Current News

The Boys & Girls Club of Burlington is pleased to
announce a $5,000 grant award from the Citizen’s Bank Foundation to
partially fund the career readiness and life skills program, KnowHow2Go. In
it’s fourth year, the KnowHow2Go Program introduces middle school and
high school youth to the college process and possible career choices in
order to encourage and prepare them to pursue higher education options.
The program is a series of educational sessions designed to inform members
about good study habits; setting goals; guiding students to high school
course selection that leads them to a higher education path. Additionally
participants learn the basics of handling personal finances and accessing
college loans; attend college and business visits, and receive homework
assistance and extensive mentoring support.
Brigitte Ritchie, Citizens Bank Vice President for Public Affairs and

Frank Trombetta of Midway Oil has opened Poultney and Fair Haven’s first Irving Oil gas stations, expanding the regional brand to the community. They are located at 267 Main Street in Poultney and 38 Main Street in Fair Haven.
‘Midway Oil is a locally owned, family operated Vermont business that has served the community since 1925,’ said Trombetta. ‘Irving Oil’s reputation of being a family-owned company with a deep community commitment fell in line with our values and motivated us to join the brand. Their growth in Vermont has been particularly impressive. We are excited to expand the Irving brand here and are looking forward to continuing to serve the members of our community.’
Midway Oil is owned by the Trombetta and Merone families. The company supplies fuel for 53 gas stations and owns 20 locations in Vermont and upstate New York.

Stratton Mountain Resort saw its first snow covering this morning after flurries last night stuck to some of its trails for the first time this season.

Source: Stratton 10.15.2010 www.Stratton.com.

For the second time this year, Chittenden Solid Waste Department staff will suit up and sort trash gathered from around Chittenden County for four days during the week of October 18. A sort done in May 2010 found that recyclables comprised 16.8 percent of trash, down from 19.3 percent in 2006.
Similar to the Burlington City Hall sort that took place on October 14, staff will measure the amount of recyclables and compostables that are ending up languishing in a landfill when they could have been recycled into new products, or composted into valuable soil amendments.

Attorney General William H. Sorrell is urgently warning Vermonters to be suspicious of any request to send money by wire transfer. Vermonters are currently being targeted for a variety of financial frauds including bogus sweepstakes and lotteries, phony rentals, and calls and emails from scammers posing as friends or relatives. ‘Our office has received reports from Vermont consumers targeted by these wire transfer scams, totaling over $35,000 in losses in the past two weeks alone. If someone contacts you and asks you to wire money for any reason, don’t do it without first calling my office at 800-649-2424.’

SKI Magazine released results from its 2011 Reader Resort Survey naming Sugarbush Resort as the #1 resort in the east for terrain variety. Sugarbush came out on top in a category in which the resort is committed to having a stronghold.
"This ranking really pleases me for several reasons," says owner and president Win Smith. "It underscores the fact that Sugarbush is a place where you can not only learn to ski, but where you can continue skiing throughout your life. You won't ever get bored here."
Sugarbush's #1 ranking in terrain variety is followed by a #2 ranking for overall satisfaction, and a #3 for service. The 1-2-3 punch marks a new high for the resort, which has experienced a steady increase in the survey results over the last ten years.

Layoffs - Budget Cuts - Downsizing.
Every day there seems to be another news story covering the fallout from the current economic downturn.
Today's economy has created an increasingly challenging environment for human resource administrators. If you are the person responsible for the HR functions of your organization, you may know that there are federal and state employment laws that can help you maneuver through these difficult times - but how familiar are you with them?

The Workforce Development Center at Champlain College, in collaboration with HRSentry, is offering a series of online workshops that can answer your questions and give you the skills needed to successfully handle the human resources issues you face every day.

Workshops are delivered 100% online, giving you access to the resources and knowledge you need 24/7, on a schedule that works for you.

Governor Jim Douglas yesterday departed for Japan on the first leg of a 12-day EB-5 trade mission to Asia to help Vermont employers attract foreign investment and create jobs. The EB-5 program is a federal investment program run by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The goal of the program is to incent investment and create American jobs by setting aside a pool of green cards for qualified foreign investors that invest capital into approved EB-5 projects. The Vermont EB-5 Regional Center is run through the Agency of Commerce and Community Development and has raised over $100 million in new capital for companies and projects.
Governor Douglas and the delegation will be traveling to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Vietnam between October 14 and October 26.
Source: Governor's office. 10.13.2010

Larry Sudbay, President and Chief Executive Officer of SymQuest Group, Inc, announced today that SymQuest’s fifteenth annual golf tournament raised $5,000 for Spectrum Youth and Family Services. The tournament was held at the Vermont National Country Club, South Burlington, Vermont, on Monday, October 4.
‘Support like this is so critical to our mission of offering innovative best practice programs and services for youth and their families in need in this area,’ said Mark Redmond, Executive Director, Spectrum Youth and Family Services. ‘We are very grateful for SymQuest’s recognition of the work that we perform and for the funding generated from this memorable event.’

Two Vermont companies are leading a surge in national sales of "fair trade" consumer products. Fair trade generally refers to agricultural products from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and South America that ensures that farmers receive market value for their products and social justice for themselves.

The Vermont Attorney General’s Office has concluded its investigation of a complaint that the Republican Governors Association (“RGA”) and the Friends of Brian Dubie campaign coordinated on campaign expenditures in connection with a video called Vision for Vermont. The Office conveyed its conclusions to the interested parties by letter today.
While the Attorney General’s Office viewed the complaint as a serious matter, it concluded that there is insufficient evidence to warrant an enforcement action against either the RGA or the Dubie Campaign under 17 V.S.A. § 2806 for violation of the $3,000-per-election limit on contributions from political committees to candidates in § 2805(b) as added by 1982 Vt. Acts & Resolves No. 197, §1, and amended by 1988 Vt. Acts & Resolves No. 263, §3.

The Vermont Public Service Board has found that Burlington Telecom is in "wanton" violation of its Certificate of Public Good as related to it borrowing $16.9 million from the City of Burlington and not paying it back, and for its failure to buildout the network by 2008. BT was challenged by the Department of Public Service, which acts on behalf of consumers, and was joined by Comcast. Comcast is BT's principal competitor in the city for high-speed Internet and landline television services. The PSB Order was filed October 8.
BT was found by the PSB to be in violation of four Conditions of its CPG: 2,17,56,60. Condition 2 requires that Burlington Telecom conduct its operations consistent with the CPG. Therefore, if BT is in violation of any condition, it is in violation of Condition 2. Condition 17 refers to its failure to buildout the service to every address by September 2008, which it still has not completed.