Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Like other financial institutions, NorthCountry Federal Credit Union has seen a steady decline in demand for in-person transactions. But instead of closing branches as some competitors have done, it’s building its largest one ever. As online and mobile banking have grown in popularity, accountholders who use the Lyndonville branch are visiting it an average of 1.7 times per month – down nearly 50% from 2005, when the average was 3.2 visits per month. 

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), along with Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) introduced two pieces of legislation to help workers around the country form employee-owned businesses. The WORK Act – modeled on the success of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center – would provide more than $45 million in funding to states to establish and expand employee ownership centers, which provide training and technical support for programs promoting employee ownership.

Vermont Business Magazine A new National Park Service (NPS) report shows that 63,886 visitors to national parks in Vermont spent $3.8 million in the state in 2018. That spending resulted in 51 jobs and had a cumulative benefit to the state economy of $4.7 million. Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock is the only national park in Vermont, excepting the area covered by the Appalachian Trail and the North Country National Scenic trail. The Northeast has fewer national parks, which are also vastly smaller than the ones out West.

Vermont Business Magazine The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in coordination with the Vermont Department of Health is beginning an initiative to pro-actively improve compliance with laws that protect children from lead paint poisoning in Vermont. In 2018, 420 Vermont children under age six had an elevated blood lead level.

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University will receive $269,000 from the TAWANI Foundation for the Student Life Fund, the Annual Fund, the Sullivan Museum and History Center, with the bulk going towards the Norwich University Visions Abroad (NUVA) program. Overall, $214,000 of this gift will support Norwich students’ work in Pommerin, Tanzania through NUVA. Norwich’s Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) will send nine students, one recent graduate and two staff members to Pommerin from May 17 – June 5, 2019, and on future trips back to the site in 2020 and 2021.

Vermont Business Magazine Bennington College has been awarded a grant of $1 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to launch a three-year collaborative effort with local partners to address the systemic causes of food insecurity in Bennington County. Food insecurity—the inability to access affordable, nutritious food—affects one in eight Americans, or approximately 40 million people, and is particularly acute in southern Vermont. This collaboration aims to both address the pressing problem of food insecurity in the area and to develop an interdisciplinary and responsive humanities curriculum with students, faculty, and the community, creating a model from which other higher education institutions can learn and build.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott took the following actions on bills between May 18, 2019 and May 28, 2019.

Vermont State Police On May 27^th 2019 at approximately 1056 hours, a collision occurred near the intersection of Rte. 7 and the Exit 16 southbound on ramp in the Town of Colchester.  A motorcycle, driven by a yet to be named operator, accelerated quickly north bound on Rte. 7 away from a Winooski Police vehicle and sped past a line of cars stopped at a red light. The motorcycle collided with the rear passenger side of a vehicle making a left turn onto the Interstate 89 southbound on ramp. The motorcyclist was thrown from the motorcycle and was later pronounce deceased at the University of Vermont Medical Center.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The Jay Peak case is generating more litigation. This time around, the Jay Peak receiver Michael Goldberg has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Receivership Entities (the many Jay Peak-related developments) alleging legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty against the law firm of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, LLP, a Los Angeles limited liability partnership, and Attorney David B Gordon.

by Timothy McQuiston & Brandon Arcari, Vermont Business Magazine Four individuals were charged with conspiring in a multi-year wire fraud scheme to defraud immigrant investors seeking green cards through the EB-5 program, among other charges. United States Attorney for the District of Vermont Christina E Nolan made the announcement May 22 while standing in the middle of the fraud's most visible failure, a demolished and abandoned weed-covered block in downtown Newport.

Vermont Business Magazine Lucky babies born May 29 at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) will receive $100 deposits into Vermont 529 college savings accounts opened by the Vermont Student Assistance Corp. (VSAC). Plus, one lucky Vermonter – baby or not – will be chosen to receive $529 in a college savings account in an online month-long drawing. To enter, visit vsac.org or vheip.org between May 1 and May 31. 

Vermont Business Magazine The 18th annual Strolling of the Heifers Weekend, featuring a parade of future farmers leading flower-bedecked heifer calves through historic Main Street Brattleboro, Vermont takes place June 7, 8 and 9. Organizers promise many special surprises for the occasion. The centerpiece of the weekend is the world-famous Strolling of the Heifers Parade, which starts promptly at 10 am on Saturday, June 8. The signature heifer calves lead the parade and are followed by other farm animals, tractors, bands, floats and much more.