Current News

During a news conference at Burlington’s Intervale Community Farm Friday, United States Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Krysta Harden announced 13 organizations across Vermont will share more than $2.3 million in USDA grants and loans aimed at creating jobs in rural Vermont.Intervale Community Farm Cooperative Manager Andy Jones said these types of grants have helped his farm connect with thousands of consumers through direct sales. The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board will use a $129,998 Rural Business Enterprise Grant to expand the Farm & Forest Viability Program that helped Jones improve his business plan and purchase equipment needed to grow. VHCB will add service providers throughout Caledonia, Essex and Orleans Counties, and extend the reach of the program beyond farmers to include foresters, loggers and forest-products businesses.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D), Senator Bernie Sanders (I), and Representative Peter Welch (D), announced a $524,000 grant to provide residential treatment for pregnant or postpartum women who are suffering from substance abuse in Vermont. The grant was awarded to the Lund Family Center in Burlington to extend outreach and support to as many as 645 low-income pregnant or postpartum women over three years.

In a joint statement, Leahy, Sanders and Welch said: “Addiction to heroin and other opioids has been a tremendous challenge affecting communities across our great state. This grant will go toward supporting those who are most vulnerable. The Lund Center has a strong record of success and continues to play a pivotal role in addressing the increasing drug abuse problem.”

Investors interested in buying State and municipal bonds in Vermont now have a new interim financial disclosure Web page to more easily access information needed to evaluate a bond investment. Vermont State Treasurer Beth Pearce says this voluntary enhancement in state disclosure efforts will benefit the entire investment community and increase transparency. The design follows best practice guidelines approved by the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers (NASACT). The ten interim disclosure areas are: tax revenue; budget updates; cash flow; debt outstanding; economic forecasts; pensions and other post-employment benefits; interest rate swaps and bank liquidity; investment; debt management policies; and filings with the Electronic Municipal Market Access system.

The Addison County Chamber of Commerce recognized a local business, organization, and individual with annual awards during the its annual meeting held on September 10th at Café Provence in Brandon, Vt. Three awards were presented in front of a crowd of nearly 80 attendees which included Chamber members and local business people. In addition to the award presentations, it was announced that the Chamber’s current president, Andy Mayer, is leaving his position at the end of September to become the president/CEO of a chamber in Washington state. Andy has led the Addison County Chamber since 2007 and is relocating to be closer to his and his wife’s families.

Sue Hoxie, marketing and communications director, has been named interim president.

Vermont Business Magazine Here’s your northern Vermont forecast for the rest of this century: annual precipitation will increase by between a third and half an inch per decade, while average temperatures will rise some five degrees Fahrenheit by midcentury. By late in the century, average temperatures will have spiked more than eight degrees. In July, by 2100, the City of Burlington will have at least ten additional days above ninety degrees. The growing season picks up 43 more days. Looking at ski conditions, expect annual snowfall at six major ski resorts to decline about fifty percent by century’s end.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital has announced that the sixth annual Touch a Truck event held on Saturday, September 6 raised approximately $21,000 to help with providing medical services to the community. Approximately 1000 children, parents and grandparents visited the BMH parking lot to get an up close and personal look at more than 50 vehicles, including a forklift, fire trucks, a water rescue boat, Zamboni, and soapbox racer. Every vehicle owner was on hand volunteering their time guiding children as they sat in the vehicles and learned about their operation.

“The enthusiasm of the drivers and businesses who support this event is what makes it successful every year,” says Ellen Smith, executive director of development and community relations at BMH. “Their patience with the children and willingness to give a day of their time is heartwarming. We thank them all.”

The Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission (TRORC) has been awarded $21,200 from the State’s Ecosystem Restoration Program’s (ERP) to design a floodplain restoration area along Pinney Hollow Brook at the site of the former Farmbrook Motel in Plymouth on VT Route 100A. TRORC will work with a consultant this spring to design a restoration plan for this site that creates new floodplain for this tributary that was ravaged by Tropical Storm Irene. New floodplain access will give the river a chance to deposit debris and sediment as well as water during a flood and will improve the Ottauquechee watershed’s health and lessen flooding and erosion risks in Bridgewater and Plymouth.

The Vermont Chamber of Commerce announced Thursday the selection of Stephen C Terry as its 2014 Citizen of the Year. Terry’s contributions to Vermont will be celebrated at an awards dinner on Thursday, November 13, in the Grand Maple Ballroom at the University of Vermont’s Davis Center. A former journalist and energy executive, Terry was selected by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce for the 51^st Citizen of the Year Award for his extensive community involvement and continual devotion to the betterment of Vermont. A record number of letters of support from colleagues, friends and state leaders were submitted to supplement his nomination.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D), Senator Bernie Sanders (I) and Representative Peter Welch (D) Thursday joined Federal Aviation Administrator Michael P Huerta in announcing that the Newport State Airport will receive two FAA grants totaling $8.8 million to help with the airport’s expansion. The grants to the airport in Newport come on the heels of a Federal Aviation Administration grant of $8.1 million to Rutland-Southern Vermont Regional Airport for safety improvements.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org The parent organization of Fletcher Allen Health Care plans to stop using a debt strategy that includes interest rate swaps, a mechanism that effectively allows an borrower to bet on the future direction of interest rates. One of these financial instruments cost Fletcher Allen Partners $3.1 million to cancel. The debt strategy came to light at a Green Mountain Care Board hearing on hospital budgets last month, when a union representing health care workers criticized the institution’s borrowing practices. Testifying before the board, surgical and pediatric nurse Travis Beebe-Woodard, of the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Care Workers, said the interest rate swaps are inconsistent with Fletcher Allen’s nonprofit, patient-focused mission.

Governor Peter Shumlin announced today that the Vermont Food Fight Fund has received over $300,000 in donations to help the state defray to costs of a legal challenge by the big-food industry to its recently enacted law to require labeling of genetically-engineered food, also known as GMOs.

“I am pleased that this fund has exceeded the $300,000 mark, and continues to climb,” the governor said. “Vermont became the first state in the nation to implement this common-sense labeling requirement, ensuring people know what’s in their food and changing the way we think about our rights as consumers. Donations have come in from across the globe, from generous individual donors, organizations like Moveon.org and SumOfUs.org, and corporations including Chipotle, Stonyfield Farm and Ben & Jerry’s, to name just a few.”

Vermont's pick-your-own orchards offer a chance to win an iPod during the annual "Apples to iPods" promotion that kicks off this Sunday, September 14. In this technology-meets-agriculture contest, one specially marked wooden apple is hidden in an apple tree at 21 Vermont pick-your-own apple orchards. The lucky apple picker who finds a wooden apple wins an Apple iPod, iPod Shuffle or iPad. This good-natured promotion of Vermont’s working landscape is in partnership with Woodchuck® Hard Cider, Small Dog Electronics, Vermont Tree Fruit Growers Association and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture. The State of Vermont first launched this promotion in 2007 with hopes of growing participation at Vermont pick-your-own orchards. Since the launch, participation has been incredibly ‘fruitful’ across Vermont.