Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Business owners Roger and Donna Pion and their startup company Green State Biochar are the winners of $10,000 in legal services from the Intellectual Property Practice Group at Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC. The winner was chosen from an impressive list of applicants from across New England.

“This is an environmentally oriented business that shows great promise in the areas of agriculture, waste management and water quality,” explained Kevin McGrath, an attorney in the IP Group at DRM. “It is the type of home-grown company that the State of Vermont has sought to encourage. The owners are already in the final round of this year’s Fresh Tracks Road Pitch later this month and we’re very pleased to help the company get off the ground in northern New England.“

Vermont Business MagazineWhen local residents began planning to build their own high-speed fiber-optic network back in 2007, few expected them to be able to surmount the many challenges facing a high-tech start-up. As of October 2017, the East Central Vermont Telecommunications District (ECFiber) has built over 420 miles of cable and connected over 2000 active customers in parts of 20 member towns. It plans to complete another 170 miles of network this year and another 250 miles in 2018.

Tunbridge resident Pamela Whitney became customer number 2,000 when the ECFiber installers arrived at her home recently.

Vermont Business Magazine National weather forecasters are predicting a colder winter than last year. So with cold weather just around the corner, Green Mountain Power is helping Vermonters stay warm with a $130,000 donation to the statewide WARMTH program. This will be the 32nd year that Green Mountain Power has contributed funds to help people with heating emergencies.

Vermont Business MagazineUS Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) delivered the following speech at College for All town hall at Casleton University in Vermont Tuesday night. The speech can be viewhere. See below for prepared remarks.

Vermont Business MagazineAfter rising through the ranks during the past 31 years,Mount Snowhas promoted Erik Barnes to the position of general manager. Barnes will assume the role formerly held byKelly Pawlak, who recently accepted the position of president and CEO of the National Ski Areas Association. Barnes, who originally started at the mountain during the 1986-87, winter season as a ski instructor, has an extensive background in the ski industry with an emphasis in resort and customer service. Since then he has held a variety of roles around the resort, most recently as the director of resort services and director of golf, a position which he has held since 2006.

Vermont Business Magazine Mayor Miro Weinberger on Tuesday urged the City Council to advance to the final round the Schurz Communications and Ting/Tucows bids to purchase Burlington Telecom (BT). This was expected. The third bidder, Keep Burlington Telecom Local (KBTL), presented a bid that would provide less than half the cash and a very high debt load. The chairman of the BT advisory council already had advised against the KBTL bid because of that.

by Bruce Edwards,Vermont Business Magazine Ask Bill Colvin about the state of Bennington County’s economy and he’ll tell you, “There’s definitely signs of improvement.” Colvin, of the Bennington County Regional Commission, ticks off a list that includes downtown Bennington’s Putnam Block Project, a stable manufacturing base and improved regional cooperation. The $54 million Putnam Block project will reshape the downtown, adding not only retail and commercial space but also housing with new construction.

A common theme voiced by Colvin and others is the new-found sense of cooperation among business and civic leaders.

by Bruce Edwards,Vermont Business Magazine It promised good paying jobs. And that’s what the ChemFab plant delivered for more than 30 years. But the plant on Water Street that manufactured Teflon-coated fiberglass fabric, also delivered something workers and residents of North Bennington didn’t bank on: contaminated drinking water. Well water, contaminated with PFOA from the plant’s smoke stacks, was only discovered last year, 14 years after owner Saint-Gobain closed the plant and moved its operations to New Hampshire. The plant operated from 1970 to 2002.

by Bruce Edwards,Vermont Business Magazine It’s ambitious to say the least. But there’s little question that if all the parts fall into place, the $54 million makeover will transform downtown Bennington. At the center of what has been appropriately dubbed the Putnam Block project is the former Putnam Hotel that anchors the corner of Main and South streets. The project extends around both streets and also encompasses renovations to the historic Courthouse Building and Winslow Building.

The project is driven by the Bennington Redevelopment Group, a partnership of local businesses and institutions, including Bennington College, Southern Vermont College, Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, Bank of Bennington and Global Z International.

Vermont Business Magazine The state’s top tech firms will be hiring atSeven Days’Vermont Tech Jam,a free eventwhich takes placeFridayandSaturday, October 20 and 21, 2017, at the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex Junction. The expo floor will host more than 50 companies, colleges and tech organizations. But this year’s Jam is much more than just a job fair: Thescheduleincludes a dozen presentations organized into three tracks: one for small business owners and decision makers, one for job seekers, and another for anyone curious about emerging opportunities in the local tech scene. This year’s speakers represent companies including Tesla, Facebook, IBM, Burton Snowboards and the new Burlington Code Academy.

Vermont Business Magazine October 11 will mark three weeks until the start of 2018 Open Enrollment for Vermont Health Connect (VHC), the state’s health insurance marketplace. This year, Open Enrollment will run from November 1 to December 15, which is shorter than in past years. Members will have a start date of January 1, 2018.

Open Enrollment is the annual period when new applicants can use the marketplace to sign up for health and dental plans for the coming year. It is also the time that existing members have the option to change plans. Existing members who want to stay in the same plan can simply continue to pay their bills on time and will automatically be renewed into the 2018 version of their current plan.

Vermont Business Magazine Nine Vermont communities have chosen to participate in ground-breaking new approaches to health care through partnerships with OneCare Vermont in 2018, according to a provider submission made with both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Vermont Health Access (DVHA). Hospitals, independent physician practices, specialists, skilled nursing facilities, designated mental health and substance use agencies, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), home health providers and area agencies on aging are among those who are participating in population health programs in the coming year. Under this model, participants are moving away from fee-for-service medicine that rewards volume and instead embracing a system that rewards providers for keeping people healthy.