Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Brattleboro Memorial Hospital President and CEO Steven R Gordon has announced changes within the leadership of the hospital’s Information Services Department, including the promotion of Steven P Cummings from Chief Implementation Officer to Vice President for Information and Support Services and Jonathan Farina from Director of Information Services to Chief Compliance and Security Officer.

Steven P Cummings. BMH photo.

Vermont Business Magazine University of Vermont President Tom Sullivan and UVM Foundation Chairman of the Board John A Hilton, Jr announced today that UVM Foundation President and CEO Rich Bundy will be leaving the UVM Foundation at the end of 2016 to become vice president for development and alumni relations at his alma mater, the Pennsylvania State University. To ensure a smooth transition, he will continue in this role through December. The UVM Foundation will conduct a robust national search to fill this important leadership position.

UVM Foundation President and CEO Rich Bundy. VBM photo.

Vermont Business Magazine Devonwood Investors LLC, owner and developer of the Burlington Town Center, unveiled last week updated project sketch plans for the Burlington Town Center redevelopment project that respond to several suggestions received from the public and City’s Conservation Board, Design Advisory Board, and Development Review Board over the summer. The updated plans also meet all requirements of the Downtown Mixed-Use Core Overlay zoning amendments passed by the Burlington City Council on September 29, 2016.

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General Bill Sorrell reminds Vermonters that the working group on law enforcement–community interaction will be holding its final public forum on Tuesday evening. Sorrell convened the working group to gather perspectives on the role that implicit bias has played in interactions between the community and law enforcement. The goal of gathering this feedback is to inform ongoing efforts to strengthen law enforcement training and enhance community trust in law enforcement in Vermont.

The working group will join the Attorney General at the Bennington Firehouse Meeting Room to hear from the public:

Tuesday, October 25, 2016 – 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Bennington Firehouse Meeting Room
130 River Street
Bennington, VT

Vermont Business Magazine Delmolino & Sons, Inc. an out-of-state commercial waste hauler, is now required to pay a penalty of $8,375 after operating for a year in Vermont without a solid waste transporter permit. The Agency of Natural Resources announced today the issuance of a Final Order against Delmolino & Sons, Inc for commercially hauling solid waste in Vermont without a permit. Hauling permits are required for anyone intending to commercially transport trash, recyclables, food waste, septage or sewage, or regulated quantities of hazardous waste materials within the state. ANR stated that the permitting process is an important tool for maintaining public health and safety because it holds waste transporters accountable for practicing safe and environmentally sound transportation methods, and delivering waste materials to appropriate destinations.

Vermont Business Magazine Proctor-based Carris Reels has announced the purchase of the Texas firm Lone Star Reel from Mike Pawlish and Larry Beal. Lone Star Reel is a manufacturer of plywood reels and nailed wood reels, serving wire and cable customers throughout the Southern United States for approximately 20 years. Pawlish and Beal started the company in McKinney, Texas, in 1997, and expanded to Bonham, Texas, five years later. Today nailed wood reels are produced in the Bonham plant and plywood reels from McKinney. The two former owners will remain actively engaged in the company.

Mike Pawlish, Dave Ferraro and Larry Beal. Courtesy photo.

by Mike Smith We find ourselves in an interesting predicament as we consider candidates for president in the closing weeks of what has been anything but an ordinary campaign. The majority of Americans dislike and distrust the nominees of both major political parties. Polls have consistently found that if voters had the opportunity to vote for either Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump or “neither,” they would choose, “neither.” So, why do we lack enthusiasm for the two major party presidential candidates? Much of the blame can be directed at both Clinton and Trump.

Most Americans believe that Hillary Clinton represents the status quo. It’s a perception that has dogged her throughout this election process. In addition, she has shown herself to be cavalier about following rules or laws — the same rules or laws the rest of us must follow and labor under. And she is regularly embroiled in controversy, often self-created. This constant drama exhausts a nation.

Public Assets Institute Unemployment rates in New England are mostly lower than in the US as a whole. But job growth in the region is mixed. This year through September, Vermont saw a 1.2 percent increase in private sector jobs—the same as the national average. Massachusetts and New Hampshire have been adding jobs faster than the US and the remaining New England states have lagged behind the national rate.

Vermont Business Magazine A lone Canada lynx was photographed in the southern Vermont town of Londonderry this June, marking the first confirmed evidence of lynx in Vermont outside the Northeast Kingdom in decades. Lynx are listed as ‘threatened’ under the federal Endangered Species Act and ‘endangered’ in the state of Vermont. The lynx was photographed in the back yard of a rural Londonderry home. Biologists with the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department confirmed the identification of the animal from the photos and visited the site to confirm the location of the photos. Unlike bobcat, lynx cannot be hunted or trapped in Vermont.

Canada lynx. Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department photos.

Vermont Business Magazine Ethan Allen Interiors Inc (NYSE:ETH) commented today, in advance of its Fall Investor Meeting, on its financial results for the fiscal 2017 first quarter, which ended on September 30, 2016. Results will be reported October 25 and investor meeting will be held on October 26. With expanded offerings and advertising, both expenses and sales have increased. Ethan Allen has a major manufacturing plant in Orleans.

by CB Hall Vermont Business Magazine The litigation between the town of Shelburne and the Vermont Railway over the latter's transloading facility just north of Shelburne village continues, and the town may now have gained a new legal foothold by virtue of a federal judge's decision rendered on October 18. Judge William Sessions, of the US District Court in Burlington, ordered the release of documents relevant to almost $4 million in loans to Burlington's Barrett Trucking, which is playing an increasingly controversial role in the development of the 34-acre site, from which Barrett's trucks will transport road salt received by rail on to towns around the state.

Sessions declined, however, to grant other motions from the town, in particular rejecting its request for a temporary restraining order that would have halted the ongoing, and largely completed, construction at the site. 

Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund Independent Expenditure - PAC (PPVTAF IE PAC) released their first television ad of the general election cycle.  Titled “Different Choices,” the ad lays out the case for why Sue Minter is the strongest pro-choice candidate for Vermonters.