Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and the Vermont Department of Labor today announced changes to the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program that will reduce employers’ UI tax rates and increase the maximum weekly benefit amount for UI claimants. The Department of Labor will move to UI Tax Rate Schedule I, reducing individual employers’ UI tax rates on July 1, 2020. Employers’ tax rates vary according to their experience rating, which is based on UI claims charged to their account, total payroll and their ranking among all employers who contribute to UI. Schedule I decreases the upper and lower thresholds for these tax rates, as well as reducing the taxable wage base amount beginning January 1, 2021. In addition to this tax rate change, the maximum weekly benefit amount paid to unemployed Vermonters will increase from $513 to $531.This increase is effective beginning the first full week of July.

Vermont Business Magazine Using a team approach, the physicians, nurses, and physical therapists at Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital (NVRH) now offer same-day knee and hip joint replacement. Same-day surgery means a patient comes in for the surgery in the morning and is resting in their own home that night. When most people think about knee or hip joint replacement surgery, they expect a long period of recovery: multiple days in the hospital and weeks or months of being laid up at home.

​Vermont Business Magazine The VNA & Hospice of the Southwest Region (VNAHSR) is re-opening its outpatient therapy clinic in Manchester with robust safety measures in place to protect the health of patients and staff. To protect patients, appointments will be staggered and therapeutic equipment will be disinfected between uses. Patients will be pre-screened prior to their appointment through a series of questions about the patient’s health and any potential signs, symptoms or exposure to COVID-19. Patients will be temperature checked at entry before their appointment. Additionally, staff will utilize personal protective equipment (PPE) and patients will be asked to wear masks.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont has launched a new doctoral program in Sustainable Development Policy, Economics and Governance. The new program will equip a rising generation of action-oriented researchers with the skills they’ll need to address sustainable development challenges in local, state, national and global communities.

Vermont Business Magazine When a group of dedicated agencies known as the Vermont Youth Project of Rutland County realized that youth summer camp programs were going to be limited, they acted. Working together, Mentor Connector, 4-H, and the Partners for Prevention put out the call to action to their partners. Multiple agencies including, Wonderfeet Museum, Boy Scouts, Rutland City Recreation Department, Rutland Partners for Prevention, Project Vision, Tobacco Prevention, and Slate Valley Trails heard the call and came to the table.

Vermont Business Magazine For the second straight day, Burlington Electric Department (BED) issued a peak alert for today, Tuesday, June 23, as part of its Defeat the Peak program launched during summer 2017, encouraging members of the Burlington community to reduce their energy usage from 5-9 pm this evening.

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is proposing to offer $146 million to help communities make improvements to water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure. The funding would allow communities to make major infrastructure improvements while keeping costs affordable for users. The money is available in the form of low- and no-cost loans, many of which include substantial loan principal forgiveness. Funding through the State Revolving Fund (SRF) is available to municipalities, non-profit and private community water and wastewater systems.

Vermont Business Magazine The Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission has been awarded a Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) award for development of a Food Access Map for the Hunger Council of Washington County. The SAG award is given annually to a limited number of ESRI’s GIS clients around the world to recognize outstanding work with Geography Systems Technology (GIS) technology in a field of over 100,000 organizations.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a framework using hardware, software, data, and people to gather, manage, analyze, and visualize data. The resulting maps provide deeper insights into data and help users make informed decisions.

“Helping the Council visualize food access was a natural fit with the Commission’s GIS skills. The map demonstrates that decisions related to community design can affect people’s health,” said Bonnie Waninger, Executive Director of the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission.

Vermont Business Magazine The VNA & Hospice of the Southwest Region (VNAHSR) has announced this year’s Employee of the Year and HEALTH Matters Award Winners. Thirty-eight employees were recognized for years of service including Sharon Davis, Utilization Review Specialist for 35 years of service. Davis was also recognized as the VNAHSR’s Employee of the Year.

Vermont Business Magazine Health Commissioner Dr Mark Levine provided an update on the ongoing outbreak that first emerged in Winooski. There are now 110 COVID-19 cases associated with the outbreak, 65% of them adults. The Health Department has identified 126 contacts, 19 of which have gone on to become cases. They are also involved in small investigations in Rutland (two cases so far) and Windham (two adults and four children) counties and set up a small pop-up test site to meet local needs. Pop-up testing has commenced there. Total statewide cases only increased by four since Sunday. Pop-up testing in Winooski will continue through Wednesday and in Burlington from Wednesday to Friday.

Vermont Business Magazine Middlebury College was the first college in Vermont to close down at the beginning of the pandemic and one of the first in the nation to announce that students would not return to campus for the rest of the semester. Today, they announced their reopening plan and like most colleges and universities, it will come with enhanced health protocols and a semester that will end by Thanksgiving. Students will arrive on campus in three groups, with the first as early as August 18.