Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Berkshire Bank is proud to announce a continued partnership with CRA Partners to help vulnerable seniors by funding the Senior Crimestoppers program. Berkshire Bank has partnered with CRA Partners since August, 2016. CRA Partners, powered by the Senior Housing Crime Prevention Foundation, is a national organization that guarantees banks federally mandated CRA credit through the operation of the turn-key Senior Crimestoppers program, providing safe and secure living environments for the nation’s low to moderate income seniors.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today delivered his third budget address, presenting a balanced budget emphasizing investments and policy reforms to expand the economy and state revenue, by reversing Vermont’s demographic trends, increasing the number of Vermonters in the labor force and transforming the State’s education system to the very best in the nation. The $6.1 billion budget includes $18 million in new taxes. He also said he would not support a carbon tax.

​Vermont Business Magazine Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health (D-HH) and GraniteOne Health (GOH) today announced that they have signed a letter of intent (LOI) to combine their two organizations to better serve the health care needs of New Hampshire residents and communities.  The combined non-profit health care system, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health GraniteOne, will build on years of successful community engagement and clinical collaboration in order to meet the growing demand for seamlessly integrated primary, specialty, ambulatory and inpatient care, offering patients a high-quality, lower-cost, New Hampshire-based alternative choice to out-of-state providers.

Vermont Business Magazine The Burlington Electric Department (BED), joined by Mayor Miro Weinberger, Vermont Department of Public Service Commissioner June Tierney, and customers Bert Johnson and Betsy Nesbitt, announced on Tuesday a new, discounted residential electric vehicle (EV) charging rate that will allow customers to charge their vehicles for the equivalent of $0.60 per gallon of gasoline. BED also launched a new, residential charging station incentive that will provide customers who purchase all-electric vehicles (AEVs) an additional $400 rebate on the purchase of eligible Level 2 home charging stations. Further, BED increased its incentives on the purchase and lease of plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) to $1,000, with an enhanced rebate increase to $1,500 for low- and moderate-income (LMI) customers.

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington Electric Department General Manager Darren Springer today announced that Mary Peterson, a private practice attorney focusing on complex tax and regulatory issues and former Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Taxes, will join the leadership team at Burlington Electric as Manager of Strategy and Innovation in February. Peterson, a Burlington resident, serves on the Board of the Energy Action Network and on the Climate Economy Action Team of the Council on Rural Development and served for six years in the Vermont House of Representatives, where she was a member of the Ways and Means Committee, working on a variety of energy taxation bills.

Summary Prepared by Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy’s Senate Appropriations Committee Staff President Trump and Leader McConnell have held the government of the American people and hundreds of thousands of public servants and their families hostage for 34 days, demanding American taxpayers fund the President’s ineffective wall and advance his extreme, anti-immigrant policies. The President cannot bargain with what he broke, and Republicans cannot make a deal among themselves and call it a “compromise.”

The Wall:  The bill would provide $5.7 billion for President Trump’s border wall.  The proposal is the latest in a string of arbitrary and ever increasing demands from the President to fund an ineffective border wall that most experts agree would do little to address the real problems on our Southern border.

Vermont Business Magazine Decisions farmers make over the spring and summer can dramatically increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions later in the winter. That's a key takeaway from a new University of Vermont study that shows, for the first time, that the impacts of farmers' manure use decisions extend beyond the growing season to influence emissions on warm winter days.

Vermont Business Magazine On Friday, January 25, an important joint hearing will be conducted in Room 11 at the Vermont State House with the House Agriculture and Forestry Committee, the Senate Agriculture Committee, and House and Senate Natural Resources Committees.  The hearing will highlight how Vermont’s land is currently managed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and how those practices might be improved and augmented. Farmers and researchers from the University of Vermont Extension Service will lead the presentation.

Vermont Business Magazine POWDR, a family-owned adventure lifestyle company and parent company of Vermont's Killington Resort, and Danny Davis, Peace Park founder, X Games Gold Medalist, Grand Prix Winner, Dew Tour Champion, and US Snowboard Olympian, have announced that they have partnered to launch Woodward Peace Park. This partnership brings Woodward, a playground for progressive sports experiences and part of the POWDR portfolio, together with Peace Park that was founded by Davis in 2011 as a new type of on-mountain experience which reinvented freestyle terrain with a focus on fun and flow as well as progression. 

Woodward Peace Park is a unique, ever-evolving terrain park concept designed to maximize creativity, progression and fun for shredders of all ages and abilities. Only available at POWDR properties, the Woodward Peace Park will debut mid-February at Killington Resort in Killington and Boreal Mountain California in Tahoe. 

Vermont Business Magazine With Vermont leading the way, US consumers recycled 7.2 million pounds of batteries in 2018 through the Call2Recycle program, according to the organization. These outcomes underscore the program's mission to responsibly recycle consumer batteries while increasing consumer focus on battery safety. Since the program's inception in 1994, more than 115 million pounds of batteries have been collected and recycled in the US.

Vermont Business Magazine The 2019 Vermont Flower Show, “Wonder – A Garden Adventure for All Ages,” will bring three days of spring to life as our winter draws to a close. See the attached sketch showing how the theme concept will be made real in the grand garden display! Along with the grand garden landscaped display, the show offers a wide variety of features and activities to choose from (see highlights below)– all included in the price of admission. Plan on spending the entire day at the show! The 2019 Vermont Flower Show was chosen by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce as a Top Ten Winter Event to attend!

Vermont Business Magazine Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE: BHLB), the parent of Berkshire Bank with branches in southwestern Vermont, reported GAAP net income of $14 million, or $0.31 per common share in the fourth quarter of 2018. The non-GAAP measure of core earnings totaled $29 million, or $0.63 per share, during this period. Both GAAP and core EPS totaled $0.70 in the prior quarter.