Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont’s part-time faculty, who are represented by United Academics, have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement. Under the new agreement, the salary pool will be adjusted as follows: A 3.25 percent increase in fiscal year 2016; a 3 percent increase in 2017; and a 2.5 percent increase in 2018, totaling 8.75 percent over three years.

Bargaining with the part-time faculty union has been underway since late February of this year. Both parties agreed in May to enter mediation in order to reach an agreement.

Vermont Business Magazine By vastly reducing reliance on fossil fuels, increasing conservation and using more renewable electric, especially for transportation and heating, Vermont will reach its goal of meeting 90 percent of its energy needs through renewable sources by 2050. The Public Service Department today released the Public Review Draft of the 2015 Comprehensive Energy Plan. The draft, which weighs in at a governmental 386 pages, reaffirms Vermont’s 90 percent goal and provides additional details on how to get there. The PSD sought significant public and stakeholder input to inform the draft and has been working across state agencies – including the agencies of Natural Resources; Transportation, Agriculture, Food and Markets; Commerce and Community Development; and Human Services – to put the draft together.

Vermont Business Magazine Champlain College will celebrate the beginning of a new era of creativity and the arts on Saturday, Sept. 26 with the official opening of the College’s new Center for Communication and Creative Media (CCM) at 375 Maple St. The new facility will be open to the public for tours from 10 am to 1 pm during Family Weekend. An evening reception for alumni and other invited guests will be held from 5 to 8 pm.

“This is the gateway to the campus,” said President Donald J Laackman, “and will provide collaborate space for students, faculty and others to gather in and out of the classroom.”

by Patrick Leahy Pope Francis’s visit this week to Washington, including his address to a Joint Meeting of Congress, will make history. And for many Americans, including me, it stirs memories from an earlier chapter. Like millions of others, Catholic or not, I appreciate Pope Francis’s energetic message of compassion and justice for the poor, tolerance for the faiths and beliefs of others, sound stewardship of our planet, and peaceful co-existence in our troubled world. In the discussions that are leading to the normalization of relations between our country and Cuba, I was proud to have been able to act as an intermediary in the exchange of messages among President Obama, Pope Francis – who is the first Pope to have come from the New World -- and Cardinal Ortega of Cuba.

It is sometimes difficult to imagine it today, but a few short decades ago it would have been considered unthinkable that a pontiff would be invited to address the Congress.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin has again declared October as Manufacturing Month in Vermont to coincide with the fourth annual national Manufacturing Day initiative. The purpose of these events is to generate more interest in the manufacturing segment of the economy and to draw attention to high-skill jobs in the manufacturing arena. As members of Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center (VMEC) and of the local community, Twincraft Skincare is inviting its neighbors to tour its manufacturing facilities in Winooski and Essex.

Vermont Business Magazine Mayor Miro Weinberger and other Burlington institutional leaders today announced a series of steps to strengthen the two-year-old BTV Ignite initiative which is dedicated to aligning Burlington’s powerful gigabit infrastructure as a tool, test bed, and accelerator for economic, educational, and community benefit. These next steps include:

· Formation of a new 501(c)(3) and board of directors for BTV Ignite with funding committed by Burlington organizations;

· The board’s selection and hire of Michael Schirling as BTV Ignite Executive Director; and

· The announcement of the first BTV Ignite Conference to take place in October 2015.

Vermont Business Magazine Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that the deadline to enroll for the dairy Margin Protection Program for coverage in 2016 has been extended until November 20, 2015. The voluntary program, established by the 2014 Farm Bill, provides financial assistance to participating farmers when the margin – the difference between the price of milk and feed costs – falls below the coverage level selected by the farmer.

Vermont Business Magazine Local community members and businesses have spent the past three years working to construct a 2.12 mile shared-use recreational path that would run along the Walloomsac River, connecting Bennington’s urban core to the village of North Bennington. Now with some help from a federal grant, it looks like the completion of a major portion of this project is in sight. In an award letter from the Vermont Agency of Transportation, Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Manager Jon Kaplan announced the successful application as part of the State’s 2015 VTrans Bicycle and Pedestrian Program, with an award amount of $1,108,000, which includes a local share of 10% being borne by the Town. The local match as it’s called, can be in the form of direct cash or in-kind service (ie, materials and/or labor).

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin joined the Woodstock Community Trust, Twin Pines Housing Trust, Housing Vermont and funders and supporters of Safford Commons to celebrate the opening of the rental housing development at the site of the former Grange Hall and church on Route 4 across from the Woodstock High School. Safford Commons provides a total of 28 attractive, affordable and energy-efficient rental apartments. Four apartments were created through extensive renovations of a former Grange Hall and church building while 24 new construction apartments are scattered among 10 buildings.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont’s adult obesity rate barely budged between 2013 and 2014 (24.7 percent to 24.8 percent), but the state ranked 6th best in the nation overall, according to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hawaii had the nation’s lowest rates at 22.1 percent. Colorado (2nd), the District of Columbia (3rd), Massachusetts (4th), and California (5th) also had lower rates than Vermont.

“Vermont is doing well compared to the rest of the nation, but the bar is set so low,” said Health Commissioner Harry Chen, MD. “Our obesity rate in 1990 was close to 11 percent, and now it is one of every four adults. That’s an alarming trend and it’s unacceptable.

Vermont Business Magazine Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus has been detected in a batch of mosquitoes collected from the town of Swanton on Sept. 14, and confirmed by the Health Department Laboratory. This is the first detection of EEE virus in Vermont this year. The risk for mosquito-borne illness will continue until the first hard frost of the year. EEE can be spread to humans and some animals through the bite of an infected mosquito. No human or animal cases have been reported so far in 2015.

“The highest risk for human infections is this time of year,” said Patsy Kelso, state epidemiologist for infectious disease. “We predicted going into this mosquito season that the Swanton area, due to prior years, had a moderate risk for EEE, so the detection was not unexpected.”

Vermont Business Magazine Farrell Distributing Company of South Burlington, Vermont and g.housen, Inc of Keene, NH, have reached an agreement that will transfer ownership of g.housen’s portfolio of beverage brands in Vermont to Farrell Distributing. Both companies said the transaction would strengthen their businesses and improve service to suppliers, retailers and beverage consumers. The g. housen portfolio of brands includes some of the nation’s top national wine, beer and non-alcoholic beverage brands, including Anheuser-Busch, and will compliment the locally driven portfolio Farrell currently manages.