Current News

The Champlain College Single Parents Program has received a $1 million gift from Bob and Christine Stiller through the Stiller Family Foundation to specifically offset childcare costs for single parent students. The gift to Champlain was announced at the Board of Trustees Dinner honoring retiring President David F Finney. The gift will be made to the College over the next four years. Incoming President Donald J Laackman said, “this gift from the Stillers is a wonderful honor for Dave Finney and yet another demonstration of the generosity of the Stiller family to our students and the College.” Champlain’s Single Parents Program is one of the College’s longest-standing programs, and “it is only one of 11 such programs across the country,” said Carol Moran-Brown, “offering single parents a support system covering students academically, financially, and personally.”

Contracts with unions representing approximately 1,700 of FairPoint’s 2,550 northern New England employees expired at midnight on August 2, according to a statement released Sunday by FairPoint. With no strike as yet called by the unions, for now work will continue under most terms of the expired contracts. The unions said that they could still strike at any moment and have put forward proposals that would save the company $180 million, while FairPoint maintains the unions have not addressed the key benefit changes that it needs.

“To date, the unions have rejected company proposals on most of the core issues in these negotiations,” said FairPoint spokeswoman Ange Amores Beaudry. “There has been little or no movement on pensions, retiree medical for active employees or subcontracting, issues which are key to reaching new contracts.”

Vermont Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott is serving on the leadership committee of the National Lieutenant Governors Association (NLGA). The NLGA is a professional association enabling regional and nationwide policy discussion and progress at the state level. “Through NLGA’s bipartisan nature, the priorities of lieutenant governors and their states and territories are united – not divided,” said NLGA Director Julia Hurst. Scott is serving as the Eastern Region-At-Large Republican of the NLGA Executive Committee. “The lieutenant governor was nominated to this position by a bipartisan group of his peers,” said Hurst. “His unanimous election among officials of both parties from every region of the country speaks to the high regard he is held in among his peers.”

Grafton Village Cheese, a business of the nonprofit Windham Foundation in Grafton, Vt, was awarded five ribbons at the 31st annual American Cheese Society (ACS) Awards on July 31 in Sacramento, Calif. Two days prior to ACS, the company took home seven awards and two trophies at the International Cheese Awards (ICA) in England, including the trophy for Best USA Cheese. Grafton Village Cheese produces handmade aged cheddar and specialty cheese using milk from small family farms, with the proceeds supporting the charitable efforts of the Windham Foundation.

ACS Awards for Grafton Cheese

· First for Queen of Quality Clothbound Cheddar in the Cheddar Wrapped in Cloth, Linen, Aged Over 12 Months

· First for Shepsog in the American Originals Original Recipe / Open Category

· Second for Bull Hill in the Open Washed Rind Cheeses category

by John Herrick vtdigger.org The Department of Public Service is recommending that state regulators order Vermont Gas to pay a $35,000 fine for the delayed announcement of a 40 percent cost increase to the company’s pipeline extension. The Public Service Board approved Vermont Gas’ 41-mile natural gas pipeline extension through Addison County in December. The company announced this month that the cost of the pipeline is now estimated at $121 million, $35 million more than expected when regulators approved the project. The department said the company should have known about market forces that would increase the cost of the pipeline well before it notified state regulators.

“The utility is obligated to pay attention to the costs in the industry,” Public Service Commissioner Chris Recchia said.

Vermont Business Magazine New unemployment claims in Vermont but held at a relatively low level. In early June, claims fell to 400, as filings have spiked and then fallen for most of the year. For the week of July 26, 2014, there were 430 new, regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance in Vermont. This is an increase of 26 from the previous week's total, and 33 fewer than they were a year ago. Claims have been generally lower than were at the same time last year. The summer typically produces fewer claims.

On Wednesday, August 6 at 11 am, Woodchuck Hard Cider will hold a formal ribbon cutting ceremony at the site of its new state-of-the-art cidery. The $34 million dollar cidery has been under construction for the last 15 months. It represents Woodchuck’s commitment to Vermont and keeping the state at the forefront of the rapidly growing national hard cider movement. Woodchuck Hard Cider introduced the US to craft cider from a two car garage in Proctorsville, Vermont, and 23 years later, craft cider has caught on and Woodchuck continues its leadership role in the craft cider industry.

The Senate on Thursday tonight approved and sent to President Barack Obama a bill to improve access to health care for veterans and reform the Department of Veterans Affairs. Crafted by the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairmen – Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Jeff Miller (R-Florida) – the $16.3 billion bill passed the Senate by a vote of 91-3. The House of Representatives voted 420-5 on Wednesday to approve the same measure.

There is a Veterans Administration hospital in White River Junction.

Governor Peter Shumlin and Vermont Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security Director Joe Flynn have asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to join state and local teams to conduct a Joint Preliminary Damage Assessment in areas of Vermont impacted by flooding on July 28. The assessment is to determine if Windsor and Windham counties qualify for federal Public Assistance disaster funds to help towns repair public infrastructure damaged in the floods.

“The towns and individuals hit by this flooding suffered significant damage and we’ll continue to do everything we can to help all those affected get back on their feet,” Governor Shumlin said. “I encourage communities that have yet to report damage to do so as soon as possible so that we can ensure all available resources are directed to those working hard to rebuild.”

In a new list from Forbes magazine of “Ten Top Colleges to Watch,” UVM ranks second among four schools in the top 200 that have consistently risen up the list since the rankings began in 2009. The university has moved up 230 positions, from 370th to 140th this year. A number of stand-out factors explain UVM’s rapid rise, according to Forbes, including a high graduation rate and a lower than expected rate of student borrowing -- the university, in fact, is in the top 6 percent of all 650 ranked schools in both of these categories.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont PBS will not lose any funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as a result of its board failing to fulfill its open meeting obligations. However, the CPD, in a formal response released Thursday afternoon, did levy a fine of $15,000. As Vermont PBS said it expected, CPB did not impose any penalty affecting the station’s eligibility for federal grant programs or jeopardizing the approximately $1 million in grant funding the station receives from CPB each year. CPB levied the fine as a result of the CPD Inspector General’s finding that Vermont PBS (which recently changed its name from Vermont Public Television) did not post on its website notifications of some closed Board meetings. Vermont PBS said it is disappointed with this decision, and feels strongly that a financial penalty should not have been issued.

The Vermont Cheese Council (VCC), an organization dedicated to the production and advancement of Vermont Cheese, announced that Vermont took home its second consecutive Best in Show first place designation, along with 36 ribbons from 16 cheesemakers at the 31^st annual American Cheese Society competition in Sacramento, Calif. earlier this evening. The Best in Show First Place was awarded for Farms for City Kids Foundation/ Spring Brook Farm’s Tarentaise Reserve cheese. The American Cheese Society (ACS) is the leading organization supporting the understanding, appreciation and promotion of farmstead, artisan and specialty cheeses produced in the Americas. Since its founding in 1983, ACS hosts North America’s foremost annual educational conference and world-renowned cheese judging and competition.