Current News

by C.B. Hall & Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine One of the more noteworthy trains to visit Burlington in recent memory arrived in the city's South End Monday. Pulled by two Amtrak locomotives, 18 privately owned passenger cars reached the Queen City, at the midpoint of a long excursion through New York State and New England, for the annual convention of the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners (AAPRCO).

Vermont Business Magazine Mayor Miro Weinberger revealed Wednesday the Letters of Intent and details regarding the Burlington Telecom bid finalists. Much of the city council reaction was to a fourth, local bidder who dropped out right before the final list was presented. Also, the one remaining local bidder KBTL ("Keep Burlington Telecom Local") was the lowest bidder and came with strings attached that the head of the advisory board believes are not viable going forward. The bid from the Canadian company Ting was $27.5 million; Schurz from Indiana was $30.8 million; and KBTL was $12 million, with $10.5 million in cash, including $10 million financed at 14 percent interest. All the bidders offered a way for the city to retain a minority stake in the "new" BT. KBTL would run the fiber-based telecom as a co-op, which would include current subscribers. BT provides Internet, phone and television service.

Small Business AdministrationTucked away on the back side of a building on Depot St. in Lyndonville, VT, the founder of a small business sits in his office trying to figure out how his company is going to cover more than 3,000 sporting events this coming school year. On average that equals out to be eight games a day. On September29, Northeast Sports Network is slated to cover and stream 29 different games. It is quite the leap for an online sports network that started out in a basement in 2006.

“Scheduling all the different games at different locations and who is going to cover what may be the most difficult part of this job,” said Eric Berry, founder of Northeast Sports Network.

Vermont Business Magazine FirstLight, a leading fiber-optic bandwidth infrastructure services provider operating in the Northeast, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Finger Lakes Technologies Group. FirstLight acquired Bellows Falls-based Sovernet last March. This latest acquisition is just one of several that FirstLight has successfully completed during the last twelve months, as FirstLight acquired and combined operations with both Oxford Networks and Sovernet Communications and also announced the acquisition of 186 Communications, which is pending regulatory approval. Financial terms of these transactions were not disclosed.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s congressional delegation announced Tuesday that the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) will receive a $480,000 federal grant from the US Department of Transportation to purchase two electric buses that will be used by Green Mountain Transit in Burlington. In June, the Vermont delegation wrote to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in support of the grant.

The two new federally funded electric buses will help Vermont reduce local air pollution and the carbon emissions that contribute to global climate change. The transportation sector is the source of 28 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions nationally, and nearly 47 percent of carbon emissions in Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General TJ Donovan announced today that a bipartisan coalition of 41 attorneys general from across the country have expanded their demands for information and documents from both the manufacturers and the distributors of prescription opioid drugs. Recent efforts by the bipartisan coalition of attorneys general represent an expansion into the investigation of the nationwide opioid epidemic. A clear majority of the states' chief legal officers are now pooling resources and coordinating across party lines to address the most pressing public health crisis affecting our country, and doing so with a broad focus on multiple entities at both the manufacturer and distributor levels.

The multi-state investigation by the attorneys general currently includes the following pharmaceutical manufacturers and their related entities:

Vermont Business Magazine In August, King Arthur Flour celebrateda milestone achievement in the launch of its line of Essential Goodness baking mixes: the donation of more than one million meals to Feeding America with its Buy a Mix, Give a Meal program. Introduced in summer 2016, the mission behind the Essential Goodness baking mixes is an extension of King Arthur Flour’s broader mission: To share the joy of baking, and in doing so, build stronger communities and increase access and connection to real foods across the United States.

Vermont Business Magazine Green Mountain United Way celebrates the community and the spirit of Giving with their Annual Kickoff Breakfast and Volunteer Day onThursday, September 21in downtown Barre. Local community, business, and nonprofit leaders will join Green Mountain United Way’s staff and board at7:30 amfor the breakfast, held this year at the Blanchard Block’s 3rd floor in downtown Barre to hear keynote speaker Ted Brady, Deputy Director at the Agency of Commerce and Community Development. Awards will be presented to partners and supporters following the keynote. The breakfast is generously supported by sponsors Paige & Campbell Insurance, Green Light Realty, and Noyle W. Johnson Insurance, with coffee, generously donated by 802 Coffee.

by Rob RoperThere is a vote fraud case in Vermont, currently in the Essex Superior Court, in which a family of second homeowners from Connecticut (parents and two adult children) registered to vote in the town of Victory, and did so. Their votes likely altered the outcome of a local election, which was decided by fewer than four votes. Now, all four of these family members listed Connecticut as their primary residence on their income taxes, had Connecticut drivers licenses, paid property taxes on a primary dwelling in Connecticut, did not pay residential property tax rates on their second home in Vermont, had jobs in Connecticut, and spent an overwhelming amount of their time in Connecticut. But they were voting by absentee ballot in Vermont, deciding who would represent in public offices people who actually live here. That’s vote fraud, right?

Wrong! At least according to our Secretary of State’s office.

Vermont Business Magazine Aspenti Health, an innovative, comprehensive clinical drug testing lab, will be hosting a Patient Appreciation Day at their Burlington Patient Service Center onSeptember 25 in celebration of National Recovery Month. In alignment with Recovery Month’s theme of strengthening families and communities, Aspenti will bring their patient community together by hosting lunches for patients and their families. Members of the Aspenti leadership team will be in attendance to get to know patients, learn about their recovery journeys, and provide a network of support.

Vermont Business Magazine Weekly unemployment claims fell marginally last week but remain at a low level. Claims had been falling steadily since early July. Claims also are lower than they were the same time last year, which has been the case for most weeks in 2017. For the week of September 9, 2017, there were 306 claims, 4 fewer than than they were last week and 73 fewer than they were a year ago.

Altogether 2,752 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 586 from a week ago, and 458 fewer than a year ago.

Claims during the summer usually hold at a relatively low level because of vacation hiring, until the next transition, which typically happens in September when school resumes.

As expected, by industry, Services accounted for the most claims (51 percent of the total). Manufacturing numbers fell and represents 8 percent of all claims.

Vermont Business Magazine After almost a week helping restore power to thousands of people in Georgia, Green Mountain Power crews are returning to Vermont. The team of more than 30 lineworkers, supervisors, and mechanics left Tuesday, Sept. 12, and are set to arrive in Vermont tomorrow morning. They helped set new poles, make repairs to downed lines and replace broken poles. The storm left an incredible amount of damage, and at this point nearly all residents in Habersham County have power back on, where the team was working.