Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources is promoting best environmental practices as an economic development tool. A typical tourist trip to Vermont might include hiking on the Long Trail, skiing at one of our many resorts, fishing for wild brook trout, visiting a farm, and sampling some of the finest cheese, yogurt, and ice cream. People come to Vermont because it represents a vibrant counterpoint to the narrative, so prevalent elsewhere, that agriculture and the environment cannot coexist. Here in Vermont, environmental and agricultural excellence can be mutually reinforcing.

Vermont Business Magazine Mother Nature is sending some snow our way and Vermont Gas wants to make sure customers play it safe. Forecasters are calling for as much as nine inches expected Wednesday, with heaviest accumulation between noon and 7 pm. Vermont Gas encourages the public to be careful when traveling and to take the proper safety precautions around the home. Vermont Gas has also cancelled its informational open house in Bristol. More information will be provided when a new date has been set.

Report suspected gas leak – above all, if you think you smell natural gas or propane, report it right away. Natural gas and propane have an odor similar to that of rotten eggs. If you suspect a gas leak, leave the area, call 911 and contact Vermont Gas at 1-800-639-8081 or your propane fuel supplier.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) called on Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, to investigate the role of pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors in precipitating and exacerbating the deadly opioid crisis. Sanders demanded in a letter to Alexander Monday that, for the first-time, executives of the pharmaceutical industry testify before Congress about what their companies did or did not know regarding the addictiveness of prescription opioids while they were flooding towns across the US with far more pills than they could ever need.

Vermont Business Magazine In response to growing customer demand in its global medical device and drug delivery business, Bethel, Vermont-based advanced manufacturer GW Plastics has expanded and upgraded their tooling facility in Vermont with additive manufacturing technology. The company has renovated and enhanced their state-of-the-art tooling facility in Royalton, Vermont, and purchased advanced metal 3D printing equipment to build precision mold components.

Vermont Business Magazine MSN Money recently compiled a list of what it calls the Most Admired Company in Each State. Marathon Health was named in the Most Admired Company in Vermont. Most of those included are huge names like Nike, CVS, General Electric and Berkshire Hathaway. Marathon also was named one of the Best Places to Work in Vermont by Vermont Business Magazine in 2017 and the winner of the Deane C Davis Outstanding Vermont Business of the Year Award for 2016.

Vermont Business Magazine THINKMD and Ona have announced a technical partnership focused on integrating the functionality of THINKMD’s MEDSINC frontline health worker clinical assessment platform with OpenSRP, a comprehensive open-source point of care case management platform for frontline health workers developed by Ona with the World Health Organization and a consortium of leading global technical and health research partners.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Health Network – Central Vermont Medical Center (CVMC) in Berlin, in partnership with New England Donor Services (NEDS), marks Donate Life Month in February. The observation remembers those who’ve given the gift of life through organ and tissue donation and celebrates recipients living more healthfully as a result of that choice. Ongoing awareness campaigns through CVMC continue urging Vermonters to consider becoming donors.

2017’s awareness efforts earned CVMC national recognition for promoting enrollment in state organ donor registries. CVMC was recently among a select group of hospitals earning bronze recognition for support of a campaign sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). HRSA’s Workplace Partnership for Life Hospital Campaign added more than 400,000 donor enrollments nationwide.

Leonine Public Affairs This week saw a public dispute erupt between the Phil Scott administration and Senate leadership over workforce statistics; an influx of citizens coming to the statehouse to advocate for various causes; and the beginning of the nitty gritty review of the Governor’s proposed budget for FY2019. Since the early days of the Scott administration the governor and his team have been outspoken with their “6-3-1” message, a phrase that highlights what they believe are the key problems facing the state. According to the administration the “6” refers to the number of people leaving the state’s workforce every day, the “3” is the daily reduction in the number of public school students in Vermont and the “1” represents the number of babies born every day to mothers who are addicted to opioids.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) There are more than a few problems with this. The most disturbing of which go well beyond this highly flawed and misleading memo. But in case anyone believes this memo represents a serious attempt to address serious problems within the FBI, or within our FISA surveillance authorities, I want to raise a few points to consider. For years I have been leading calls in the Senate to protect our civil liberties and reform our surveillance authorities under FISA. This memo has absolutely nothing to do with improving FISA. Nor does this partisan memo have anything to do with serious oversight of FISA authorities more broadly.

Vermont Business Magazine Manufacturing Solutions, Inc (MSI), a full-scale contract manufacturing, logistics, and commercial properties leasing company based in Morrisville, recently partnered with Community College of Vermont (CCV) in offering a Certified Production Technician (CPT) training course for interested employees. CPT certification is an industry-recognized credential that sets manufacturing employees apart in their profession. A certification demonstrates that one has the background knowledge and practical skills required for success in many of today’s manufacturing positions. A CPT designation often results in promotions, increased job stability, and improved long-term earning power for the individual, while also providing a more stable, technically-capable, productive, and engaged workforce for the company.

Vermont Business Magazine The Richards Group has reached an agreement to acquire Centurion Insurance Group in West Lebanon, NH, from Mascoma Bank. The transaction will be completed in April of 2018. The Centurion office will remain at its current location while The Richards Group’s Norwich branch office, which has served Upper Valley clients for the past 10 years, will consolidate operations into Centurion’s office space.

“We feel fortunate that the leadership of Mascoma Bank decided The Richards Group was the best fit to serve the needs of their insurance clients going forward,” said Drew Richards, Vice President of The Richards Group. “We’re thrilled to be part of the vibrant community in Hanover and to deepen the commitment we’ve made to the Upper Valley over the past decade.”

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott has sent a letter to Vermont businesses and local economic development leaders encouraging them to write to the US Trade Representative to ask the Trump Administration to renew America’s commitment to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Representatives from the United States, Mexico and Canada gathered in Montreal last Tuesday for the sixth and penultimate round of NAFTA talks, which, according to NBC, are supposed to conclude by the end of March to avoid a clash with Mexico's general elections.

“Vermonters enjoy a close and critical relationship with our Canadian neighbors. In fact, the province of Quebec is Vermont's largest trading partner with $5 billion in trade annually. That's why my Administration has made strengthening our relationship with Canada an important economic priority, and we're already seeing results,” Scott wrote in the letter.