Current News

by Brandon Arcari, Vermont Business Magazine Opponents of the Burlington Telecom sale plan to ask the Vermont Supreme Court to side with the citizens of Burlington in opposing the sale of Burlington Telecom (BT) to Schurz Communications, a broadband media group based in Indiana. Opponents were expected to appeal the award of the Certificate of Public Good to the Supreme Court.

The opponents say that despite the $17 million debt that it owes to taxpayers, it has become profitable and could repay taxpayers over time. They lay the blame for the sale at the feet of Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger, who they say will hand over BT to a private company for a fraction of what it is worth.

Online-retailer Amazon has announced plans to begin hiring several dozen Vermonters later this year for new part-time positions in Virtual Customer Service, a program that offers flexible work-from-home arrangements for customer service agents.

Vermont Business Magazine Thomas D Anderson, Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety (DPS), and Nancy P. Sheahan, Chairwoman of the State Police Advisory Commission, have issued the following joint statement summarizing the work of SPAC and the Internal Affairs Office within the Department of Public Safety during 2018. 

This marks the first time that DPS has released a public summary of the commission’s work.

Vermont Business Magazine For the first time, medical cannabis patients in Vermont now have the convenience of using a drive-through window to purchase products for pain relief and other ailments. Southern Vermont Wellness (SVW) is now approved to dispense its full range of medical cannabis products at its new home at 942 Putney Road in Brattleboro.

by Brandon Arcari, Vermont Business Magazine Green Mountain Power has partnered with Renewable Energy Vermont on a new Bring-Your-Own-Device pilot program that will allow about 600 GMP customers to offset the costs of new energy-saving devices in their homes with incentives. The partnership, announced at the home of GMP customer Carole McCay in Hinesburg, was unveiled alongside the installation of a Tesla Powerwall battery sold by SunCommon for McCay to use as part of the program.

Senator Patrick Leahy The opioid epidemic is the health crisis of our time. Every community and every family has been touched in some way by this tragic loss of life or the struggle of addiction. An epidemic of this scale must be met with bold new ideas and the resources to back them up.
Vermont, like other states, is not immune to the scourge of opioid addiction.

Vermont Business Magazine Linda Schadler, dean of the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Vermont, is part of a nationwide collaboration that will collect data on nanocomposites. The project is funded through a five-year, $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Cyber-infrastructure for Sustained Scientific Innovation program.

Linda Schadler, dean of UVM's College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. (Photo: Andy Duback)

Vermont Business Magazine Mayor Miro Weinberger announced on Wednesday that on March 1 the City of Burlington will open the application process for the Burlington Early Learning Initiative’s “First Steps Scholarship Program,” which is designed to place 20 or more low-income Burlington children into high-quality child care in its pilot year. Mayor Weinberger was joined in the announcement by City Councilor Jane Knodell, City Councilor Dave Hartnett, Greater Burlington YMCA CEO Kyle Dodson, Let’s Grow Kids Interim CEO Janet McLaughlin, and Family Room Executive Director Josh Miller.

Senator Patrick Leahy More than 30 years ago, when cooperation and bipartisanship were a hallmark of the United States Senate, a bipartisan group of Senators sounded the alarm about climate change. They made a modest request of the Office of Technology Assessment: study the issue of climate change, and make recommendations to avert global disaster. Those Senators were concerned that human activity might directly cause permanent, destructive, and widespread changes to our planet’s climate system -- changes that would put our entire economy, ecosystem, and our very own existence at risk.

​Vermont Business Magazine Accel-VT is seeking innovative, early-stage, energy companies focused on reducing fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the heating and transportation sectors to participate in its business accelerator in Burlington, Vermont. The business accelerator, which is focused on helping early stage companies in climate economy innovation, is now accepting applications through April 28, 2019 for its summer 2019 climate economy entrepreneur program.

Vermont Business Magazine Lloyd Plumbing, Heating & Gas Service, LLC is the recipient of this year’s Efficiency Excellence Network Partner of the Year award, one of the eight annual Best of the Best awards, presented by Efficiency Vermont recently at the Better Buildings by Design conference.

Vermont Business Magazine 450 students from Riverside Middle School and Springfield High School and the River Valley Technical Center will participate Thursday in a day of coding that includes hands-on coding activities and panel discussions with computer science professionals. The day is designed to expose local students to coding, give them an opportunity to hear from computer science professionals, and explore pathways to coding careers.