Current News

The Small Business Administration Vermont District Office is accepting nominations for its 2020 small business awards. 

Previous Vermont winners include Ben and Jerry’s, Mamava and 14th Star Brewing Co., the 2019 Small Business Person of the Year winner.

Since 1963, the SBA has recognized the outstanding achievements of America’s small businesses for their contributions to their local communities, and to the nation’s economy.

Vermont Business Magazine Four Vermont schools have joined CFES Brilliant Pathways’ growing network of programs across the US and Ireland in support of students becoming college and career ready.

Vergennes Union Middle/High School, Brighton Elementary (Island Pond), Miller’s Run Elementary (Sheffield) and North Country Union Junior High (Derby) signed on as CFES schools for the 2019-2020 schoolyear. They join new schools from Texas, Hawaii, Florida and Pennsylvania and an overall network of 25,000 students in 150 schools from 30 states.

Vermont Business Magazine The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) today released the nationwide performance results from the 2019 assessments in reading and mathematics. The NAEP is administered every two years to students in grades Four and Eight across the nation.

Students in Vermont scored above the national average in all the 2019 assessments but Grade Four mathematics. However, while Vermont students continued to perform at or above the national average, students showed a decline in average scale scores compared to Vermont’s 2017 results. This decline follows a downward trend going back roughly a decade or more.

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General T.J. Donovan announced today that his office has reviewed the officer-involved shooting incident that occurred on August 9, 2019 in Montpelier, Vermont. The Attorney General’s Office is declining to prosecute Montpelier Police Department Corporal Chad Bean for charges related to the fatal shooting of Mark J. Johnson. The Office concluded that, based on the totality of the circumstances, the use of deadly force to stop an imminent threat of bodily harm was reasonable and justified. In reaching this decision, the Office reviewed materials provided by the Vermont State Police, who conducted the investigation.

Vermont Business Magazine Castleton University student journalists are teaming up with University of Vermont students to provide news stories for local papers that otherwise might not get written. Funded by a $2,000 grant through UVM, Castleton students will be working with Castleton resident and former New York Times freelancer Martha Molnar to report and write stories that will be published in the Rutland Herald, Mountain Times, and Lake Region Free Press. The stories will also be published simultaneously on the Community News Service web page on the UVM website.

Vermont Business Magazine As demanded by Burlington Miro Weinberger, CityPlace Burlington developers have met the city’s first set of demands to get the long-delayed project back on track. Brookfield Properties (BTC Mall Associates LLC), at the City Council meeting Monday night, presented a new, sketched-out development plan that they say is less expensive than the $220 million plan previously proposed by former Developer Don Sinex. The scaled back plan also drops the controversial height of the project from 14 stories to 10. It also retains the former Macy's building, which will be redeveloped as a mixed use commercial/retail/office space. The existing mall space, which is largely vacant and accesses Church Street, also will be redeveloped but will remain a mall, if much smaller than before. Meanwhile, the envisioned reconnection of St Paul and Pine streets will continue to be part of the new plans.

​Vermont Business Magazine Super Thin Saws (STS), a Waterbury-based tool manufacturer, recently received a grant totaling $39,839.75 from the Vermont Training Program (VTP). The funding from VTP will be used to help prepare the company for the retirement of two key salespeople. STS has unique product offerings and a niche customer base, making finding qualified applicants within the state a challenge. STS will train 22 of its employees in areas of leadership development, growth planning, and principles of lean manufacturing. Through these trainings, employees will receive the technical experience they need to help the company continue to grow.

Vermont Business Magazine Smugglers’ Notch Resort enters its 15th year being recognized as exceptional for family-forward vacations, according to the prestigious SKI Magazine Reader Resorts Survey. Readers attest Smugglers’ kid-centric activities and gentle slopes with on-hill lodging, combined with some of the East’s best, steepest, and most-expansive tree skiing, make for the perfect harmonization of ski and snowboard opportunities for pleasing the vacationing family’s dynamic. The Resort also brings home the top award for Service and Local Flavor, as well as remaining the number one resort Overall in the Eastern United States.

Vermont Business Magazine NBT Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ: NBTB) reported net income and diluted earnings per share Monday for both the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019. The Board of Directors of the Norwich, NY-based bank also approved a fourth-quarter 2019 cash dividend of $0.27 per share at a meeting held Monday. The dividend, which represents a $0.01, or 3.8%, increase, will be paid on December 13, 2019 to shareholders of record as of November 29, 2019. They also authorized a stock repurchase plan of up to 1 million shares. NBT has branches in Northwestern Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine ReArch Company just announced another $5,000 donation for 2019, to the United Way of Addison County. ReArch has donated $5,000 per year since 2016. Owner and founder, John Illick resides in Middlebury and served on their board for several years. 

Vermont Business Magazine Montpelier-based National Life Group, one of the nation’s fastest growing group of life insurance companies, has enhanced its suite of industry-leading indexed universal life (IUL) products. The new FlexLife IUL is designed to meet the needs of consumers in middle America, the most underserved market in the country. And the complementary PeakLife product is designed specifically for larger policies and in many cases the needs of business customers.

Vermont Business Magazine MC10, Inc, the developer of BioStamp nPoint, an end-to-end system for physiological data collection and analytics, announced today a collaboration with the University of Vermont, a leading academic research institution. This initiative will utilize BioStamp nPoint’s biometric data captured from the lower limbs and the University of Vermont’s biomedical engineering and data science capabilities in creating methods to quantitatively track and analyze changes in gait patterns across a spectrum of disorders, including Huntington’s Disease.