Current News

Vermont business Darn Tough Vermont and Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel, joined by clothing manufacturer Smartwool, will donate 800 pairs of socks and $2,900 to representatives from local homeless and temporary shelters at the Lenny’s store in Barre, VT at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, October 19, 2011. The donations are the result of a joint effort between the three businesses to help provide warm, Merino wool socks and much-needed support to Vermont’s homeless population in preparation for the state’s colder months.

PediaVision, inventor of a new breakthrough vision screening device called Spot, has chosen MackMedical/Mack Molding as its manufacturing partner. The first customer shipments were released earlier this month.
Geared toward children, the patent-pending technology can assess a child’s vision quickly, accurately and objectively, eliminating the subjective analysis that results from many of today’s vision screening tools.
Easy to use
The wireless, handheld, screen-anywhere device makes vision screening as easy as taking a photo, which is particularly important for toddlers and young children. Similar to a point-and-shoot camera, Spot captures results in less than one second, making it equally efficient for use in a physician’s office or a large-scale public screening. For example, a typical school can be screened in one day, dramatically lowering the cost to screen students.

Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE:LOW) announced today the company is closing 20 underperforming stores in 15 states (three in New Hampshire, including the one in Claremont, and two in Maine). Vermont has only two Lowe's stores, both in Chittenden County, which are not effected. By comparison, there are 15 total stores in New Hampshire and 12 in Maine. See closure list below.
A Wall Street Journal article suggested that Lowe's has lost some ground to larger and resurgent Home Depot in the Northeast.

The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) opened two key temporary bridges on Saturday in locations that were badly damaged by Tropical Storm Irene. Opening the two temporary bridges ‘ located along Route 100 in Jamaica and along Route 73 in Rochester ‘ is significant as they both eliminate lengthy detours.
Opening the Jamaica bridge means Route 100 is now open in its entirety for the first time since Irene struck on August 28, while opening the Rochester bridge allows residents who for seven weeks have been using a foot bridge to access Route 100 to use a motor vehicle instead.
‘Reopening these two bridge locations eliminates lengthy detours and will help residents in these hard hit areas return to normal,’ said VTrans Secretary Brian Searles. ‘We now have restored traffic over all but three damaged bridge locations, and those we will reopen before winter.’

Vermont business women and leaders will learn how to build ‘courage skills’ from leadership and customer service expert Cindy Solomon at the 10th annual Key4Women Forum hosted by KeyBank. Held at the Sheraton in South Burlington, the Wednesday, November 2, event begins with breakfast at 7:30 am. Mary Powell, CEO of Green Mountain Power and business entrepreneur, will be honored for her leadership in business and community with the Key Achieve Award, presented at the event.
Solomon will present ‘Creating a Culture of Courage: The New Leadership Challenge’ in which she discusses the four types of courage and when and how to invoke each for success in business, why finding the courage to move forward is the key to success in today’s new business economy, and how to inspire courage personally and professionally.

Shelburne Museum Chairman James Pizzagalli announced plans for a new center for art and education at Shelburne Museum that will expand the museum’s educational programs, bring new and exciting exhibits to visitors and, for the first time, open the museum year-round. The announcement opens the public phase of the Campaign for Shelburne Museum, a $14 million capital campaign with the center for art and education as its centerpiece. To date the campaign has raised $10.75 million.

The 16,000-square-foot center will include galleries, an auditorium and classroom space and will accommodate a year-round calendar of exhibitions and programs for youth and adult audiences. Currently, the museum’s 39-building campus opens in mid-May and closes at the end of October.

Otelco Inc (NASDAQ: OTT) (TSX: OTT.un), a wireline telecommunication services provider in Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire and West Virginia, has announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Shoreham Telephone Company, Inc. for approximately $4.5 million in cash, plus certain purchase price adjustments.
‘We are excited to add Shoreham and Vermont to our service area in New England,’ said Mike Weaver, President and Chief Executive Officer of Otelco. ‘Shoreham has similar roots to Otelco as a rural wireline telecommunications services provider. This year, they have substantially improved their broadband offering with significant capital investment. We expect to expand from Shoreham’s base in central Vermont to bring new and creative services through our OTT Communications team to other Vermont businesses. Clearly, this demonstrates our commitment to continue to grow our presence and impact in New England.’

For his work to understand how to build better robots, Joshua Bongard, a researcher at the University of Vermont, received Friday the highest award given by the US government to young scientists.
President Barack Obama announced Bongard as one of 94 winners of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers on Sept. 26.
Bongard received the award today at a ceremony at the White House. Bongard is only the second researcher in UVM history to receive the PECASE award, which provides $500,000 in research funds over several years.

The US Small Business Administration announced the opening of an additional recovery center in White River Junction on Monday, Oct. 17 at 8 a.m. to assist individuals and businesses affected by Tropical Storm Irene.
The hours of operation for the new and existing Centers are Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., until further notice. The Centers are located in the following communities:
Windham County
Brattleboro Development Credit Corp.
72 Cotton Mill Hill ‘ 2nd Floor
Brattleboro, VT 05301
Windsor County
Town of Hartford Building
171 Bridge Street
White River Junction, VT 05001
Opens: Monday, Oct. 17 at 8 a.m.
Springfield Development Corp.
14 Clinton Street
Springfield, VT 05156

A Milton, Vermont, oil distributor has settled a Clean Water Act violation with the US Environmental Protection Agency. According to the settlement announced October 11, Rowley Fuels failed to take adequate precautions meant to prevent and contain oil spills.
Specifically, EPA alleged that Rowley Fuels failed to adequately prepare and maintain a Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure plan, known as an SPCC plan, at the company’s Alburgh, Vt. facility. The complaint was based on an inspection by EPA staff. Because of the facility’s proximity to surface waters and a municipal stormwater drain system, which both drain into Lake Champlain, a fuel-oil spill at the facility could result in fuel-oil being discharged into Lake Champlain. The company has since come into compliance with SPCC requirements.

The new federal Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act (NRRA), often referred to as the Dodd Frank Act, has no applicability to captive insurance. That is the conclusion of an independent white paper prepared for the Vermont Captive Insurance Association (VCIA) by the law firm of McIntyre and Lemon, PLLC of Washington, DC.
‘Both the language of the legislation itself and the legislative intent are clear that the law was meant to apply only to the surplus lines market ‘ not captive insurance,’ said Dave Provost, Deputy Commissioner of Captive Insurance.
A consortium of the VCIA, the Captive Insurance Companies Association and the National Risk Retention Association agreed with the conclusion of the white paper. ‘There was no intent to have NRRA encompass captive insurance,’ said Rich Smith, President of the Vermont Captive Insurance Association.

A UVM alumnus and his family have pledged $1 million to support scholarships at the University of Vermont and are challenging others to join them in continuing to build a tradition of giving at UVM.
Donald "Don" H. McCree, UVM class of 1983 and his wife, Gabrielle "Gabby" McCree, started their own family’s tradition in 2006 when they established the McCree Family Scholarship Fund with a half-million-dollar gift. The fund provides annual scholarships based on financial need, academic achievement, and involvement in community service. Their goal, they said then, was to "provide an opportunity to students to attend The University of Vermont to receive an educational experience that prepares them to be leaders in their professional pursuits as well as in their communities."