Current News

by John Herrick vtdigger.org The state’s plan to clean up Lake Champlain is inadequate, environmental groups say, and some doubt the governor’s commitment to the task. The problem, they say, is the plan lacks funding and regulatory commitment.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org House Speaker Shap Smith has blocked a proposal to move up the primary election deadline. Smith says moving up the primary will have a cascading effect and lead to an earlier deadline for candidates who must file signature petitions before May 22. Smith and House members say the change wouldn’t give candidates enough time to file the forms after the legislative session ends the first week of May. It’s too late in the game, to change the deadlines now, he said.
“I’m worried about candidates’ ability to have some certainty in the electoral process when it’s already started in April,” Smith said.
The primary date will remain the fourth Tuesday in August. This year the date is August 26.
It’s the second time lawmakers have put the kibosh on an earlier primary date. Last year, the Senate voted down a push to move the primary to the first week of August.

Related Company: Green Mountain Power CorpContinuing to pilot new and emerging technologies in Rutland for the benefit of customers across Vermont, Green Mountain Power’s Energy Innovation Center has kicked off a streetlight pilot aimed at improving efficiency, streetlight repairs and public safety.
In collaboration with the City of Rutland, GMP has installed 100 high-efficiency LED streetlights with intelligent controls in the Northwest sector of Rutland City, along with 41 solar panels mounted on utility poles. The panels should produce about 12,800 kWh annually, enough energy to offset the lights’ use.
The lights are the first in the GMP system with the ability to notify the company when they fail; normally streetlights aren’t repaired until someone reports their failure or an employee notices one isn’t working properly.

Related Company: Ben & Jerry's Homemade, IncIt was 35 years ago when future ice cream household namesakes Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield shocked themselves with their accomplishment: the duo had made it through their first year as business owners. And so, they wanted to create a way to thank the community that supported them. Their decision? Free cones for everyone. So they threw open the doors of the former gas station in Burlington, Vermont, and scooped out every last bit of ice cream to the long lines of appreciative fans. Every year since, Ben & Jerry’s has continued this tradition with its annual Free Cone Day, the Ben & Jerriest day of the year.

by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org
There’s a problem with Vermont’s Current Use program, lawmakers agree. There’s no telling how big or expensive the problem is, but none dispute it’s there. Just how to solve it is another matter.
The problem is some landowners temporarily “park” land in Current Use, a special tax structure designed to make it affordable to conserve Vermont farms and forests in perpetuity. The ability to place land in Current Use for a tax break while deciding how to subdivide and develop it is a costly loophole.

Related Company: Chittenden County Transportation AuthorityA tentative agreement was reached this morning between the Chittenden County Transportation Authority and striking drivers. Drivers will vote today on the new deal. Negotiations over the last couple days between the two sides in the nearly three-week-old strike were in part brokered by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont). Commuters, non-drivers and schoolchildren have been hard hit by the work stoppage that began on St Patrick's Day. Terms of the new agreement were not released. A previous settlement was unanimously rejected by the unionized drivers. The primary issues have been over working conditions and security cameras on the buses.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org
The Vermont Land Trust has ended work on S119, a bill that would have allowed conservation groups to seek changes to conservation easements through a review process. In a statement, the trust said it “learned that there is not widespread comfort with the current bill” over the last few weeks since it “paused” work on S119.

by John Herrick vtdigger.org The state updated its Lake Champlain cleanup plan just before the EPA’s Monday night deadline, but a response from federal environmental regulators may be delayed.
The Department of Environmental Conservation sent a draft of the state’s lake restoration plan to the Environmental Protection Agency. Now the state is waiting for information from the agency before Gov. Peter Shumlin sends a final commitment letter.

Related Company: University of VermontThe American College Personnel Association and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine have named the University of Vermont to its list of the 31 most promising places to work in student affairs.
Schools on the most promising list were selected based on a national study conducted in 2013 by the Center for Inclusion, Diversity and Academic Success (iDEAS) at The Ohio State University. The study examined administrative structures, commitment to diversity, and workplace or staffing practices of various divisions and departments of student affairs at participating ACPA member institutions. The survey included six categories of questions, addressing family friendliness, salary/benefits, professional development opportunities, work-life practice, commitment to diversity, and staff autonomy and involvement in long-term planning.
More than 100 institutions of higher education participated in this inaugural study.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) has again been named to the annual list of “100 Great Hospitals in America” as compiled by the health care industry publication Becker's Hospital Review.
Becker’s cited DHMC as one of the “most prominent, forward-thinking and focused health care facilities in the nation.” Hospitals included on the list are home to many medical and scientific breakthroughs, provide best-in-class patient care and are stalwarts of their communities, serving as academic hubs or local mainstays.
DHMC is the only New Hampshire hospital on the list, and was previously named to the “100 great hospitals” list in 2012.

Richard A Valentinetti of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources was honored today by EPA with a national “2014 Clean Air Excellence Award” for “Outstanding Individual Achievement.”
Dick Valentinetti, of Moretown, is the longest-serving state air director in the country. During his lengthy career he has demonstrated a lasting commitment to improving air quality in Vermont and within New England. His award was the only one today for an individual, and was announced along with recognition for nine projects from across the United States for work on clean air and climate initiatives that protect Americans' health and the environment, educate the public, serve their communities and stimulate the economy.

During the past five years there's been a significant shift toward more Americans growing their own food in home and community gardens, increasing from 36 million households in 2008 to 42 million in 2013.
That's a 17 percent increase and represents the highest level of food gardening in more than a decade, according to a special National Gardening Association report, Garden to Table: A 5-Year Look at Food Gardening in America.
The report shows that more young people, particularly millennials (ages 18-34), are the fastest growing population segment of food gardeners. In 2008 there were 8 million millennial food gardeners. That figure rose to 13 million in 2013, an increase of 63%. Millennials also nearly doubled their spending on food gardening, from $632 million in 2008 to $1.2 billion in 2013.