Current News

Outstanding young leaders chosen for contributions to the Vermont economy and their communities. VBM file photo of previous award ceremonies.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Business Magazine is proud to announce the winners of its Rising Stars recognition award. The list is comprised of 40 winners under the age of 40. Award recipients were selected by a panel of judges for their commitment to business growth, professional excellence and involvement in their communities.

Vermont Business Magazine Over the years, the Billings Library, the University of Vermont’s most architecturally important building, has been home to a variety of university functions, some more suited to the cathedral-like grandeur of its interior than others. Designed by HH Richardson, the great 19th American architect, the building began life in 1885 as the university’s library.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Transportation has recently launched online applications for women and minority residents of Vermont interested in obtaining training programs, employment opportunities, and support services in highway construction. Employment Diversity in Highway Construction (EDHC) provides several programs to assist Vermont residents in workforce training and job placement. The new online format allows applicants to submit applications from their home computer or smartphone for On the Job Training, Commercial Driver Training Funding, and Highway Construction Training Subsidies.

Vermont Business Magazine Over 500 Vermonters from over 130 different towns gathered at Castleton University today to hear from 90 different presenters and to continue a statewide conversation about how we can nurture great leaders in our local communities. Vermont Council on Rural Development’s “Making It Happen! Local Leadership for the Future of Vermont Communities” features skills workshops, case studies of success, and facilitated conversations about recruiting and supporting great leaders. As part of the day’s events, VCRD presented its Lifetime Achievement Award and Community Leadership Award.

Vermont Business Magazine The 2018 DRAFT White River Tactical Basin Plan (TBP) is now available for public comment. The Plan provides an overall assessment of the health of the White River basin and defines on-going and future actions and strategies to address high-priority stressors such as encroachment, stream channel erosion, land erosion, and pathogens. The Plan presents the recommendations of State and Federal resource agencies, watershed partner organizations, planning commissions, municipalities, and individual citizens.

A series of public comment meetings will be held in October to gather feedback on the TBP presented by the VT Agency of Natural Resources in partnership with Two-Rivers Ottauquechee Regional Commission, White River Natural Resource Conservation District, White River Partnership, Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission (CVRPC) and the Rutland Regional Planning Commission.

Vermont Business Magazine People's United Financial, Inc (NASDAQ: PBCT) the holding company for Connecticut-based People's United Bank, NA, announced today that it has completed its acquisition of First Connecticut Bancorp, Inc (NASDAQ: FBNK) the holding company for Farmington Bank. The 100 percent stock transaction was announced on June 19, 2018, and is valued at approximately $544 million. People's United is the largest bank in Vermont by share of deposits, according to the FDIC.

Vermont Business Magazine National Bank of Middlebury has been awarded an “Outstanding” performance evaluation for Community Reinvestment Act. The CRA categorization is an evaluation of a banking institution’s record of meeting the credit needs of its entire community including low and moderate-income neighborhoods.

Vermont Business Magazine Whether it’s a favorite swimming hole, an iconic stream running through town, or a fishing spot along the shores of Lake Champlain, thousands of people use the Winooski River Watershed’s lakes, ponds, wetlands, and streams. Every one of the watershed’s residents can also play a meaningful role protecting or cleaning up Winooski’s waterways.

The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) invites residents with connections to Vermont’s waterways to attend public meetings to weigh in on water quality improvement projects and hear updates on the overall restoration plans.

Lake Champlain at the mouth of the Lamoille River. File photo.

Vermont Business Magazine The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets in September hosted a meeting with its counterparts from Pennsylvania and Vermont to discuss the challenges the dairy industry is facing across the nation and explore opportunities the states have in working cooperatively to help benefit dairy producers regionally. This meeting took place on the heels of the annual National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) conference in Hartford, CT. All commissioners of agriculture from across the nation, including the Northeast’s 10 commissioners, gathered to discuss issues of critical importance to agriculture in the United States, including the ongoing concerns for the dairy industry.

Vermont Business Magazine Every year Google recognizes 51 US businesses that exemplify using Google’s digital advertising and analytics tools for rapid growth and strong return on investment, while also creating a positive impact in their community. This year, Darn Tough Vermont received this prized recognition, published in the Google Economic Impact Report.

Darn Tough Vermont is a family-owned manufacturer of premium merino socks made with uncompromised comfort, durability and fit. Their dedication to American manufacturing and reinvestment in their local community here in Vermont can be felt statewide.

Darn Tough holds its annual sock sale in November at its manufacturing plant in Northfield. VBM photo.

Vermont Business Magazine A newly released report by the University of Southern California’s Race and Equity Center that measures how well public colleges and universities are serving African American students gives high marks to The University of Vermont. The report, “Black students at public colleges and universities: A 50-state report card” by Shaun R. Harper and Isaiah Simmons, assigns each school an A-F score based on four equity indicators. The University of Vermont earned a “B” grade in the first three indicators and an “A” in the fourth. The grades resulted in a 3.25 “Equity Index” score for UVM, earning it a spot on the report’s list of 36 institutions with the highest “Equity Index” scores out of the 500 plus colleges and universities in the report.

Equity indicators:

by Rob Roper Following the Janus vs AFSCME Supreme Court decision that ruled public sector unions can no longer force non-members to pay agency fees, both the unions and Vermont’s teachers have some questions to reflect upon. The big one for teachers is, are my union dues really worth it? According to statements made to the media by VTNEA spokesperson Darren Allen, the difference between the agency fee charged to non-members by the teachers’ union ($454) and the full union dues ($629) was just $175.

Before Janus, the question potential members had to ask themselves was, if I’m going to be forced to pay $454 anyway is the extra $175 worth it to be a full voting member of the union?

Now the question is, is that worth over $600, or am I better off just pocketing all that cash?

The unions, on the other hand, have to figure out ways to refocus their priorities and create real and perceived value for potential members.