Current News

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.

This summer, Stowe Mountain Resort will replace the FourRunner chairlift on Mount Mansfield with a new high-speed quad. Originally installed in the ‘80s, the FourRunner has been Stowe’s most popular lift, uploading more skiers and riders than any other lift in the resort’s history. The new lift will debut for the 2011-2012 ski and ride season.
‘Our goal is to provide the very best experience possible for all of our guests,’ states Robert McEleney CEO and President of Stowe Mountain Resort. ‘The terrain on Mount Mansfield is the heart and soul of the resort. This brand new detachable quad lift will provide superlative lift service to the very best alpine terrain in the East.’
Now, amidst a winter experience that’s second to none in the Northeast, access to the greatest variety of terrain east of the Rockies will become even more seamless with a new state-of-the-art quad on Vermont’s highest peak.

The Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center (VMEC) has teamed up with Purdue University’s Technical Assistance Program to offer Green Generalist Online training, an interactive and educational online course that provides awareness of the key environmental issues facing companies and ways to redesign their business practices using environmentally friendly techniques. The Green Generalist Online workshop is appropriate for the entire workforce and all business sectors.
Green Generalist Online has seven sections, seven tests, and three interactive simulations. It takes up to four hours to complete. The cost is $175 per person using a special ‘Discount Code’ available through the VMEC website. A Green Generalist Certificate is also available from Purdue TAP upon course completion. Registration is possible through the VMEC website at www.vmec.org or www.vmec.org/online-courses.

Select Design is the winner of the Burlington Business Award and Jeffrey L Davis of JL Davis Realty is the winner of the Tim Halvorson Award, which are presented by the Burlington Business Association. The 33rd Annual Burlington Business Association Dinner & Awards Ceremony will be held April 7th at the Hilton Burlington Hotel
The Burlington Business Award, originally the Small Business Award, was established in 2002 to honor exemplary business practices, contributions to the community, promotion of a positive image for Burlington, and overall business success. This year, Select Design will join the Burlington Business Award Hall-of-Fame, with past recipients including Seven Days, SkiRack, Lake Champlain Chocolates, Run Vermont, TruexCullins, Gardner’s Supply Vermont Lake Monsters, Shanty on the Shore, and Lois Bodoky ‘Hot Dog Lady’.

On Friday, March 25th, the Lake Champlain Community Sailing will host the 1st Annual Northeast Regional Community Sailing Symposium on the Burlington waterfront. Representatives from public access sailing centers from six northeast states will attend to network with other sailing educators, participate in workshops, and discuss the growing movement of public access sailing in the United States. This event provides a crucial professional development opportunity to the growing number of community sailing educators and directors in the northeast region.

Senator Patrick Leahy yesterday lambasted the Pentagon for its decision to issue a stop-work order on General Electric's version of the jet engine for the F35 fighter jet. Some of the components for the engine are made by GE in Rutland. The principal contractor for the engine is Pratt & Whitney. Leahy and others in Congress had been able to continue funding for the GE version through stop-gap measures as Congress continues to work on a new federal budget. However, the House declined to add the GE funding to the latest interim budget bill. The Pentagon subsequently ordered GE and partner Rolls Royce to stop work on the engine. However, GE has decided to self-fund continued work on its engine.

by Anne Galloway vtdigger.org March 24, 2011You can call it Frank. You can call it Fred. But don’t call it a single-payer health care system. That was the message Representative Mark Larson, D-Burlington, delivered to lawmakers in the House Appropriations Committee last week and during the House floor debate on Vermont’s latest effort to reform its health care system. The euphemism single-payer was struck from the bill in an amendment to make the legislation more palatable to Republicans, sources say. The bill passed 89-47 after eight hours of debate, speeches, amendments and roll call votes. The legislation now goes to the state Senate.
The actual, rather unsexy moniker? ‘A Road Map to a Universal and Unified Health System,’ or Green Mountain Care, for short.

Two foresters from the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation recently participated in an interstate effort to survey for the emerald ash borer in eastern New York. The emerald ash borer is an invasive insect from Asia, which was detected in Ulster and Greene Counties in New York last summer. The State of New York, with assistance from the US Forest Service, is conducting a survey to delineate the extent of this infestation so that management options to slow the spread of the insect can be developed.

The City of Burlington announced today that Fitch Ratings has assigned a BBB rating to $37 million in outstanding Burlington International Airport (BTV) revenue bonds, with a negative outlook. This represents a downgrade from the BBB+ Fitch rating maintained by BTV. However, the rating by Fitch is investment grade and represents an improvement from the last rating BTV received from Moody’s Investors Services in May and October of 2010. City and Airport officials cited substantial progress in addressing BTV’s financial issues.
‘The City is pleased that Fitch has preserved an investment-grade rating for BTV and recognizes our financial progress,’ said Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss. ‘There is certainly more work to be done, but this demonstrates the Airport and the City are on the right track.’

Draker Labs, a provider of high performance turnkey monitoring systems for large commercial and utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, is moving into new, larger offices on April 1, 2011. The company’s new offices will be located in the Maltex building at 431 Pine Street in Burlington, VT. The move reflects significant growth the company experienced during 2010 as well as future expansion plans.