Current News

In testimony to be filed July 2, the Vermont Natural Resources Council asserts that groundwater pollution at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant violates the state’s recently-enacted groundwater public trust law.
“Every Vermonter owns Vermont’s groundwater,” said Jon Groveman, VNRC’s legal counsel and water program co-director. “If Vermont Yankee is claiming they have not violated Vermont law because the groundwater they have polluted has not spread to drinking water wells off their property, they are wrong,” he said.
In 2008, the legislature passed Act 199, which declares groundwater to be a public trust resource.
VNRC is filing the testimony in a Public Service Board docket investigating the leaks of radioactive substances at the plant. The docket is part of a broader PSB review of whether Vermont Yankee should continue operation.

Kelliher Samets Volk was awarded the Yankee PRSA’s 2010 Summit Award for its successful public relations campaign utilizing social media on behalf of client Stowe Mountain Resort.
Awarded annually, the Summit Award recognizes excellence in a specific area of focus. This year, the award recognized excellence in the use of social media as the primary tool utilized in a public relations campaign.
‘We were very impressed with KSV’s execution of the campaign,’ said Martin Murray, Yankee PRSA awards committee chair and senior corporate news representative at PSNH. ‘KSV used the right tools, and used them more effectively, than many other agencies, in the opinion of the judges.’
Summit Award judges included Katie Delahaye Paine of KDPaine & Partners, Berlin, NH; and, Rich Brooks of flyte new media, Portland, ME.

The chief executives of Vermont’s leading businesses appear increasingly optimistic toward all three of the survey’s metrics: sales prospects, capital expenditures and employment levels for the summer months and fall months, when compared against first quarter 2010 forecasts. The mood was assessed near the end of the second quarter and released today by Vermont Business Roundtable Chair Bill Stritzler and President Lisa Ventriss.
According to Roundtable President, Lisa Ventriss, ‘Overall, these data represent the third straight reporting period in which indicators have been trending positively for sales, capital expenditures, and employment levels. In particular, a strengthening in the sales forecasts from our CEO members; now more than two-thirds (69 percent) of respondents expect their sales to increase in the next six months, compared to 63 percent from the first quarter. That bodes well for Vermont products and services.’ Ventriss said.

Kimbell Sherman Ellis, LLP, (KSE) a national government affairs and strategic communications firm, announced today a joint venture with Anya Rader Wallack, founder and president of Arrowhead Health Analytics of Fall River, MA. The venture positions the firms to jointly serve and empower clients affected by the recently passed national health care reform legislation and closely links Wallack and KSE, the firm where she began her career in 1989.
Wallack has a deep knowledge of health policy, including Medicaid and the impact of national health care reform on the 50 states. She established Arrowhead earlier this year after serving as interim president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation (BCBSMAF) and executive director of the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute (MMPI). Her clients include health care foundations, state governments and health care provider organizations.

Michael R. Tuttle, President and CEO of Merchants Bank, today announced that Merchants Bancshares, Inc, the parent company of Merchants Bank, was ranked 12th among the “Top 200 Community Banks,” as published in the June 2010 issue of US Banker Magazine. US Banker Magazine publishes an annual ranking of community banks based on their three-year average return on equity. These top 200 are selected from the over 7,000 FDIC-insured banks in the category of under $2 billion in total assets.
“This ranking is a reflection of the great work our people do every day. We are especially proud that this ranking is based upon a three-year average return and therefore demonstrates our sustained commitment over time to strong financial performance,” commented Mr. Tuttle.

Vermont Senators Patrick Leahy (D) and Bernie Sanders (I) and Representative Peter Welch (D) reported Wednesday that Vermont local governments are set to receive $896,432 for Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) – the federal payments to local governments that help compensate communities for nontaxable federal lands within their boundaries. Fifty-six towns and counties in Vermont will receive payments, ranging from $214 to $70,513.

The office of the Vermont Attorney General has approved a new plan for closing Intervale Compost Products (ICP) in Burlington, averting an order that would have closed the facility yesterday. The deal allows for the current facility to remain in operation for a year, until a new, $1.25 million covered-facility in Williston comes on line. In exchange for the delay, the CSWD will pay the state $10,000 on a to-be-named environmental project.

The Chittenden Solid Waste District, which owns and operates Intervale Compost Products, plans on opening a new facility on Redmond Road in Williston in February 2011. The new location will accept the same food, yard, and farm debris as ICP currently accepts, and will process it into compost.

For the week of June 26, 2010, there were 1,111 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance, an increase of 8 from the week before. Altogether 10,363 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 152 from a week ago and 4,225 fewer than a year earlier. The Department also processed 2,948 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 353 fewer than a week ago. In addition, there were 1,776 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is a decrease of 154 from the week before. In addition, the Vermont Department of Labor announced on June 30 that it would be discontinuing extended unemployment benefits (STORY) beginning July 10 because the state's unemployment rate has fallen below 6.5 percent (STORY), which is below the federal mandate for such benefits. The Unemployment Weekly Report can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/.

Gifford Medical Center’s fifth annual Last Mile Ride will rev into a town near you on Saturday, August 21st. The annual charity motorcycle ride benefits Gifford patients at the end-of-life or in advanced illness.
Gifford in Randolph provides special care in a garden-side suite, the Garden Room, for patients at the end of life and to their grieving families. The medical center also has an Advanced Illness Care Team dedicated to improving care for all in advanced illness and even has specially trained palliative care physicians.
The ride was created by a Gifford motorcycle rider and nurse, Lynda McDermott of Randolph, to support the Garden Room and special services for dying patients, like massages for pain management, family photos by a local professional - Janet Miller of Braintree - care packages, bereavement mailers, grief support, help for all with Advance Directives, staff training, and much, much more.

As a result of the decline in Vermont’s unemployment rate, the Vermont Department of Labor (VDOL) announced today that it will discontinue paying Federal-State extended unemployment compensation program benefits effective the week ending July 10, 2010. The May unemployment rate was 6.2% bringing Vermont’s three month average unemployment rate down to 6.4 percent, below the 6.5 percent federal and state threshold required to establish extended Unemployment compensation benefits (EB). The EB program was designed to provide up to 13 additional weeks of unemployment benefits during periods of high unemployment to individuals who exhaust regular state unemployment benefits. This means no EB payments will be made after the week ending July 10, 2010. Claimants impacted will be mailed a notice shortly advising of the end of their benefits.

Heavily subsidized by the Chinese government in violation of global trading rules, the Chinese paper industry has tripled production over the past decade, killing jobs throughout the United States and driving up the massive U.S. trade deficit with China, according to a report released today by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). In Vermont, according to the study, some 1,005 jobs are at stake.
The EPI report, No Paper Tiger: Subsidies to China’s Paper Industry from 2002–2009, says that China’s rapid rise in the global paper industry has been fueled by more than $33 billion in government subsidies from 2002 to 2009. The full report can be found at www.americanmanufacturing.org

Online advertised vacancies was up a solid 600 jobs in Vermont while they only inched up nationally by 19,600 in June to 4,154,000 following a small decline in May, according to The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine (HWOL) Data Series released today. New York and New Hampshire also showed strong gains. The gap between the number of unemployed and advertised vacancies (supply/demand rate) stood at 3.62 unemployed for every advertised vacancy in May (the last available unemployment data) but is down from 4.73 in October 2009.
- Job demand remained essentially unchanged in May and June but up over 500,000 nationally during the first 6 months of 2010- Demand for sales workers continues to climb- Job demand is strong in several states in the Northeast including NY, NJ & PA- NOTE: The June release incorporates new seasonal adjustment factors