Current News

On Thursday, December 8, at 1 pm, an audible sounding will be conducted on the 37 sirens located within the Vermont Yankee ten-mile emergency planning zone.
The pole-mounted sirens are located in the Vermont towns of Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, and Vernon, and in the New Hampshire towns of Chesterfield, Hinsdale, Richmond, Swanzey, and Winchester. In Massachusetts, the sirens are located in Gill, Colrain, Leyden, Bernardston and Northfield.
The three-minute siren testing is being conducted by the Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts state public safety agencies in compliance with the regulations of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ensure the effectiveness of the notification system.
Residents with questions on the annual testing can contact their town’s emergency management director or Mark Gilmore at Vermont Yankee at (802) 258-4168.

For the second year in a row, New England Federal Credit Union (NEFCU) has made a major donation to Burlington’s Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS). At 1 pm on Tuesday, Nov. 22nd, NEFCU executives presented a symbolic ‘giant check’ for $20,000 to Rita Markley, COTS Executive Director. COTS managers worked with NEFCU to surprise Markley with the gift. The presentation took place at COTS’s new facility at 95 North Avenue in Burlington.
In addition to helping COTS operations, the donation will be used as a challenge grant to stimulate pledges during the Annual COTS Phonathon, which begins at 5:30 pm Monday, November 28th.
NEFCU also presented COTS with 250 personal hygiene kits for use by residents.

The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) has filed a Final Proposed Rule with the Vermont Secretary of State and the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (LCAR) that repeals a 2009 rule that addressed the use of ATV’s on state land. Following a public hearing held last spring, and the review of thousands of comments, ANR has decided to proceed with the repeal of what is known as the ATV rule.
ANR Secretary Deb Markowitz said ‘I was pleased to see so many Vermonters weigh in on the issue of whether it makes sense for ATVs to ride on public land. After weighing the substance of the comments and concerns about the legality of the original rule we decided to move ahead on the repeal.’ Markowitz said, ‘We have also taken concrete steps to address the Vermont ATV Sportsmen’s Association legitimate need for limited connector trails across public land.’

Attorney General William H Sorrell announced today that Vermont will receive approximately $600,000 in damages and penalties to the Vermont Medicaid program as part of a national settlement with pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp regarding its illegal marketing of the drug Vioxx.
Merck marketed Vioxx for uses not approved by the FDA, misrepresented the cardiovascular safety of the drug, and made other false and misleading statements. The settlement resolves complaints filed by the federal government and a number of States after Merck voluntarily withdrew Vioxx from the market in September 2004, citing an increase in the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events in patients taking Vioxx.

The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) today made holiday travel a little easier for some as it reopened Route 106 through Weathersfield, which had been closed since Tropical Storm Irene struck nearly three months ago.
Irene severely damaged a segment of Route 106 very close to its junction with Route 131, where the storm completely obliterated about 450 feet of the roadway. Rushing floodwaters created a creator about 90-feet high that had to be rebuilt from the bank of the Black River up to the edge of the roadway.
‘Rebuilding Route 106 through Weathersfield was a significant challenge,’ said VTrans Secretary Brian Searles. ‘Raging floodwater basically ate away a very steep roadway embankment, which had to be completely replaced. We predicted months ago that we would reopen the road by Thanksgiving, and we met that deadline with a couple of hours to spare.’

Comcast’s Vermont employees hit the grocery store aisles to make sure families in Chittenden County get the holiday meals they deserve this Thanksgiving. Comcast employees filled their carts with nearly 700 pounds of food, including over a dozen turkeys and canned and non-perishable food items, and dropped off the donation to the Chittenden County Emergency Food Shelf.
Comcast employees include (l tor r): Mark Troia, Melissa Pierce, Matt Myers, Rebecca Poquette, Jesse Ballard, Aaron Roberts, Davis Wildman, Dick Tuthill, Tuck Rainwater, Sheena Barnes, Mary Jaques, Bruce Bevins.

There were 1,115 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, the second time in three weeks claims have spiked over 1,000. This is an increase of 321 from the week before, as new claims remain at a high level in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene. In looking at the table below, you will see that the 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 Vermont Telecommunications Authority (VTA) announced today its intention to fund a multi-provider fiber communications link between Newport and Hardwick. VTA funds in the amount of $500,000 for construction of the fiber link were authorized in Act 53 of the 2011-2012 legislative session. VTA intends to ensure that the design of the proposed facility will include fiber strands which can be used for middle-mile and last-mile broadband purposes, as called for in the authorizing legislation.
‘The VTA has received strong expression of community support for the expansion of fiber optic facilities in the Northeast Kingdom,’ said VTA Executive Director Christopher Campbell. ‘This project will connect and extend existing and planned fiber networks in one of Vermont’s most rural regions.’

Expanding broadband Internet coverage in Vermont could lead to the creation of thousands of new jobs, according to a new report from the Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) industries.
The STUDY, ‘Economic Benefits of Broadband Expansion in Northern New England,’ measures three economic impacts ‘ share of GDP, share of employment, and compensation per worker. The study’s authors note that an increase in broadband access of just 7 percent would stimulate nearly $275 million in economic growth and create or save more than 5,200 jobs in Vermont.
‘Broadband access is such a major part of our lives and is vital to businesses operating successfully in the 21st century,’ said Economist Scott Moody, a co-author of the report. ‘The facts are clear, increased broadband access means more jobs for Vermonters.’

The Agency of Administration is hosting four listening sessions across Vermont to help inform the design of future health care reform financing plans. These sessions will include presentations on the challenges facing Vermont’s health care system, possible principles for a health care financing system, and an overview of potential funding sources.
Participants will use these informational presentations and their own experiences to offer input on the potential principles and funding sources for health care reform financing.

About 12,000 CVPS customers are without power this morning. Heavy wet snow began building up and bringing down trees, tree limbs and lines primarily in Windham and Windsor counties around 4:30 a.m. A large transmission fault occurred at about 7 am, affecting more than 5,500 customers. Crews are working to sectionalize that problem, and restore power to those customers within the hour. The storm is expected to continue until early this afternoon, so we may also see additional outages this morning.

AM Best Co has upgraded the issuer credit ratings (ICR) to ‘a+’ from ‘a’ and affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) of National Life Insurance Company (NLIC) (Montpelier, VT) and its wholly owned subsidiary, Life Insurance Company of the Southwest (Dallas, TX) (together known as National Life). These companies are the insurance subsidiaries of NLV Financial Corporation (NLVF) (Montpelier, VT), which is the intermediate holding company in the organization’s mutual holding company structure. Concurrently, A.M. Best has upgraded the ICR and senior debt ratings to ‘bbb+ from ‘bbb’ of NLVF. AM Best also has upgraded the debt rating to ‘a-’ from ‘bbb+’ on NLIC’s $200 million 10.50% surplus notes, due 2039. The outlook for the FSR is stable, while the outlook for the ICRs and debt has been revised to stable from positive. (See below for a detailed listing of NLVF’s debt ratings.)