Current News

Line Crews are making significant progress repairing outages but GMP expects significant additional outages as storm rages on

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Wednesday announced that key funding for Lake Champlain has been included in the comprehensive budget package that will be considered by Congress later this week, as the clock runs out on the congressional session.

Leahy is the most senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and played a key role in negotiating several parts of the final federal budget bill, which was unveiled Tuesday night.

The High Meadows Fund at the Vermont Community Foundation has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) that represents a commitment of $240,000 towards promoting planning and action within Vermont’s watersheds. Tropical Storm Irene brought the devastation of extreme weather to the forefront in Vermont, but many Vermonters don’t know that since 2000 the state has had at least one federally-declared disaster every year. In certain parts of the state Vermonters have lived through two 100-year flood events in the past decade. High Meadows is encouraging solutions at a multi-town, watershed level.

by Thomas P Salmon In 1958, when I moved from Boston to Bellows Falls, Vermont was something of an economic and political backwater. The economy was stagnant and political loyalties were virtually unchanged since the Civil War. More people moved out than moved in. Not until 1963 did the human population exceed the bovine.

Construction on the Interstate Highway began in 1957. Many visitors followed the freeway north to the ski resorts, lakes and woodlands of “Vermont: The Beckoning Country,” so styled by Governor Phil Hoff and his tourism expert, Al Moulton. Of course many loved what they saw and stayed. With them came fresh energy, ideas, and human and financial capital.

With the growing popularity of electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, Vermont is seeing rapid growth in the installation of both residential and commercial charging stations. On December 13, Vermont Tech will host a free electric vehicle charging station installation-training course for licensed electricians and electrical students. Drive Electric Vermont and the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation are sponsoring the training course, which will be held at Vermont Tech’s Williston campus in the CEWD classroom. Experienced electricians from DK Power, a Rhode Island-based electric contractor, will be facilitating the training.

Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO) Mobile Home Program has received a $25,000 grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency to build strong mobile home park communities. In addition a $5,000 state match through the Vermont Department of Housing and Community Development. CVOEO has partnered with University of Vermont, Department of Community Development & Applied Economics to carry out this work.

The goal of the collaboration is to increase the resilience of mobile home park communities by empowering residents to plan for emergencies through capacity building and technical assistance.

Vermont Information Consortium (VIC), the eGovernment partner for the State of Vermont, announced this week the launch of their 80th no-cost website for the state: www.floodready.vermont.gov. A joint effort between VIC, the state’s Agency of Natural Resources, and the Department of Innovation and Information, the website is hosted in VIC’s content management system, which also hosts 79 other state government websites, including those for the Departments of Motor Vehicles, Human Resources, Children & Families, and the Governor.

“We are excited about the launch of this valuable public service website and reaching the important milestone of 80 government websites launched through our partnership with the state,” said Jamie Gage, general manager of VIC. “Our goal is to continue to work together with our partners to make government more accessible and efficient for everyone.”

Environmental faculty and student editors of the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law have announced publication of their annual “Vermont Law Top 10 Environmental Watch List,” highlighting critical law and policy issues they believe will intensify in 2015. The list, in its fifth year, features articles co-authored by students and faculty of Vermont Law School on topics ranging from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan to Vermont’s new labeling law for genetically engineered foods (GMOs).

Burlington Electric Department customers can now report any BED-related problems through SeeClickFix, an online and mobile interface that allows residents to document and report issues such as a flickering or nonworking streetlight, a utility hole that is improperly secured, or any other issue causing a problem. Along with reporting the problem, a customer can also take a photo to better illustrate the problem.

The City of Burlington has provided this service to its residents since 2012 for reporting city issues; now, issues related to electric service can also be submitted through the city’s app.

BED’s General Manager Neale Lunderville said, “BED is happy to be moving toward a more seamless way for our customers to report problems. SeeClickFix makes reporting very easy and should reduce response time.”

The Vermont Association of Snow Travelers (VAST) is looking forward to a great snowmobiling season as a Nor’easter descends on us this week. In order to have trails ready to ride, there should be at least four inches of packed snow and frozen ground. The VAST snowmobile season runs from December 16 to April 15 of each year. Please respect our landowners and volunteers by not going riding on the VAST trail system until opening day, and only when clubs have gone through with a groomer. When you do ride, stay on the trail to help us maintain great relationships with landowners. The more everyone follows the rules landowners will provide us the land to continue to ride.

VAST is offering Early Bird TMA stickers for sale until December 15, so hurry up and get your sticker by then and save money. TMAs’ are sold by all of your 128 clubs, as well as some vendors in and outside of Vermont. After December 15, TMAs are sold at our regular seasonal rate.

The South Burlington Energy Committee has been selected as the winner of the 2014 Energy Committee Leadership Award as “Best Overall Energy Committee” by the Vermont Energy & Climate Action Network (VECAN), a network of statewide environmental organizations. The award is given each year to the committee that embodies the spirit and determination of grassroots energy action. It was presented at the annual Community Energy Conference on December 6. The South Burlington Energy Committee won the award for “its strong history of tackling clean energy initiatives, including undertaking projects ranging from LED streetlight upgrades to solar installations, from residential lighting efficiency campaigns to clean energy financing solutions and far more.”

Today Lisa Ventriss, President of Vermont Business Roundtable (VBR) and Jeffrey Carr, President, Economic & Policy Resources (EPR), announced the 3rd Quarter results of their joint initiative, the VBR-EPR Business Conditions Survey. The survey, which is conducted quarterly, takes a look back at the economic conditions of the previous quarter and provides a predictive index going forward.

The economic indicator, constructed as a Diffusion Index, is designed to follow economic sentiments of Roundtable members over time, and serve as a tool for analyzing and presenting insight into the Vermont economic outlook as a leading economic indicator.

The 3rd Quarter survey achieved a response rate of 68 percent overall and included a 50 percent or greater response rate from all but one sector within the membership. The survey asked eight questions about the economic outlook, demand, capital spending, and employment. Survey results show that: