Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Today the American Council of Engineering Companies of Vermont (ACEC of Vermont) announced the 2020 recipients of its annual Engineering Excellence Awards. ACEC of Vermont’s annual Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) competition recognizes outstanding achievements in engineering projects completed in Vermont. A record setting, 27 EEA applications were submitted this year.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D), Senator Bernie Sanders (I) and Representative Peter Welch (D) on Friday sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig demanding improvements to the Economic Impact Payment program. Delegation offices have heard from many Vermonters who are frustrated that they still have not received their payments and about the IRS’s poor communication.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Health on Sunday reported that since Friday there have been 36 new cases of COVID-19 statewide. Nearly all of these are associated with the outbreak in Winooski that was reported earlier in the week. Just over 2,000 tests have been administered across the state and a new pop-up site in Winooski is available to anyone free of charge. The site will continue taking tests this coming week. However, there have been no new deaths associated with the outbreak or anywhere else in Vermont for more than a week and are holding at 55. There is one person hospitalized. However, the overall data suggests that this outbreak is localized and contained. With that, Governor Scott is allowing indoor dining with guidance will be allowed starting Monday. Visitors from certain low-case-count counties in New York and New England also will be able to travel to Vermont without quarantine.

Vermont Business Magazine University of Vermont and Champlain College students who are returning to Burlington can get tested for COVID-19 at sites on the UVM campus. The specimen collection is being done in collaboration with the Vermont Department of Health, and with the assistance of trained members of the Vermont National Guard.

Vermont Business Roundtable Vermonters and Americans enjoy more freedoms, protections, and economic opportunities than almost anyone else in the world, yet these benefits are sadly not equally available to all of us because of pervasive racism in our country. There has never been and never will be any moral justification for racial injustice, yet it exists; a fundamental contradiction to our nation’s foundational value of equality for all.

Systemic racial injustice is engrained in our economic, judicial, and societal systems. With the recent murder of George Floyd, all of us must make a courageous and unwavering commitment to confront racism wherever we find it and to provide all Americans access to the same benefits.

by John R. Brumsted, MD, President and CEO, The UVM Health Network Across our network, we’re welcoming back patients for non-urgent and elective appointments and procedures, including procedures requiring a hospital stay. We’re starting with those that had been postponed by COVID-19.

I want you to know that we are taking every possible step to make sure you and your families are safe when you see us again. As part of our commitment to safety and high-quality patient care, we’d like to introduce some of the changes you’ll experience during your next appointment.

What Has Changed?

We are taking extra precautions to provide safe, high-quality care for you and your family, and to serve the needs of our entire community.

Vermont Business Magazine Community Bank NA recently presented a $7,500 donation to the Williston Police Department in support of its Comfort K9 program. The comfort dog program is the first of its kind in Vermont. K9 Duke was born in March and officially joined the Williston Police Department in the beginning of May. Comfort dogs provide thoughtful interactions during investigations to reduce anxiety and increase communication between the adult or child victim/witness and investigators. The dogs offer comfort to people during times of crisis and provide aid and relief to those impacted by violence or tragic events.

by Dimitri Garder, CEO Global-Z International Growing up in Queens, our family escaped to Vermont each summer. In the mid-1980s, we returned for good, making a home in southern Vermont. I went to college at UVM, but made my way back to Bennington, joining my parents to start our company, Global-Z. As my business and my own family grew, I became deeply committed to economic development in our region. With community partners, I’ve invested in many economic development projects – some more successful than others. But we approach each with the same goal: How can we ensure that Bennington County, Vermonters and our neighbors prosper? Child care emerges again and again as the key to ensuring that parents and children are healthy, happy, and economically secure.

Vermont State Police The victim whose body was discovered Thursday, June 4, 2020, in a creek near Wymans Falls Road in Chester has been positively identified as Joshua A. Webster, 39, of Springfield. Mr. Webster had been reported missing in March to the Hartford Police Department. Subsequent investigation into his disappearance included the Chester Police Department and the Vermont State Police.

Vermont State Police The man shot Friday afternoon, June 5, 2020, in Swanton died overnight at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington. He is identified as Kyle A. LaBelle, 32, of Swanton. The suspect, James Mulholland, 22, also of Swanton, was ordered jailed without bail on suspicion of first-degree murder.

Vermont State Police On June 6, 2020 at 0306 Vermont State Police responded to a reported crash on East Orange RD in Washington Vermont. The operator identified as Samantha Roberts was traveling east on East Orange Road, operating a Polaris ranger. In the Ranger there were two other passengers identified above. According to witness statements the ATVs were heard driving up and down the roads well into the early hours of the morning at high rates of speed. The vehicle was traveling too fast for the freshly grated dirt road and lost control. As the vehicle lost control it ended up rolling onto the driver’s side. The vehicle rolled onto its roof ejecting two of the passengers and pinning one under the vehicle. One passenger was pronounced dead at the scene by Barre City Emergency Medical Services.

Leonine Public Affairs This week started with a strong statement by Governor Scott condemning the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and acknowledging the legitimacy of protests over that killing. The governor stated his view that Floyd’s treatment by police was "barbaric and totally inexcusable" and that “enough is enough” concerning deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police officers. On top of all of this the legislature intends to develop, by the end of this month, one or more bills that spend the balance of the $1.25 billion the state received under the federal CARES Act (while some of that money has already been spent most of it is still available). Also, the House has released a draft memo earlier this week proposing that $100 million be spent to fund broadband deployment solutions and aid electric utilities. And on Friday the House gave preliminary approval, by a 142-5 vote, to a state budget bill, H.961, which funds the first quarter of the state’s fiscal year that starts in July.