Current News

Vermont Business Magazine During a Thursday event at the Middlebury Town Offices, US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) announced that all communities in Vermont are now eligible to apply for funding from the Northern Border Regional Commission’s (NBRC) grant programs. The NBRC is a federal-state partnership with a mission to help alleviate economic distress and encourage private-sector job creation throughout portions of Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire and New York.  Leahy included legislation in the 2018 Farm Bill to make communities in the entire state of Vermont eligible, expanding the important grant program that previously only covered the northernmost six counties in the state.

In all, $25 million will be available to Vermont, NH, NY and ME in 2019 for the grant projects.

Vermont Business Magazine The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to conduct comprehensive reviews of site cleanups at six National Priorities List (NPL) Superfund sites in Vermont by performing required Five-Year Reviews of sites. The sites under review are the Bennington Municipal Sanitary Landfill; BFI Sanitary Landfill, Rockingham; Elizabeth Mine, Strafford; Parker Sanitary Landfill, Lyndon; Pownal Tannery; and Tansitor Electronics Inc, Bennington. 

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington School District (BSD) on Wednesday released its proposed line item budget for fiscal year 2020, as well as a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document related to the budget proposal. All told, the proposed budget represents a 4.36 percent increase from last year which the District estimates will have a tax impact of a 4.86 percent increase for residents paying taxes based on their property values. The total budget is for $88,706,132, on which voters will decide on Town Meeting Day March 5.

The BSD said in a statement that it is encouraging community members to visit www.bsdvt.org to view the documents and a complete list of budget reductions and additions, and learn more about the plan forward for fiscal year 2020.

Vermont Business Magazine The assets of JOY all things underthings, a full-service bra fitting and lingerie store in Manchester Center in business since June 2013, have been sold to Julie Isaacs and Katherine MacLauchlan, two long-time employees. "Julie and Katherine have a combined eight years experience at JOY and their contributions have been a large part of the success. They are a perfect combination to take over the retail operations and continue providing bra fitting expertise and women's underpinnings selections in our beautiful town," Joy Proft, JOY's founder and owner, said in a press release announcing the sale.  

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont-based NGO Food 4 Farmers has been named a nonprofit partner of 1% for the Planet, a global alliance of more than 1,200 member companies in 40 countries. Bluestone Life, a 1% for the Planet member, sponsored Food 4 Farmers. 1% is a collaborative platform to address environmental issues, with companies like Bluestone committing 1% of their revenues to environmental causes.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Procurement Technical Assistance Center (VT PTAC) is hosting a series of workshops throughout the State of Vermont on the recently released VTrans Job Order Contracts (JOCs). The JOCs will replace the Category I Maintenance and Rental Agreements (CAT I MRAs) currently in use. Experienced procurement counselors will assist Vermont contractors with understanding the new JOCs Response process in this two-hour workshop.

“This workshop is a valuable tool for existing VTrans CAT I contractors or any contractor looking for guidance on submitting a compliant bid proposal for this procurement opportunity,” said Bonnie Sanders, VT PTAC Procurement Specialist.

Intro to VTrans Job Order Contracts (JOCs) Workshops

COLCHESTER

Friday, February 22, 2019

9:00am - 11:00am

VTrans District 5 Office

189 Troy Ave, Colchester

Vermont Business Magazine Consolidated Communications (NASDAQ: CNSL), a leading broadband and business communications provider and Vermont's largest telecom, has announced it has added a virtual intelligent agent application to its robust portfolio of products and services that improve and enhance how businesses communicate. Consolidated’s virtual agent tool is a cloud-based, intelligent automation solution that enables businesses of all sizes to automate many of the routine and repetitive conversations handled by live agents. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday issued an order granting certificates of public good to Champlain Broadband, and approving the sale of Burlington Telecom to Champlain Broadband, the local subsidiary of Schurz Communications from Indiana. This is the final stage of a process that the city began in 2014, with the resolution of the Citibank litigation and the transfer of assets to Blue Water Holdings, which allowed the city to stabilize its finances and improve its credit rating in order to save taxpayers millions. Bluewater will get $30.8 million and the city will get about $6.3 million.

In response, Mayor Miro Weinberger issued the following statement:

Vermont Business Magazine At a press conference today at Community Health Centers of Burlington, Representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont) unveiled legislation he has authored to provide relief from skyrocketing insulin prices to diabetes patients in Vermont and across the country. Welch's initiative authorizes the importation of safe, low-cost insulin from Canada and other qualified countries.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Scott today announced that Vermont will partner with the SANS Institute to bring the Girls Go CyberStart challenge to Vermont for a second year, providing high school girls with cybersecurity skills and career exploration opportunities. Girls Go CyberStart is a free, forward-thinking cybersecurity skills program designed to educate and inspire high school girls about the opportunities and rewards of a career in cybersecurity. In the program, students complete games and challenges in which they learn and apply cybersecurity skills including forensics, open-source intelligence, cryptography and web application security

Vermont Business Magazine For the third year in a row, Green Mountain Power earned a spot among the top ten most innovative energy companies in the world, landing at number five in Energy as Fast Company released its prestigious list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2019. GMP joins companies like Apple, Stitch Fix and Peloton on the list. Fast Company highlighted GMP’s groundbreaking work on grid transformation to cut carbon and costs with stored energy.

Vermont Business Magazine Beginning in 2019, completing the updated Vermont version of the Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate, the W-4VT, will be more important than ever due to the new federal and Vermont income tax laws. The Vermont Department of Taxes recommends taxpayers update their Vermont W-4VT. The Form W-4VT was updated in January 2019, and even employees who recently updated their W-4s and W-4VTs should check to make sure that they used the most current forms to update withholding. Employers should make certain all new and existing employees complete the updated Form W-4VT.