Current News

Vermont Business Magazine US News & World Report and Best Lawyers announced today that Primmer Piper Eggleston & Cramer PC has been ranked in the 2019 US News - Best Lawyers "Best Law Firms" list and regionally in 25 practice areas. Firms included in the 2019 "Best Law Firms" list are recognized for professional excellence with persistently impressive ratings from clients and peers. Achieving a tiered ranking signals a unique combination of quality law practice and breadth of legal expertise. The 2019 Edition of "Best Law Firms" includes rankings in 75 national practice areas and 122 metropolitan-based practice areas.

Ranked firms, presented in tiers, are listed on a national and/or metropolitan scale. Receiving a tier designation reflects the high level of respect a firm has earned among other leading lawyers and clients in the same communities and the same practice areas for their abilities, their professionalism and their integrity.

by Daniel M. French, EdD, Secretary of Education In the final weeks of the election cycle, supporters of the Vermont State College System and early education proponents made their pitch for additional funding in a challenging fiscal environment. Their ideas are constructive, their tone civil and they’re making a good faith effort to add to the policy conversation. My predecessor also weighed in to rehash last year’s debates.

As a former superintendent, I have spent years explaining Vermont’s education finance system. I began my career in educational leadership with the advent of Act 60. Nearly 20 years later, in my last year as a superintendent, Act 46 became law. Throughout the years, I have navigated Montpelier’s frequent tinkering with the system, and how we pay for it.

I believe we are now at a point where we need more comprehensive action.

Vermont Business Magazine In the spring of 2017, early in his tenure as director of UVM Extension, Chuck Ross got a long voicemail message from a farmer and culinary tourism advocate in Pontiac, Quebec named David Gillespie. Did Vermont have any interest, Gillespie wanted to know, in being part of an international culinary trail he was helping create that connected Quebec, Ontario and the Adirondack region of New York State?

“I didn’t know David from Adam,” Ross said, “but I returned the call.”

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney Tristram J Coffin of the northern New England law firm Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC has announced the formation of Vermont’s first dedicated practice group to focus on government enforcement actions and the defense of white collar criminal and civil fraud allegations. The practice will be headed by Coffin, a director and the former United States Attorney for the District of Vermont from 2009 to 2014. Other attorneys will contribute to the practice from their own areas of focus. These include tax law attorney Wm Roger Prescott, commercial business litigator Jennifer E McDonald and former Assistant US Attorney Timothy C Doherty Jr.

“We have been quietly doing this kind of work at DRM since I arrived here in 2015,” Coffin said. “This next step will formalize the practice and allow us to focus additional resources at DRM in order to help clients deal with these very challenging situations in a focused and effective manner.”

Vermont Business Magazine Carole Monroe, ValleyNet’s CEO has announced her retirement in early 2019. ValleyNet’s board is undertaking a search for a new Managing Director/CEO. The board thanks Carole for her exemplary management of the organization and the further development of its employees and capabilities. Since 2008, ValleyNet, a Vermont non-profit organization, has been assisting the East Central Vermont Telecommunications District (ECFiber) in financing, building and operating its fiber-to-the-home network in 24 Vermont municipalities.

Vermont Business Magazine Trends happen across a wide spectrum, from the culturally important to the frivolous. Fuse in Burlington did a survey in October of 2,000 Millennials is about Halloween - which counts as both frivolous and important to marketers. The National Retail Federation is predicting an increase in spending for Halloween this year reaching a record-breaking $9.1 billion. Americans are going to spend more than ever and its Millennials who are leading the way, having made Halloween their favorite holiday.

by Ansley Bloomer, Assistant Director, Renewable Energy Vermont For every dollar we spend on fossil fuel heating in Vermont, $0.78 is sent out of state. What if, instead of sending 131 million dollars out of state a year on these fuels, we spent even just half of that on locally and sustainably produced fuels where every penny of every dollar stays here, locally? This is less of a hypothetical question, and more of reality, as innovative and resilient working Vermonters are doing just that. With the passage of a sales and use tax exemption on advanced wood heating systems, Vermont is taking steps towards re-starting a value chain that will revitalize our rural communities and preserve Vermonters’ relationship with the working landscape.

Vermont Business Magazine Grassroots Solar, Inc of Dorset was recently named one of the recipients of the 2018 “Brilliance Awards” by Sonnen Batterie, the global leader in intelligent residential energy storage based in Germany. These new awards are bestowed upon thought leaders and innovators who, in partnership with Sonnen, have demonstrated a tireless commitment to creating a cleaner and more reliable energy future for all through innovation, collaboration and customer education.

In giving the award, Sonnen stated, “As an active advocate for energy storage, Grassroots Solar is creating a clean energy future through extensive homeowner education. This includes advocating with local and state representatives as well as their innovation with projects in Puerto Rico to increase awareness about energy resilience for people devastated by climate disasters.”

Vermont Business Magazine Commonwealth Dairy today received $57,207 in Vermont Training Program (VTP) grants from the Agency of Commerce & Community Development’s (ACCD) Department of Economic Development to up-skill 147 of its employees. The workforce development grants will support production skills training for current workers, increasing the capacity of Commonwealth’s Brattleboro facility while maintaining quality production of the company’s high-quality Greek yogurt. The training will strengthen employees’ knowledge and ability, helping Commonwealth thrive in the highly-competitive Greek yogurt industry.

Vermont Business Magazine On October 25^th the Lamoille Economic Development Corporation celebrated its 50^th anniversary at is annual luncheon meeting held in the Community Center at Green Mountain Technology and Career Center. In addition to a spectacular lunch catered by Black Diamond BBQ in Morrisville there were several highlights that kept the audience of 104 engaged.

by US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) Unable to credibly defend his corporate tax giveaways or Republicans’ unending zeal to strip healthcare and coverage of pre-existing conditions from millions of Americans, President Trump, one week ahead of an election that could place a check on his presidency, is returning to a familiar playbook: deploying demagoguery to distract and divide us. This time by using a caravan of vulnerable migrants and asylum seekers a thousand miles from our border as scapegoats to foment irrational fears and rally his most ardent believers.

Vermont Business Magazine The union representing over half the staff at the Brattleboro Retreat have ratified a one-year contract. The summer had been a bitter one between management and workers following a sweeping schedule change for employees. Union members at times engaged in "informational pickets" at the private psychiatric hospital, but did not go on strike. While addressing those scheduling concerns, the new contract includes a $15 an hour minimum wage and sets a new pay scale for direct care staff.

The existing three-year contract expires today. The Brattleboro Retreat Local 5086 became part of United Nurses & Allied Professionals in 1999. The union represents about 550 nurses and mental health workers at the 870-employee facility.

The following is a joint statement from the Brattleboro Retreat and the United Nurses & Allied Professionals Local 5086: