Current News

Task Force Leading Long-Term Mitigation Planning Effort in Supplement to State’s Current Response Work

Vermont Business Magazine At the direction of Governor Phil Scott, Vermont Emergency Management has assembled an interagency task force to support the overall public health response being led by the Vermont Department of Health and further prepare for the likelihood of COVID-19 cases in Vermont.

The task force is charged with ensuring a coordinated statewide response to COVID-19, including for communicating potential community mitigation measures to slow or minimize the spread of the virus if cases occur and accelerate in the state. The group will also work to ensure communications and continuity planning occurs in a coordinated fashion across state government.

Vermont Business Magazine Rally Cat’s Cupboard, an on-campus food pantry serving graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Vermont, officially opened on February 24. The food pantry is a joint effort between the Student Government Association, the Graduate Student Senate, the Division of Student Affairs and the Food Insecurity Working Group. It is located in room 016 Hills Building. The mission of the food pantry is to alleviate food insecurity among UVM graduate and undergraduate students by supplying them with healthy food.

Vermont Business Magazine A research team funded by the National Institutes of Health has updated an online tool to provide information for clinicians and parents on outcomes for extremely preterm infants. The revised tool, developed using data from the Neonatal Research Network and later validated using data from the Burlington-based Vermont Oxford Network (VON) of over 900 hospitals nationwide, is based on outcomes for extremely preterm births in the United States.

Vermont Business Magazine Windham Grows, a food and agriculture business accelerator that connects entrepreneurs with mentoring, industry connections and support, is accepting applications for its spring/summer 2020 program. Windham Grows is part of Strolling of the Heifers, whose mission is connecting people with healthy local food, encouraging and facilitating innovation and entrepreneurship in the farm/food sector, and supporting the development of stronger local food systems and healthy, sharing, connected and resilient communities.

Vermont Business Magazine Davis & Hodgdon Associates CPAs and the Center for Women and Enterprise (CWE) of Vermont have announced a multi-year sustainable partnership. Labeled as a “Signature Partnership” by Davis & Hodgdon, the relationship is created to develop deeper impacts within the community as it leverages the expertise of each organization, allowing for a concentrated sustainable social mission effort.

The partnership began with the firm’s sponsorship of CWE’s Reboot Rutland: What’s Your Business Telling You” course for early-stage business owners in Rutland, Vermont last fall. In the class, participants learned how to analyze their business and implement a system to regularly analyze their business’s operations.

Vermont Business Magazine Molly Gray, democratic candidate for Vermont Lieutenant Governor kicked off her campaign with a tour from Bradford to Burlington on Thursday. Gray started the day at Four Corners Farm in Newbury where she grew up. She greeted local supporters at the Space On Main in Bradford and continued on to meet with business owners, community leaders, and service providers at stops at Farm-Way in Bradford, Cochran’s Ski Area in Richmond, and the King Street Center in Burlington, before ending with a campaign rally at the Queen City Brewery in South Burlington.

Molly Gray in Bradford Thursday. Gray Campaign photo.

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General TJ Donovan kicks off Consumer Protection Week, March 1–7, with a focus on consumer issues facing older Vermonters. Older Vermonters are disproportionately impacted by consumer frauds and scams, because they are disproportionately targeted. Elders are the target of at least one very popular scam – the Social Security phishing scam was the most commonly reported scam of 2019.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced Monday that Shelburne Farms will receive $100,000 from the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Office of Community Food Systems to support the Northeast Farm to School Institute.

Vermont Research News Vermont’s foremost scholar and champion of town meeting is retired UVM professor Frank Bryan: “What town meeting says is that we trust ordinary people so much to govern themselves that we’ll let them make the laws rather than having them elect somebody to make the laws that govern them; Which is astounding when you think about it, and Vermont is a place where you still can do that.”

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) named Thaddeus Richardson as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective February 20, 2020. In this role, he has broad responsibility for the Authority's financial operations, including accounting, financial planning, forecasting and overall asset and liability management.

Richardson joins VEDA from Community National Bank, where he served for 15 years, first as VP of Commercial Lending, then as VP of Municipal Services & Asset Liability Management. He was responsible for the Bank's government banking operation as well as financial oversight of its investment portfolio, interest rate risk function, and overall balance sheet management.

Leonine Public Affairs A sense of urgency filled the statehouse last week as the legislature will not be in session this week, and the Friday of the following week, March 13, is the crossover deadline (the deadline by which bills must be voted out of the policy committees). As a result, the committees are beginning to get down to brass tacks in finalizing their bills. Lawmakers spent long hours on the floor debating significant legislation, sometimes going well into the evening.

University of Vermont After a five-year journey of recovery, University of Vermont men's basketball player Josh Speidel will join the starting line-up for Tuesday's Senior Night home game against the University of Albany. It will be Speidel's first game appearance since the Columbus, Indiana native suffered a traumatic brain injury in a 2015 car accident that occurred prior to his arrival at UVM.