Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Several Vermont organizations responded to Governor Phil Scott's budget address on Tuesday. All those who offered remarks had a positive take on the new governor's balanced budget, which promised no-new-taxes, but offered more money for some educational strategies and affordable housing proposals.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) joined Senate Democratic leaders Tuesday to announce a 10-year, $1 trillion proposal to rebuild our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and create 15 million middle-class jobs. The proposal, “Blueprint to Rebuild America’s Infrastructure,” would rebuild roads, bridges, railways, water systems, broadband networks, VA hospitals, schools and airports throughout the United States.

“Look, this is kind of a ‘no-brainer.’ Whether you are in the state of Vermont or the state of California, you understand that our infrastructure is crumbling: our roads, our bridges, our water systems, our wastewater plants, our airports, our levies and our dams,” Sanders told a Capitol news conference.

Vermont Business Magazine Last night the House unanimously passed Representative Peter Welch’s (D-Vermont) bipartisan Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act. It will now be sent to the Senate where it is expected to pass and go to President Trump’s desk for signature into law. Welch two weeks ago introduced the bipartisan legislation to improve rural call completion. Persistent phone call completion problems in rural communities are creating major inconveniences for families, hurting businesses, and threatening public safety.

The Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act would direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish basic quality standards for providers that transmit voice calls to help ensure businesses, families, and emergency responders can count on phone calls being completed.

Vermont Business Magazine The Boys and Girls Club of Burlington will receive $33,000 as the Comcast Foundation announced today that it has awarded nearly $740,000 in grants to 23 nonprofit organizations in New England in 2016. The grants help grow the impact of programs aimed at the Comcast Foundation’s three areas of focus – expanding digital literacy, promoting service, and building tomorrow’s leaders.

by Jeffrey R WakefieldUVMStretching between Votey Hall, home to the University of Vermont’sCollege of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, and theLarner College of Medicine’s Medical Education Centeris a jumble of chain link fences, construction equipment and hulking, partially built structures – ground zero of an ambitious construction program, about half done, being undertaken by the university and its teaching hospital, the UVM Medical Center.

Vermont Business MagazineJames Fallows, one of the nation’s preeminent journalists, will give the commencement address at the University of Vermont, the university’s president, Tom Sullivan, announced in an email to campuson Mondayafternoon. Fallows will deliver his address onMay 21, the second day of UVM’s commencement weekend.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled that James Fallows will be our commencement speaker,” Sullivan said. “His many years as a keen observer of national and international affairs, along with his experience covering a range of topics for our most prominent media, give him just the kind of perspective and judgment that graduates are looking for as they contemplate life after college. It will be an honor to welcome him to the speaker’s platform.”

Vermont Business MagazineTed Mable, EdD, the Executive Director of Northwestern Counseling & Support Services (NCSS) has announced his retirement for June 2017. His near 20 year role at NCSS is the culmination of a career spent in service to the people of Vermont. Mable took the helm of the Franklin-Grand Isle Mental Health Agency in late 1997. At that time, the Agency had fewer than 100 staff and limited outreach. Since then, Mable has transformed the Agency into Northwestern Counseling & Support Services, a dynamic, innovative institution that emphasizes quality services and measures its success by the outcomes it achieves.

Vermont Business Magazine Bradford Psychiatric Associates (BPA) has assumed management of the former Green Mountain Family Medicine Clinic in White River Junction and Rutland. The two locations join the BPA office in Bradford providing office-based outpatient treatment (OBOT) services in three key geographical Vermont locations. The BPA OBOT clinic provides medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for patients seeking recovery from opioid use disorder. The BPA clinic currently has more than 100 slots available for patients seeking recovery from opioid use disorder with the help of buprenorphine, naltrexone or Vivitrol MAT services between its Rutland and White River Junction offices.

Coinciding with the assumption of management, BPA is pleased to announce that Fred Hesse, MD, an American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) board-certified physician, has joined BPA as medical director.

Vermont Business MagazineThe YMCA’s Diabetes Prevention Program helps adults at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes reduce their risk for developing the disease by taking steps that will improve their overall health and well-being. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention evidence-based program is delivered over a 12-month period in a supportive small group classroom setting.Sixteen weekly one-hour sessions are followed by eight monthly sessions. Facilitated by trained lifestyle coach Elisha Underwood, the class is scheduled to begin onFebruary 2, 2017and will be held Thursdays at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital in conference room B, located off of the cafeteria from5:30pm – 6:30PM.

Through a partnership with the Greater Burlington YMCA and Vermont Blueprint for Health (Department of Vermont Health Access), this program is being offered to Vermonters free of charge.

Vermont Business MagazineThe Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness (Balance of State) and the Chittenden County Homeless Alliance Continua of Care are again joining efforts for the eleventh statewide Point in Time Count on Tuesday, January 24.The Continua are comprised of local homeless, housing & human service organizations that strive to make homelessness in our communities rare and brief. These efforts will be supported by the Agency of Human Services and the Vermont State Housing Authority.

The eleventh coordinated Point-in-Time Count will collect data to be used by the Balance of State, Chittenden County, and local continuums in their funding applications to the USDepartment of Housing and Urban Development, as well as to provide a statewide baseline for measuring the success of housing and supportive services used to reduce the number of people who are homeless in Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Greenhealth Exchange, launched in May of 2016, has seen its health system ownership nearly double in the span of just seven months, according to a statement released last week. The seven current owners of Greenhealth Exchange include Dartmouth Hitchcock Healthcare, (Lebanon, NH), Dignity Health, (Phoenix, AZ), Gundersen Health System, (Lacrosse, WI), Marshfield Clinic Health System (Marshfield, WI), Mayo Clinic, (Rochester, MN), Partners Health, (Boston, MA), University of Vermont Medical Center (Burlington, VT), as well as Practice Greenhealth.

"We see our rapid ownership growth as a true indication that health systems want to solve the challenges of sustainability and provide the healthiest environments possible for their patients, staff, and visitors as well as improving the environment of their communities they serve," said John Strong, Greenhealth Exchange's President.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Association of Area Agencies on Aging (V4A) has announced the hiring of Janet Hunt as Executive Director.In this role, Hunt works in conjunction with the five area agencies on aging to enhance the public understanding of the area agencies’ role, resources and expertise.Hunt will work to address statewide needs through systems advocacy, legislative representation and visibility, and will advocate on behalf of Vermont’s seniors with policy makers and other stakeholders on promoting policies to support healthy aging.

Additionally, Hunt will oversee V4A programs such as Veteran’s Directed Program, State Health Insurance Education Program and Case Management Training program.