Current News

Governor Jim Douglas, Senator Bernie Sanders, Congressman Peter Welch and a host of national and local rail officials and advocates today drove a golden spike along the tracks outside of the St. Albans Amtrak Station to signify the beginning of a two-year, $70 million construction project that will significantly improve track speeds along the Vermonter Passenger Rail line between St. Albans and New York City, with continuing service to Washington D.C.
The project, which received $50 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, involves installing new rail, rail ties, crossing improvements including new signals, and bridge rehabilitation along the Vermonter’s 191-mile Vermont corridor. Once complete, the improvements will reduce by about 30 minutes the time it takes the Vermonter to travel through the Green Mountain State.

Officials representing the downtown associations of Coaticook, PQ and Newport City formally celebrated their new Jumelage or ‘sister downtown’ relationship at a ceremony in Montpelier Tuesday, the first of what supporters hope will be many such connections made.
‘Both of these communities have thriving downtowns, and both are working to further enhance the economic and social vitality in their downtowns,’ said Governor Jim Douglas, who attended the ceremony. ‘I hope this initiative will provide yet another opportunity for Vermont and Quebec to learn about each other’s best practices, this time in downtown revitalization, and set the stage for greater cooperation in the future.’
Officials from Quebec’s downtowns and the Fondation Rue Principal (Main Street Foundation) were in Vermont for several days visiting their Vermont Downtown Program counterparts in several of the state’s designated downtowns and village centers to learn more about their efforts.

Judge Geoffrey W Crawford of the Vermont Superior Court, Civil Division, Washington Unit, recently issued two decisions upholding the confidentiality of criminal investigation and inquest records. In two separate cases, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Rutland Herald made public records requests to the Attorney General’s Office. The Herald’s request was also directed to the Department of Public Safety. The Court found that these requests were properly denied because the records are confidential under the Public Records Act.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) approved a three-year, $590,000 project for complex systems research by the University of Vermont Complex Systems Center and IBM Research into the future reliability of the smart grid. U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy secured an initial $500,000 for the UVM program, which then attracted an additional $90,000 in resources through the UVM-IBM partnership.

Vermont Secretary of State Deb Markowitz released the official 2010 election results today. In statewide races, state Senator Peter Shumlin was elected governor, state Senator Phil Scott was elected lieutenant governor, and state Senator Jim Condos was elected secretary of state. Because neither Shumlin nor Scott received 50 percent of the vote, the Legislature must vote to confirm their elections. This is a formality since their opponents have already conceded.
Also, US Senator Patrick Leahy, US Representative Peter Welch, Attorney General William Sorrell, Treasurer Jeb Spaulding and Auditor of Accounts Tom Salmon were all re-elected. Spaulding led all vote getters with 204,048 votes or 90 percent of the vote. A total of 243,617 votes were cast, or 54 percent of registered voters. In the 2008 general election, 72 percent of those registered voted.

Tasha Wallis, Executive Director of the Vermont Retail Association (VRA) announced today the winners of the 2010 VRA Retailer of the Year (ROY) Awards. In 2009, VRA inaugurated the ROYs to recognize the ‘best of the best’ in the retail industry, which is a major sector of Vermont’s economy. Retailers employ more Vermonters’over 37,000’than any other business sector except health care, accounting for 14% of the entire work force.
All Vermont businesses engaged in retail operations are eligible for nomination and consideration for the ROYs. After considering numerous nominations, this year’s panel of judges from the business community chose to honor these winners:
RETAILER OF THE YEAR
Honoring a Vermont retailer for Overall Excellence Allen Pools and Spas Rutland White River Jct. Williston Contact: Tom Colman [email protected] (802) 288-9028

The Charlotte, Vermont, to Essex, New York, ferry crossing will run as scheduled with the M/V Adirondack from Mid-November until the end of December.
Beginning January 1, the Governor Aiken will run as long as ice conditions permit.
Lake Champlain Ferries has taken delivery on a ferry built by Eastern Marine Shipbuilding in Panama City, Florida. The new ferry will be put in service by January 1 and used as a fill in for LCT ferries that need engine re-builds and US Coast Guard mandated haul-outs.
Source: LCT. 11.9.2010

