Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Peter Shumlin signed the cell phone bill Thursday that would prohibit the use of handheld cell phone use while driving. The bill to make it illegal to use a handheld mobile devices while driving was signed at the VTrans Maintenance Garage in Colchester. The governor initially was not enthusiastic about the bill because he believed it did not go far enough to prevent distracted driving, but he became a late "convert" to the it. Drivers will not be able to talk, text, use social media or even look at a device while holding it. The law will take effect October 1 and requires a public information campaign to inform motorists of the change.

PC Construction, based in South Burlington, has been awarded a $4.9 million construction contract for an expansion project at Oxford Networks Data Center in Brunswick, Maine. Located in a 52,000-square-foot former secure data and communications center for the now decommissioned Brunswick Naval Air Station at Brunswick Landing, the project involves the modernization and renovation of the 1980s building.

PC Construction has been on site since mid-March deconstructing a portion of the building, removing walls and electrical systems to create an expansive 6,500-square-foot data room. Teams are now beginning to install extensive electrical components to comply with the redundancy requirements for the data center’s electrical distribution system.

Aspects of the project also include the construction of a 3,200-square-foot electrical area to house electrical and mechanical systems away from data servers, as well as upgraded plumbing, fire suppression and alarm systems.

Shap Smith, the Morrisville lawyer who has served three terms as Speaker of the House, has filed a petition to seek re-election to the Vermont House of Representatives. Smith is seeking a seventh term as a member of the House. This coming legislative biennium most notably will feature the development of a funding scheme for Green Mountain Care, Governor Shumlin's universal health care plan. Also, in the session recently concluded, legislators, who had to struggle to balance the budget for fiscal year 2015, which begins this July 1, indicated that next year will be even worse.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) Thursday secured unanimous bipartisan committee approval of the nomination of Vermont Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Crawford for an upcoming vacancy on Vermont’s US District Court. Crawford earned unanimous support by the committee for his nomination to fill the vacancy that will occur this weekend, on June 15, when Judge William Sessions takes senior status. Leahy, who recommended Justice Crawford to the White House and presided over his confirmation hearing last week, welcomed the committee’s timely and unanimous approval for the nomination.

Vermont Business Magazine New Vermont Electric Power Company CEO Tom Dunn sat down with VBM to talk about the next era of electric transmission in Vermont. VELCO has completed most of its major upgrade projects and remains ahead-of-the-curve for most of the states in New England. Vermont is also a beneficiary of its location as an electric corridor, which could become greater with several gigawatts of new transmission lines proposed to route through Vermont from both Quebec and upstate New York. While Dunn sees this as a potential windfall for Vermont, there is much work to do to convince him of how those projects would be structured and how they would benefit VELCO and the transmission system in Vermont. A company called TDI has already started the permit process to bring a 1,000 megawatt DC line from Quebec and run it under Lake Champlain before turning east and terminating in Ludlow.

Governor Peter Shumlin and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) International President Lee Saunders today signed the first contract for Vermont’s homecare workers’ union, AFSCME Local 4802, Council 93, representing significant advances in standards for homecare providers in Vermont. The contract allows for a new floor for homecare workers of $10.80 an hour, and a 2.5 percent raise for those currently making over that amount. Respite providers currently earning $116 per day will earn $150 per day, and a 2.5 percent raise for those currently earning above that rate.

“This is a new day for homecare in Vermont,” Shumlin said. “These hard working women and men provide vital services to some of Vermont’s most vulnerable residents. This contract gives a voice to these providers and respects their work with a fair wage and protections to allow them to focus on the important work they provide across the Green Mountain State.”

VTel is hosting a ribbon cutting event on July 1 in Hardwick to announce the official launch of its statewide, high-speed wireless network, and to share other VTel technology developments with the public. The broadband wireless project will reach more than 20,000 homes and businesses across the state using 4G/LTE. Among other services, VTel will discuss its fiber-to-the-home project, which is bringing the fastest Internet in America to over 17,000 homes and businesses in rural Vermont; VTel states it has the lowest rates in the country for this service.

VTel Wireless

• On July 1^st, we will commercially launch our high-speed wireless broadband service in towns across Vermont, reaching more than 20,000 homes and businesses across the state. We will continue to bring more towers online every week between now and next summer.

NASA and the National Space Grant Foundation selected UVM as one of five universities to design systems, concepts and technologies to enhance capabilities for deep space missions for the 2015 Exploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge. The UVM team was selected for their proposed “Smart-Structure” deployable airlock design.

The selections are the first milestone in a yearlong design and development effort for these five projects. Throughout the 2014-2015 academic year, the teams must meet a series of milestones to design, manufacture, assemble and test their systems and concepts in close cooperation with members of the NASA Exploration Augmentation Module (EAM) concept team.

A recent report from the Burlington Electric Department of the last two years of BSD efficiency upgrade project costs, incentives, and savings showed a large increase from 2012 to 2013.The Burlington School District took on many efficiency projects during 2012 and 2013 including upgrading lighting at BHS and adding occupancy and day lighting sensors to the lighting in the gym, adding many variable speed drives to boiler pumps in several of the schools, upgrading the cooler and freezer at Edmunds to take advantage of outside cold air and more efficient motors, along with adding controls to ventilation fans so that they now run only when needed, among many other projects. The District has been busy and the community has benefited.

Another uncertified salvage yard has been forced to cease operations in Milton. McRae Auto/Wrecker Service agreed to a settlement that includes a $4,500.00 penalty and clean up requirements. The Department of Environmental Conservation’s Compliance and Enforcement Division Wednesday announced that it formally settled an environmental violation involving George and Patricia McRae.

Governor Peter Shumlin in Rutland Wednesday signed into law a bill promoting incentives for homes using clean-heating technologies like cold-climate heat and geothermal pumps, energy-efficient heating sources that save consumers money, stimulate the economy and create jobs, and protect the environment.

“For years, through Efficiency Vermont and other organizations, our state has focused like a laser on reducing our electric energy consumption. Add up all the efficiency investments since the year 2000, and Vermonters used an astounding 13 percent less electricity in 2013 than we would have otherwise,” Shumlin said.

by Mark Whitworth I attended the Public Service Board’s noise workshop in Morrisville a few weeks ago. The Board is trying to determine if the noise standards for energy projects are adequate. The purpose of the workshop was to hear from people who have been affected by energy projects. The Board heard from 44 people. Each talked about the Sheffield, Lowell, or Georgia Mountain wind projects. It was quite apparent that the turbines have done severe and long-lasting damage to each of these communities.

Nineteen of the 44 speakers said that the turbines do not affect them. Most of these 19 said they lived over a mile away from the nearest turbine, can’t hear them, and suffer no ill effects from them. Some of the 19 described taking the trouble to drive closer to the turbines or venture near them on snowmobiles. They listened, determined that it wasn’t so bad, and went back home where they could no longer hear them.