Current News

Vermont Business Magazine On Tuesday, February 27, 2018, the RuralEdge (RE) Board of Directors announced the resignation of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Trisha Ingalls. Brian Pickard, Chief Operating Officer (COO), will provide leadership in the interim. Based in Lyndonville, RuralEdge develops affordable housing.

by Adam Grinold, Executive Director, Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation I lead an organization that is working to build a vibrant regional economy. The dry language of economic development does little justice to the way our work touches real people and real communities. A sample of our activities from just the past few weeks illustrates the range of challenges and triumphs, and what our daily work entails.

​Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Retail & Grocers Association (VRGA) is proud to announce they will receive a $2,500 Workforce and Education Training fund grant from the Department of Labor. The “mini” grant fund promotes job readiness activities that will eventually lead to jobs. The grant is for VRGA’s RISE Up retail training pilot program, which will provide 100 individuals with scholarships to complete the National Retail Federation’s Retail Industry Fundamentals credential.

The credential helps entry level workers advance in the workforce. With the retail sector employing one in four workers in Vermont, RISE Up addresses the skills gap in the retail sector of the Vermont workforce. The “skills gap” refers to the disconnect between the skills an employer needs to fill critical positions and what prospective employees are equipped to do.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont State Craft Center Overview Commission is seeking new volunteer representatives from the Vermont crafts community to join the Standards Group for the Vermont State Craft Centers network. For anyone with a working knowledge of the Vermont crafts in his/her community, this is an opportunity to play an important role in helping to elevate craft and craft education throughout the state.

Working with the Overview Commission and the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing, the Standards Group works to promote Vermont crafts by helping to grow and nurture the network of Vermont State Craft Centers statewide. Currently in the network are five galleries (Artisans Hand, Frog Hollow, Gallery at the VAULT, Northeast Kingdom Artisans Guild, Collective--the Art of Craft) and three craft education centers (Fletcher Farm School, Shelburne Craft School, Vermont Woodworking School).

Vermont Business Magazine Late yesterday, President Trump signed into law bipartisan legislation introduced by Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) that will improve landline telephone service in rural areas plagued by phone calls being dropped or not getting through at all. Welch partnered with Rep. David Young (R-Iowa) to champion the legislation after learning from Dakin Farm in Ferrisburgh and Camels Hump Middle School in Richmond that their incoming and outgoing phone calls were being dropped or not completed. As a result, Dakin Farms has experienced lost revenue due to uncompleted customer calls and public safety is jeopardized when school officials are unable to reach parents to convey weather-related school closings.

The cause of the problem is poor service by middleman companies across the country whose job it is to connect calls between national and local landline networks.

Vermont Business Magazine In a special board meeting on Monday, February 26th, the Burlington School District’s Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a “Resolution Related to Action on Gun-Related Violence Prevention.”

by Mary Kate Mohlman, Director, Health Care Reform and Jolinda LaClair, Director, Drug Prevention Policy, Agency of Human Services Each year almost 6,000 women check out of a Vermont hospital with their newborn. As they leave, behind them is a place filled with doctors, nurses, lactation consultants, food, and the resources to address almost any emergency. There is a sense of security and safety. In front of them is a car, a heavy, awkward car seat, and a drive to a home where the joys and challenges of caring for an infant await them. This moment is daunting for any family, and especially one struggling with addiction.

Vermont Business Magazine A University of Vermont Extension professor has invented a $300 device that could save Vermont’s produce growers an average of $6,500 annually in improved storage conditions and its artisanal cheese and meat producers up to $10,000 a year in higher yields during processing. The device, called a DewRight, modernizes 200-year old technology to more accurately measure temperature and relative humidity.

Vermont Business Magazine Southern Vermont College has announced the receipt of a gift of $100,000 from award-winning former IBM executive Nicholas M Donofrio to support scholarships for new nursing students entering the BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) program. The scholarship also applies to transfer students entering the BSN program.

Vermont Business Magazine Castleton University and SUNY Adirondack have formed a collaborative agreement creating a pathway for degree completion. The agreement makes the transition for graduates of the upstate New York community college to Castleton seamless and affordable. “We are committed to delivering affordable liberal arts education combined with practical career preparation to a broad range of students,” said President Karen M Scolforo. “This highly collaborative, flexible agreement will provide SUNY Adirondack graduates an opportunity to continue on to further their education seamlessly and affordably.”

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine United States District Court Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami today signed off on releasing the assets of Ariel Quiros for the purpose of paying off more than $81 million to settle claims in the Jay Peak EB-5 fraud case. The assets include both the Jay Peak and Burke Mountain resorts, several properties in the Northeast Kingdom, and, among other bank accounts and assets, two condos in Manhattan, one on 5th Avenue and the other at Trump Place.

Vermont Business Magazine Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) has agreed to a civil settlement with the Federal government, the State of Vermont, and a former employee in which it has agreed to pay $1,655,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the federal False Claims Act with regard to coding of claims submitted for certain laboratory tests performed between January 2012 and September 2014. Specifically, that, in some instances, the clinicians’ orders for laboratory tests did not appear to adequately document the diagnosis code included on the billing claim form as required.