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Public Assets Institute With 25 percent more Vermonters living in poverty than in the early 2000s, median household income stagnant, and high-quality child care still not affordable or even available to many Vermont families, the state’s elected officials need to focus on addressing these and other foundational issues in the next biennium. To move Vermont forward, policy makers need to zero in on three fundamental initiatives:

Vermont Business Magazine Casella Waste Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: CWST), a regional vertically integrated solid waste, recycling and resource management services company, announced Thursday after markets closed that it has acquired the assets of Boon & Sons, Inc and of Oceanside Rubbish, Inc. Both transactions closed on November 1, 2018. Boon is a provider of residential, commercial and roll-off collection services in the Rochester, NY, market. Oceanside is a provider of residential, commercial and roll-off collection services and operates a transfer station in the Southern, Maine marketplace. In total, the company expects to generate approximately $16 million of annualized revenues from the Boon and Oceanside acquisitions.

Vermont Business Magazine Casella Waste Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: CWST), a regional solid waste, recycling and resource management services company, on Thursday after markets closed reported its financial results for the three month period ended September 30, 2018. For the quarter, revenues were $172.8 million, up $12.6 million, or 7.8%, from the same period in 2017, with revenue growth mainly driven by: robust collection and disposal pricing; higher organics and customer solutions volumes; and acquisition activity; partially offset by lower recycling commodity prices and volumes; and lower solid waste volumes due to the fire related business interruption at a transfer station and lower collection and transportation volumes. Shares were down early Friday nearly 10 percent ($29.00 −$3.14 (9.77%).) Shares overall are trading on the upper end of its 52-week high/low ($34.48/$18.60).

Third Quarter and Year-To-Date Highlights:

Vermont Business Magazine The City of Burlington discovered yesterday that the "Everyone Loves a Parade" mural has again been vandalized. The mural is on an ally just off Church Street in downtown Burlington. This time, the vandal(s) removed the faces of the figures in the section of the mural from Samuel de Champlain to Ethan Allen, seriously damaging this section of the mural.

Vermont Business Magazine Randolph-based Catamount Solar is offering a new program for electric vehicle owners. Catamount will include a Level 2 Car-Charging Station free with any 7kW or larger system purchased from them. The new program supports Catamount Solar’s mission to help Vermonters lower their carbon footprint and achieve the state’s renewable energy goals.

Co-founder, Dan Kinney said, "The car charging station is a terrific value for folks with electric vehicles. A two stage charger can fully charge much quicker than the charger that comes with the vehicle. Catamount Solar is committed to help all Vermont citizens find their path to energy independence."

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.