Current News

Over 300 people crowded into the Brooks House Atrium to celebrate the Grand Opening of the Brooks House on Friday, October 3. The renovation cost $24 million. Speakers all praised the determination and can do attitude that it took to save the landmark building and make it a center of economic development in Brattleboro. Speakers included Governor Peter Shumlin along with Brooks House Development Bob Stevens and Larry Cassidy, along with Congressman Peter Welch, Joyce Judy, president of CCV and Dan Smith, president of VTC.

Governor Shumlin said: "Only in Windham County, only in Brattleboro, can you take on the impossible and make the dream happen."

ECFiber continued its unique funding process by closing on the sale of $510,000 of privately placed promissory notes, purchased by 36 different individuals. This included $200,000 that ECFiber was asked to contribute to the 51 mile Business Broadband Improvement District (BBID) project the Vermont Telecommunications Authority (VTA) announced June 30, to connect BBIDs in Braintree, Brookfield, North Randolph, Pomfret and Sharon.

According to ECFiber CEO, Stan Williams, “The combination of the VTA’s projects and our own planned expansion will allow us to have a presence in 19 of our 24 member towns, and will provide an excellent base on which to expand within these towns as well as our remaining uncovered member towns.”

As the nights grow colder, the Agency of Agriculture’s Consumer Protection Division is reminding Vermonters to takes steps to ensure they “get what they pay for” when heating their homes.

“With winter approaching, it’s important for Vermonters to know there are rules in place to govern transactions related to fuel and firewood,” according to Henry Marckres, Chief of the Consumer Protection Division of the Agency of Agriculture.

Whether you use fuel oil, kerosene, propane, or firewood, the Agency would like to share the following guidelines to help ensure the fuel you buy measures up:

Fuel

Dr. Chris Berger, CMB Interim Director and Director of Graduate Education for the College of Medicine, announced the winner of the 2014 Norman R. Alpert Award at the annual Graduate Research Day for the CMB Program event held October 2, 2014. Jacqueline Leung, a graduate student in the Cellular, Molecular and Biosciences (CMB) Program at the University of Vermont won for her publication, “Identification of T. gondii Myosin Light Chain-1 as a Direct Target of TachypleginA-2, a Small-Molecule Inhibitor of Parasite Motility and Invasion."¹

by Laura Krantz vtdigger.org and Vermont Business Magazine Vermont could gain as much as $11 million in tax revenue from legalized marijuana, according to an analysis performed by NerdWallet, a website that compares financial data for consumers. The nation as a whole could realize $3 billion in state and local taxes per year if it legalized pot, according to NerdWallet. The marijuana market in Vermont is worth approximately $54 million annually, NerdWallet estimated.

Creative Commons photo

Brattleboro Community Television (BCTV) announced today that it has selected Landmark College as Community Partner of the Year and Sovernet as Sponsor of the Year as part of its annual Producer Awards ceremony. Landmark College, in Putney, Vt., is a global leader in integrated teaching methods for students with learning disabilities (such as dyslexia), ADHD, and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Sovernet Communications, headquartered in Bellows Falls, Vt., is a BCTV under-writer that provides BCTV broadband Internet service over its extensive Vermont fiber optic network. Both of the awards were announced at BCTV’s annual meeting on October 1.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) today launched an investigation into soaring generic drug prices.

“We are conducting an investigation into the recent staggering price increases for generic drugs used to treat everything from common medical conditions to life-threatening illnesses,” Sanders, chairman of a Senate health care subcommittee, and Cummings, ranking member of the House oversight committee, wrote in letters to 14 pharmaceutical companies.

They pointed, for example, to the price hike for Albuterol Sulfate used to treat asthma and other lung conditions. The average cost for a bottle of 100 pills was $11 last October. The average charge by this April had shot up to $434. An antibiotic, Doxycycline Hyclate, cost $20 last October for a bottle of 500 tablets. By April, the price was $1,849.

Governor Peter Shumlin, Speaker of the House Shap Smith, Mayor Miro Weinberger, Parks, Recreation & Waterfront Director Jesse Bridges, other State and City officials, and bike path stakeholders today broke ground in Waterfront Park on the first phase of a multi-year effort to completely rebuild, expand, and enhance the entire eight-mile Burlington Bike Path. State tax increment financing (TIF) funds have paved the way for the first phase of the rebuilding of the City’s recreation crown jewel, improving user safety, and continuing the annual economic impact benefit for our City.

Funding awarded for innovative project to help businesses stabilize their transportation costs

The Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC) has won funding to help businesses reduce their transportation costs. VEIC was one of just eight entities selected for funding by the 11th Hour Project, out of a nationally competitive pool of more than 100 applicants. The 11th Hour Project is a program of the Schmidt Family Foundation, which is dedicated to the advancement of clean energy development, and the promotion of electric vehicles.

Lyndon State College’s Atmospheric Sciences Department and its Vermont Institute of Applied Meteorology (VIAM) were awarded $200,000 fromVLITE (Vermont Low Income Trust for Electricity), a public benefit and nonprofit corporation. The support allows VIAM to conduct a three-year applied research project along with Vermont Electric Power Company (Velco) and IBM’s “Deep Thunder” project.

The Chittenden Solid Waste District has been studying more efficient and cost-effective ways to collect residential trash in Chittenden County. The District has been looking at a system known as consolidated collection. Many residents and haulers expressed concern over residents losing their ability to choose their hauler and the proposed system's potential negative impact on small haulers, leading CSWD's Board of Commissioners to call a time out at its monthly meeting on September 24, directing staff to consider additional options.

Public and municipal official informational meetings on consolidated collection, scheduled on Oct. 30 and Dec. 3, have been cancelled.

Vermont will receive $594,645 in federal grants to promote local food systems and organic agriculture. The grants were released by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to five organizations across the Green Mountain State as part of the 2014 Farm Bill’s commitment to promoting access to local and organic agriculture. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Representative Peter Welch (D-Vermont) made the announcement Wednesday.

In a joint statement, Leahy, Sanders and Welch said, “Vermont has been a leader in organic agriculture and local food systems. These grants are an investment in that progress to ensure more people have access to these healthy foods and Vermont farmers can promote their products.”