Current News

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), one of the nation's leading providers of entertainment, information and communications products and services, today announced the roll-out of an updated Chamber and Trade Association Referral Program in Vermont as part of an ongoing strategy to help small businesses through advanced communications solutions. This program builds on the success and popularity of the company's Chamber Rewards Program and offers Chambers of Commerce and select trade associations even more opportunities to offer their members discounts on select tiers of Comcast Business Class Internet and Comcast Business Class Voice products.

The American Red Cross today announced the retirement of Susan Parmer, RN, CEO of the American Red Cross Blood Services Northern New England Region, effective October 4. Her retirement will conclude a career of close to 30 years.
Parmer began her career with the American Red Cross in 1982 as a staff nurse, traveling to blood drives throughout Vermont and northern New Hampshire. She served as an instructor for new staff and was appointed to positions of increasing responsibility throughout her tenure, including Director of Nursing, Director of Vermont Operations, Senior Director of Collections and Donor Recruitment and Regional Director of Donor Services and has served as CEO of the Northern New England Region, directing close to 400 employees within Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, since 2005.

Vermont’s congressional delegation ‘ Sen. Patrick Leahy (D), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) and Rep. Peter Welch (D) ‘ today announced a one million dollar grant to the Montpelier-based Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC).
Through the grant, ISC will work with the joint HUD-DOT-EPA Partnership for Sustainable Communities (PSC), which coordinates federal housing, transportation, water, and other infrastructure investments to make neighborhoods more prosperous, allow people to live closer to jobs, save households time and money, and reduce pollution.

The grant will allow ISC to create a National Sustainability Learning Network to help streamline and increase the effectiveness of PSC’s efforts. Through online and in-person, peer-to-peer mentoring, the Network will identify, showcase and disseminate the most promising practices, valuable tools and resources that advance sustainable communities and integrated regional development.

Gov. Peter Shumlin and Jean Charest, Premier of Quebec, called today for the creation of an international task force with representatives from the United States and Canada to study issues related to flooding on Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River. They also announced that they are inviting the State of New York and the federal government to a conference of scientific and policy experts to discuss ways to reduce the harm and damage from future flooding events.
In a letter signed by both leaders, addressed to President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Shumlin and Charest cited the spring flooding in which ‘hundreds of residents in Québec and Vermont suffered serious material damages and, in some cases, were forced to evacuate their homes. The governments of Québec and Vermont are currently making considerable efforts to come to the aid of those affected by this disaster and contain the damage.’

Northfield Savings Bank is pleased to announce the beneficiary of the 34th Annual Flying Pig Footrace will be Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sports. The footrace takes place Saturday, September 3, in downtown Northfield, and is presented in cooperation with the Central Vermont Runners Club. The Bank will be making a donation of $5.00 per runner, up to a maximum of $3,000.
Several hundred runners are expected to participate in this fully accredited event. In addition to the adult 5K race, a 1-mile kids race for children ages 5-13 will kick off the day’s events at 9:30AM. The adult race starts at 10:30AM.
Applications are now available and can be picked up at any NSB branch or downloaded from the NSB website at www.nsbvt.com.

Gifford Medical Center is now participating in a federal drug pricing program called 340B.
Administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Office of Pharmacy Affairs, the program has been around since 1992, but expanded last year to Critical Access Hospitals like Gifford as part of the Affordable Care Act.
The program allows Gifford to generate some revenue and cut some costs, which allows the hospital to reduce inflation for future patient rates. It works when Gifford patients fill their non-generic, non-narcotic prescriptions at pharmacies also participating in the program.
So far, Kinney Drugs in Randolph is participating and hospital officials are hoping that other Kinney locations, Northfield Pharmacy and Rite Aid will also soon join in.
The program has no effect on patient and customers’ costs, but does help Gifford at a critical time.

Revision, the global leader in military protective eyewear solutions, announces its most recent contract award: to supply the Germany military with their ballistic eyewear needs through 2013. The project will see Revision deliver over 256,000 sets of the Sawfly Military Eyewear System for use by Army, Air Force and Navy troops. Revision was selected as the sole-supplier for this contract following a rigorous bid process and extensive in-service user trials including in-theatre use in Afghanistan.
‘To have been selected as the standard issue brand following one of most rigorous bidding processes we’ve seen to date, is a testament to the people, processes and technologies that we employ to advance the science and performance of this vital piece of soldier equipment. We are proud to be the German military’s protective eyewear supplier of choice,’ said Alex Hooper, Vice President, International Sales.

The Lake Champlain Bridge Community (LCBC) has made the difficult decision to postpone the celebration activities recognizing the re-opening of theLake Champlain Bridge. Originally scheduled for October 15-16, 2011, a new date has been set for May 19-20, 2012.
The original target opening date for the bridge of October 9, 2011 has been removed from New York State Department of Transportation’s (NYSDOT) website and current press updates. Attempts by LCBC to press NYSDOT for a revised opening date have been unsuccessful. ‘It is difficult to plan and execute a celebration of this magnitude when the opening date of the new bridge is an unknown,’ said Karen Hennessy, LCBC Co-Chair.

The Weston Playhouse Theatre Company has received a $45,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a $15,000 grant from the National Alliance for Musical Theatre in support of its 2011 world-premiere musical production of SAINT-EX. These grants are the latest show of support for Weston’s New Works program which began in 2007.
"We are pleased and honored to receive these latest grants, particularly in a 75th anniversary year," commented WPTC Producing Director Steve Stettler. "This is the first grant that we have received from NAMT and while we have received NEA funding every year since 2001, this is the largest grant in that ten year history. It is a real testament to the part that Weston is playing in the development of new work."

In Vermont, the number of housing units sold declined by -3 percent, according to RE/MAX of New England, but a median price increase of 3 percent was the largest in New England. According to RE/MAX, the seasonal summer heat has contributed to a month-over-month slowdown in sales across New England. However, year-over-year sales experienced double digit increases in every state in the region.
The July 2011 RE/MAX of New England Monthly Housing Report reveals that transactions in July were down -13.6 percent month-over-month, but up 14.5 percent versus July 2010. Prices were down -2.4 percent month-over-month and down -3.0 percent from July of 2010. Every New England state saw a decline in units sold.

MediaNews Group, Inc, based in Denver, has launched a digital subscription model for 23 of its affiliate newspapers in California, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Vermont. The Vermont papers are the Brattleboro Reformer and the Bennington Banner. This digital paywall allows free access to a limited amount of content on a monthly basis and then readers will be asked to subscribe to have full access to their local news site. This digital subscription began August 15.

Dealer.com (www.dealer.com), the global leader in automotive Internet marketing solutions, today announced that Mitch Truwit and Marcelo Gigliani of Apax Partners will be joining the company's Board of Directors. Apax Partners recently acquired an approximately 30 percent stake in Dealer.com from Yellow Media Inc.
As part of the transfer in ownership from Yellow Media, Marc P. Tellier, Doug A. Clarke and Normand Theberge will be stepping down from the Dealer.com Board.