Current News

The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) today closed its Dummerston Region Incident Command Center, the last of three temporary headquarters established following Tropical Storm Irene to coordinate emergency road and bridge repairs.
The Dummerston command center, which covered 56 towns in the state’s southeast region, was critical to restoring mobility along Vermont’s storm-damaged state highway network. Leadership for all remaining Irene-related roadwork has been transitioned to VTrans’ main office in Montpelier.
‘It is impossible to put into words how much the Dummerston team has done for Vermont,’ said VTrans Secretary Brian Searles. ‘The vast majority of the state highway system has been repaired and is now ready for winter in large part due to the dedication and sacrifice of the many public and private employees who were stationed in Dummerston.’

The Green Mountain Club has accepted management responsibility for an additional 22 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Windsor County, Vermont.
The club, which founded and maintains Vermont’s Long Trail, currently manages the Appalachian Trail (AT) where it coincides with the Long Trail as well as from Killington to Route 12 in Woodstock. With this transfer, the club will also lead management efforts from Route 12 to the Connecticut River (see attached map). This stretch of trail, running through Woodstock, Pomfret, Hartford and Norwich, is highlighted by rolling hills and open areas affording hikers spectacular views.

Spot, the revolutionary new vision screening tool from PediaVision, is quickly changing the efficiency of vision screenings at schools across America due to the device's speed, accuracy, ease of use and data tracking.
The new Spot vision screener is manufactured for PediaVision by Mack Medical in Arlington, Vermont, which selected Fisher Elementary, also in Arlington, as one of the schools to conduct a pilot screening.
"It was so amazing!" said Amy Goodfellow, the school nurse at Fisher Elementary, who has done many screenings over the years. "It was a wonderful experience. It would normally take me at least 10 minutes per student for a vision screening, but with the Spot vision screener, it literally took me only 10 seconds per student."

Vermont’s congressional delegation ‘ Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch ‘ today announced a disaster declaration that will bring federal assistance to counties affected by this spring’s flooding that were until now ineligible for such assistance.
The declaration ‘ issued today by President Obama ‘ will make public assistance available for damages sustained as a result of the storm on May 20th in Franklin, Washington and Windham counties. Previously, the disaster declaration only covered damages sustained on May 26th and 27th.
‘This spring’s flooding combined with the unprecedented damage caused by Tropical Storm Irene have seriously strained the state’s resources,’ Vermont’s delegation said in a statement. ‘As we continue fighting to ensure Vermont gets every dollar it needs to recover from these storms, this is welcome news and a step in the right direction.’

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin gave the following address regarding the state of Vermont’s relationship with the University of Vermont. The public policy initiative, which would include the state college system, is to better focus the limited financial resources the state has into ‘maximum return on investment,’ as the governor put it, with particular focus on advancing science, engineering, technology and mathematics education.
To this end, he announced a working group comprised of prominent Vermonters with ties to UVM and led by Nick Donofrio, a former top executive at IBM in Vermont. They are charged with identifying key issues between the state and the university and making recommendations that will be presented to the governor and the new UVM president next July. UVM Interim President John Bramley is also a member of the group.
Shumlin made his remarks Tuesday afternoon at the Hoehl Gallery at the UVM College of Medicine.

By Don Vickers Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC) spent many years providing education loans to Vermont students and parents through the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). We stopped making federal loans in July 2010 when the government switched to a system of ‘direct lending’ to families through the colleges students attend.
One of the questions we received the most during our final years in FFELP was why federal loan interest rates had risen so high. Even though we no longer issue new federal loans, we still get that question. Many Vermonters assumed that direct lending would result in lower rates, but that was never part of the plan. Nor are there any rate relief proposals on the horizon.

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin today announced a plan to assist communities recovering from Tropical Storm Irene. Dubbed the Community Recovery Partnership, this initiative will target affected towns and regions with facilitated community conversations and cross-agency State support, as well as collaboration in long-term planning and implementation of recovery efforts.
‘We know that all recovery is local and the best role for the State is to support the towns. The first step is to talk with communities about both their current needs and their future plans, in order to better gauge the additional assistance they will need going forward,’ said the Governor. ‘We need to harness the incredible community energy of the past two months and direct it toward rebuilding Vermont into a stronger, smarter and safer state.’

David Reynolds, Senior Policy Advisor for Health to United States Senator Bernie Sanders, will join BISHCA as Deputy Commissioner of Health Care Administration. The Health Care Administration oversees hospital budget review and the certificate of need process, maintains health care data bases, oversees quality reporting by hospitals and health insurers and supervises external claim reviews. HCA is also responsible for liaison between BISHCA and the Green Mountain Care Board. Reynolds will begin work at BISHCA in early December.
‘David Reynolds brings a rare combination of policy knowledge and on the ground experience in the delivery of health care to our work implementing health care reform in Vermont,’ said BISHCA Commissioner Steve Kimbell. ‘I am very glad to have him join our team at BISHCA,’ he continued.

Central Vermont Public Service (NYSE: CV) reported consolidated earnings of $0.5 million, or 2 cents per diluted share of common stock, for the first nine months of 2011 compared to $15.6 million, or $1.27 per diluted share of common stock, for the same period in 2010. The third-quarter results were a loss of $8.6 million or 65 cents per common share, $1.44 lower than in 2010.
The reduced earnings of $15.1 million for the nine months of 2011, compared to 2010 were primarily due to costs associated with the company's pending sale to a subsidiary of Gaz Métro Limited Partnership, Northern New England Energy Corporation, which included a $19.5 million termination payment to Fortis Inc. Other factors were increases in operating expenses, including service restoration costs, partially offset by related deferrals as allowed by our alternative regulation plan.

On Veterans Day, Friday November 11, members of the University of Vermont community will commemorate the more than 6,200 veterans who sacrificed their lives in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars by participating in Remembrance Day National Roll Call, joining more than 170 campuses across the country.
UVM’s Veterans Collaborative Organization and the Student Government Association are sponsoring the event. UVM is the only Vermont school participating.
Beginning at 7 am, 25 UVM students, faculty and staff will read the names of all of the veterans in chronological order, beginning with the first fallen soldier. Each reader will speak for 15 minutes from a podium in front of the Bailey Howe library. The reading of the names will take about eight hours to complete.

Less than two years after the old Champlain Bridge was imploded on a snowy day just after Christmas 2009, the new Lake Champlain Bridge was opened to traffic about 3:30 this afternoon.

Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC) introduced a voluntary renewable pricing program today which provides a convenient way for VEC members to support green energy projects in its northern Vermont service territory. VEC’s Green Team program gives VEC members a way to promote small scale energy development including solar, wind, and hydropower projects by making voluntary, fixed monthly contributions when paying their electric bills.
Both residential and commercial members of the Co-op are eligible to join the VEC Green Team. When signing up, members may choose from one of three fixed monthly contribution levels. The highest level reflects the incremental cost that an average consumer would pay on their electric bill if their entire supply of electricity was generated by renewable power sources.