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Related Company: Casella Waste Systems Incby John Herrick vtdigger.org
The state’s largest waste hauler opposes a fee increase that would be used help small recycling centers retool for impending changes in solid waste disposal.
On Tuesday, Casella Waste Systems asked the Senate Finance Committee to strip a provision designed to raise money for smaller recycling businesses that will need to make capital investments in their facilities.
The full Senate will take up a bill designed to subsidize the capital costs of collecting and processing materials that will soon be banned from the state’s landfill under the state’s new recycling law. The bill, S.208, proposes raising the franchise fee haulers pay to bring trash to the state’s landfill by $1 to kick start the new system.

Ocean State Job Lot made a delivery of 18 pallets or 37,500 pounds of food to the Vermont Foodbank. This donation was part of a larger donation that benefited food banks throughout the region including Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine and New York.
The Three Square Meal program is the largest food assistance program of its kind in the Northeast, providing 600,000 pounds of food to food banks. Funds used to purchase the food direct from brand-name manufacturers were donated at the register by Ocean State Job Lots customers in seven states over the 2013 holiday season and matched by Job Lot.
“The Three Squares Meals program is intended to bring attention to and help alleviate the growing food crisis in our region,” said Matt Stilson, Store Manager of the St. Johnsbury Job Lot. “Like the Foodbank, Job Lot wants to ensure that no one in Vermont goes hungry.”

Related Company: Northfield Savings BankThursday, March 13 marked the eighth annual St. Patrick’s Day “Feast Against Famine” fundraising event to benefit the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf (CEFS). Created in 2006 by a dedicated group of Northfield Savings Bank employees, the event has since become the largest annual fundraiser for the Food Shelf.
This year’s event consisted of an extensive silent auction featuring items donated by Vermont businesses, a live auction of two Montreal Canadiens tickets donated by Justin Molson, and a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner. The dinner and auction raised over $37,000 with a collective amount of $244,741 since the event’s inception. All funds go directly to the Food Shelf.
The Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf works to alleviate hunger by feeding people and cultivating opportunities. As the largest direct service emergency food provider in Vermont, CEFS serves over 12,000 people each year.

Related Company: Burlington Telecom Department of City of BurlingtonBurlington Mayor Miro Weinberger Wednesday night announced that the City of Burlington has reached a key milestone set forth in last month’s Burlington Telecom (BT) Mediated Settlement Agreement. The City has agreed to terms with local business person, Trey Pecor, President of Lake Champlain Transportation, and Vermont-based Merchants Bank, regarding $6 million of bridge financing for BT. The bridge financing is critical to the City’s ability to complete the Settlement Agreement and thereby dismiss Citibank’s $33+ million claim against Burlington. The City Council voted unanimously to accept the terms of the proposed Pecor/Merchants bridge financing agreement.

by Timothy McQuiston Vermont Business Magazine A new report on the cost of renting a two-bedroom apartment has ranked Vermont 14th highest in the nation. The state not only ranks high in that cost measure, but because Vermont has high rents and average wages, it takes nearly two full-time workers to afford such a place.
According to Out of Reach 2014, a report released Tuesday by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an individual needs to earn $18.92 an hour to afford a two-bedroom rental unit at Fair Market Rent in the United States. In Vermont, however, it's $19.36. This figure is referred to as the “Housing Wage.” Today’s national average Housing Wage is more than two-and-a-half times the federal minimum wage, and 52 percent higher than it was in 2000.

