Current News

Representative Peter Welch, joined by Governor Peter Shumlin and business and community leaders, welcomed the nation’s top rail official to Rutland Monday as he continued to push for federal funding of Vermont’s Western Corridor high-speed rail project. With the rejection of high-speed rail funds by several states in recent months, Vermont’s congressional delegation has been pushing for those funds to be reallocated to Vermont’s Western Corridor project, which runs from Rutland to Burlington.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Monday announced a new $9.8 million U.S. Navy contract with General Electric Aviation for work in Rutland on additional engine components used in the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft. The full contract, for work performed in Rutland and at several other GE plants, totals $246,520,390.
Leahy is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and of its Defense Subcommittee, which handles the Senate’s work in writing the annual defense budget bill. He has been a long time supporter of GE Aviation’s work performed in Rutland and elsewhere across the United States. The Rutland facility primarily produces jet engine blades and vanes.
‘This contract demonstrates the value that GE Aviation Rutland’s workers bring again and again to our fleet of military aircraft,’ said Leahy.

Andrews, Lawton, Moran Elected to Vermont Public Television Board

Julia Andrews, Lorilee A Lawton and Mary E Moran have been elected to the board of directors of Vermont Public Television, Vermont's statewide public television network.

Andrews is a resident of Westford, Vt. She is marketing strategist/account executive at Spike Advertising in Burlington. Before that, she held sales and marketing positions at Comcast, Charter Communications and Competitive Computing.

She is affiliated with Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility and is co-founder of the Westford, Vt., Food Shelf. She is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Lawton, of Colchester, Vt., is the owner, president and CFO of Firetech Sprinkler Corp. of Colchester. Before that, she was owner and president of Colchester’s Red Hed Supply Inc.

Senator Bill Doyle today released the results of his 42nd annual town meeting survey. There were 15,000 returns from 142 Vermont towns and cities, one of the largest returns ever. Responders overwhelmingly support a law that would ban cell phone calling while driving, tougher DUI laws and expanding the bottle bill, while slightly more responders to the survey favored keeping the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant open for another 20 years.
Some of the results were as follows: Closest tally VT yankee 45% yes, 41% no, 14% unsure
Strongest support were:
Ban Cell phones 75%
Tougher DUI law 75%
Expand bottle deposit 79%
Pay more for locally grown foods 63%
Require use of motorcycle helmets 90%
Below are the full results.
Senator Bill Doyle
Town Meeting Day Survey - March 2011
15,000 returns from 142 Vermont Towns and Cities in Percentage

Question
Yes
No
Not Sure

The Vermont Department of Education has selected Education Networks of America, from Nashville, TN, to provide managed Internet access and wide area network (WAN) services, including options to take advantage of new cost-effective IP voice and video teleconferencing services, on an opt-in basis to all public and private K-12 schools in the state.
On behalf of the state’s K-12 schools, the department issued a request for proposal (RFP) for managed connectivity and communication services in an effort to increase affordable bandwidth availability across the state through group purchase pricing, as well as to maximize E-Rate program funding for these services. The E-Rate program provides subsidized discounts to school and libraries for the purchase of telecommunication and networking services.

More than 100 local employers expected to offer career and internship opportunities at the Champlain College Job Fair which will be held today. It is free and open to the public. It is a great opportunity to talk to employers about the local job market, job-seekers and soon-to-be college graduates.
CHAMPLAIN COLLEGE SPRING JOB FAIR ‘ Monday, March 28, 1:30 ‘ 5:30 p.m., Champlain College Argosy Gymnasium, 262 Soth Willard St, Burlington. The Champlain College Job Fair is free and open to the public. More than 100 area businesses and organizations will be represented, offering career, internship and summer employment opportunities. A series of job-skills workshops will also be offered. For more information and a listing of participating businesses, visit www.champlain.edu/career-services.html or call (802) 860-2720.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org March 26, 2011 The Vermont House passed the budget, or the Big Bill as it’s called, on third reading Friday after a another long day of back and forth between the Democratic majority and GOP lawmakers. Republicans engaged in a futile attempt to assail a budget that was, with a few exceptions (including reinstatement of Catamount Health Care and a partial restoration of funds to programs for the elderly, developmentally disabled and mentally ill), a slightly edited carbon copy of the governor’s recommendations.

Members of the Vermont State Board of Education have testified before the House and Senate Education Committees regarding the Board’s major objection to the proposal of having the Commissioner of Education named a Secretary, appointed by and serving at the pleasure of the Governor (House Bill 440). We believe such an appointment would not be in the best interest of young people in Vermont for several reasons.

FairPoint Communications and the Vermont Department of Public Service have reached key agreements that will allow the company to invest approximately $7 million to expand its broadband network and bring high-speed Internet to ‘last-mile’ Vermonters.
Department of Public Service Commissioner Elizabeth Miller said the agreement, which requires FairPoint to invest past penalty assessments for broadband buildout, helps achieve the state’s goal to bring high-speed Internet service to all Vermonters.
‘I appreciate the cooperation and diligent work FairPoint expended in reaching an agreement that benefits FairPoint’s customers and advances the state’s goal of universal broadband and cellular coverage by the end of 2013,’ Miller said.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc has leased a 53,500-square-foot Class A commercial office building designed to LEED Gold standards at Technology Park’s 177-acre corporate campus in South Burlington.

Surveys repeatedly show Vermonters want a strong working landscape for all its scenic, cultural, economic, environmental and recreational benefits. However if alarming trends that threaten its economic viability are not reversed, it will vanish within a generation.
The Vermont Council on Rural Development is launching a new nonpartisan and broad-based partnership to keep Vermont's farm and forest economy a vital foundation for the future of Vermont. The Partnership is proposing a bold plan. It has announced the 17 member Vermont Working Landscape Council (VWLC) that will develop the details to make this plan a practical reality. The VWL Council represents deep expertise in issues pertaining to farm and forest enterprises and rural development in Vermont. It is chaired by retired Secretary of Agriculture Roger Allbee and includes:
Bob Ackland, VCRD Board, Recreation Development Consultant, Warren
Cliff Allard, Allard Lumber Company, Brattleboro

The Vermont Department of Labor announced today the seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate for February 2011 was 5.6 percent. This reflects the second straight month of a decrease of one-tenth of a percentage point to the statewide rate (i.e. the January unemployment rate was 5.7 percent) and a decrease of one and one-tenth of a percentage point from a year ago, February 2010. This is the lowest rate since November 2008. The US rate was down to 8.9 percent. Vermont had the fifth lowest rate in the nation (see table below).
Looking back over recent years’ data, the last increase in the seasonally adjusted Vermont unemployment rate was in April 2009. At that time the rate was 7.3 percent. Since then the statewide unemployment rate has trended down to its current level of 5.6 percent.