Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development has issued $464,000 in Municipal Planning Grant awards to 38 communities across Vermont. This year’s Municipal Planning Grants range from $3,159 to $20,000, with total requests exceeding $780,000. Competitively awarded, 69 total applications were reviewed. Winning projects ranged from $3,159 to $20,000 and included updating local regulations to better serve the farm and forest economy in Berkshire, a rural town at the Canadian border, to improving parking conditions in downtown Brattleboro.

Municipal Planning Grants support local planning and community revitalization initiatives. Their intent is to build strong communities and improve Vermont’s quality of life. Grants are awarded annually and administered by the DHCD. Since 1998, the program has provided over $11 million to 234 cities and towns.

Vermont Business Magazine Lower unemployment, increased high school graduation rates and a drop in violent crime, among other factors, drove multiple years of increased opportunity in the US, with Vermont achieving the highest score. But the nation's Opportunity Score remained unchanged since last year, according to the 2016 Opportunity Index. Poverty, wages and disconnected youth rates improved since the 2015 Index, but inequality has increased in 45 states and civic engagement weakened.

The annual Index, developed jointly by Measure of America and Opportunity Nation, measures 16 economic, educational and civic indicators that expand or constrict access to economic mobility. The Index ranks each state and grades more than 2,700 counties with an Opportunity Score.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont state game wardens arrested Nicholas Robert, 29, of Fairfield, Vermont on December 6 and charged him with four counts of taking deer during closed season and hunting deer with bait. Game Warden Dustin Snyder received a tip of several, potentially illegal, deer hanging in a tree in the woods in Fairfield. Warden Snyder investigated and located three illegally taken antlerless deer hanging from a tree. He also discovered the deer had been killed with a small caliber rifle, and he found where four deer had been killed near a bait pile and elevated shooting shack.

The owner of the shack, Nicholas Robert, was interviewed and confessed to killing the four antlerless deer with the use of bait. The fourth deer, killed with a muzzleloading rifle, was located in a barn on the property. Robert did not have an antlerless deer permit for the 2016 muzzleloader deer season.

Vermont Business Magazine The National Weather Service has issued a Wind Chill Watch for areas of central and northeast Vermont Thursday afternoon into Friday morning. Wind chills in the Watch area could reach as low as 35-below zero. Other areas of Vermont outside the Watch area could experience wind chills colder than 20-below. These temperatures have the potential to pose a danger to health and property. Hypothermia, frostbite, and other hazards are a concern in these conditions and precautions are advised to ensure the safety of individuals and property.

The Vermont Department of Public Safety is suggesting the following actions and take any steps necessary to keep yourself and your family safe.

Vermont Business Magazine Peak Resorts , the parent company of Mount Snow, announced Tuesday the release of $52 million in EB-5 funding from escrow. The funds – which were raised for the upcoming West Lake Snowmaking Project and the new base lodge for Carinthia Parks at Mount Snow – will be utilized to continue construction of the West Lake Project, with work on the new base lodge at Carinthia Parks scheduled to begin in 2017.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and Ehrmann Commonwealth Dairy in Brattleboro announced today that the State of Vermont and Town of Brattleboro will provide over $2 million in State and Local incentives in return for the Company locating its Headquarters in Brattleboro and undertaking a plant expansion in 2017. The expansion will include the construction of a headquarters to support the company’s USA operations, as well as a facility and equipment expansion at its Brattleboro plant. The company expects to add as many as 50 new jobs in Vermont, including roles in production, management and administration. Commonwealth Dairy will also make facility and equipment upgrades enabling it to process more milk and produce more of its popular strained Greek yogurt, including the Green Mountain Creamery brand.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine The Jay Peak receiver and his team will finally get paid. The federal court in Miami on Tuesday ordered that funds from the Citibank settlement be used to cover the pay and expenses of $1,953,467.59 for receiver Michael Goldberg and his associates now running Jay Peak and Burke Mountain resorts. Goldberg is also setting up plans to find a resolution for the creditors and immigrant investors caught up in the $200 million, EB-5 fraud case. The SEC has sued resorts owner Ariel Quiros and president Bill Stenger in the case. Stenger has settled his SEC case. The state and US Attorney for Vermont is also considering legal action.

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General William Sorrell led a group of thirteen states and the District of Columbia, and worked with the Federal Trade Commission to enter Consent Judgments today with ruby Corp, which owns the AshleyMadison.com website. The State of Vermont, as the lead state, will receive an immediate payment of $116,000.

Vermont Business Magazine US Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and US Representative Peter Welch, D-Vermont, on Tuesday called upon the CEOs of FairPoint Communications and the Illinois company that is set to purchase it, Consolidated Communications Holdings, to reverse the planned layoff of nearly 10 percent of FairPoint’s workforce. FairPoint cut pay and benefits in 2014, which led to a strike, and then after settling the union action, it eliminated the South Burlington call center, with the loss of 70 workers. See their letters to FairPoint and Consolidated below.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin today released a public service announcement video intended to raise awareness about his offer to consider pardons for those convicted of possessing small amounts of marijuana. The PSA was recorded and produced with the help of ORCA Media. Shumlin said he will consider pardoning convictions of marijuana possession up to one ounce for people who do not have violent criminal Vermont convictions or felonies on their records. As of this morning, the governor’s Office has received around 330 applications.

The application can be found at www.governor.vermont.gov.

Vermont Business Magazine With leaders of Vermont’s environmental community at his side, Representative Peter Welch (D-VT) renewed his commitment to reform the federal ethanol mandate in the new Congress that convenes in early January. Joining Welch were representatives of the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation (NWF), Lake Champlain International, and Vermont Natural Resources Council. Speakers highlighted the harm to the environment resulting from a federal corn-based ethanol mandate.

by Bill Schubart There are two types of religion in the world today, those inspired by divinities and divinely inspired prophets once living among us such as Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, and Moses and those altered or fabricated by men to their own earthly purposes. We forget that the religious texts outlining a religious canon for each religion were written by men for the most part and that men have continued through the centuries to interpret these moral codes according to their own biases, self-serving belief systems, and aspirations for wealth and power.