Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Molly Dillon has been named deputy commissioner of the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation’s Banking Division, Commissioner Michael S Pieciak announced today. Dillon has more than 30 years of experience in both retail and community banking and brings to the job a wealth of knowledge of current operations and senior management.

Vermont Business MagazineThe Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets is pleased to announce $1 million in funding for the Capital Equipment Assistance Program (CEAP). This financial assistance program is available to support farmers to acquire new or innovative equipment that will aid in the elimination of runoff from agricultural wastes to state waters, improve water quality, reduce odors from manure application, separate phosphorus from manure, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

Vermont Business Magazine The Public Service Department today announced the next meeting of the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel will be held on Thursday, October 26, 2017, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM in the multipurpose room at Brattleboro Area Middle School, 109 Sunny Acres Road, Brattleboro, VT. Representatives from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and GEI Consultants will provide a presentation on Brownfields restoration and reuse.

Vermont Business MagazineGrants are now available to support projects through the South Lake Champlain Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation. The South Lake Champlain Fund supports projects focused on education and research concerning the cultural and ecological history and heritage of Southern Lake Champlain. Projects must be located on the southern portion of Lake Champlain (the area of Lake Champlain south of Crown Point in both Vermont and New York) with a preference for projects directly on the lake or in close proximity. School-based projects are encouraged.

The fund also aims to support projects that involve experts and others living in the southern Lake Champlain region. Matching funds are encouraged but not required.

Grants: $1,000-$7,500 grants to organizations for research and education concerning the southern portion of Lake Champlain.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Superior Court hassetspecific, narrow, limits on a proposed deposition of former Attorney General Sorrell and his disclosure of private emails. Sorrell had sought to block all inquiry into his private account, which he says does not contain work-related emails in any case. However,the Vermont Attorney General’s Office was successful in its fight against Energy and Environmental Institute’s (EELI) broad request for discovery into private e-mails of Vermont state employees. The Court balanced the public’s right to know and Vermonters’ right to privacy. The ruling denies EELI’s request to depose three Assistant Attorneys General about private email accounts.

SEE RULING BELOW

Vermont Business MagazineToday, Target announced plans to open its first store in Vermont, a 60,000-square-foot small-format store at University Mall in South Burlington. Target has signed a lease with LNR Partners for this small-format store, projected to open in October 2018. Following the opening of this Vermont location, Target said in a statement that "will proudly serve guests with stores in all 50 states." Target previously had considered a location in Williston. Vermont was also the last state to get a Walmart.

Vermont Business MagazineGovernor Phil Scott is one of 10 governors who onWednesdaysigned a letter to Congress advocating for quick action to stabilize private health insurance markets and make quality health insurance more available and affordable.

Vermont Business MagazineThe University of Vermont is ranked #4 in Princeton Review’s recently releasedGuide to 375 Green Colleges, 2017.The guide highlights the top colleges and universities among 2,000 schools the Princeton Review considered. UVM ranked first this year among institutions with larger populations. Five of the top ten colleges have 10,000 or more students.

Vermont Business MagazineCity Market has announced the 2017 recipients of its Co-op Patronage Seedling Grants, a grants program to support the local food system. In 2016, the Co-op Patronage Seedling Grant recipients received over $56,000 in grant funding to local food projects at this year’s Grant Celebration held in March. City Market sent over $656,000 inPatronage Refundsto 11,450 Members in November 2016. As part of the Patronage Refund process, the Co-op offers Members the opportunity to donate their checks to strengthen Vermont’s food system. Members who receive Patronage Refunds support these donations by choosing not to cash their checks within the required 90 day time period. This year, uncashed Patronage Refund checks from Members are funding 6 local food projects from community organizations doing amazing work in Vermont.

Vermont Woodlands AssociationOn Tuesday, October 10th, a group of interested landowners attended a Walk in the Woods tour on Alan Calfee’s 591 acre certified Vermont Tree Farm in Rupert. Calfee is a consulting forester and the owner of Calfee Woodlot Management, LLC. He led the tour with conservation biologist, Steve Hagenbuch, of Audubon Vermont. The tour was hosted as part of theWoods, Wildlife and Warblersprogram to demonstrate the management activities that Calfee has done in his woodlands to enhance the habitat for wildlife and birds while still remaining productive for timber, and increasing his forest diversity.

by Jake Claro, Farm to Plate Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs FundWhen you ask people their definition of the Vermont food economy, they’ll often talk about farms, farmers’ markets or CSAs. What’s often missing from the conversation are the supply chain of local businesses such as distributors, food processors and manufacturers, and seed, feed, and equipment dealers.

Vermont’s local food economy not only extends well beyond the farm, it’s also an important part of our state’s economic engine. Sales from food and beverage manufacturing and wholesale distribution in 2012 totaled $9.1 billion. In terms of employment across the food system—spanning farm inputs (seed, feed, fertilizer), production, processing, distribution, and retail—64,000 Vermonters are employed in the food economy.

In Vermont, local food is considered to be anything produced or processed in Vermont plus 30 miles.

Vermont Business Magazine NG Advantage LLC, based in Colchester and majority-owned by Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ:CLNE), has announced that William Hill has joined the company as Chief Financial Officer, continuing nearly 30 years of senior financial management to companies throughout Vermont, from banking and manufacturing to outdoor equipment and craft beer. He previously was with the former Eastern Bancorp (Vermont Federal Bank) in Williston, Otter Creek Brewing in Middlebury and Ibex Outdoor Clothing in White River Jct.