Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont maple producers and consumers were feeling sweet relief after an announcement by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) signaling that 100% pure maple products will not be forced to display a standard label declaring “added sugars” on the package. Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan hailed the news as good for Vermont businesses and consumers.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott has proclaimed September as “Preparedness Month” in Vermont in conjunction with National Preparedness Month. Dangerous and destructive weather events like floods, windstorms, extreme heat and cold and others, have and will continue to occur in Vermont. While we cannot entirely avoid disasters, we can take actions to diminish their effects by planning and preparing.

“All Vermonters can take a few simple steps to mitigate the effects of a disaster by being well-prepared,” said Governor Scott. “Taking preventative actions and being well-informed is crucial to minimizing the impact of an unexpected disaster.”

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and iFundWomen, a crowdfunding platform for women-led startups and small businesses, announced today the launch of iFundWomen Vermont, a statewide initiative to drive funding to early-stage entrepreneurs. Women-owned businesses have the potential to play a much bigger role in Vermont’s economic development. According to recent data collected by Change the Story, the number of women-owned businesses in Vermont is growing, and between 2012-2017, they grew at twice the rate of male-owned businesses to more than 20,000 without employees. If just 25 percent of these women-owned businesses without employees hired one worker, it would result in more than 5,000 new jobs for Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine ValleyNet has issued a press release reminding Upper Valley customers that it is still operating despite the recent announcement by FirstLight that it has discontinuing service to former ValleyNet email account holders. When ValleyNet divested its dial-up accounts and email addresses to SoverNet (now FirstLight) in 2006, it “pivoted” to bringing universally available broadband to the region, the press release said. Since 2008, ValleyNet 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. ECFiber now has close to 700 miles of optical fiber network and will soon add its 3,000 customer.

Vermont Business Magazine Casella Waste Systems, Inc (NASDAQ: CWST), a regional solid waste, recycling and resource management services company based in Rutland, has announced it has acquired the assets of Youngblood Disposal Enterprises of Western New York, LLC and its wholly owned subsidiaries and the assets of Silvarole Transfer, Inc, and select assets of Silvarole Trucking, Inc. Both transactions, whose financial details were not publicized, closed on August 31, 2018, and was announced after the markets closed on Thursday. Its stock is up Friday morning and trading at its 52-week high.

Vermont Business Magazine Sanjay Sharma, dean of the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business, has been named the 2018 Fetner Sustainable Enterprise Fellow. The prestigious research fellowship is made annually to a leading international scholar in sustainable enterprise. The fellowship program is a joint initiative of the Sustainable Enterprise Partnership of the Syracuse University Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University’s L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the Syracuse University Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems.

Fetner Fellows participate in a three-day residency, delivering a series of research lectures to faculty and graduate students at the Whitman School, L.C. Smith College and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims increased last week largely because of manufacturing claims. For the week of September 1, 2018, there were 334 claims, 61 more than than they were the previous week, and 24 more than they were a year ago. Weekly claims still remain at a very low level. Altogether 3,021 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 191 from a week ago, and 317 fewer than a year ago. For most weeks of 2017 and 2018 claims have been below the year before. Vermont is currently in a historically low period of unemployment.

Senator Patrick Leahy In the last few months, the Senate has achieved record progress in processing appropriations bills. As we return from the Labor Day weekend, the Senate has already passed 9 of the 12 Appropriations bills by overwhelming margins and the Appropriations Committee has reported the remaining 3 bills with bipartisan support. The end of the fiscal year is only few short weeks away, but, because of the record pace of our work, there is no reason that we cannot conference all of these bills with the House, and send all nine to the President’s desk before October 1. That would be quite an accomplishment.

Vermont Business Magazine As part of its renewed focus on place-based investments, the Vermont Community Foundation announces a major equity investment in the Putnam Project development in Bennington. The Foundation has reached terms with the Bennington Redevelopment Group to purchase $500,000 in preferred equity in the Putnam Project, a major revitalization program for downtown Bennington.

“We are thrilled to announce this major equity investment in the Putnam Project,” said Vermont Community Foundation President and CEO Dan Smith. “This is not an investment in a building, or even an investment in a project—it’s an investment in Bennington.”

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Public Radio has launched JOLTED, a five-part podcast about a school shooting that didn’t happen, the line between thought and crime, and a Republican governor in a rural state who changed his mind about gun laws. In February of this year, Vermont law enforcement discovered an 18-year-old from Poultney had purchased a gun and documented his plans to commit a mass shooting at his former high school in the town of Fair Haven — bringing the threat of a school shooting closer to Vermonters than it ever had come before. The case against this young man motivated Vermont’s Republican governor, Phil Scott, to make a stunning reversal on gun control policy, and it catapulted Vermont into a debate about the line between thought and crime.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC) has announced a distribution to members of $1.5 million in patronage capital funds, the largest capital distribution in the co-op’s 80 year history. This will be the sixth consecutive year that VEC members have received a patronage capital distribution. As all electric co-ops do, VEC allocates any money that’s left over after paying its operating expenses to its members. This “patronage capital” is kept in is kept in reserve and used to help the co-op secure good borrowing rates and invest in infrastructure, that allows the co-op to provide safe, reliable power to its members and maintain stability over time.

Vermont Business Magazine Grassroots Solar, Inc of Dorset, VT, has donated more than 220 solar panels—an array capable of providing 46 kW—to their solar project in Puerto Rico. The donation of the panels, given by Green Street Power Partners in Massachusetts, was facilitated by Bill Laberge of Grassroots Solar. Grassroots Solar has been working to bring power to homeowners in Puerto Rico following the devastation of Hurricane Maria in September 2017.