Current News

The chief executives of Vermont’s leading businesses appear poised to maintain their growth plans through early 2012, echoing results from the previous survey. The survey was completed between September 8 and September 22 and released today by Vermont Business Roundtable Chair Steve Voigt, CEO, King Arthur Flour and President Lisa Ventriss.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, employees of Sonnax Industries of Bellows Falls, Vt. were looking for ways to help. Like many others in Vermont and New Hampshire, they had been directly affected by this tragedy or had friends and neighbors who were. Sonnax President & CEO Tommy Harmon issued the following challenge to employees: donate money for the Red Cross of Vermont and New Hampshire and the Vermont Food Bank, and the company would match employees’ contributions, dollar for dollar, up to $5,000. In addition, Harmon and Sonnax board member Rick Fritz would personally match contributions, creating $4 of disaster relief for every dollar pledged by Sonnax employees.

US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has announced two US Army contracts ‘ one for $6.5 million and the other for $2.8 million ‘ to buy wireless sensors from Applied Research Associates (ARA), which has a manufacturing plant in Randolph, Vermont.
ARA won the competitive contract for producing their Expendable Unattended Ground Sensors, which are placed in the ground and used to protect troops. These small devices, the size of a hockey puck, are equipped with long-life batteries and antennae, and are used, among other ways, for perimeter monitoring at remote Army bases. The sensors can detect footsteps and vehicle traffic, even in windy or rainy conditions. They are called ‘expendable’ because they cost far less than other sensors on the market.

This week, NorthCountry Federal Credit Union presented a donation of $2,500 to the Champlain Housing Trust in recognition of adding its 500th home to its permanently affordable homeownership program. The donation was authorized by NorthCountry’s Board of Directors and recommended by the staff, who has worked closely with the Housing Trust over the years to provide affordable homeownership opportunities to low and moderate income Vermonters.
‘This donation is such a generous one, and we’re so pleased that our friends at NorthCountry appreciate our efforts,’ said Brenda Torpy, CHT’s CEO. ‘For the credit union to step forward like this unsolicited and make a gift recognizing our lasting impact in the community, it just means so much to us.’

Hurricane relief efforts in Southwestern Vermont will get a $50,000 shot in the arm thanks to a donation of the proceeds from Southwestern Vermont Health Care’s annual Harvest Ball. The proceeds had been designated for Southwestern Vermont Medical Center. However, the health system’s leaders decided to use the funds to help communities in Bennington and Windham counties savaged by Hurricane Irene in late August.
‘Hurricane Irene was the most devastating event our area has seen in many years,’ said Thomas Dee, president and CEO of Southwestern Vermont Health Care. ‘Donating the proceeds from the Harvest Ball is one way that we can directly help the people in our communities recover.’

With virtually no opposition, shareholders of Central Vermont Public Service Corp (NYSE-CV) have approved the sale of the company to Gaz Métro Limited Partnership in voting that concluded this morning. Gaz Métro is the parent company of Green Mountain Power and Vermont Gas Systems; CVPS and GMP will ultimately merge into one Vermont company after the sale is completed in 2012.
Shareholders began voting in late summer by phone, mail and Internet, and final votes were cast today at a special shareholder meeting in Rutland. Over 75 percent of the outstanding shares of the company were represented at the meeting, and of those, more than 97 percent voted in support of the $702 million sale.

The Vermont Agency of Transportation today announced that the Amtrak Vermonter train will return to service this Saturday, October 1, 2011, with a northbound journey from Washington, DC to Saint Albans, VT. On Sunday, October 2, regular Amtrak service with northbound and southbound trains in full operation will commence. There will be slow orders on some portions of the rail line which will initially delay the train up to one hour from its regular schedule but the New England Central Railway (NECR) anticipates that these slow order locations will be reduced as rail work crews continue to improve the rail line.

WCAX-TV is pleased to announce a series of changes to its award-winning newsroom.
Vermont native Kyle Midura joins the newsroom as a reporter. Midura, a graduate of Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, comes to WCAX-TV from Billings, MT, where he was a reporter at KULR-TV.
Also joining WCAX-TV is Deanna LeBlanc, who will lead our team in Southern Vermont working as the bureau chief in Rutland. LeBlanc is a graduate of the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism where she studied broadcast news.
WCAX-TV’s Susie Steimle has been named Montpelier Bureau Chief. Steimle will cover politics and government issues during the upcoming legislative session and also report on political campaigns in 2012. Steimle graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in Radio-TV Journalism.

As the fall foliage season shifts into high gear, AAA is working with Vermont’s tourism industry leaders to disseminate information nationwide through its travel offices. The resources will be used by AAA’s travel counselors to help direct motorists and encourage them to travel the Green Mountain State.
Tom Williams, Regional Manager of AAA Northern New England, noted, ‘We have a golden opportunity to provide up-to-date, practical information to members across the country. In the great majority of areas hit by the storm, visitors will find roadways with smooth pavement and bright lines. It is our role to make sure that people who are interested in coming to Vermont get the information they need.’

Online advertised vacancies were up 500 in Vermont in contrast to a nationwide drop of 43,500 in September to 3,947,100, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine Data Series released today. The September drop follows a decline of 164,000 in August and a decrease of 217,000 in July. The Supply/Demand rate stands at 3.50, indicating there were 3.5 unemployed for every online advertised vacancy in August, the latest monthly data available for unemployment.
-- Labor demand retrenches in the 2nd and 3rd Quarters after an impressive start in Q1
-- Since March, labor demand down by 500,000 (11 percent)
-- Losses widespread across States and occupations
-- Nationally, there are 10 million more unemployed (9.98 million) than advertised vacancies

The Vermont Working Landscape Partnership announces the release of Investing in our Farm and Forest Future. This nonpartisan Action Plan offers five recommendations to help reinvigorate the state’s rural economy.
· Build a major campaign to celebrate the distinctiveness of the working landscape that is Vermont.
· Target strategic investment through a Vermont Agriculture and Forest Products Development Fund.
· Designate and support ‘Working Lands.’
· Develop tax revenue to support working landscape enterprise development and conservation.
· Create a State Planning Office and activate the Development Cabinet.

Richard Mallary, the independent-minded dairy farmer from Orange County and former congressman, has died, according to Governor Shumlin's office. He was 82. Mallary, a Republican, took over as Vermont's lone member in the US House of Representatives after Robert Stafford joined the US Senate. Mallory served in the 92nd Congress and was re-elected to the 93rd, serving until 1975. Mallary ran unsuccessfully for Vermont's other open Senate seat against Patrick Leahy in 1974. Jim Jeffords succeeded Mallary in Congress. Mallary twice served terms in the Vermont House (1961-1969; 1999-2003), including as Speaker from 1966 to 1968. He served one term in the state Senate (1969-1970). He also served as an executive for Central Vermont Public Service and president of Vermont Electric Power Company.