Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) introduced legislation Wednesday to end money bail, which would prevent people from being locked up before trial solely because they cannot afford their bail. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) has introduced a companion bill in the House. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and nearly a quarter of all people imprisoned on any given day, disproportionately black, Latinx, and Native American, are “unconvicted”—meaning they are sitting in jail waiting for a trial, plea bargain or conclusion to their case. Hundreds of thousands of the “unconvicted” population are in jail simply because they could not afford their bail.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Unions representing Consolidated Communications workers in Northern New England say an overwhelming majority of members have authorized leaders to call a strike if negotiations do not lead to an acceptable outcome. Negotiations began in April on a contract that expires August 4. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) System Council T-9 and Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1400, together now represent more than 1,000 workers in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. They held meetings in the three states over the last 10 days where union members heard from the bargaining committee and then voted on whether to authorize a strike.

Vermont Business Magazine The Main Street Alliance of Vermont (MSA-VT) announced today that Ashley Moore has been named State Director. MSA-VT was founded in 2014 to elevate the voices of small business owners on important public policy issues in Vermont. Moore has been with MSA-VT since its founding, and during that time was responsible for managing the organization’s policy initiatives and conducting outreach to the small business community statewide. She has been serving as the organization’s Interim State Director since March.

Moore succeeds MSA-VT founder and former State Director, Lindsay DesLauriers, who stepped down from the position to take a leadership role at her family's business, Bolton Valley Resort.

Ashley Moore. MSA photo.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The UVM Medical Center and the nurses’ union (Vermont Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals) completed a bargaining session Tuesday night, the first since a two-day strike that began on July 12. The two sides did not reach agreement on a new contract, which expired July 9, but did sign two tentative agreements and proposed language changes on three other articles. The two items were related to urgent pay and nurses who work per diem. The two big items for nurses have been staffing and competitive wages.

Vermont Business Magazine Strolling of the Heifers and Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation will host the 2018 visit of the FreshTracks Road Pitch at the River Garden on Wednesday, August 1 at 3 pm. The Road Pitch, a gang of motorcycling business investors and advisors, is stopping in Brattleboro on the afternoon of August 1 to hear funding pitches from local businesses that are ready to scale up.

The public is invited to hear the pitches of the local competitors, and stay for the announcement of the winning pitch. Light refreshments will be provided by Strolling of the Heifers’ Farm-To-Table Apprenticeship students.

Vermont Business Magazine Albany, NY-based FirstLight, a provider of fiber-optic communications in Vermont and throughout the Northeast, announced today that Antin Infrastructure Partners has completed the acquisition of FirstLight. Antin acquired the company from private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, Novacap and Riverside Partners Financial terms of the completed transaction were not disclosed.

Vermont Business Magazine Comcast today announced it has completed its deployment of a new Internet service that will deliver speeds up to 1 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) to residential and business customers in the 156 communities the company serves in Vermont. These speeds are among the fastest and most widely available and include access to the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network of more than 19 million hotspots.

Comcast’s new 1 Gigabit Internet service uses DOCSIS 3.1 technology that makes it possible to deliver ultra-fast speeds over the existing communications lines that are already in most homes and neighborhoods. To enjoy the service, all customers need to do is install a new DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem.

Vermont Business Magazine NBT Bancorp Inc (NASDAQ: NBTB), with branches in northwestern Vermont, reported record net income and diluted earnings per share for both the three and six months ended June 30, 2018. Net income for the three months ended June 30, 2018 was $28.1 million, up from $26.0 million for the first quarter of 2018 and up from $21.4 million for the second quarter of 2017. Diluted earnings per share for the three months ended June 30, 2018 was $0.64, as compared with $0.59 for the prior quarter and $0.49 for the second quarter of 2017.

Net income for the six months ended June 30, 2018 was $54.1 million, up 29.9% from $41.6 million for the same period last year. Diluted earnings per share for the six months ended June 30, 2018 was $1.23, as compared with $0.95 for the same period in 2017, an increase of 29.5%.

Highlights:

Vermont Business Magazine In front of hundreds of early childhood educators at the opening of the Early Childhood Institute, Castleton University President, Dr. Karen M. Scolforo, announced the launch of the Early Childhood Lab at Castleton University. The Early Childhood Lab at Castleton University will be a childcare center that provides educational opportunities for future early childhood educators, employment for current early childhood educators, and a host of collaborative opportunities across curriculum, across campuses, and throughout the state.

Vermont Business Magazine Activists from around Vermont will join in nationwide protests against family separation outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Williston on Saturday, July 28, 2018, 10 am, they announced in a press release Monday. The Trump administration was ordered by a federal judge in California to reunite parents and children separated under its "zero-tolerance" policy within 30 days. That deadline is Thursday, July 26. As of Friday, July 20, the Trump administration had only reunited 364 of the 2,551 children separated from their parents.

“The US government, ICE and any other agency involved must be judged as abusive parents and held accountable for traumatizing/terrorizing innocent children. Their actions are abhorrent and immoral,” said Debra Stoleroff of the Plainfield Community Resistance subgroup.

Vermont Business Magazine As part of its harm reduction approach to the treatment of opiate use, the Howard Center’s Safe Recovery program is distributing free test strips that can indicate the presence of fentanyl in illicit opiates. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 63,632 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2016. The CDC attributes the rise in overdose deaths to the increased presence of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 30 to 50 times more powerful than heroin.

Vermont Business Magazine On July 20, 2018, the Vermont Public Utility Commission approved the award of four contracts under Vermont’s Standard Offer program. These four contracts are in addition to three contracts awarded on June 15, 2018. The seven projects range from 90 kW to 2.2 MW in a diverse range of renewable energy technologies – five solar, one food waste anaerobic digestion, and one small wind. The successful projects will result in more than 10 MW of additional renewable energy in Vermont.

The Standard Offer program uses a competitive bidding process, with price caps related to the cost of different technologies and with the lowest-priced bids accepted first.

All four contracts awarded in this round were for solar projects ranging in price from approximately 8.8 cents to 11 cents per kilowatt-hour, which ranks them among the lowest-priced solar in the state.