Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Expanding their footprint to the Queen City, Middlebury, Vt.-based distillery Stonecutter Spirits is celebrating the opening of their Burlington cocktail bar and tasting room, Highball Social.

“It’s exciting to be joining the Burlington cocktail scene at a moment when there’s a lot of energy around great spirits,” said Sas Stewart, co-founder and president of Stonecutter Spirits. “At the heart of all of it, we are cocktail nerds, and we’re really thrilled to share our approach to spirits with more people.”

Vermont State Police A crash on I-89 in Hartford has resulted in the fatality of one and serious injury on the other occupant in a one-vehicle accident. The two occupants have been identified and family has been notified. Investigation is ongoing to identify which occupant was operating the vehicle at the time of the crash.

by James Dwinell Christine Hallquist already has made history and will need to make more to become Vermont’s next governor. The former CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative and an engineer by education, Hallquist is the first transgender, major-party candidate for governor in the nation. But the Democratic contender also will need to reverse a near-60-year trend in Vermont. To beat Republican Governor Phil Scott, she’ll have to unseat an incumbent, which hasn’t happened here since 1962 when Phil Hoff beat Republican F Ray Keyser Jr. This article will also run in the October issue of Vermont Business Magazine. One on Phil Scott ran in the September issue.

Vermont Business Magazine Northern Power Systems Corp (TSX: NPS), a Barre-based renewable energy and energy storage technology company, announced on September 20, 2018 that it had received a letter from the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) notifying the company that the TSX will delist the company’s securities, effective October 22, 2018. TSX imposed the delisting for the failure of the company to meet certain continued listing requirements of TSX. The TSX identified several deficiencies regarding the company’s compliance with the TSX continued listing requirements, including the fact that (i) in the opinion of TSX, it is questionable as to whether the company will be able to continue as a going concern, (ii) the market value of the Company’s listed securities has been less than $3.0 million for the 30 previous consecutive trading days, and (iii) market value of the Company’s publicly held listed securities has been less than $2.0 million for the 30 previous consecutive

Vermont Business Magazine US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) will deliver remarks Monday morning during the University of Vermont’s Youth Rally for Climate Action. UVM students are hosting the Rally for Climate Action. Colleges and high school students from around the state are invited to attend. The goal will be to shed light on what Vermont colleges and high schools are doing to cut greenhouse gas emissions and lead climate education and action by example.

UVM students and elected representatives will speak. The morning will also include an online address from Marlow Baines, youth regional crew director of Earth Guardians, reporting on youth-led climate action at the national level.

Bove’s of Vermont We have a big Bove’s announcement to make but before we get to that, we’d like to yield the floor to Governor Phil Scott who said, “For 75 years the Bove family has been synonymous with Italian food. Thousands of people experienced the great food offered at their Burlington restaurant – I being one of them when I attended UVM. When I first took the office I set the three guiding principles of my administration: to grow the economy, make Vermont more affordable and protect the most vulnerable. And it takes people like Rick and Mark – employers who are committed to Vermont, their customers, and their employees – to support these efforts.”

by Maia Segura, Vermont Business Magazine Mount Snow ski resort is getting ready to go big for the 2018-2019 ski season. The final construction of an epic 42000 square foot, amenity-packed, base lodge is on track for the New Carinthia Lodge to open the first day of ski season. Also standing at the ready will be last year’s 220 new snow guns. Resort managers look forward to a powerful start to the season in November, with a little help from Mother Nature.

Vermont Buisness Magazine Green Mountain Power and Vermont Magazine are encouraging writers to enter to win one of the state’s great literary honors: The Vermont Writers’ Prize. Winning entries are published in Vermont Magazine’s March/April 2019 Issue. The prize is a collaboration between GMP and Vermont Magazine and is a chance for writers in Vermont to share their creativity, perspective and love for Vermont. The award was created as a way to honor Ralph Nading Hill, Jr, who was a Vermont historian, author, and long-time GMP Board member.

“It is always so fascinating to read the winning entries each year,” said Dotty Schnure, who spearheads the contest for GMP. “Local authors have so much talent, and their work always highlights the best of the spirit of Vermont.”

Vermont Business Magazine The UVM Health Network Porter Medical Center (Middlebury) Board of Directors elected a new slate of officers at its monthly meeting in September. Elected to the position of board chairman was Sivan Cotel, the Co-Founder and Director of Operations for Stonecutter Spirits. A craft spirits veteran focused on growing startups into businesses, Sivan was previously the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of WhistlePig Whiskey.

New Porter Board Chairman Sivan Cotel

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Vice Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Friday announced that the Vermont State Agency of Human Services is receiving $4,020,896 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The funding is part of the State Opioid Response Grant program created as part of the Leahy-negotiated 2018 Consolidated Appropriations Act signed into law this spring. Vermont’s $4 million grant is a direct result of language that Leahy fought for in the bill guaranteeing each state at least $4 million to fight the deadly opioid crisis.

Public Assets Insitute Using the broadest measure of unemployment, Vermont and New Hampshire have the lowest jobless rates in New England. The U-6 unemployment rate includes people who stopped looking for work and those who have jobs but would prefer to work more hours. By this measure, which some call the real unemployment rate, Vermont and New Hampshire were at 6.2 percent for the 12 months ending June 2018. Meanwhile, Vermont’s official unemployment rate, U-3, which only counts people without jobs who are actively seeking work, remained at 2.8 percent in August.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Labor announced today that the seasonally-adjusted statewide unemployment rate for August was 2.8 percent. This reflects no change from the revised July rate. The national rate in August was 3.9 percent, also unchanged. However, employment fell sharply for the month. The rate was unchanged because the labor force also decreased. The number of unemployed Vermonters rose slightly.