Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and Congressman Peter Welch joined Springfield Regional Development Corporation (SRDC) and the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) to announce $1M raised for a new economy initiative in Springfield. The Black River Innovation Campus (BRIC) will bring together digital job training, computer science education and an entrepreneurship center to create innovation jobs.

Vermont Business Magazine In recent years, hospital leaders, physicians and patients have discovered that art and music in the hospital environment can help patients deal with their illnesses more effectively and possibly return to full functioning earlier. The Great Hall, in celebration of Springfield Hospital’s 105th Anniversary is pleased to present, “Healing: The Transformative Imagery of Art,” a group exhibition of 12 artists. Drawing on personal, in some cases tragic experiences, they have created inspirational art to share with the viewer. The exhibition will open Thursday, September 27.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Tax revenues for the month of August are well ahead of targets and reverse sluggish July results. While the fiscal year is only two months old, tax revenues have been robust this calendar year, except for July. General Fund revenues collected for the month totaled $84.53 million, or $4.28 million above the monthly consensus revenue target.

Vermont Business Magazine The Brattleboro Retreat announced today that Tom Huebner, recently retired President of Rutland Regional Medical Center (RRMC) and Rutland Regional Health Services (the hospital’s parent corporation), has been elected to the hospital’s Board of Trustees. Huebner joined RRMC in 1990 as Vice President overseeing systems development and planning. From 1997 to March of 2018 he served as the Medical Center's president. Prior to that he served as Executive Vice President at Choate-Symmes Health Services, Inc in Woburn, MA, also held positions as Senior Consultant for the Massachusetts Hospital Association and as Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Public Health in Massachusetts.

Vermont Business Magazine Widely hailed as a key victory for transparency and open access to information, Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports will be made freely available to the public for the first time beginning Tuesday. The change in policy was directed by appropriations provisions authored by Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont). The Leahy legislation was signed into law in March.

A legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS issues or updates more than 3000 reports each year on topics ranging from the structure of government agencies, to summaries of legislative proposals and other policy analyses. Previous restrictions prevented these taxpayer-funded reports from being directly distributed to the public, but third-party for-profit companies often made them available to lobbyists for hefty subscription fees.

Vermont Business Magazine The family of Janet Jillson recently presented the Foley Cancer Center with a generous donation in her memory. The money was raised through the second annual Janet Jillson Memorial Golf Tournament that took place on August 14^th at the Skene Valley Country Club in Whitehall, NY. Members of Janet’s family gathered together at Rutland Regional Medical Center on September 14, 2018 for the official check presentation. To date, the tournament has raised a total of $25,000 to benefit the Foley Cancer Center.

“We are very grateful to the Foley Cancer Center for the wonderful care they provided to Janet, and wanted to give back to them,” said Jay Jillson, Janet’s husband.

Vermont Business Magazine The Agency of Education this week announced its endorsement of the National Center for Construction Education and Research’s (NCCER) “Introductory Craft Skills” curriculum (www.nccer.org). The NCCER curriculum is used across the nation in education and training programs, by schools, colleges and employers’ in-house training programs. It culminates in stackable credentials and is being implemented this fall in all regional career technical education (CTE) center construction trades programs as part of a larger state initiative to develop career pathways in construction.

​Vermont Business Magazine This month Gifford’s Kingwood Health Center became the first Orange County distribution site for free naloxone, also known by brand name Narcan, the medication that, when taken properly, saves lives by rapidly reversing opioid overdoses. Opioids, which include heroin as well as pain relievers like oxycodone and morphine, are highly addictive drugs that can cause death by overdose. Last year, “there were 101 accidental and undetermined opioid-related fatalities among Vermont residents,” reported the Vermont Department of Health, “up from 96 in 2016 and 74 in 2015.”

Vermont Business Magazine For decades, firefighters had been using a certain type of foam to fight fires. While this foam helped save lives, state regulators recently discovered per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in Type B Aqueous Film Forming Foam, known as AFFF. PFAS is a toxic chemical that impacts human health and the environment. To protect firefighters, communities, and drinking water supplies, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Division of Fire Safety are working alongside fire departments to safely dispose of this foam and transition to a new foam.

Any Fire Department with less than 220 pounds of foam (approximately five 5-gallon pails) can make an appointment to drop these containers off at any of the following locations:

Vermont Business Magazine Raising Expectations, a report released Monday by the National Partnership for Women & Families, gives Vermont a grade of “B” for providing basic workplace protections that go beyond federal law to allow working people to meet their personal or family caregiving responsibilities. The new report analyzes state laws and regulations governing paid and unpaid leave in the United States and assigns grades to 50 states and the District of Columbia. Half the states got a "D" or "F." The study determined that those states are doing little or nothing beyond what federal law requires.

Vermont Business Magazine After parting ways with Procter & Gamble on July 1, Paul and Barbi Schulick, founders of the P&G subsidiary New Chapter, have announced their next venture, byOM life, LLC in Dummerston. Thirty-five years ago, Paul Schulick's vitamin and herbal formulations initiated a paradigm shift in the natural products industry towards fermentation and whole food supplementation. Now, Schulick plans to use the brand byOM to radically innovate botanical skin care while simultaneously preparing for a return to the nutraceuticals market in the summer of 2020.

Vermont Business Magazine Kinney Pike Insurance has acquired Parker Insurance Agency located in White River Junction. As part of the merger, Parker Insurance Agency will relocate to Kinney Pike’s White River Junction office at 1011 North Main Street. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.