Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s congressional delegation – Senator Patrick Leahy, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Peter Welch – announced today that firefighters throughout Vermont will receive $679,285 through three federal grants. The three grants include $500,000 for a firefighting training simulator at Vermont Firefighting Academy in Pittsford; $142,858 for breathing apparatus for 20 firefighters in Bellows Falls; and $36,427 for firefighting hose and nozzles for firefighters in Springfield.

In a joint statement, Leahy, Sanders and Welch said: “These federal funds will help ensure Vermonters have well-trained and dedicated firefighters throughout Vermont.  Firefighters play an invaluable role in communities throughout the state and we are pleased to be able to help provide the resources they need to train and to safely fight fires.”

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont has the 15th-largest gap between senior citizens’ incomes and 45-64 year-olds’ incomes, according to a new Bankrate.com report. Financial experts’ rule of thumb is that retirees need 70 percent of the income that they earned during their working years. Vermont fell well short: Residents who are 65 and older have a median annual income that’s just 57 percent of the median annual income earned by the state’s 45-64 year-olds. Bankrate found that retirement incomes are exceeding the 70 percent target in just 3 states: Hawaii, Alaska and South Carolina. Senior citizens in 47 states and the District of Columbia aren’t replacing enough of their pre-retirement incomes, according to the new Bankrate.com (NYSE: RATE) study. Three New England states (Massachusetts #51, Connecticut #47, New Hampshire #46, Rhode Island #43) and New York (#42) were in the bottom 10.

Vermont Business Magazine Diane Imrie, the University of Vermont Medical Center’s director of Nutrition Services, has received a prestigious “Silver Plate Award” from the International Foodservice Manufacturing Association (IFMA). The award, commonly referred to as the “Oscars” of the food service industry, recognizes Imrie’s leadership in developing a model program to deliver high-quality, healthy and sustainably-produced food to the hospital’s patients and visitors.

UVM Medical Center Photo.

Vermont Business Magazine Vizient, Inc, the largest member-owned health care company in the US, has chosen the University of Vermont Medical Center to receive its President’s Award of Honor for performance-related achievements in supply chain during 2015.  To qualify for the President’s Award, organizations must be winners in at least two subcategories, which in the case of UVM Medical Center were overall supply chain excellence and sustainability excellence. The only other winner of the President’s award is the Yale New Haven Health System. Supply chain excellence plays a key role in the UVM Medical Center’s efforts to help control the cost of healthcare in Vermont and northern New York. In the past 5 years the Medical Center and its partners in The University of Vermont Health Network have collectively saved and/or avoided $40 million in the cost of supplies, purchased services and equipment acquisition.

Vermont Business Magazine Student-athletes from Vermont Athletic Academy brought their mindfulness practice to Burlington’s waterfront last week to volunteer with Healing Winds Vermont on behalf of cancer patients and their families.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont is organizing a free, online cannabis speaker series featuring five academic experts in medicine, botany, business, and policy. The series, presented by UVM Continuing and Distance Education and the UVM College of Medicine, will be May 25, June 8, June 22, and July 13. Featured speakers—all from UVM—include Monique McHenry, PhD, Karen Lounsbury, PhD, Kalev Freeman, MD, PhD, Wolfgang Dostmann, PhD, and Willy Cats-Baril, PhD.

“We strive to deliver accurate and up-to-date information to the public regarding the safety and effectiveness of medical cannabis as treatment for a variety of symptoms,” said Lounsbury, a UVM professor of pharmacology who co-directed Pharmacology 200: Cannabis Past, Present and Future (PHRM 200)—the first medical school cannabis course of its kind in the nation

Vermont Business Magazine Famed author Gail Sheehy spun out a commencement address to the University of Vermont's Class of 2016 that transported her audience back to the UVM alumna's own college days in the late 1950s, put them on the presidential campaign trail in 1968, and dared to ponder the essential definition of humanity in our technological age. Putting a new spin on French philosopher Rene Descartes' famous phrase "I think, therefore I am," Sheehy told the grads, "Today, we may better define what sets us apart as humans with a different declaration: 'I care, therefore I am.' Caring may be the key to establishing the unity of mankind."

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) announced tdoay that it has approved financing of $6.8 million to help Vermont economic development projects totaling $21.4 million move forward. “VEDA is pleased to help Vermont businesses and farms bring their startup and expansion plans to fruition,” said VEDA CEO Jo Bradley.  “The breadth of economic development projects approved for VEDA financing is impressive, covering everything from manufacturing to farm projects, small business startups and energy generation projects.”

Loan approvals by VEDA include:

Vermont Business Magazine In response to reports of Governor Shumlin’s Administration trying to transfer exempt appointees into full-time classified positions, Lieutenant Governor Scott, Senator Joe Benning (R-Caledonia) and Representative Don Turner (R-Milton) wrote the following letter  to Vermont Department of Human Resources Commissioner Maribeth Spellman requesting an immediate halt to any such action. In their letter dated today they write: "We write to share our concerns that an attempt to re-classify positions in order convert the current Governor’s employees into full-time, classified positions is outside the scope of good government. The next Administration—whether Democrat or Republican—should make these decisions in cooperation with the new Legislature."

LETTER

May 23, 2016

Maribeth Spellman

Vermont Department of Human Resources

120 State Street

Montpelier, VT 05620

Vermont Business Magazine The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Monday it has awarded 19 essential community anchor organizations with more than $8 million in direct loan, guaranteed loan and grant funding. Vermont and New Hampshire USDA Rural Development State Director Ted Brady announced the recipients during a ground breaking for an expansion of the Poultney Public Library, which received a $50,000 grant.

“These loans and grants will help towns and non-profit organizations provide essential community services, including emergency medical services, education, and public works,” said Brady. “The investments vary from multi-million dollar modern wood heat systems to a few thousand dollars to help a small library install new insulation. The essential community facilities receiving funding this year will help make rural Vermont a safer, more sustainable and more vibrant place to live and work.”

Vermont Business Magazine Heidi Scheuermann (R-Stowe) announced today that she will run for re-election to the Vermont House of Representatives. Scheuermann had in past years considered a run for statewide office. She said there is much work to do in Montpelier in regards to state spending and management. With a new governor, lieutenant governor, Speaker, and Senate president coming in, as well as several new legislators, Scheuermann said she's looking forward to working with the new leadership.

Heidi Scheuermann

Vermont Business Magazine With important Obamacare provisions that ensure no-cost birth control for women being challenged nationwide, Governor Peter Shumlin today signed a law to codify and expand access to those services in Vermont law. Importantly, the law will ensure that vasectomies for men are available with no charge, making Vermont the first state to extend no-cost birth control protections to men.

"While Republicans in other states and the US Congress are working to roll back reproductive rights, I am proud to sign this law to expand them," Gov. Shumlin said. "This law will ensure that Vermonters will be protected from efforts to undermine important birth control provisions in the Affordable Care Act. And Vermont will now be the first state to make it easier for men to be involved in birth control decisions. Once again, Vermont is leading the way on reproductive rights."