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Green Mountain Power announced Wednesday that its Energy Innovation Center (EIC) in downtown Rutland has been awarded LEED Gold certification by the US Green Building Council, recognizing the building as a leading example of building for environmental and health performance.

“Building operations are nearly 40 percent of the solution to the global climate change challenge,” said Rick Fedrizzi, CEO and founding chair of the U.S. Green Building Council. “While climate change is a global problem, innovative companies like Green Mountain Power are addressing it through local solutions.”

by Morgan True vtdigger.org The tech firm CGI will miss another deadline in its contract to build the Vermont Health Connect website, but instead of seeking to impose penalties the state has agreed to push back the due date, state officials said.

“Our focus is more on getting the work done and making sure it gets done right,” said Mark Larson, commissioner of the Department of Vermont Health Access in an interview Tuesday.

A May 21 deadline for a component that will allow users or customer service representatives to make changes to a person’s coverage was written into a revised contract signed by the state and CGI in early April.

Mark Larson, commissioner of the Department of Vermont Health Access

During a school assembly in Westminster Tuesday, Vermont Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott, staff members of Vermont’s Congressional Delegation, and officials from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) joined students and school officials to celebrate the construction of a $1,105,000 arts and science expansion at the Compass School.

Compass School is a small independent school that serves about 100 Vermont and New Hampshire students in grades 7 through 12. The loan will enable the school to build a 1,600-square-foot addition, make several energy efficiency upgrades to the existing and new heating and cooling systems and refinance existing debt.

The Vermont Folklife Center announces the receipt of a $33,750 Archie Green Fellowship Award from the American Folkife Center at the Library of Congress to conduct ethnographic and oral history research into contemporary grassroots agriculture in the state. The Archie Green Fellowship was established by the American Folklife Center to stimulate innovative research projects documenting occupational culture in contemporary America.

Farming has held a central role in the culture and economy of Vermont since the colonial period. The current explosion of small-scale, grass-roots agriculture in the state draws on this long history, mixing historical approaches and perspectives with contemporary ideas, needs and goals. At the same time, these efforts also involve the adoption of new ideas and approaches that were never part of past agricultural practice in Vermont or the region.

On Saturday, May 17, Vermont Tech celebrated the college’s 148th annual commencement ceremony. Taking place at Norwich University’s Shapiro Fieldhouse in Northfield, Vt., 456 Vermont Tech students graduated with associate and bachelor’s degrees.

“Just as there was no hiding from that final exam, that senior project, that lab report, that shift at the farm, that clinic, there is no escape from the credit that is due to you, for your effort and commitment and the drive that got you here, in the spring, at a moment of transition and transformation,” said Vermont Tech President Dan Smith to the graduating class. “It has not been easy and nor should it be, because it is a benchmark and a milestone that you will note for the rest of your lives when you hear yourself say: ‘I graduated from Vermont Tech in the spring of 2014’.”

Attorney General William Sorrell announced today that he had settled a lawsuit with Charles Nestor of St Johnsbury, Vermont. Nestor, the organizer of a “Made in Vermont Festival” that was to be held in Burlington in 2011, collected over $24,000 from local businesses and craftspeople who paid to be exhibitors, vendors, and sponsors. The festival never took place and more than forty-five businesses lost their money.

Under the terms of the settlement, Mr. Nestor must post a $20,000 bond prior to organizing any trade shows or festivals and escrow the first $20,000 of any such event, for the next five years. Nestor has also agreed to refund businesses that lost their money, and to pay a $10,000 penalty, if he receives sufficient income or assets. He is required to submit his financial status to the Attorney General’s office annually for the next five years.

Source: Attorney General, May 20, 2014

Vermont Business Magazine TDI New England announced that it has filed a Presidential Permit application with the United States Department of Energy, formally requesting authority to construct the New England Clean Power Link electric transmission project. The Clean Power Link is a proposed 154-mile underground and underwater electric transmission line that will run from the U.S.-Canadian border to Ludlow, Vermont. The project will import clean, reliable, cost-competitive renewable power from Canada and promote economic development, strengthen New England’s fuel diversity, and combat climate change. Burying the line means the project will have less environmental and community impact than above ground power lines.

Vermont Public Television today announced the station’s rebranding to Vermont PBS, to better reflect its evolving mission as a multi-platform media company and to align itself more closely with the national PBS organization. Over the past few years, and especially with the advent of new digital technologies, the statewide PBS affiliate has steadily expanded its content offerings and community engagement activities, as part of its ongoing commitment to improving the quality of life for Vermonters.

Vermont Business Magazine Many states have fallen behind in providing funding, implementing policies, and placing a high priority on improving rural and small-town schools—led by Mississippi,Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina and Arizona—according to the new biennial Why Rural Matters 2013-14 report from the nonprofit Rural School and Community Trust. In contrast, five of the New England states, including Vermont, are among the 10 highest scoring states.

The 50-state report, released Monday at the Education Writers Association national conference in Nashville, shows some states have taken steps to address rural education issues, to varying extents—including Kentucky, New Mexico, North Dakota and Oklahoma. But many of those states still rate among the nation's lowest on a variety of rural education measures.

Fletcher Allen has been selected for the National Kidney Registry’s (NKR) Excellence in Teamwork award to honor its participation in the world’s 2nd longest kidney “swap” procedure chain last year. In most swaps, as in this one, it starts with a living donor whose kidney is not a good match for a loved one in need. That donor offers a kidney to the NKR with the promise that their loved one will get one in return from another donor in the same situation. The Registry finds as many matches as possible until the chain cannot be continued. In some cases the first donor has no intended recipient and is just doing it out of generosity.

Meeting this complicated challenge in last year’s swap resulted in 19 top centers providing lifesaving transplants for 28 people, 10 of whom were very difficult to match. This chain was also completed in the shortest period of time to date for such a large number of patients.

by Laura Krantz vtdigger.org Governor Peter Shumlin lit a firecracker as the legislative session began this year when he made opiate addiction his top priority.

by Morgan True vtdigger.org Hospital budget instructions from the Green Mountain Care Board released this month allow Vermont’s 14 hospitals to increase spending by 3 percent. The increase represents roughly $66 million. The instructions allow for an additional 0.8 percent increase for “health care reform investment” — or projects — that dovetail with Vermont’s health care reform agenda. The costs for those projects are not included in the $66 million. The overall increase would mean roughly $2.7 billion in total spending for the hospital system.