Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The New Hampshire / Vermont region of the American Red Cross will open shelters in Hartford and Barre, Vermont beginning at 6:00 p.m. tonight for people who find themselves displaced by power outages in Vermont. The shelters will be located at Hartford High School, 37 Highland Avenue, White River Junction, and at Barre Auditorium, 16 Auditorium Hill, Barre. Residents are facing freezing temperatures while power is being restored to their homes. The Red Cross and local emergency leadership moved to open the shelters for people needing someplace to go.The FREE Red Cross Emergency App for is available to download for mobile devices,and provides a list of open shelters in the area.

In addition: The state reports that a shelter is available at the Rochester Elementary School: 222 Main Street, which opened at 3 p.m.

Vermont Business Magazine It's the Giving Season, and many Vermonters are opening their hearts and checkbooks to donate to their favorite charities. With the current attention on giving, the Vermont Department of Taxes is teaming up with Common Good Vermont to remind Vermonters of the positive impact of giving and the changes in the 2018 Vermont income tax law that could benefit them if they donate. The Scott Administration worked with the 2018 Legislature to provide a nonrefundable charitable contribution credit against Vermont taxpayers' tax liability. This credit is 5 percent of the first $20,000 in eligible charitable contributions made during the taxable year regardless of whether the taxpayer itemizes on their federal tax return.

Vermont Business Magazine ISO New England, operator of New England’s power system, expects the region to have the necessary resources this winter to meet consumer demand, which is expected to peak at 20,357 megawatts (MW) under normal weather conditions or 21,057 MW at extreme temperatures. However, as seen during last year’s two-week cold snap, power system operations could become challenging if demand is higher than projected, if the region loses a large generator, electricity imports are affected, or during periods of fuel delivery constraints. In those instances, the ISO could be required to implement emergency operating procedures to maintain reliability.

Vermont Business Magazine Hundreds of lineworkers are working around the clock, and so far, have restored power to more than 75,000 customers after a heavy wet snow storm slammed Vermont starting Monday night. In all, more than 97,000 customers have lost power during this storm and in some areas, the outage totals continue to come in with new damage. GMP estimates (as of about 5 pm Wednesday) most of the remaining customers will have power back on by Friday night, but some outages in the hardest hit areas of Vermont may last into Saturday, or in some cases Sunday. Central and Southern Vermont along the Eastern side of the Green Mountains have the most widespread damage.

Vermont Business Magazine is preparing to publish our 32nd annual Vermont 100+, a ranking of Vermont companies based on annual revenues. Last year we listed nearly 200 companies ranked by total revenues and also ranked by industry. The rankings will be published in our January 2019 issue. If you think your company might qualify, you should enter your 2018 revenue figure (or estimate CLICK HERE FOR FORM) and mail, fax or email back your survey. If you do not know and cannot estimate 2018's revenues, please enter the figure for the most recently completed fiscal year and note what year the figure is for.

by C.B. Hall, Vermont Business Magazine The prospect of Amtrak service between Rutland and Burlington reminds one of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: The closer one gets to it, the more it recedes, keeping its distance on the aspirational horizon. Right now it appears to be at least three more years away. A 2014 Seven Days article reported that "state officials are saying that [the service] will begin in about three years" – that is, in 2017. (The same article cited then-governor Peter Shumlin's goal, announced in 2011, of restoring passenger rail service to Montreal by 2014 – but that's another story.)

Vermont Business Magazine In a joint statement today, Vermont’s congressional delegation, Senator Patrick Leahy (D), Senator Bernie Sanders (I) and Representative Peter Welch (D), responded to the Swanton sector border patrol’s planned immigration checkpoints: “While we sincerely appreciate the work of the US Border Patrol in keeping our country safe along the Northern Border through their actions to interdict dangerous criminal behavior such as human trafficking, we are concerned to learn of the US Border Patrol’s plans to operate a number of immigration checkpoints in the interior of Vermont.

"While these checkpoints will cause needless delays for travelers and hinder commerce between Vermont and Canada, we are not convinced that they will make Vermont or the United States any safer. Rather, they appear to be another escalation of the Trump Administration’s aggressive yet wasteful use of immigration enforcement resources.

by C.B. Hall, Vermont Business Magazine Legislators will be offered a distinctive breakfast ambiance Wednesday when AllEarth Rail, the startup commuter-rail initiative spearheaded by clean-energy entrepreneur David Blittersdorf, hosts them on board a rehabbed railcar parked on the Washington County Railroad tracks adjacent to Taylor Street in Montpelier, a short stroll from the State House.

Vermont Business Magazine Green Mountain Power is alerting customers that outages are still being reported as snow continues to fall and crews are still on the job to get the lights on. The massive storm that started Monday night packed high winds and then heavy wet snow that is tearing down power lines and trees and creating unsafe conditions across the state. Crews have faced dangerous driving and working conditions due to slippery roads and falling trees.

Vermont Business Magazine Connecticut-based People's United Financial, Inc (NASDAQ: PBCT), the holding company for People's United Bank, NA, with branches across Vermont, announced today an agreement to acquire BSB Bancorp, Inc (NASDAQ: BLMT), the holding company for Belmont Savings Bank, a state-chartered savings bank headquartered in Belmont, Massachusetts, in a 100 percent stock transaction valued at approximately $327 million. Completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of regulatory approvals and the approval of BSB Bancorp, Inc stockholders.

Vermont Business Magazine Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) will host an open house to unveil the hospital’s new surgical robot on Friday, November 30 from 11 am to 3 pm. Open to community members and the media, the event will feature the hospital’s recently acquired MAKO robotic-arm assisted surgical machine. BMH is the first and only hospital in Vermont to offer this surgical experience.

Vermont Business Magazine Riverbend Residential Care Home (RCH) in Chelsea has earned deficiency-free surveys from the Vermont Department of Licensing and Protection. “We are pleased to share the news of Riverbend’s recent deficiency-free surveys and thank our team for their commitment to high-quality home like care for our residents,” said owner Jennifer Doyle in a press release. “The survey results are made even more meaningful by the fact that, Riverbend has maintained deficiency free status for 15 years."