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EPA has provided additional grants of $3.275 million in supplemental funding for communities in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont to carry out cleanup and redevelopment projects at contaminated Brownfields properties. The projects will help communities create jobs while protecting people’s health and the environment. Two Vermont agencies will get a total of $750,000.

The supplemental funds will support an array of cleanup and redevelopment projects in the following New England locations:

Former Vermont Governor Jim Douglas will discuss his new book The Vermont Way at the University of Vermont at 2 pm on Wednesday, September 3 in John Dewey Lounge, Old Mill. UVM President Tom Sullivan will introduce Governor Douglas, who will sign books after his talk. The event is cosponsored by the Center for Research on Vermont and the UVM Department of Political Science.

Green Mountain Power (GMP) announced today that state regulators have approved the company’s proposal to decrease electric rates by 2.46 percent for residential and commercial customers starting October 1. The rate decrease will be the second decrease offered by GMP in three years and is part of the company’s mission to deliver reliable, clean and cost-effective power to its customers.

“Our energy future is a bright one. We are empowering customers with new tools and resources to control energy use and save money while at the same time bringing down rates for all customers,” said Mary Powell, President and CEO of GMP. “Lowering electricity rates at a time when other costs continue to rise, is an important part of helping Vermont families and businesses.”

FirstLight Fiber, a facilities-based telecommunications service provider operating fiber optic networks in Upstate New York, Vermont and Northern New England with connectivity to Canada, announced today it has signed a definitive Asset Purchase Agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of New Hampshire-based G4 Communications, including G4's customer base and data center located in Manchester, New Hampshire. The transaction is expected to close following c

Vermont Business Magazine Vermonters with employer sponsored health insurance spent less out-of-pocket on health care but their spending grew faster than the national average in the years before implementation of the state's health reform law, says a new study from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) prepared in cooperation with the Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB), Vermont's health care regulator. The 2007-2011 Vermont Health Care Cost and Utilization Report, is the first report by HCCI comparing national and state health care trends for the privately insured. The study examined health care spending and utilization trends of Vermonters younger than age 65 with employer sponsored insurance (ESI). Between 2007 and 2011, per capita spending in Vermont was lower than the ESI national average yet annual spending per Vermonter with ESI grew faster than the national average.

Entries are now being accepted for the Vermont Writers’ Prize, an annual competition sponsored by Green Mountain Power and Vermont Magazine that provides an opportunity for Vermont writers to showcase their talent.

“This is a wonderful contest that highlights Vermont talent and why we all love Vermont,” said Dorothy Schnure, corporate spokesperson for Green Mountain Power. “GMP is committed to supporting communities, and the goal of the Vermont Writers’ Prize is to inspire everyone to build a better state.”

The Vermont Writers’ Prize, created in honor of Ralph Nading Hill, Jr, is considered by Vermont writers to be one of the state’s premier literary prizes. Hill, a Vermont historian and writer who published numerous books and magazine articles on the subject of Vermont, was a long-time member of Green Mountain Power's Board of Directors.

The Department of Environmental Conservation’s Compliance and Enforcement Division (CED) announced that it has formally settled environmental violations involving the Town of Randolph. Randolph operates a wastewater treatment facility which discharges to the White River and is subject to a discharge permit.

In late November 2012 the Agency received an anonymous complaint of floatable material and solids being discharged from the wastewater treatment facility to the Third Branch of the White River. Agency personnel immediately responded to the complaint and observed toilet paper, human waste, and grease discharging from the facility’s outflow pipe. Follow up investigation revealed that one of the facility’s two aerators was inoperable, and that earlier in November, both of the facility’s aerators had been inoperable for over seven days.

The State Board of Education unanimously approved a statement concerning the proper and improper uses of standardized testing after a four-month review and study, the Board announced today. The five page statement and resolution notes that states are spending too much time on testing, and states do not receive enough new information to make it worth the added expense and loss of teaching time. The Board urges the federal government to reduce the number of grades in which testing is required. “The overreliance on high-stakes standardized testing in state and federal accountability systems is undermining educational quality and equity in the nation’s public schools,” the resolution states.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org State Auditor Doug Hoffer is going to put Vermont’s plans to correct ongoing problems with its health care exchange under the microscope, he said Monday. Thousands of Vermont Health Connect customers are still having trouble making changes to their coverage, fixing billing issues or editing personal information.

“Is the state taking the steps to get this right?” Hoffer said. “We’d like to try and help answer that question.”

There have been several reports from consulting firms detailing wide-ranging problems at Vermont Health Connect, he said, as well as making recommendations to correct them.

Hoffer said he wants to examine whether salient aspects of those recommendations have been followed.

Vermont is doing better than most, but a majority of states are not measuring up on legislative solutions that prevent and fight cancer, according to a new report released today by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). As the changing health care landscape presents new opportunities to prevent a disease that kills 1,600 people a day in this country, many state legislatures are failing to enact laws and policies that could not only generate new revenue and long-term health savings, but also save lives.

by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org A new advocacy group for “socially responsible” small businesses in Vermont was announced Monday morning. Vermont’s Main Street Alliance, headed by Lindsay DesLauriers, will be part of a national network of state and local small business coalitions. The group will endorse initiatives for statewide single-payer health care and mandatory paid sick leave for Vermont employees. The group’s strategy is to recruit small business owners into advocacy coalitions organized around each topic.

“The Main Street Alliance will create an avenue for small business owners to speak for themselves through this coalition model,” DesLauriers said.

DesLauriers worked for Voices for Vermont’s Children in 2014 and led an unsuccessful legislative push for paid sick leave. She said the experience convinced her that a small business niche was not being met by other business organizations or issues groups.

A school-based health center at Barre City Elementary & Middle School is an extension of the Central Vermont Medical Center’s pediatric primary care practices. It will operate at the school on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30am to 12:30pm providing primary health care to students. Participation is voluntary and the goal is to keep kids healthy and in school, and as much as possible to maximize their learning potential.

“Kids spend a considerable part of their day in school so providing health care there makes good sense,” said Kathleen Bryant, FNP.