Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Brattleboro Retreat officially opened it's new Patient Activities Suite. The newly remodeled space is located in the basement of the Osgood Building and offers a secure setting for patients to participate in a variety of off-unit activities including meditation and relaxation, fitness and movement, arts and crafts, television viewing, and listening to music. The Osgood Patient Activities Suite compliments other projects the Retreat has undetaken in recent years to provide safe, secure environments where inpatients who have reached certain treatment goals can enjoy supervised off-unit recreation and other passtimes while still receiving hospital level care.

Vermont Business Magazine Seven winners from Vermont were recognized today at the 2016 Environmental Merit Awards ceremony of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s New England regional office. The environmental leaders were among three dozen recipients across New England honored for helping to improve New England’s environment. Each year EPA New England recognizes individuals and groups in the six New England states who have worked to protect or improve the region’s environment in distinct ways. The merit awards, given out since 1970, honor individuals and groups who have shown particular ingenuity and commitment in their efforts.

Vermont Business Magazine Just days after the second session of the legislative biennium gaveled to a close, Republican Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott, who is running for governor, is advancing two proposals aimed at what he says will save taxpayer dollars, improve the state's budgeting process and help more everyday Vermonters serve in the Legislature. Specifically, Scott is calling for 90-day limit to annual legislative sessions and a two-year state budget cycle. Scott, who served five terms as state senator from Washington County, and most recently as a three-term lieutenant governor, said these changes will focus lawmakers on issues Vermonters care most about, like growing the economy and making state government more efficient and less costly. He also said it will encourage more Vermonters to serve in the Legislature.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Health Network is pleased to officially welcome Alice Hyde Medical Center as its fifth hospital. The inclusion of Alice Hyde, based in Malone, NY, in The University of Vermont Health Network strengthens a long-term partnership between the hospital and The University of Vermont Medical Center, which have been clinically affiliated since 1997.

Vermont Business Magazine The Shires of Vermont Regional Marketing Organization invited the executive board of the Bennington Area Chamber of Commerce, business leaders from the Northshire and some former Manchester and the Mountains Chamber of Commerce members to a meeting on May 3 to discuss the current situation in Manchester. As the Manchester and the Mountains Chamber closed its doors a couple of weeks ago, The Shires of Vermont organization reached out to the Northshire and Southshire to address short-term and long-term needs arising from the loss of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce.

Vermont Business Magazine Union Mutual, a central Vermont-based insurance provider, will present the 2016 Special Olympics Vermont Summer Games June 3-5 at the University of Vermont, extending its lead sponsorship through the 2018 Games. Athletes will compete in swimming, track and field, bocce, and softball. Summer Games is Special Olympics Vermont’s largest competition event of the year featuring nearly 500 athletes representing every Vermont county. The weekend begins Friday, June 3 with Opening Ceremonies in Patrick Gym and the culmination of the Law Enforcement Torch Run. Opening Ceremonies will also feature guest speaker Andy Newell, a Vermont native sponsored by Union Mutual and three-time Olympic Nordic skier who has been competing internationally on the World Cup stage and in World Championships for the past 10 years.

by Carolyn Shapiro Heralded a miracle by many infertile couples, in vitro fertilization can pack a painful financial punch for those without insurance coverage for the treatment. This prohibitive cost leads many would-be parents who pursue in vitro fertilization to transfer multiple embryos at once to increase their chances of getting a baby – and reduce the need to pay for subsequent attempts.

Vermont Business Magazine Attorney General William H Sorrell announced today that his office has completed its review of a police-shooting incident that occurred on March 21, 2016, in Burlington, Vermont. Sorrell said in a statement that his office has concluded, as a matter of law, that Burlington Police Officer David Bowers was legally justified in the use of deadly force when he discharged his firearm at Ralph “Phil” Grenon. The legal standard for the use of deadly force is whether the officer reasonably believed that he or a third party was in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury, and that deadly force was necessary to respond to that threat.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont has been awarded a $494,110 grant from the National Institutes of Food and Agriculture at the UD Department of Agriculture to implement and assess a new method of food distribution -- called food boxes -- that could add to farmers’ bottom line and increase traffic for retailers while making healthy, fresh food available to a population that doesn’t normally buy directly from farms, either via farmers markets or through a community supported agriculture (CSA) co-op.

by John McClaughry Three times in modern history Vermonters have witnessed a political battle over public power. In the 1960s young liberal Democratic governor Philip Hoff tried to break the political influence of the (largely Republican) investor owned utilities, CVPS and GMP. The Republican Legislature rejected his proposal for a state power authority to import power from the St Lawrence Seaway and Canadian sources. One immediate result of Hoff’s failed campaign was the creation by CVPS and GMP of the 600 MW Vermont Yankee Nuclear Station in Vernon. Their thinking was that Yankee would give Vermont “energy independence” and defeat liberal demands for imported public power. It went online in 1972.

The issue arose again in 2003, when USGen slipped into bankruptcy. The company owned six dams on the Connecticut River, two small dams on the Deerfield River in Vermont, plus other dams and three fossil fuel plants in southern New England.

Vermont Business Magazine Whether you are in Danville, Burlington, Manchester or points in between, now that winter is behind us, the threat of rabies increases as wildlife becomes more active. Fifteen animals have tested positive for rabies so far this year, most of them raccoons. Rabies is a fatal viral disease that mainly affects wildlife (especially raccoons, foxes, bats, skunks and woodchucks), but can infect domestic animals and humans. A cat tested positive earlier this year.

Vermont Business Magazine After days of negotiation, the budget conference committee decided to include financing for a study to explore expanding Vermont’s successful Dr. Dynasaur program to include everyone up through age 26 regardless of family income. The House and Senate approved the budget bill late Friday night.

“This is an important step toward addressing the out of control costs of health care in our state,” said Lindsay DesLauriers, Director of Main Street Alliance of Vermont. “We believe this study will show a way to find real health care savings for Vermonters and appreciate the work of the legislature and especially the leadership of Speaker Shap Smith and Representative Johnson.”