Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Community College of Vermont (CCV) will hold its 52nd commencement ceremony at Norwich University’s Shapiro Field House in Northfield, Vermont on Saturday, June 1. The ceremony will begin at 2 pm. Nearly 500 students will be awarded associate degrees. Students representing all of Vermont’s 14 counties will be graduating, along with students from 8 other states and 13 countries. Also among the graduates are 45 veteran and military students. The youngest graduate is 17 and the oldest is 76.

The College also announced that Ric Cabot, president and CEO of Cabot Hosiery Mills/Darn Tough Vermont, will deliver this year's commencement address. Cabot started Darn Tough in 2004 in an effort to save Cabot Hosiery Mills after their brands began to outsource labor. With a focus on quality and a healthy local economy, Darn Tough has become an industry leader in the outdoor and lifestyle sock markets.

Vermont Business Magazine The Senate Tuesday evening unanimously passed Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy’s legislation to permanently reauthorize and increase support for the lifesaving Bulletproof Vest Partnership grant program. The bill, S1231, cosponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and 18 other bipartisan cosponsors, also increases funding for the program by $5 million to $30 million each year. The House of Representatives is expected to pass identical legislation shortly.

During the committee markup of the Senate bill last week, Chairman Graham offered an amendment naming the program after Leahy (D-Vt.), recognizing his decades of dedication to the program.  This is the sixth time Leahy has led efforts in the Senate to reauthorize this lifesaving program since former Republican Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Colo.) and Leahy first authored legislation creating it more than 20 years ago.

Vermont Business Magazine The Burlington Regional Marketing Organization, a division of the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce, launched Hello Burlington, a new destination marketing organization (DMO) for the Burlington area. The organization’s mission is to stimulate tourism year-round in the greater Burlington area by establishing and growing the city’s brand. The branding will focus on positioning and promoting the city as a preferred destination for tourists, meetings, conferences, and events, which Hello Burlington hopes will bolster the local economy.

by Jack Hoffman, Public Assets Institute The Education Fund, for the most part, has stayed out of the headlines this year, perhaps because Governor Phil Scott hasn’t offered the kind of end-of-session surprises we saw in his first two years. But we should be paying close attention even if the Education Fund isn’t in the spotlight. Important decisions are at hand that affect the stability of the fund.

Vermont Business Magazine The State of Vermont recently received 3 national awards for newly redesigned agency websites. The Hermes Creative Awards have named the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, the Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation, and the Department of Fish & Wildlife as Gold Winners in the Government category.

by Representative Heidi Scheuermann (R-Stowe) This is the final scheduled week of the 2019 Legislative Session, and, as is the case every year, the end-of-session final pushes and battles are front and center. With regard to the bill that would provide the opportunity for school districts forced to merge a year extension to do so (which passed the House by 134-10), I continue to be exceptionally disappointed in, and frustrated with, the House conferees on the H. 39 Conference Committee. Although there was overwhelming support for the bill in the House, the bill is now stalled in a House-Senate Conference Committee, largely due to bad faith negotiations on the part of the House.
 

Vermont Business Magazine A local family-owned business is being recognized by the federal government for its 40 years of growth. DJ's Tree Service, owned and operated by Jim and Lisa Myers, has been named the 2019 Vermont Family-Owned Business of the Year by the Small Business Administration. The company is one of the largest professional tree care, removal and restoration services in northern Vermont and the Burlington area.

Jim Myers and his then business partner Dean Bumstead started the business in the 1970s with only a truck, a chain saw and a few basic hand held tools. The two were groundskeepers at the University of Vermont who often performed tree service as side work, but then decided to strike out on their own.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Precision Tools (VPT), the Swanton manufacturer of high quality precision tools used in the automotive, medical and aeronautic industries, and Vermont HITEC, Inc, a non-profit organization dedicated to high-quality workforce development, are accepting applications for the latest advanced manufacturing program that will lead to guaranteed full time jobs with Vermont Precision Tools upon successful completion. Up to 12 selected participants will attend a 4-week program starting July 29th, 2019 with employment beginning August 26th.

Vermont Business Magazine Renovations are currently underway at Twin River Health Center in downtown White River Junction to accommodate expanded patient services. Effective June 3, Twin River, part of the Gifford Health Care network, will offer physical therapy and podiatry in addition to the urology services currently offered at the location. Most significant among the planned changes is the move of Advance Physical Therapy, a Gifford clinic in Wilder, to Twin River Health Center.

Vermont Business Magazine At a Burlington airport press conference today, Representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont) unveiled legislation moving through Congress that will crack down on unwanted and often predatory robocalls. Welch was joined at the press conference by Attorney General TJ Donovan and Kathryn Ottinger of Shelburne, a Vermont senior being bombarded with daily robocalls.

“Vermonters are fed up with intrusive robocalls that are annoying at best and predatory at worst,” said Welch. “The calls often originate from scam artists intent on ripping off unsuspecting consumers, particularly seniors. Our bill gives the FCC the tools it needs to be the cop on the beat to go after these bad actors.”

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University celebrated commencement during its 200^th year of educating citizen soldiers in service to the nation with a ceremony on Saturday, May 11, in Shapiro Field House, in which 444 students graduated from 32 undergraduate programs and one master’s program. At a 2 p.m. ceremony, New York Times best-selling author and historian Alex Kershaw, who penned “Citizens & Soldiers: The First 200 Years of Norwich University,” gave the commencement address to the Class of 2019 in Norwich’s bicentennial year.

Vermont Business Magazine The American Lung Association and its LUNG FORCE initiative is turning the country turquoise during National Women’s Lung Health Week (May 12-18) to raise awareness of the #1 cancer killer of women in the US. Communities across the State of Vermont, including staff at the Vermont Lung Center, will be dressing in Turquoise for Turquoise Takeovers, as landmarks throughout the country will be illuminated in  the signature color of LUNG FORCE. This year, LUNG FORCE is celebrating five years of lifesaving impact and uniting the nation to raise critical funds to support lung cancer research.