Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) New England regional office and the US Department of Energy are honoring Efficiency Vermont as an ENERGY STAR partner for their outstanding contributions to public health and the environment. The awardees are enterprises which have earned ENERGY STAR Awards for demonstrating national leadership in cost-saving energy efficient solutions. Efficiency Vermont is among the 183 ENERGY STAR Award Winners nationwide that will be honored in Washington, DC, on April 11.

Vermont Business Magazine Monday, RTI International – a non-profit research institution – published its final impact analysis for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) State Innovation Model (SIM) Round 1 awardees. Of the nine alternative payment and delivery models tested, only Vermont’s Accountable Care Organization (ACO) model yielded relative Medicaid savings - $97 million across the three implementation years. In addition, Vermont’s ACO program had significant reductions in emergency department visits and inpatient admissions to the hospital.

Vermont Business Magazine The 9th Annual Vermont Adaptive Charity Ride presented by Long Trail Brewing (formerly known as the Long Trail Century Ride to benefit Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports), returns to the Killington region Saturday and Sunday, June 22-23. Starline Rhythm Boys, plus Duppy Conquerors, an eight-piece Bob Marley tribute band, are scheduled to play for the after-ride party. The goal is to raise more than $300,000 for adaptive sports and recreation at this annual fundraising event.

Vermont Business Magazine Champlain College will award honorary doctorates to its two commencement speakers — educator David France and inventor John Abele — during its morning and afternoon commencement exercises on Saturday, May 11, 2019.

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University’s graduating future officers will hear remarks from a fellow alum at this spring’s joint services commissioning ceremony. U.S. Army Major General Mark J. O’Neil ’86 returns to the Norwich campus to speak to ROTC commissioning officers during a formal ceremony to mark the occasion on Sunday, May 12, at 9 a.m. in Shapiro Field House.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont health experts have relied on youth surveys done every two years to inform substance use prevention programs and policies. But a lot can happen in two years. A new longitudinal pilot study, PACE Vermont, which stands for Policy and Communication Evaluation, aims to reach out to young people ages 12 to 25 to better understand and improve the impact of policies and communication campaigns on their substance use beliefs and behaviors.

Vermont Business Magazine A cloud-based accounting company in Burlington was recently named the 2019 Vermont Minority-Owned Business of the Year. Reconciled, founded and owned by Michael Ly, provides bookkeeping, accounting & CFO services to small businesses throughout the U.S.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies (VCET) announced today that Code for BTV, the local chapter (or Brigade) of Code for America, is its newest member and partner. VCET will provide infrastructure and support to help further the organization’s mission of solving the challenges among local civic and non-profit organizations with relatively simple tech solutions, all by leveraging the power of volunteerism, community and coding know-how.

Vermont Business Magazine The Berlin Development Review Board has approved zoning applications for 98 units of senior housing—the first project of its kind in Berlin, designed to include both independent and assisted living, as well as memory care, all under one roof.

by John McClaughry Last week the House passed a bill that raised taxes on the wrong people to support a worthy cause for, in large measure, the wrong reasons. Back in the 1970s Vermont’s community action agencies, created to wage the war against poverty, hit upon the idea of weatherizing drafty homes of low income families. This didn’t defeat poverty, but it improved living conditions. It produced, hopefully, energy savings, that the weatherized families could spend on other things. It also allowed the community action agencies to offer low-skill jobs and thus incomes to mostly marginally employed young men with time on their hands.

In 1990 federal anti-poverty funds for weatherization were declining, and Governor Madeleine Kunin wanted to find some new money to keep the program alive. The result was an act that laid a gross receipts tax on all heating fuel.

Vermont Business Magazine US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Senate co-sponsors will announce the introduction of the Medicare for All Act of 2019 at an event Wednesday in Washington.

Vermont Business Magazine By day, Ram Verma is the director of technology services for the Vermont State Treasurer’s Office. Regularly, by night, Ram sits vigil with central Vermonters nearing the end of life. He does this work as a trained volunteer for Central Vermont Home Health & Hospice (CVHHH). Every year, CVHHH relies on the support of about 125 volunteers. Some people help with administrative tasks or by making patient survey phone calls in CVHHH’s Berlin office. Others prefer to get involved in fundraising and events. About 30 of CVHHH’s volunteers, including Ram, choose to go through an extensive training so that they may work directly with patients and families enrolled in hospice.