Current News

Vermont Business Magazine In response to an application submitted by the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition (VAHC), the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) has awarded a total of $100,000 to 20 homeless shelters, homeless service providers and community action agencies across the state. Each organization will receive a $4,900 grant to help pay for the extraordinary costs associated with their emergency COVID-19 response.

Vermont Business Magazine The Agency of Agriculture recognizes the importance of farmers markets to our farmers, communities, heritage and culture. Farmers markets will be able to re-open on May 1, following guidance from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets, the Vermont Department of Health and the Agency of Commerce and Community Development. These guidelines are meant to protect Vermonters health and safety while allowing access to local food. These include: outdoor markets only, wearing of face masks by vendors, food only vendors, social distancing of vendors and customers, no congregating of customers, no entertainment.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department says as temperatures warm, songbirds return and the ice recedes, a shift in fish behavior also occurs. Many fish species commonly found in lakes and ponds throughout Vermont become more active, feed more regularly and provide a great opportunity to catch fish with relatively little effort.

Vermont Business Magazine FourScienceVT, a museum consortium led by ECHO, Fairbanks, Montshire, and VINS, band together to address the disparity of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education of Vermont's communities during the Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic and beyond.

​Vermont Business Magazine United States Attorney General William Barr has directed Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Eric Dreiband and Christina Nolan, the US Attorney for the District of Vermont, to oversee and coordinate the Department of Justice’s efforts to address this issue during the current pandemic. As the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the ability of many people to timely pay rent and increased housing insecurity, the Department of Justice has heard reports of housing providers trying to exploit the crisis to sexually harass tenants.

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University is honored to announce that its own President Richard W Schneider, one of the nation’s longest seated university leaders who will retire on May 31 after serving at the helm for 28 years, will deliver the 2020 Commencement address to graduating seniors on Saturday, September 12, 2020. Due to concerns related to COVID-19, the 2020 ceremony was recently rescheduled from a typical spring ceremony to this fall date. Details of the ceremony will be planned as Norwich monitors the pandemic situation.

Vermont Business Magazine Citizens Bank today announced that 12 small businesses in New Hampshire and Vermont will each receive a $15,000 grant as part of its Small Business Recovery grant program. These direct grants are being issued to Citizens small business customers to help them continue operating and recover from adverse conditions brought on by the pandemic.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel (VT NDCAP) will hold its third meeting of this year on Monday evening, May 4, 2020 from 6 PM to 9 PM. In accordance with changes to Vermont Open Meeting Law in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this meeting will be conducted as a Skype webcast and teleconference.

AccuWeather Global Weather Center Summer in the United States is going to look different in many ways this year given how the coronavirus pandemic has upended life. For many Americans, it’s still unclear if sports will be played and whether large gatherings will be held. Vacation plans remain up in the air for millions. What’s not up in the air is that no matter what Americans end up spending time doing this summer, there will be weather to contend with.

The Northeast and parts of Southern Vermont will see hotter weather than usual this summer, while states out West will once again have to deal with wildfires.

Vermont Business Magazine Bar Harbor Bank & Trust has made donations to two Vermont non-profit organizations to help them deliver their adult education programs remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Central Vermont Adult Basic Education (CVABE) and Vermont Adult Learning (VAL) each received $1,500 donations to provide distance learning technology for low-income, adult education students to continue with their educational programs, which include GED and high school diploma.

by Aimee Stephenson, PhD The justification for the economic shutdown and stay-at-home order was to ‘flatten the curve’ in the name of ensuring our hospitals were not overrun by a predicted tidal wave of COVID-19 patients. The purpose of social distancing is to spread out cases, preventing hospitals from being overwhelmed, and in turn, avoiding deaths from COVID due to lack of available medical care.

As the reason for the shutdown was to avoid a particular cause of death (lack of hospital capacity), it would follow that the most relevant metric for deciding whether to re-open the economy is hospital capacity. The key question our leaders should be asking is whether we currently have an issue with hospital capacity? The answer to this question is a resounding ‘no’.

Vermont Business Magazine The Health Department will enhance its contact tracing efforts using SARA Alert technology, a text-based illness monitoring system that will allow us to keep in touch with contacts and help them manage symptoms. The state plans to handle 300-900 cases and contacts per week under the new strategy. The state currently has 53 trained contact tracers who could handle up to 500 contacts per week and is implementing a plan to train additional tracers as needed.