Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Thomas Thompson Trust awarded Brattleboro’s Winston Prouty Center $30,000 toward its capital campaign. The Center is expanding to better provide community-based services. The award was a matching grant for Winston Prouty Center’s two spring fundraisers, “Storytellers on a Mission” and its inaugural Indoor Mini-Golf Tournament.

Winston Prouty board member Chuck Cummings and executive director Chloe Learey accepted $30,000 check from The Thomas Thompson Trust for its capital campaign.

Vermont Business Magazine The Green Mountain Care Board today praised Vermont's hospitals for achieving historically low rates of growth in their budget submissions for the third year in a row, submitting budgets with 3.6 percent overall net patient revenue growth. The GMCB also highlighted the proposed aggregate 4.3 percent weighted average rate increase for fiscal year 2016 – an indicator of prices passed on to consumers – which is the lowest in the last 15 years.

“Both of these numbers are important indicators of the hard work that all of our hospitals are doing to keep costs down, and to reduce costs to Vermonters,” said VAHHS CEO and President Bea Grause.

The initial submission of 3.6 percent growth for 2016 follows last year’s growth rate of 2.7 percent, the lowest in 40 years.

Vermont Business Magazine The parent company of Vermont Castings, HNI Corporation (NYSE: HNI), based in Iowa, announced on Wednesday sales for the second quarter ended July 4, 2015, of $568.2 million and net income of $23.9 million, or $0.52 per diluted share. Profits suffered less than expected due to charges resulting from plant closures. Non-GAAP net income per diluted share improved 35.9 percent from the prior year quarter to $0.53, which excludes restructuring, impairment, transition costs and gain on sale of assets. HNI reported last year that it would close and consolidate plants in Alabama and Illinois. Following its acquistition of Vermont Castings last fall, it announced in March 2015 that it would close the Bethel, Vermont, plant, with the loss of about 40 workers. It also has a hearth manufacturing plant in Randolph.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin issued the following statement after the US House of Representatives passed legislation today that would block Vermont from enforcing its mandatory GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) labeling law. Shumlin said Vermont is serving as "ground zero in the fight to institute GMO labeling," and in 2014 the Vermont legislature passed a law to require labeling starting in July 2016.

The House passed, 275-150, The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015, which instead creates a federal standard for the voluntary labeling of foods with GMO ingredients. A law, if ultimately signed by the president, would trump any action to require mandatory labeling by the FDA.

The governor signs Vermont's GMO bill in May 2014.

Vermont Business Magazine In the first half of 2015, the Vermont Community Loan Fund (VCLF) loaned $2,883,650 to Vermont's small businesses, early education and child care programs, affordable housing developers, and facilities providing vital community services. VCLF Executive Director Will Belongia said, “For nearly three decades, the Loan Fund has been committed to creating opportunity and building healthy communities throughout Vermont.”

“So far this year, our lending activities have advanced our mission to create and preserve quality Vermont jobs, safe and affordable homes, early care and community facilities, improving the quality of life for all Vermonters and the communities we call home,” Belongia added.

Projects financed include:

247 Pearl St., LLC, Burlington

Vermont Business Magazine More land in Western Addison County will soon be available to the public, and protected for wildlife. The public is invited to attend a celebration of the Lemon Fair Wildlife Management Area in Cornwall, and the 330 acres being added to it, on Tuesday, July 28, from 10 am to 12:30 pm.

Several new parcels of land will soon be open to the public as additions to the Lemon Fair Wildlife Management Area in Cornwall and Bridport, Vermont. F&W photo

The celebration will include a reception with refreshments and speakers, followed by a short tour of the lands. Speakers include Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Deb Markowitz and Fish & Wildlife Department Commissioner Louis Porter, among others.

Vermont Business Magazine While Burlington International Airport relies too heavily on non-air service revenue, primarily parking, and while enplanements are down, cash flow and debt service have improved, leading to stability in its bond rating and ability to raise capital. Fitch Ratings has affirmed the ratings for Burlington International Airport's (BTV) approximately $42.7 million of outstanding airport revenue bonds at 'BBB-'. Fitch's Rating Outlook is Stable. The 'BBB-' rating, which importantly is above "junk bond" status, reflects a volatile enplanement base serving a small regional market at BTV combined with limited operating and financial flexibility. BTV has a history of weak cash flow but recent strides have enhanced their financial profile as seen in recent improvement of net revenue generation, debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) and days cash on hand (DCOH).

Revenue Risk - Volume: Weaker

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont State Colleges (VSC) Board of Trustees voted today to support a focused effort to position the Vermont State Colleges as a more comprehensive, cohesive, and interconnected system comprising multiple distinct institutions. This decision is seen as essential to expanding educational opportunities, achieving operational efficiencies, and ensuring long term viability.

“A higher level of collaboration will result in more opportunities for our students and greater cost efficiencies, ensuring a bright future for all of our institutions,” said Board Chair Martha O’Connor.

In support of the Castleton’s strategic plan to continue to grow opportunities for enrollment and funding, the approved resolution included the renaming of Castleton State College to Castleton University.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin today announced a $5.7 million federal grant to expand and allow for year-round operation of the Vermont Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in Randolph Center near Vermont Technical College. The cemetery is currently open only from May through the first week in December each year. The US Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration grant will fund the addition of 1,640 burial plots, including 410 pre-placed crypts for in-ground casket burials, 390 in-ground cremains plots, and 840 columbarium niches. The grant will also fund the construction of a main entrance, public information center, maintenance facility, landscaping, memorial walkway, and supporting infrastructure. A new road system will also be constructed to more directly connect visitors to the Chapel and allow a secondary exit from the site. The total expansion will include the development of approximately 12 acres.

Vermont Business Magazine Disadvantaged women begin smoking at an earlier age, are heavier smokers and are more likely to be nicotine dependent and to fail at smoking cessation. When they become pregnant and have children, the behavior doesn’t change. In fact, almost 85 percent of US children from low-income families are chronically exposed to secondhand smoke – especially from maternal smoking. A new five-year, $3.6 million grant from the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development awarded to the Vermont Center on Behavior and Health (VCBH) at the University of Vermont hopes to change that.

Vermont Business Magazine Lake Sunapee Bank Group (NASDAQ: LSBG), the holding company for Lake Sunapee Bank, fsb, with branches through central Vermont, on Wednsday announced results for the quarter ended June 30, 2015. Consolidated net income for the second quarter of 2015 was $2.4 million, or $0.29 per diluted common share, compared to $2.3 million, or $0.28 per diluted common share, for the same period in 2014, and $4.7 million, or $0.56 per diluted common share, for the six months ended June 30, 2015, compared to $4.5 million, or $0.53 per diluted common share, for the same period in 2014.

Vermont Business Magazine Three Vermont-based business owners have been named America’s Retail Champions by the National Retail Federation and are in the running to be chosen as one of five national finalists as well as America’s Retail Champion of the Year. State champions, nominated by the Vermont Retail & Grocers Association, include Andrew Brewer, owner of Onion River Sports in Montpelier, Marc Sherman, owner of Stowe Mercantile in Stowe, and Todd Keyworth, owner of Harborside Market in North Hero. The Vermont-based champions were chosen from a pool of nationwide nominees for the 2015 America’s Retail Champions awards. Retail Champions are Main Street business owners who are strong industry advocates at all levels of government.