Current News

The minute temperatures dropped into the ‘snowmaking zone,’ Bolton Valley snowmakers were at the ready, firing up the snowguns last night in anticipation of the area’s opening for the 2011-2012 ski and snowboard season on Saturday, Dec. 10. Snowmakers will make snow whenever temperatures permit.
‘It’s been a challenging few weeks with warm temperatures but the cold weather is dropping in at the right time for us ‘ about one week out from opening day’which is about the amount of time we need to get trails open for the season,’ said Josh Arneson, director of sales and marketing. ‘While some natural snow would be nice, so long as it stays cold and dry, we’ll continue to make our own storm.’
Bolton received 5-7 inches of snow the day before Thanksgiving in its first official snowstorm of the season, however warmer temperatures made that natural snow disappear. On average, Bolton receives more than 300 inches of natural snow annually.

Governor Peter Shumlin is reminding Vermonters impacted by Tropical Storm Irene of the state’s toll-free hotline offering advice and answers to questions involving insurance claims resulting from storm damage.
‘While the unseasonably warm weather has been a welcome reprieve for Vermonters recovering from flooding, concern about the approaching cold weather has triggered an increase in requests for help in resolving insurance and flood relief claims,’ the Governor said.
The Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities & Health Administration (BISHCA) has staff on hand to assist individuals with problems encountered getting assistance. BISHCA has received about 160 requests for information since the storm hit in late September.
BISHCA Commissioner Steve Kimbell is concerned that in the months since the flooding some Vermonters have forgotten where to go for information and advice.

GE Aviation announced with Rolls Royce on Friday the discontinuation of a program to develop an alternative engine for the Joint Strike Fighter (F-35 or in GE's development the F136 engine). The entire JSF program is very behind schedule and very over budget. Both The Atlantic and Aviation Week have suggested there is little alternative other than termination or full buildout for a program estimated to cost $1 trillion. GE, with a turbine-making plant in Rutland, Vermont, had been squeezed out of the development for the engine, but had forged ahead with its own plans in hopes that the Pentagon would opt for a better solution to the engine now receiving federal funding.
Vermont also is on a short-list of possible bases for the F-35 when and if it is ever built and deployed, as the Vermont Air Guard base at Burlington International Airport is under consideration to replace its F-16s with a more modern and stealthy weapon system.

Today Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding and Irene Recovery Officer Neale Lunderville released updated information, damage, and cost estimates for Tropical Storm Irene. This update reflects Congressional waivers of the $100 million cap and 180-day emergency work limit for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Emergency Relief (ER) program, as well as a compilation of smaller changes.
Both the best and worst case models show the waivers for FHWA and the anticipated 90% cost share for FEMA Public Assistance. The principal differences between the models are the low and high range of damage estimates to the Federal-Aid Highway System ($175-250 million range), and an unresolved question about reimbursement for certain Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) costs. Both scenarios add new information and cost estimates as outline below.

Concept2, a world leader in rowing machines and racing oars, knows a little something about energy.
The company helps elite athletes race and train for high-level competition and helps people of all ages and abilities achieve fitness. But the company is also focusing on its own energy use, recently almost doubling its on-site solar production.
Concept2, based in Morrisville, Vermont, installed 4 AllSun Trackers in 2010, but originally wanted more. After space constraints at their headquarters were relieved due to the expansion of municipal sewer to their facility, Concept2 recently installed an additional 3 solar trackers at their manufacturing headquarters.
The 39kW solar tracking installation will produce an average 54,600 kWh per year and cover 20 percent of Concept2’s energy needs.

The Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB) is seeking members for its general Advisory Committee. The GMCB is charged under Act 48 of 2011 with advancing Vermont’s health reform efforts by implementing state policies that:
· contain the rate of growth in health care costs;
· assure that Vermont has an adequate supply of health care practitioners to meet the state’s needs;
· encourage efficiency and quality in our health care delivery system, and;
· encourage Vermonters to be and stay healthy.

With energy costs rising and winter approaching, a bipartisan group of US Senators led by Jack Reed (D-RI), Olympia J Snowe (R-ME), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) are keeping the heat on Congress to restore funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). LIHEAP is the main federal program that helps low-income families and seniors on fixed-incomes with their energy bills, providing vital assistance during the cold winter and hot summer months.

by Kevin Kelley. The Burlington Free Press has no plans to scale back its publication schedule despite offering readers a Thursday-Sunday subscription package, publisher James Fogler says.
‘Other papers may do that, but it’s not going to happen in Burlington, Vermont,’ Fogler declared.
‘Part of our strategy to grow readership is to focus on key days of the week,’ he said in December 2 telephone interview. The paper attracts fewer readers on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday than it does on the other days of the week, he noted. ‘Our goal is to increase readership on the days that are already key.’
Fogler also expressed confidence that the paper will retain many of those readers who subscribe on a seven-days-a-week basis. ‘They’re loyal. They’ll stay with us,’ he said.
A full week subscription to the paper costs $15 a month. The Thursday-Sunday delivery package is priced at $10 a month.

The Vermont Superior Court, Washington Unit, issued a decision on Wednesday ordering that Green Mountain Future (’GMF’), an advocacy organization primarily funded by the Democratic Governors Association, pay a civil penalty of $10,000 in the State’s campaign finance law enforcement action against it. The Court had previously found that GMF spent over half-a-million dollars in September and October 2010 on political advertisements attacking candidate Brian Dubie in the gubernatorial race, but failed to register with the Secretary of State’s Office, did not file required disclosure reports, and omitted proper identification
information from its advertisements. The law authorizes penalties of up to $10,000 for violations of Vermont’s campaign finance laws.

There were 1,361 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, the second time in three weeks claims have spiked over 1,000 and now exceed the post Tropical Irene spike. This is an increase of 246 from the week before. Last summer's historically low claims came to an abrupt end with the storm. The numbers then dropped signifcantly in the following weeks, but in the last several weeks there has been mostly an increase in the number of new claims. The latest numbers are more than double the initial claims observed in July and August.

A draft report has been released on extending passenger rail service from the capital region of New York into southwestern Vermont. Several proposals on what could cost up to $200 million are outlined in a report that will be described in public meetings in New York and Vermont on December 14 and 15.
The most elaborate of the proposals (see cost chart and maps below) has a full loop that would extend service all the way from Albany to Rutland and going through North Bennington on the way up and Saratoga Springs on the way back down. Other options include a simple up and back with terminus in alternatively Manchester or Rutland, in what would essentially be a parallel service to the existing Ethan Allen Express. Alternatively, the Ethan Allen could simply be moved from a predominantly New York service to a predominantly Vermont service. Of course, the first proposal in the report is to do nothing.

Seattle law firm Hagens Berman is investigating Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ:GMCR - News) following the filing of a class-action lawsuit.
Green Mountain's shares slumped almost 25 percent after analyst David Einhorn warned on Oct. 17 that the company's business model was weaker than most thought and that its accounting was suspect. Then, on Nov. 9, 2011 , GMCR announced disappointing earnings results and skyrocketing inventory. On this news, GMCR's shares plummeted an additional 40 percent, from a close of $67.02 on Nov. 9 to a close of $40.89 on November 10 .