Current News

The Vermont House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill to enhance protections for residents of mobile home parks. The proposal, H123, requires that mobile home park owners ensure tenant safety by maintaining safe roads and access points for emergency use. When Tropical Storm Irene struck Vermont, 16 mobile home parks experienced flooding. First responders and advocates reported that the dilapidated roadway conditions in some mobile home parks slowed disaster response times. As a result, the General Assembly directed the Department of Housing and Community Development to investigate the difficulties confronting mobile home communities. Representative Bill Botzow introduced H.123 to act on the Department’s recommendations.

Vermont Business Magazine With the median price heading back up toward $200,000, Vermont's housing market finally showed some strength in February, in a year-over-year analysis. The number of homes sold was also up, according to the RE/MAX of New England February Monthly Housing Report. However, the effects of record-snowfalls during the first two months of 2015 reverberated throughout New England’s housing market. Month-over-month, home sales again reflected the inclement weather with a decrease of 13.5 percent over January’s numbers across New England.

Mayor Miro Weinberger today announced the appointment of Neale Lunderville as the new General Manager of the Burlington Electric Department. Lunderville has been serving as the interim GM for the past eight months. Weinberger has asked the City Council to approve the appointment at its March 23, 2015 meeting. Lunderville will be paid $133,555.

Neale Lunderville, left, with Mayor Weinberger last summer. File photo.

by John Herrick vtdigger.org The House Ways and Means Committee gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a 0.2 percent increase in the property transfer tax. The money will be used to restore polluted waterways in Vermont. The tax is paid by property buyers. It can be added to the total closing cost of the property. The current rate is 1.25 percent the total value of the property. The 0.2 percent surcharge would increase the tax to 1.45. Properties under $100,000 or those purchased through the the Vermont Housing Finance Agency under $110,000 would not pay the surcharge.

by Jeffrey R Wakefield Quebec has an abundance of electric power. Vermont and New England have a growing need for it. But what are the political, environmental, economic and policy issues involved in getting power from north to south? A conference at the University of Vermont March 23 and 24, "Power from the North," will put context around those questions, examine current realities and develop potential pathways for the future.

“The energy relationship between Vermont and Quebec has had its ups and downs over the last 30-plus years, but it’s been durable, with the state today purchasing large amounts of power from the north,” said Richard Watts, director of the Center for Research on Vermont and one of the conference organizers.

“The conference," Watts said, "will take a close look at the past and present in order to determine what the future relationship might look like."

Seventh Generation, a leading brand of non-toxic and renewable bio-based household, baby and personal care solutions, has called on Congress to strengthen the country's outdated chemical policy. Seventh Generation, along with the American Sustainable Business Council, are founding members of Companies for Safer Chemicals, a group of the country's leading consumer brands -- 3,000 businesses strong -- joining together to press Congress to modernize the nation's ineffective chemical safety laws. Strong lobbying by other industry groups has given policymakers the impression that business is monolithic in its support for weak legislation. Companies for Safer Chemicals makes a business argument for strong reforms that support the industry innovating safer and cleaner products.

Julia Alvarez, a highly regarded novelist, poet, and essayist, and a 1971 Middlebury graduate, will deliver the 2015 Middlebury College commencement address on Sunday, May 24. Alvarez’s acclaimed novels In the Time of the Butterflies and How The García Girls Lost Their Accents are based on her life experience, the foundation for much of her work. She spent most of her childhood in her parents’ native Dominican Republic before her family was forced to flee the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in 1960. Among her many awards is the National Medal of Arts, bestowed by President Barack Obama in 2013, and the highest honor given to artists and arts patrons by the United States government.

US Senator Patrick Leahy will welcome US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell to Vermont this Friday, as she delivers the keynote address at the 2^nd Leahy Center Environmental Summit. Leahy will introduce Jewell’s remarks at 2 pm, followed by a question and answer session with local news media representatives. Immediately following, Leahy and Jewell will visit a US Geological Survey lake gage on the Burlington waterfront.

The theme of this year’s summit is “Climate Change Resilient, Floodwater Smart.”

FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2:00 P.M.;

ECHO AT THE LEAHY CENTER FOR LAKE CHAMPLAIN;

1 COLLEGE STREET, BURLINGTON

Despite lower gasoline and diesel fuel prices in the second half of 2014, the registrations of fuel-efficient clean diesel and hybrid cars and SUVS both showed double-digit increases in vehicle registrations in 2014, according to the latest data compiled by IHS Automotive for the Diesel Technology Forum. Vermont ranks 10th in growth of diesel vehicles sold from 2013 to 2014..

Diesel cars and SUVs showed an increase of 13.5 percent in 2014 over 2013, and hybrid cars and SUVS increased by 15.1 percent.

Mindy S Lubber, one of the world’s most influential leaders in harnessing capitalism for positive environmental outcomes, will be Green Mountain College’s 2015 commencement speaker on Saturday, May 16. Lubber is the president of Ceres, the leading US coalition of investors and environmental leaders working to improve corporate environmental, social and governance practices. Ceres has succeeded in persuading more than 1000 companies to sign its “Climate Declaration” urging Congress to adopt new laws to combat global warming. She also directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), an alliance of more than 100 institutional investors representing over $10 trillion in assets.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM) is pleased to announce the publication of a new resource, Using Food Hubs to Create Sustainable Farm to School Programs (available here), which explores the key roles that Food Hubs can play in the development, support, and maintenance of successful Farm to School (FTS) programs. While Food Hubs remain a relatively new and evolving concept within the national food movement, Vermont is home to over a dozen Food Hubs, whose missions range from the aggregation, processing, and distribution of locally made foods, to consumer education, to farmer/producer technical assistance.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets (VAAFM) has announced the availability of grant funds for the purpose of enhancing the competitiveness of Vermont specialty crops including fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, horticulture and nursery crops. These funds are awarded through a competitive review process guided by industry, nonprofit and government stakeholders. Interested applicants may download the Vermont Specialty Crop Block Grant Program Request for Proposals on the Agency’s website.