By James Dwinell. A tour of China? Wow, as a youth in school, China was not even on the map, having ‘disappeared’ by decree after the Mao’s liberation. And yet here I was, scrambling to obtain a visa, update my shots, print business cards in Chinese, purchase tickets, and familiarize myself with the EB-5 rules.
The basic conditions of the EB-5 program are: a foreign national may make an at risk equity $500,000 investment in an American enterprise and in return receive temporary green cards for himself, his/her spouse, and their children. Each potential investor must be cleared by the American government and prove that his $500,000 was gained legitimately and that he had this $500,000 asset for as least five years.

Comcast, one of the nation’s leading providers of entertainment, information and communications products and services, today announced the launch of its wireless data service in Vermont, as the company continues its nationwide rollout of XFINITY Internet 2go.
In its initial offering, Comcast’s XFINITY Internet 2go is a third-generation or 3G wireless data service that provides nationwide wireless Internet service via a wireless data card. Comcast is now offering this wireless service bundled with one or more of its popular high-speed Internet, digital cable or voice products, providing mobile broadband wherever and whenever customers need to be connected. By the end of the year, Comcast will also offer XFINITY Internet 2go as a fourth-generation or 4G wireless high-speed data service via the Clearwire network in the Vermont market.

The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Vernon commenced a plant shutdown at approximately 7 pm Sunday night. On Sunday plant operators identified leakage of approximately 60 drops per minute from a system pipe. Subsequent investigation by technicians and engineers identified the leak of radioactive water to be in the feedwater system piping. The leak is within the containment area.
Because the leak is in a 24-inch piping section which cannot be repaired with the plant in operation, VY decided to take the plant out of service to perform a repair. At this time it is not sure when the plant will go back on line.
Plant spokesman Larry Smith sent a statement saying that the repair work to the pipe began Monday evening. The leak, which was identified late Saturday by plant operators, was found to be coming from a two-inch access plug in the pipe located in the feed pump room of the plant.

Lake Champlain Ferries is pleased to announce that it has taken delivery of a 216-foot vehicle / passenger ferry named the Raymond C. Pecor Jr., built for them by Eastern Marine Shipbuilding Group of Panama City Florida.
John W. Gilbert Associates of Hingham Mass designed the vessel with a passenger capacity of 200 and the vehicle load capacity of 220 long tons. The main engines are 1,000-hp Caterpillar 3508Cs and there are two 54-kW Caterpillar gensets. Speed is approximately 10 knots.
The Raymond C. Pecor Jr, is a sister vessel to the M/V Cumberland, which Eastern built and delivered in 2000. She will join Lake Champlain Transportation’s fleet of eleven vessels after it is re-assembled in Burlington. It is expected to be operating by the first of the New Year.
The vessel will make its journey up the Hudson and through the Champlain Canal, where the pilothouse and lounge will be dismantled and stored on the deck to clear overhead obstructions.

Central Vermont Public Service (NYSE: CV) reported consolidated earnings today of $15.6 million, or $1.27 per diluted share of common stock, for the first nine months of 2010, compared to $18.6 million, or $1.57 per diluted share of common stock, for the same period in 2009.
CV reported third-quarter 2010 consolidated earnings of $10 million, or 79 cents per diluted share of common stock, compared to $6.2 million, or 52 cents per diluted share of common stock, for the same period last year. (SEE TABLES BELOW)

‘We continue to make steady progress on achieving our 2010 earnings guidance,’ President Bob Young said. ‘Although we had sustained storm activity throughout the year, unplanned costs of major storms are deferrable under our Alternative Regulation Plan so the impact of storms on earnings for the nine months is tempered. We also saw a resurgence in retail demand in the third quarter due to warmer weather.’