Current News

Vermont Business Magazine After nearly 50 years in the HVAC industry, Wil Buskey, ARC Mechanical Contractors’ owner, officially retired December 31, 2017. From the time he was honorably discharged from the US Navy where he learned about HVAC/R and electrical systems, Wil worked in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration business in some capacity.

Vermont Business Magazine The US Environmental Protection Agency’s New England office, along with the US Department of Energy are honoring 12 ENERGY STAR partners for their outstanding contributions to public health and the environment. These enterprises will be named ENERGY STAR Partners of the Year for demonstrating national leadership in cost-saving energy efficient solutions. The 12 New England businesses and organizations are among a total of 163 Partner of the Year awards that will be presented in Washington, DC, on April 20.

“The 2018 ENERGY STAR Partners of the Year have demonstrated real leadership, showing how American families and businesses can make smart business and environmental decisions,” said EPA New England Administrator Alexandra Dapolito Dunn. “Energy Star has become a trusted resource for American citizens and business leaders.”

by John Boutin Vermont Business Magazine The 2018 Best of Business Awards (BOB Awards) winners have been announced by Vermont Business Magazine. This awards program celebrates the best Vermont companies in more than 100 business-to-business categories. VBM readers chose the winners! Starting on January 1, 2018 and closing on March 1st, VBM surveyed its magazine and digital subscribers. We asked our readers – the business leaders of Vermont – who they trust to provide their services in over 100 different categories.

Vermont Business Magazine Sometimes the need to change is inevitable. Other times it is forced by nature. But in this case, Mad River Distillers is choosing to rename its award-winning Malvados apple brandy to both avoid a wicked legal dust up and use the opportunity to enlist the public's help. The Warren, Vermont distillery was served with a cease-and-desist notice by the French spirits marketing board, who were unimpressed with the small company's translation skills.

“Malvados means 'wicked' in both Spanish and Portuguese,” quipped Mad River founder John Egan. “But we are lovers of brandy, not fighters. To be honest, we never thought we'd become big enough to show up on their radar.”

Vermont Business Magazine An army of GMP line crews, tree crews and external crews are making repairs after strong winds overnight caused damage worse than forecasted bringing down trees and lines and causing outages statewide. GMP crews were ready and we had already brought in additional crews in advance of the storm placed around the state. They’ve been working through the night to get the lights back on.

At one point 24,000 customers were without power. Crews have restored power to 23,000 so far. The calls keep coming in and there are about 14,000 without power now.

The damage is across a large portion of the state. Winds were as high as 63 mph in Mendon and reached 112 mph on top of Mount Mansfield. Some of the regions with the most outages are Royalton, Springfield, Montpelier and Brattleboro.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont will award honorary degrees at the May ceremony to John E Abele, Frank A Bolden, J Brooks Buxton, and Karen Nystrom Meyer. The 2018 commencement speaker, celebrated humanities scholar Alexander Nemerov, received a Doctor of Letters, honoris causa during 2017 commencement ceremonies.

Vermont Business Magazine Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) and BioTek Instruments, Inc. today announced a new, integrated solution that combines cellular metabolic analysis and imaging technologies. The optimized solution integrates the Agilent Seahorse XFe96/XFe24 Analyzers with the BioTek Cytation 1 Cell Imaging Multi-Mode Reader. This solution creates a standardized approach for comparing XF data sets, improving assay workflow, embedding images into WAVE software, and applying normalization values to Seahorse XF measurements.

Vermont Business MagazineThe State of Vermont has issued a Do Not Drink order to tenants of the Rutland Airport Business Park after per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were found in the business park’s water system. PFAS are a family of chemicals associated with firefighting foam and other manufacturing processes. PFOS and PFOA are two chemicals that belong to this family. All business park tenants have been offered bottled water and the state is working with the water system operator and consultants to swiftly design and install a treatment system that will remove the contaminants from the water system.

Rutland Airport Business Park. REDC photo.

by Secretary Anson Tebbetts This week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Boston regional office announced that the Vermont Agency of Agriculture has made significant progress toward meeting the state’s water quality goals. In a letter to the Agency dated April 2nd, EPA regional administrator Alexandra Dapolito Dunn noted, “Your staff have clearly been working hard to get new programs off the ground, rapidly award large amounts of new funding to priority phosphorus reduction projects, ramp up inspection programs and establish the new comprehensive tracking and accounting system. The many milestones that have been completed reflect this excellent progress.”

Click here to view the EPA Report Card.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont has become Kentucky-based Virtual Peaker’s home away from home. In early 2018, the company drew a substantial portion of its seed funding from the Vermont technology and clean energy communities. Virtual Peaker is a cloud-based energy management platform that is helping utilities build the grid of the future.

Vermont Business Magazine Mack Molding has welcomed spring with capital investments at its Vermont-based headquarters. The leading custom plastics molder and supplier of contract manufacturing services announced today that it continues to experience heightened commercial activity, and the new equipment is geared toward meeting current needs and future opportunities.

A new laser is used for automated sheet metal fabrication at Mack Molding’s headquarters in Arlington.

Vermont Business Magazine Mayor Miro Weinberger today issued a proclamation supporting the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program and the HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program by recognizing National Community Development Week, April 2-9, 2018. Spearheaded by the National Community Development Association (NCDA), National Community Development Week serves as an opportunity for the City of Burlington to celebrate its significant successes in providing housing, economic resources, and community services to thousands of Burlingtonians under federal grant funding.

This year marks the 44^th anniversary of the national CDBG program. Now in its 27^th year, the HOME program provides grants to over 600 local jurisdictions to create safe, sanitary, and affordable housing in communities nationwide. Both programs are administered nationally by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.