The Vermont State Board of Education passed a motion at its monthly meeting Tuesday night (March 25) to support the legislative language in H883 regarding the establishment of expanded prekindergarten through grade 12 education districts.
The legislation would, as of Jul 1, 2020, eliminate all supervisory unions and reduce the number of school districts to between 45 and 55. Currently there are 46 supervisory unions and 283 districts. The two interstate school districts will not be affected.
“I think it’s the most important piece of educational legislation we have seen in some time,” said State Board of Education Chair Stephan Morse. “We must provide educational opportunities to all children statewide, and this is an essential change to our educational governance system.”
Student Representative and Co-Vice Chair Lachlan Francis made a motion, seconded by Board Member Mark Perrin, that:

by Morgan True vtdigger.org Vermont officials announced on Wednesday that the state will offer special enrollment options in Vermont Health Connect to anyone who has had trouble signing up for health insurance on the state-run website. The scheduled deadline is Monday, March 31.
Mark Larson. VBM Vermont Business Magazine photo October 1, 2013.
State officials extended the enrollment deadlines on the same day the federal government and other states announced they will offer people who have been stymied by website glitches more time to obtain medical insurance.
If an individual has made an effort to sign up for health insurance through Vermont Health Connect before the March 31 deadline for open enrollment, the state will work with them to make sure they get that coverage, regardless of whether they complete the process before the deadline.
In some cases, the state will offer retroactive coverage.

Related Company: Champlain CollegeChamplain College officials broke ground Tuesday on the $24.5 million Center for Communication and Creative Media (CCM) project which will provide students and faculty state-of-the-art facilities for current and emerging fields of study and serve as a campus center for student services.
Champlain’s Division of Communications and Creative Media is the largest division of the College’s four focus areas, offering innovative undergraduate programs in video game art, animation, and design, filmmaking, broadcasting, professional writing, graphic design, creative media, interaction design, sonic arts, public relations, and communication, as well as two graduate programs in emergent media.

Related Company: Fat Toad Farm Fat Toad Farm, a small business specializing in hand-crafted goat’s milk caramel sauces, has been announced the winner of the second-annual FedEx Small Business Grant Contest. Fat Toad Farm, which is based in Brookfield, Vermont, will receive a $25,000 grant to put toward its business and growth plan.
Now in its second year, the FedEx Small Business Grant Contest attracted more than 5,000 entries and garnered more than 1.4 million votes.
“The outstanding quality of entrants again this year is indicative of the passion, commitment and creativity required by small business owners every day,” said Rebecca A. Huling, vice president of Customer Engagement Marketing. “Small businesses have always played a large role in the FedEx customer community, and we are proud to be a part of their continued success through the FedEx Small Business Grant Contest.”

Related Company: Vermont Law SchoolCommunity College of VermontJohnson State CollegeVermont Law School (VLS) has entered into an agreement with Community College of Vermont (CCV) and Johnson State College (JSC) to make higher education more affordable and accessible for Vermonters through a new program, “Pathways to Law and Policy for Vermonters,” launching this spring.
Designed to develop the next generation of leaders in law and policy, the Pathways program will help students at CCV and JSC explore their options to earn either a master’s or a JD degree from Vermont Law early in their academic career, and to prepare them for the challenges of graduate study. The program will provide intensive academic support as well as financial incentives for enrolled students, including a $15,000 annual scholarship for scholars who matriculate into Vermont Law and maintain good academic standing.

by Hilary Niles vtdigger.org
Senate Transportation Committee chairman Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Chittenden/Grand Isle, said Tuesday he doesn’t expect to make many changes in a proposed $685 million transportation bill.
The proposal for fiscal year 2015, H.872, passed the House last week. The dollars to fund the Transportation Bill are reflected in the state’s budget bill, slated for House votes Thursday and Friday.

Related Company: FirstLightby Hilary Niles vtdigger.org
FirstLight Fiber is doubling capacity at its data center in Williston. The facility is one of the larger of FirstLight’s four data centers in Williston, Albany, NY, and Lebanon and Keene, NH. The expansion will increase data capacity at the Krupp Drive location without expanding the building’s footprint. No new employees beyond the current seven will be added.
Formerly Tech Valley Communications, founded in Albany in 1994, the company rebranded as FirstLight in September 2013. In July, Tech Valley acquired Vermont-based TelJet Longhaul LLC — and with it about 190,000 miles of fiber optic cable, according to a news release.
FirstLight now operates one of the largest and most dense fiber optic networks in upstate New York and Northern New England, with connections to Canada.