Current News

Tritium has been detected for the first time in water taken at the shoreline of the Connecticut River. The Vermont Department of Health Laboratory has confirmed that samples of water taken on July 18 and July 25 from the river at the point where contaminated groundwater flows from the shoreline into the river measured 534 and 611 picocuries per liter, just above the lower limit of detection.
‘We have been tracking the plume of tritium-contaminated groundwater as it moves slowly toward the river, and this new finding confirms that the tritium has traveled from the Yankee site to the Connecticut River,’ said Health Commissioner Harry Chen, MD.

Governor Peter Shumlin issued this statement in response to the new finding:

Secretary of State Jim Condos announced today that the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration (VSARA) ‘ a division of the Secretary of State’s Office ‘ has been awarded a grant of $118,078 from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) to preserve and make more accessible archival court records. The Vermont project is one of nineteen archival projects from around the country that the NHPRC awarded funding for this year.

Reebok-CCM Hockey US, Inc (formerly known as Maska US, Inc) and Reebok-CCM Hockey, Inc, have settled a claim by the Vermont Attorney General that they failed to conduct required groundwater testing in 2008 at a property they own in Bradford. They will pay $40,000 to resolve the matter.
The Reebok-CCM companies were required under a 1996 agreement with the Attorney General to conduct quarterly groundwater testing at a property in Bradford that was formerly used to manufacture hockey equipment. The manufacturing process involved perchloroethylene, commonly known as ‘perc’ and regulated as a hazardous waste under Vermont law. While Maska owned the site, perc was released there, and when Reebok purchased Maska it succeeded to Maska’s obligations to monitor the groundwater at the Bradford site for perc.

The Vermont Department of Labor has announced that the seasonally-adjusted statewide unemployment rate for July 2011 increased by two-tenths of a percent to 5.7 percent. Although this reflects the third month in a row that Vermont experienced an increase in the statewide rate, the Vermont July 2011 unemployment rate is .4 percent lower than in July 2010, and 3.4 percent lower than the national unemployment rate. Total employment showed a similar pattern, with numbers down from June 2011 but up from July 2010 (sse table below).

Waterbury. The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources today announced the release of five environmental permits to Green Mountain Power, Inc., for the construction and operation of a wind powered electric generating facility on Lowell Mountain in Lowell, Vermont. The project, known as Kingdom Community Wind (KCW), includes the installation of an access road and 21 wind turbines along the ridgeline, and the upgrade of a related transmission line.

Under an $11-million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) will lead a network of northern New England institutions in recruiting, training, and supporting young quantitative biologists to teach and conduct research into the ways that genes and the environment work together to trigger and prevent disease.
With computational geneticist Jason Moore, PhD as principal investigator, DMS will establish an NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE.) Dartmouth scientists in several disciplines will join forces with colleagues at the University of New Hampshire, the University of Maine, the University of Vermont, Harvard University’s national center for biomedical computing, the University of Southern Maine, Maine’s Jackson Labs and Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, and Maine Medical Center.

VSECU (Vermont State Employees Credit Union) donated $10,000 to the six charities through an employee directed giving program called We Care 2. The Central Vermont Humane Society received $5,000, while five other charities, Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice, the Vermont Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, Prevent Child Abuse Vermont, Camp Ta-Kum-Ta and Project Independence in Barre, each received $1,000.
From the beginning of the employee directed giving program, VSECU hoped to engage Vermonters around the state in a discussion about how the $10,000 should be distributed. Even though it would be VSECU employees who would choose the charities, they wanted to give others outside the credit union the opportunity to suggest charities and why they should be supported.

C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc., announced today a long-term agreement under which C&S will provide procurement and distribution services for all 97 Marsh stores across Indiana and Ohio. With this agreement, Marsh will be leaving the logistics business. With C&S managing the efficient purchasing, inventory management and timely distribution of groceries and products from its distribution centers, Marsh will realize greater operational efficiencies and will focus exclusively on its core retail business.

Saint Michael’s College welcomes new students on Thursday, August 25, with a full day of spirited events, involving the traditional SMC raucous welcome with whistles, balloons, posters, and help moving in. The process starts in the Ross Sports Center between 9 a.m. and noon. New students will meet with their resident assistants in the afternoon; and will attend several other meetings, followed by New Student Convocation at 7 p.m. in the SMC Chapel with the principal address to be given by Dr. Richard Kujawa, geology professor.
Professor Kujawa received the 2010 Joanne Rathgeb Teaching Award, and as such, is the designated speaker for this year’s convocation. The new class is ceremonially presented to the faculty, the alma mater is sung, and President John J. Neuhauser also addresses the class and their families. Classes begin for all students Monday, August 29.
New Liberal Studies Curriculum

The Attorney General’s Office announced today that Williston-based home improvement contractor Donald Bevins was sentenced to thirty days in jail for violating Vermont’s workers’ compensations laws.
On June 23, 2011, Bevins, who operated under both ‘Twin City Roofing’ and ‘Around the Clock Property Maintenance,’ pled guilty in Chittenden Superior Court, Criminal Division, to two counts of failing to maintain workers’ compensation insurance. The charges stemmed from an investigation conducted by the Vermont Attorney General’s Office and the Vermont Department of Labor, which revealed that Bevins was operating without workers’ compensation insurance and in violation of a Vermont Department of Labor stop work order. The investigation also determined that, during the time frame that Bevins did not maintain insurance, two of his employees were seriously injured while working.

The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) announced the award of several new grants for Vermont from the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT). These new federal investments will support safety improvements to railroad crossings, innovative paving techniques, transportation demand management in Chittenden County and three Vermont Byways.
‘I’m proud of the work VTrans staff did to develop very competitive applications for important safety programs,’ stated VTrans Secretary, Brian Searles. ‘At a time of diminishing federal and state funds for transportation, I’m very pleased that VTrans and Vermont communities have secured additional federal funds to assist in the rebuilding of our infrastructure,’ he said.

MicroStrain Inc. provided NASA Kennedy Space Center with the wireless sensor technology to remotely monitor lift off acoustics and vibration generated during the launch of both Endeavour and Atlantis space shuttles. The noise generated by rocket exhaust affects the safety of spacecraft, ground facilities and hazardous equipment. Data gathered by MicroStrain's sensors was used in corroborating prediction models. The deployed sensor network provides NASA with the means to implement scalable, wireless sensors capable of proactively monitoring high-value, hazardous systems.