person who tested positive while they are contagious (infectious). Examples of close contacts include someone you live with, rode in the car with, or had dinner with. Close contact does not mean: being more than six feet away in the same indoor environment for a short period of time, walking by, or briefly being in the same room. The VDH also is reporting today four new cases of COVID-19 for a statewide total of 1,537. There are two people hospitalized and deaths remain at 58.

Vermont Business Magazine After collecting hundreds of thousands of pounds of food for Rutland County residents over its existence and watching the need balloon due to COVID-19, the GMP Food Challenge is going digital with cash donations that the Rutland Community Cupboard can turn into food for Vermonters needing assistance. The challenge begins today and runs through September 30.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Art Council announces the 30 recipients of its foundational Arts Partnership awards, providing three years of unrestricted, general operating funds for arts organizations across Vermont who keenly understand the needs of their communities and address those needs through the arts. Awarded only once every three years, the Arts Partnership award represents the largest investment in organizations that are helping to support the Council’s mission to cultivate and advance the arts and creativity throughout Vermont.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims continued their descent last week in Vermont. Nationally, claims, which had fallen, were back over 1 million. After a steep decline as the economy began to reopen in April, initial unemployment claims for the last several weeks flattened, rose slightly and now have been falling consistently since the beginning of July.

Vermont Business Magazine Casella Waste Systems, Inc (NASDAQ:CWST), a regional solid waste, recycling and resource management services company based in Rutland, today announced that it has priced the previously announced offering of $40.0 million aggregate principal amount of New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (Issuer) Solid Waste Disposal Revenue Bonds (Casella Waste Systems, Inc Project) Series 2020R-1 (Bonds) to be issued under an indenture between the Issuer and the bond trustee (Indenture).

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Futures Project presents a white paper, Vermont’s Taxing Dilemma, to look beyond our immediate circumstances to understand how our current taxation structures can either drive or inhibit long-term economic recovery and growth. Their recommendations include: shifting the Vermont tax structure over time to the middle of the surrounding states for the percentage of taxes per average Vermonter’s income; growing Vermont’s tax base by attracting and retaining Vermonters seeking a simpler, more rural lifestyle with opportunity, affordability, and racial diversity.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s Killington Resort, the largest mountain resort in Eastern North America and a POWDR company, announced today it will not be the host venue for the HomeLight Killington Cup race this year following a recent decision made jointly by the International Ski Federation, National Ski Associations and local organizing committees in Canada and the USA to restrict the Alpine Skiing World Cup tour to European through early December, 2020.

Vermont Business Magazine Encore Renewable Energy and the Greater Burlington YMCA announced today the completion of a new rooftop solar array in downtown Burlington. Encore worked extensively with the YMCA’s management team and construction contractors to integrate the solar project into the new facility that was constructed on a redeveloped property in downtown Burlington, Vermont. The new rooftop solar array will provide the YMCA cost savings on the facility’s electric bills and the opportunity to acquire the asset at a future date, while also complementing their sustainability goals to be energy efficient. It also furthers Burlington’s position as a national leader in solar installed per capita and supports the city’s ambitious clean energy goals.

Vermont Business Magazine The Princeton Review has once again ranked the University of Vermont among the nation’s top colleges. The education services company profiles and recommends UVM in the 2021 edition of its annual guide, The Best 386 Colleges. Only about 14% of America’s 2,800 four-year colleges are profiled in the book. The company chooses colleges based on data it annually collects from administrators at hundreds of colleges about academic offerings.

Vermont Business Magazine The Conservation Law Foundation, the Connecticut River Conservancy, the Lake Champlain Committee, Vermont Conservation Voters, and the Vermont Natural Resources Council called on the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) Wednesday to issue the Three-Acre General Permit, ending its two-year delay on a key piece of the state’s Clean Water Act and Lake Champlain cleanup plan. An essential component of Vermont’s clean water future, the permit will help spur the economy by catalyzing investment and jobs in improved infrastructure. In a letter to the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) noted that it will be forced to give the state of Vermont a failing grade on the 2016 TMDL Phase 1 milestones if the Three-Acre General Permit is not issued.