Current News

​Vermont Business Magazine Rights & Democracy is organizing a rally today on May Day at the Vermont State House to urge lawmakers to pass legislation that will raise the basic standard of living for thousands of their neighbors, friends, and family members.

Vermont Business Magazine Several members of the Norwich University faculty have secured competitive research grants through the Vermont Genetics Network, which is funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). In addition, Norwich has received funding to award three student fellowships for research during either the summer or academic year.

The professors and their research:

Vermont Business Magazine Representative David Deen, (D-Westminster) Chair of Vermont House Committee on Natural Resources, Fish & Wildlife, on Monday announced he will not seek reelection in the fall of 2018, after 30 years of service in the Vermont Legislature. Below are statements from environmental advocates.

Vermont Business Magazine Consolidated Communications Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: CNSL), a leading broadband and business communications provider, today announced the launch of SD-WAN, software-based network technology that provides a simplified management and automation of WAN connections. Consolidated’s SD-WAN solution streamlines IT operations and optimizes network performance by prioritizing traffic across a customer’s entire network. Consolidated is Vermont's largest telecom. It acquired FairPoint Communications in 2017.

Vermont Business Magazine Lucky babies born May 29 in Vermont will receive $100 deposit into a Vermont 529 college savings account opened by the Vermont Student Assistance Corp. Plus, one lucky Vermonter – baby or not – will be chosen to receive $529 in a college savings account in an online month-long drawing at vsac.org and vheip.org. The Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems is joining VSAC, which administers Vermont’s 529 college savings plan, to help educate Vermont families about saving for college for their children.

Vermont Business Magazine Ledyard Financial Group (Ticker Symbol: LFGP) has announced a regular quarterly dividend of $0.17 payable June 5, 2018 to shareholders of record as of May 21, 2018. Ledyard Financial Group, Inc., headquartered in Hanover, New Hampshire, with a presence in Vermont, is the holding company for Ledyard National Bank. Ledyard National Bank, founded in 1991, is a full service community bank offering a broad range of banking, investment, tax and wealth management.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont per pupil public education spending is the highest in the nation ($23,557) according to the National Educational Association, which is the teachers' union. While Vermont's peers in the Northeast are also relatively high against the national average (2015-2016: $11,787), school funding in the Mountain West states of Utah and Idaho is under $7,000 per student. In a sweeping speech to the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce on Monday, Governor Phil Scott argued that Vermont needs to ratchet down its spending as enrollment continues to decline. He said Vermont can still maintain a high level of educational excellence while spending less. He also said the high spending has not equated to high achievement.

by Vermont Treasurer Beth Pearce Clean water is the backbone to Vermont’s economy and is vital to the health and wellbeing of all our citizens. Not only is clean water an essential natural resource – it is also an integral part of our character as a state.

Despite common ground and a consensus from policymakers and citizens that we need to protect and preserve our most precious natural resources, the quality of our waterways has degraded as phosphorus and other pollutants have damaged the long-term health of our lakes and rivers. Lake Champlain and Lake Carmi are painful examples of the status of our waterways. It is time to recognize our current situation as a crisis.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO) will hold two public input sessions -- May 2 and May 9 -- to share the findings and receive feedback on the public review draft of the 2018 Vermont Long-Range Transmission Plan.

The plan is required by law to identify where electric load growth over the next 20 years may drive the need for system reliability investments, and to share that information in sufficient time to consider alternatives to building poles and wires. In recent years, however, electric demand has been declining due to distributed energy resources, energy efficiency and economics, and other trends that are reshaping the electric grid. The 2018 Vermont Long-Range Transmission Plan looks closely at these trends, analyzing possible future scenarios based on increased distributed generation and state energy policy.

Vermont Business Magazine Norwich University has earned two grants totaling over $170,549 from the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to host two summer camps. Now in its fourth year, GenCyber@NU will be joined by a new advanced camp, GenCyberForensics@NU. The camps will teach high school juniors and seniors about CyberSecurity.

by Christine McGowan, Forest Program Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund If you ask Malcolm Cooper Jr. how long he has been involved with J.K. Adams, he’ll tell you 68 years, or since the day he was born. His father, an engineer by training, bought a half interest in the Dorset woodworking business in the fall of 1949. “I don’t recall us ever talking about sports or political news around the dinner table,” says Malcolm. “It was always about the business and how to drive the business forward.”

Vermont Business Magazine Not that long ago, the Hollister Hill Apartments on Austin Road in Plainfield were a rather bleak example of 1970’s architecture that had seen better days. The Housing Foundation, Inc. had a vision to rebuild them, rendering them into comfortable, affordable, and functional units for their tenants to call home. They did so in part by embracing renewable energy in the form of a central wood pellet boiler.

This is the third location where The Housing Foundation has installed a pellet boiler for their units, the others being Colonial Manor Apartments in Morristown and Fairground Apartments in Moretown, with hopes for future projects. Krister Adams, Development Specialist with the Vermont State Housing Authority, said, “Wood pellet boilers are a relatively simple heating system. We have found them to be cost effective and reliable. Plus, using wood as a heat source is environmentally sound and helps our local economy.”