Current News

The Rite Aid Foundation has announced a $5,000 grant to the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (VABVI), which has four offices across Vermont and is the only private agency to offer free training, services and support to visually impaired Vermonters. The funding will provide scholarships to the Intensive Residential Life Experiences Camp, an annual opportunity to engage with and learn from children facing similar visual impairments.

The Rite Aid Foundation previously awarded $5,000 to VABVI in 2010, 2012 and again in 2013.

"The Intensive Residential Life Experiences Camp is three-fold opportunity for campers to improve their health and wellness, learn new skills and build self-confidence – all goals that The Rite Aid Foundation sets out to encourage and nurture," said Gayle Rife, Manager of The Rite Aid Foundation. "We hope that even more visually challenged Vermont children will get a chance to blossom because of this wonderful program."

Vermont ranked 4th senior health this year, according to the second edition of United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings Senior Report. Nationwide, seniors are showing encouraging gains in key health measures and taking more steps to improve their own health. Notable gains for senior health include declines in physical inactivity, improvements in quality of nursing home care, reductions in avoidable hospitalizations, and increased preparation for end-of-life care.

“United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings Senior Report is a valuable tool for measuring and understanding the key challenges and opportunities facing Vermont’s senior population,” said Donald Stangler, M.D., medical director, UnitedHealthcare of New England. “With the senior population expected to double in size in the next 25 years, it is important that we develop effective programs and solutions that address seniors’ health needs in Vermont and nationwide.”

At its meeting held last Thursday at Castleton State College, the VSC Board granted a request by Tim Donovan to step down as Chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges on December 31, 2014, six months prior to end of his current contract. His request to step down cited personal circumstances.

by John Herrick vtdigger.org An environmental law firm is again pushing the state to take stronger action on cleaning up Lake Champlain. The Conservation Law Foundation this week filed a petition asking the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets to enforce new regulations to curb agricultural phosphorus runoff into Missisquoi Bay.

“We’re hoping that this presents the state with the opportunity to change its approach from what’s clearly not working now, which is strictly voluntary measures, to more robust pollution control required when it comes to agricultural operations,” said Anthony Iarrapino, a senior attorney for CLF.

The state is in the process of submitting a final Lake Champlain cleanup proposal to the Environmental Protection Agency by the end of the month. The EPA will use the plan to issue the state a new phosphorus reduction plan, called the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), later this summer.

by John Herrick vtdigger.org Plans for the latest industrial-scale wind project in the Northeast Kingdom have taken a step backward. Eolian Renewable Energy, a wind developer based in Portsmouth, N.H., withdrew its application to connect power from the proposed Seneca Mountain Wind project to the region’s electric grid. ISO New England, the region’s grid operator, has halted its review of the project.

Project manager John Soininen declined to comment on the decision and company CEO Jack Kenworthy did not return a phone call requesting comment Thursday.

The decision to back off the 20-turbine ridgeline wind project in Ferdinand was likely due to the cost of upgrading the transmission infrastructure needed to connect the remote wind power to the weak rural grid network.

The Vermont Attorney General’s Office is warning Vermont businesses about a phone call or email from an out-of-state business asking the local business to donate money to support the area school by paying for an advertisement that that they will place on a full-color homework folder that will be provided to students free of charge. The out of state business is trying to collect money from local businesses far in excess of the cost of the “folders” that it may actually deliver to the school. Businesses are advised to be wary about contributing to this type of promotional scheme.

There may be more than one out- of-state business using this scheme. Some business names currently being used are “PNM”, Production Network Media, and “PMC”, Production Media Company. Previously, “American Youth Group” and “Student Relations Inc.” have used this scheme to raise money.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) says the US Department of Agriculture this week is beginning to roll out two new programs in the recently enacted Farm Bill that will benefit diversified agriculture in Vermont and improve agricultural water quality in the state. Leahy, the most senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, worked to include the provisions in the 2014 Farm Bill.

NRCS Water Quality Grant:

The USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) in Vermont will receive a special allocation of $80,000 to improve agricultural water quality. This funding will be used to implement water quality conservation practices on farms in the Rock River Watershed in Vermont under the National Water Quality Initiative (NWQI). The Rock River is known to be seriously compromised by phosphorus pollution, which then quickly reaches the Missisquoi Bay on Lake Champlain.

At its annual meeting on May 13, the Governing Board of the East Central Vermont Community Fiber Optic Network (ECFiber) elected David Halpert, of West Windsor, to a three year term on ECFiber’s Executive Committee. He replaces Steve Willbanks, of Strafford, who had served on the Committee since ECFiber’s inception in 2008. “Since ECFiber's earliest days, Steve's common sense and two decades of Selectboard experience have helped guide us through dry spells and storms alike. All of us on the Executive Committee will miss his quiet wisdom,” said Irv Thomae, Chairman of the ECFiber Governing Board.

Ten New England educational, healthcare and other business institutions including Stratton Mountain Resort in Vermont, have become members of EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge, a national initiative that encourages businesses, organizations and institutions to actively participate in food waste prevention, surplus food donation and food waste recycling activities.

The 10 new participants in EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge from New England include:

Boston Medical Center, (Boston, Mass.)
Colby College, (Waterville, Maine)
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, (Boston, Mass.)
Fairview Hospital, (Great Barrington, Mass.)
Framingham State University, (Framingham, Mass.)
Massachusetts Maritime Academy, (Buzzards Bay, Mass.)
Parkland Medical Center, (Derry, N.H.)
Stratton Mountain Resort, (Stratton Mountain, Vt.)
University of Massachusetts at Lowell, (Lowell, Mass.)
Signature Breads (Chelsea, Mass.)

Rutland Blooms is going to give a key city gateway a flowering makeover. Rutland’s West Street gateway will get a significant upgrade, with local businesses and the City of Rutland collaborating on the most dramatic Rutland Blooms project yet. Volunteers from Green Mountain Power, The Vermont Country Store, NeighborWorks of Western Vermont, Stafford Technical Center, Berkshire Bank and the Vermont Council of Urban and Community Forestry, under the supervision of city forester Dave Schneider, will plant 76 flowering crabapple trees along about 1,700 feet of city right-of-way on the south side of West Street June 11. The trees, purchased with donations from Casella’s, GMP, The Vermont Country Store and Rutland Regional Medical Center, will replace scrub brush and nuisance trees and will improve the neglected stretch, which borders a rail siding, the city’s winter snow dump and a recycling facility.

Vermont Business Magazine Mayor Miro Weinberger on Thursday released a new housing strategy report that finds an “affordability crisis” caused by a lack of market-rate housing – or housing built without subsidy - over the past decade in the City’s downtown. Increased housing costs in Burlington’s downtown have risen to levels far higher than in “next tier” cities. The report suggests that, while continuing to support the great work of Burlington’s renowned affordable housing programs and partners, the City embark on a coordinated effort to support downtown living for the full spectrum of residents, including young professionals, families, empty nesters, and seniors.

Vermont Business Magazine A strong majority of Vermonters support making marijuana legal for adults, taxing it, and regulating it similarly to alcohol, according to a Castleton Polling Institute survey released Wednesday. This is nearly identical to results of a poll conducted by Vermont Business Magazine in late April.