Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Southern Vermont College (SVC) in Bennington has expanded its Good Neighbor Scholarship once again in Massachusetts for qualified students at the Berkshire Arts and Technology (BART) Charter Public School in Adams and Hoosac Valley High School in Cheshire. The Good Neighbor Scholarship is a renewable scholarship of $11,000 per year. BART and Hoosac Valley join high schools in Bennington and Windham Counties in Vermont along with several schools in Northern Berkshire County, Mass., and select Rensselaer County schools in New York.

Vermont Business Magazine The owner of Flooring America in Williston announced this week that he recently donated more than $12,000 in flooring materials and labor for a new mental health facility in the Champlain Valley. Owner David Evarts said this donation—the largest his business has made—was important to him because he believes in the mission of the Vermont Center for Responder Wellness.

“Sonny Provetto, who runs the Vermont Center for Responder Wellness, is doing amazing work for our local communities. He is helping our men and women first responders and military veterans who help us and never ask anything in return. Any first responder who is physically hurt has a clear path to getting helped. There are fewer options, however, for those that may need mental health assistance,” Evarts says.

Vermont Business Magazine US Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) on Thursday introduced their Second Chance Reauthorization Act, bipartisan legislation to reauthorize and amend the Second Chance Act, a law that supports state and local reentry programs to reduce recidivism. Then-Congressman Portman originally authored the Second Chance Act with the late-Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, and it was signed into law in 2008. Since 2009, more than 850 Second Chance Act grant awards have been made to government agencies and nonprofit organizations from 49 states for reentry programs serving adults and juveniles. As of June 2018, more than 164,000 individuals have participated in these programs.

Vermont Business Magazine The Governor’s Marijuana Advisory Commission will host a listening tour throughout Vermont in order to provide Vermonters an opportunity for public comment on the draft reports produced by the Commission’s Subcommittees on Roadway Safety, Education and Prevention and Taxation and Regulation earlier this week. The tour begins November 26 in Rutland and runs in five sites. It concludes December 6 in White River Junction.

The draft reports document the findings and recommendations of the Subcommittees for review by the Commission. The listening tour is to give Vermonters the opportunity to further inform the Commission as it prepares to finalize its report and submit its recommendations to Governor Scott by December 15.

Public Assets Institute Vermont’s labor force grew for the first six months of the year but has shrunk since June, for a net gain of almost 1,200 people in 2018. It’s a familiar pattern, but largely a downward one: About 15,000 fewer Vermonters are working or actively seeking jobs now than at the peak in April 2009. Based on annual data, Vermont is one of only a dozen states where the workforce was smaller in 2017 than it was before the recession.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Labor announced today that the seasonally-adjusted statewide unemployment rate for October was 2.8 percent. This reflects a decrease of one-tenth of one percentage point from the revised September rate. However, the lowered unemployment rate is largely due to a decline in the Labor Force, which shrunk by 1,127 workers. The number of Employed also fell, by 861. The only bright spot was a decrease in the number of unemployed by 266.

Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims last week fell but are at a higher level than they've been for several months. For the week of November 10, 2018, there were 510 claims, 62 fewer than they were the previous week, and 29 fewer than they were a year ago. Altogether 3,014 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 243 from a week ago, but 215 fewer than a year ago. For most weeks of 2017 and 2018 claims have been lower than the year before. The last spike in claims came in late June (799 claims) during the end-of-school transition. Vermont, like the nation as a whole, is locked into a historically low period of unemployment.

by Katie Powers CCV Students at CCV-Winooski are getting a taste of the maker movement—which might sound trendy and abstract, but it’s actually pretty basic: it’s literally about making things. And these students are loving it for a pretty basic reason: they get to work with their hands, turning their ideas into reality.

Vermont Business Magazine A combination of world-class snowmaking and strong early-season snowfall will allow both Stowe and Okemo Mountain Resort to open earlier than in most prior years, on Friday, November 16. Vermont is expected to get upwards of a foot of new snow Thursday night. Stowe will offer top-to-bottom skiing and riding with over 2,000 vertical feet of continuous terrain off of the Four Runner Quad chairlift on Mount Mansfield, Vermont’s highest peak. Open trails on Mount Mansfield will consist of intermediate to advanced terrain, with beginner lifts and trails scheduled to open on Spruce Peak by Thanksgiving. The Four Runner Quad will open at 8 a.m. this Friday, Nov. 16, and for all weekdays throughout the season, and 7:30 am on weekends and holidays.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s Killington Resort, the largest ski and snowboard resort in Eastern North America, has received a positive snow control announcement from FIS (Internal Ski Federation), the governing body of the Audi FIS Ski World Cup. This is no mere formality. Two years ago races were canceled in Colorado and Lake Louise, Canada, because of poor snow conditions about the same time Vermont celebrated the return of championship racing at Killington. The early date for these races does mean that weather conditions have to be conducive for making snow, which they easily have been this year in southern Vermont. Both Killington and Mount Snow (a record early start) have already opened for the season.

Vermont Business Magazine To protect worker safety and improve the value of Vermont’s recyclables, the Agency of Natural Resources has launched a campaign to reduce recycling contamination. The Agency worked with Chittenden Solid Waste District and Casella Waste Systems to identify the top four contaminants at their recycling facilities and created advertisements to let people know these items don’t belong in blue recycling bins: plastic bags, batteries and electronics, food-contaminated recyclables, and scrap metal.

Vermont Business Magazine The cold weather is upon us and Vermont Gas is offering easy ‘do-it-yourself’ (DIY) safety and efficiency tips to ensure customers are safe and comfortable in their homes all winter long.