Current News

Vermont Business Magazine and the Vermont Chamber of Commerce have named the top twenty Best Places to Work in Vermont 2011. The awards program was created in 2006 and is presented in partnership with the Vermont Department of Labor and the Vermont Department of Economic Development and Best Companies Group.
This statewide survey and awards program was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in Vermont, benefiting the state's economy, its workforce and businesses.
2011 Best Places to work in Vermont winners in alphabetical order are:

Small/Medium Size Companies
(15-149 employees)

ASIC North, Inc.

Champlain Dental Laboratory, Inc

Fuse Marketing

Heritage Aviation

HUBER+SUHNER, Inc.

Resource Systems Group Inc.

Seventh Generation

TPW Management

Vermont Electric Power Company, (VELCO)

Wells River Savings Bank

Wild Apple Graphics, Ltd.

NBT Bancorp President and Chief Executive Officer Martin Dietrich today announced that former Vermont Governor James H Douglas has been appointed to the company’s board of directors. NBT Bancorp entered the Vermont market in 2009 with the opening of its NBT Bank Vermont Regional Headquarters in Burlington under the direction of Regional President Matthew Durkee. Today, NBT Bank operates two branches in Vermont ‘ one at its regional headquarters and a second that recently opened in Williston.
‘I share with NBT Bancorp a common interest in creating a bright future for our local communities,’ said former Governor Douglas. ‘I am looking forward to contributing to the company’s overall growth and development while offering support specific to NBT’s efforts to expand the banking and financial services it offers to the Vermont marketplace.’

Homeowners, businesses, and renewable energy manufacturers, installers and developers will discuss the role of Vermont’s net-metering law in creating jobs and deploying home-grown renewable energy to Vermonters at a State House press conference Friday.
Renewable Energy Vermont (REV), the state’s leading trade association for the renewable energy industry, will be holding a press conference on Friday with House Natural Resources and Energy Committee leadership to address expanding Vermont’s successful net-metering program.
Afterward, the group will testify before the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee at 1:00 p.m.
The testimony will address how expanding Vermont’s successful net metering program will create jobs and support renewable energy generation statewide at no cost to state government.
WHAT: Press conference with legislators, homeowners, businesses and Vermont renewable energy leaders on expanding net metering laws

Governor Peter Shumlin today announced that Karen Marshall, a Chittenden County business executive and community leader, will take the position of Chief of Connect VT. Marshall will be responsible for implementing Gov. Shumlin’s plan to achieve universal availability of broadband and mobile phone service.
‘Connect VT is one of the most important initiatives of my administration,’ the Governor said. ‘It is vital that the telecommunication highway is in place for Vermonters by the end of 2013. It will connect our economic engines to the global marketplace, and enable our health care providers to be at the forefront of innovative, cost effective delivery and administration of health care.’

Governor Peter Shumlin today applauded a decision by Wal-Mart to abandon plans to build a new store in Virginia on the site of a Civil War battlefield where there were more than 1,200 Vermont casualties and nearly 400 lost their lives in one of the bloodiest battles of that war. Walmart said today that it would abandon that location 60 miles from Washington, DC, and seek another location. A civil case on the matter was scheduled to go to court Thursday.
‘Vermont paid a terrible toll on that site on May 5 and 6, 1864, losing so many of our young men in the Battle of the Wilderness,’ the Governor said. ‘Our brave soldiers gave their lives to keep the country together and end slavery. It would have been an awful loss to have that battlefield covered in the shadow of a Walmart store.’
The store would have been located near a monument donated by the state and the land on which the 1st Vermont Brigade fought. Remnants of their entrenchment can still be seen at the site.

Merchants Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: MBVT), the parent company of Merchants Bank, today announced net income of $15.46 million, or diluted earnings per share of $2.51 for the year ended December 31, 2010. Earnings for the fourth quarter of 2010 were $2.54 million, or diluted earnings per share of $0.41. This compares with net income of $3.80 million and $12.48 million, or diluted earnings per share of $0.62 and $2.04, for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2009.

There were 837 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, a decrease of 105 from the week before, as the data continued to show great volatility. Altogether 12,833 new and continuing claims were filed, a decrease of 70 from a week ago and 2,002 fewer than a year earlier. The Department also processed 2,176 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 27 fewer than a week ago. In addition, there were 886 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is an increase of 17 from the week before. The Unemployment Weekly Report can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/. Previously released Unemployment Weekly Reports and other UI reports can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/lmipub.htm#uc

Approximately six months since the completion of the merger of Finowen and GAW High-Speed Internet Service, GAW has announced that equipment upgrades have been made to the Hauger Hill transmission site located in Thetford, Vermont. The upgrade is the first of many that the company will make to its Upper Valley Network and the rest of its networks system-wide including sites recently completed in Morrisville and Albany. This initial upgrade will impact more than 30 percent of the Upper Valley customer base with speeds up to 6mb and a new digital voice service offering unlimited local and long distance calling.

Dealer.com (www.dealer.com), the global leader in online marketing solutions for the automotive industry, today announced that it delivered another year of substantial growth in 2010, as revenues reached $85 million, an increase of over 60 percent from 2009 ‘ and more than triple the 2008 level. In addition to its continued strong financial performance, Dealer.com extended its technology and service leadership with an increase of more than 100 percent in research and development (R&D) spending ‘ for the second consecutive year ‘ as well as expanded industry partnerships and a variety of prestigious awards and accolades.

The City of Burlington has issued a response to the report by Larkin and Associates with respect to Burlington Telecom (’Larkin Report’). The Larkin Report was initiated in October 2009 by the Vermont Department of Public Service in relation to proceedings on BT before the Vermont Public Service Board. The Report was released over a year later on December 10, 2010 and contains several conclusions related to BT’s compliance with its CPG, knowledge of those compliance issues, accounting practices, and the viability of Burlington Telecom.
The City’s response addresses Larkin’s methodology in developing the report, Larkin’s conclusions related to BT as a going concern, the City’s response to BT’s finances, Condition 60 of BT’s Certificate of Public Good, and several accounting matters.

Governor’s Budget Address
January 25, 2011
Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Mr. President Pro Tem, Members of the General Assembly, distinguished guests, fellow Vermonters:
Two weeks ago, we gathered here to commemorate a new day in our state’s long and rich history. In my inaugural address, I laid out my vision for Vermont ‘ a bold and ambitious agenda for job growth whose success depends on our ability to work together to get big things done.
That was a day for Vermonters to challenge our own imagination for what we must make possible: a new and innovative economy, quality health care for all Vermonters in a cost restrained system, broadband and cell service to every corner of the state, and educational excellence for a new century of job creators.

A new study by Informa Economics concludes that the Dairy Market Stabilization Program (DMSP) proposed by the National Milk Producers Federation would have withheld an estimated $626 million from dairy farmers during periods when they were already under significant financial pressure. In 2009, the worst financial year on record for dairy farmers, $390 million would have been withheld, with the majority of it, $236 million, coming from just five states: Wisconsin, New York, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Vermont would lose $4.1 million.