Current News

by Jeffrey R Wakefield, UVM The top floor of the Davis Center was a hive of activity on November 18 as 55 members of the Vermont House and Senate and 11 state agency representatives rubbed elbows and exchanged ideas with more than 50 University of Vermont faculty and a half dozen administrative leaders. The occasion was the second annual UVM Legislative Summit, which this year focused on climate change.The goal of the legislative summits -- the topic of last year’s inaugural event was education -- is for UVM faculty to share their expertise with decision-makers to help them create informed policy for the state.

Origin Consulting LLC has announced the implementation of the Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing Program Management module at Green Mountain Power (GMP). The program management solution was purchased in February 2014. Increased access to information through multiple channels and devices has raised consumer expectations around the customer experience. Customers want to control when, where and how they interact and expect their utility to provide the same level of service that they receive from other industries.

Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing new Program Management Module helps meet this need with the functionality to better manage the entire customer service and product life cycles. It provides end-to-end process management to segment and target customers and execute campaigns for specific programs and services.

The Vermont Attorney General’s Office is continuing its efforts to enforce Vermont’s Home Improvement Fraud statute. Contractors who intend to defraud the homeowner and enter into contracts but do not perform the required work or repay homeowners for down payments may be investigated for potential criminal charges.

Since January 2014, the Attorney General’s Office has obtained Home Improvement Fraud convictions in the Vermont Superior Court, Criminal Division against:

Robb Brunelle, of Richmond, VT
Donald Richards of Milton, VT

The Office has filed criminal charges in Chittenden County against the following individuals:

Ralph Bassinette, of Burlington, VT
Randy Bouchard, of Jeffersonville, VT
Robert Billings, Jr., of Swanton, VT
Robert Witham, of Colchester, VT (Registry Violation)
Ron Bryan, Jr, of Richmond, VT

The employees of Vermont Computing in Randolph, Vermont, are purchasing the business from its founder and will be operating it as a worker cooperative. Founded in 2003 by Jeremy Lesniak, Vermont Computing specializes in computer sales and repair, graphic design, and website creation. The purchase of the business by the cooperative’s four founding employee-owners was finalized on November 1, 2014, and financing for the deal was secured through a collaboration between the Cooperative Fund of New England and the Vermont Employee Ownership Center’s Vermont Employee Ownership Loan Fund.

Dynapower Company, the global leader in energy storage inverters based in South Burlington, Vermont, has announced that it has signed a strategic agreement with Black & Veatch, one of the world's largest engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies. Through this partnership, the two companies will provide expertly engineered, manufactured and installed energy storage systems of all sizes based on various storage technologies and in support of multiple applications. Dynapower employs 175.

The Vermont Office of Health Care Reform today released the first in a series of web videos designed to highlight the often unfair, complex and hidden way in which health care is currently funded in Vermont. The intent is to launch a weeks-long conversation about the inequities in the current health care financing system and ways to improve it. Before the Legislature convenes in January, the governor will release his proposed benefits and public-financing proposals for Green Mountain Care, a universal, publicly financed health care system for Vermont.

"Access to quality, affordable health care is a something all Vermonters need. But how we pay for it today is not simple or fair,” said Robin Lunge, Vermont's Director of Health Care Reform. “Fulfilling Act 48's goals of a universal, publicly financed health care system in Vermont would allow all Vermonters to receive health care based upon ability to pay."

Comcast Business has announced that its full portfolio of Ethernet services is now available across five communities in Bennington County, Vermont. Capable of bandwidth up to 10 Gigabits-per-second (Gbps), these services are specifically designed for businesses, schools, hospitals and other organizations requiring more bandwidth, looking to network multiple locations together, or planning to connect their offices to a third-party data center.

With this expansion, the communities of North Bennington, Old Bennington, Pownal, Shaftsbury and Woodford can now take advantage of four different types of Comcast Business Ethernet services, including:

- Ethernet Private Line – point-to-point connectivity between two customer sites for bandwidth-intensive applications.

by John Herrick vtdigger.org The Shumlin administration wants Vermont Gas Systems to halt eminent domain proceedings related to a 41-mile natural gas pipeline extension. The governor’s office sent a letter to Vermont Gas on November 28 asking Vermont Gas to suspend condemnation proceedings until March 2. The company has agreed to hold off for now, but did not commit to the March 2 date.

“To create trust between the parties and allow for constructive progress to occur on these easement issues, the governor supports the landowners’ request that [Vermont Gas] agree to a pause in easement legal proceedings,” Liz Miller, the governor’s chief of staff, wrote to project manager Jim Sinclair.

More than a hundred lenders from financial institutions throughout Vermont gathered at the Capital Plaza in Montpelier Tuesday for the Small Business Administration’s Annual Meeting and Awards Breakfast. The event recognized the leading lenders with rankings based on total SBA dollar volume and loans made during fiscal year 2014.

The Vermont District Office recognized People’s United Bank as the 7(a) Lender of the Year, Vermont 504 as the 504 Lender of the Year, and Community Capital of Vermont as the Microlender of the Year. The SBA also recognized National Bank of Middlebury, Community National Bank, Lake Sunapee Bank, KeyBank and Opportunities Credit Union for their various efforts supporting SBA loan programs.

Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell, in conjunction with the Vermont Realtors, is warning the public of a recurring Craigslist scam that targets property renters. Although Craigslist postings contain links to scam warnings on the bottom of each listing, sophisticated scammers are able to create fake listings that appear authentic, and therefore consumers may be less likely to click the warning links. Scammers may copy pictures, descriptions, and Realtor names from legitimate real estate sale postings and repost the information on Craigslist claiming the homes are for rent. Similarly, other scammers make up listings for places that do not exist. Often scammers will advertise properties with low rental prices to entice potential renters, and then request the renters wire deposits without first meeting in person or showing the properties. “Don’t trust the pictures.

Bond buyers responded positively to the November Vermont bond sale. State Treasurer Beth Pearce announced that $110 million in bonds were successfully sold in three different offerings. Vermont has maintained the highest overall bond rating of all New England states – two triple-A ratings and one double-A plus rating – since early 2010.

“Bond buyers recognize Vermont bonds as a solid, quality investment,” said Pearce. “A bond rating is an independent assessment of the creditworthiness of a borrowing instrument like a bond. A higher rating leads to a more favorable effect on the marketing of a bond and leads to reduced interest rates and debt service for the entity selling the bond. Vermont has had the highest bond rating in New England for almost five years, a favorable position that has allowed the State to reduce its borrowing costs for funding a wide range of capital projects.”

A farm-to-school program championed by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) is investing $100,000 in bringing locally grown food to cafeteria tables and classrooms in Vermont. Leahy, who has led the national farm-to-school efforts in the Senate, commended VT FEED, a partnership of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT), and Shelburne Farms, which Tuesday received a federal grant to support farm-to-school initiatives across the Green Mountain State.

Leahy said: “Vermont has long been a pace-setter in the farm-to-school movement. By bringing local food to the cafeteria table and into the classroom, we improve nutrition, promote healthy eating choices, and help all children understand where their food comes from. It’s a winning strategy for our farmers and our students and Vermont is proving how well this program works.”