Current News

Vermont Business Magazine and The Arno Group, LLC partnered to take a pulse of the Vermont business community. On February 10, 2010, we sent a survey to 3,100 businesses throughout Vermont and received 254 responses.
The survey is made up of thirty-seven questions. Some of the questions try to quantify what factors drive Vermont businesses to be here and succeed and as well which business factors frustrate cause pain to businesses in Vermont. We did not ask about every possible business factor, but instead listed a sample of issues which confront businesses everywhere, such as health care, labor costs and taxes. In addition, we asked questions aiming to quantify how much pain certain factor costs cause businesses and how much that pain would need to be reduced to make the pain go away. We review that data below.

Vermont Governor Jim Douglas this morning announced that the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) will conduct a record amount of paving this construction season. VTrans will invest more than $100 million on paving this season for the first time in its history. Governor Douglas made the announcement in Sheldon, where VTrans is paving nearly 10 miles of Route 105 between Sheldon and Enosburg.
“I am proud of the increased investment we’ve made in our transportation infrastructure in recent years,” the Governor said. “This year’s paving budget is a great example of our commitment. VTrans’ paving expenditure for the 2010 construction season will total about $120 million – a record sum as no other paving season has ever topped $100 million.”

Attorney General Andrew M Cuomo today announced that his office is dedicating $500,000 to create a new grant program to help local farmers fight water pollution in Lake Champlain. The funds, from a settlement that Cuomo secured in a court-ordered settlement with American Electric Power, will assist farmers in the southern Champlain Valley to further improve operations and reduce stormwater discharges of nutrients from their land. Cuomo enlisted the help of Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell in finding a way for farmers in Vermont and New York to reduce pollutants along the southern stretches of the lake.

ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, has been recognized as “Best Aquarium” 2010 Editors’ Choice in Yankee Magazine’s Travel Guide to New England, on newsstands now. This designation is awarded by Yankee’s editors and contributors, who name select restaurants, lodgings, and attractions in New England to the exclusive list. Recipients range from the rustic to the refined, but all are noteworthy and memorable destinations. For 34 years, Yankee Magazine’s Travel Guide to New England has been the most widely distributed and best-selling guide to the six-state region, providing readers with a comprehensive vacation-planning tool and daily reference.
ECHO’s designation was accompanied by the following Yankee Editor’s Choice quote:
“Frogs and whale skeletons, shipwrecks and sea monsters — there’s something to stir any imagination at this exceedingly well-done exploration of the ecology and culture of Lake Champlain.”

Alderman's Toyota has expanded their service center, built a used car center and a new state of the art car wash in Rutland Town.

Pictured, left to right:
Marleen Cenate, Heritage Family Credit Union/RRCC 1st Treasurer
John Valente, Ryan, Smith & Carbine, Ltd./RRCC Board President
Pierre Masuy, OMYA, Inc./RRCC Board of Directors
Alvin Figiel, NBF Architects
Kate Alderman, Alderman's Toyota
Stacy Alderman, Alderman's Toyota
Phil Alderman, Alderman's Toyota
Chris Cento, Boston Regional Manager, Toyota
Jim Hall, Rutland Town Select Board
Stanley Rhodes, Chair, Rutland Town Select Board
Tom Donahue, Executive Vice President/CEO Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce

The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) on Wednesday, May 12 will close the ramp connecting Interstate 89 South to Interstate 91 North. The ramp is being closed so that routine repairs can be conducted to a bridge that is part of the ramp. The closure, which will also affect how traffic from Route 4 accesses I-91 North, is expected to last three weeks.
Motorists heading to I-91 North from either I-89 South or Route 4 East will be detoured along Route 4 East and eventually to Route 5 South where motorists will connect to I-91 North at Exit 11. Motorists are encouraged to leave extra time to reach their destination.
The ramp closure will not affect traffic traveling south along I-89 seeking to connect to I-91 South.
Source: VTrans. 5.11.2010

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc today announced that the Federal Trade Commission has closed its investigation concerning GMCR’s tender offer for Diedrich Coffee, Inc. With this closure, all necessary approvals of the tender offer under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 have been obtained. The tender offer is scheduled to expire at midnight, New York City time, on Monday, May 10, 2010, and is not expected to be extended further.
The Board of Directors of Diedrich Coffee has recommended that Diedrich Coffee stockholders tender their shares into the tender offer. Questions and requests for assistance regarding the tender offer may be directed to the Information Agent for the offer, Okapi Partners LLC, toll-free at (877) 274-8654.
BofA Merrill Lynch is serving as financial advisor to GMCR on this transaction and Ropes & Gray LLP is serving as its legal advisor.
About Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR)

Vermont Attorney General William H Sorrell announced today that Vermont and sixteen other states have filed a joint motion to intervene in two whistleblower lawsuits against the drug manufacturer Wyeth. In the motion and accompanying complaint, filed last Friday, the States allege that Wyeth knowingly failed to report certain discounted prices of its drugs as required by laws governing the Medicaid program. As a result, Wyeth allegedly avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in rebates owed to state Medicaid programs for its drugs, Protonix Oral and Protonix IV.
"Vermont should not be forced to pay a premium price for these important drugs when it is entitled to a discount. By intervening in this case, we are attempting to protect the fiscal integrity of Vermont's Medicaid program, and the health of the many Vermonters who depend upon it," said Attorney General Sorrell.

USDA Rural Development still has more than $6 million in funding available for low and very low income homebuyers in rural areas across Vermont through the Single Family Housing Direct Loan program. These funds must be spent by September 30, 2010.

The program, which has been in existence since 1935, offers direct loans for the purchase or construction of homes in designated rural areas. It received a boost last year with an injection of almost $1 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding aimed to mitigate the effects of the recession on the housing industry.

Main Street Realty today announced they have joined Vermont’s and Northern New Hampshire’s largest independent Real Estate firm, Lang McLaughry Spera. Lang McLaughry Spera, serves homebuyers and sellers in the two-state geographic area encompassing the Upper Connecticut River Valley, the Central Vermont region and Northwestern Vermont including the Champlain Valley. With 14 offices, and a 150-member sales and support team the firm is known as being one of the leading real estate companies in the Northeast.

Vermont Business Magazine (May 10, 2010) -- Rock of Ages Corporation (NASDAQ:ROAC) has announced that its Board of Directors received an unsolicited proposal from Swenson Granite Company, LLC, of Concord, NH, to purchase all outstanding shares of common stock, including shares underlying vested options, of Rock of Ages for a purchase price of $4.38 per share in cash. The text of Swenson's proposal letter is set forth below in this release. The acquisition proposed by Swenson is conditioned on lender due diligence, negotiation of a definitive structure and terms to be set forth in a definitive acquisition agreement with Rock of Ages, and Swenson obtaining financing for the transaction in an amount sufficient to fund the purchase price and the ongoing operations of the two companies.

Average retail gasoline prices in Vermont have fallen 1 cent per gallon in the past week, averaging $2.90/g yesterday. This compares with the national average that has increased 2.1 cents per gallon in the last week to $2.93/g, according to gasoline price website VermontGasPrices.com.
Including the change in gas prices in Vermont during the past week, prices yesterday were 70.6 cents per gallon higher than the same day one year ago and are 1.6 cents per gallon higher than a month ago. The national average has increased 6.8 cents per gallon during the last month and stands 72.1 cents per gallon higher than this day a year ago.