Current News

The New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) announces a newly constructed temporary bridge carrying US Route 4 over the Connecticut River between Lebanon, New Hampshire (Bridge Street) and Hartford, Vermont (Maple Street) opened today to traffic.
The temporary bridge has no weight restrictions for truck traffic. It also has a sidewalk open for pedestrian traffic.
The 390-foot long US Route 4 Bridge was built in 1936 and rebuilt in 1976. It is a State of New Hampshire “Red List” bridge, with more frequent inspections required due to known deficiencies. The bridge was posted at a ten-ton load capacity in July of 2008 that restricted heavy truck traffic. It has now been closed to all traffic and motorists are being detoured onto the temporary bridge. Current plans are to advertise for a permanent bridge replacement in 2012.

The board of directors of Opportunities Credit Union has named Cheryl Fatnassi as the CEO and President. Fatnassi has over 29 years working in financial services. She was the former Senior Vice President for IT Systems at Banknorth and had previously managed all aspects of technology and retail banking, CRA and compliance. She also has experience with capital campaigns and grant writing from prior non-profit experience. Fatnassi was the Chief Operations Officer for Opportunities until March of 2008 when the Board promoted her as an interim CEO after the retirement of Opportunities’ founder, Caryl Stewart. She graduated from the University of Vermont with a bachelor’s degree in French and Economics.

AT&T today announced an update on the availability of its third generation (3G) mobile broadband network in Vermont, starting with the southern part of the state. As part of AT&T's initial network upgrade plan, 3G will go live on a rolling basis starting in Bennington, Brattleboro, Brownsville, Killington, Vernon, Warren, West Dover and White River Junction sometime this week. By December 31st, 3G will be added in Burlington, Colchester, Essex Junction, Fayston, Hartford, Jamaica, Jeffersonville, Middlebury, Rutland, South Burlington, St. Albans, Stowe, Waitsfield, West Rutland, West Townshend, West Wardsboro, Williston and Winooski.

Senate and House leaders have included a two-month extension of the distant signal satellite license in the Department of Defense appropriations bill. The extension will allow Windham and Bennington counties in Vermont to continue to receive Burlington stations through DirecTV.
“While Senate and House leaders were not able to reach an agreement to pass a long-term extension of the law governing the retransmission of broadcast signals, I am pleased that Congress will provide for a two-month extension of this important legislation. Because of this extension, Americans across the country will not lose their ability to watch college bowl games at home on January 1.

The US Green Building Council (USGBC) has recognized seven of its nearly 80 local chapters with its Annual Chapter Awards of Excellence. The awards, presented last month in Phoenix at USGBC’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, are given to chapters that excel in providing local green building outreach and education and in fostering best practices among the green building community. The four award categories include: Advocacy & Influence; Community; Education; and Organizational Excellence. The awards are sponsored each year by USGBC national member Milliken & Company.

The Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA) approved $7.4 million in commercial and agricultural financing for business projects throughout Vermont, leveraging another $7.4 million in private funding to support projects totaling $14.8 million.
“VEDA is pleased to support these manufacturing, renewable energy, small business and family farm projects,” said Jo Bradley, VEDA’s Chief Executive Officer. “Jobs will be sustained and new jobs created, and that growth is critically important for Vermont’s economy.”
Among the projects approved by VEDA:

This story is reprinted from Vermont Business Magazine, December 2009

by Joyce Marcel Vermont Business Magazine There is no shortage of visionaries in Vermont, but only a handful of them have had the courage, talent and confidence to carve out empires.

Governor Douglas announced today that former Secretary of Natural Resources, Elizabeth “Wibs” McLain will join the Governor’s staff as Special Assistant to the Governor. McLain will assist with Legislative affairs and agency liaison. McLain was Secretary of ANR from 2003-2005.
Douglas also announced that Secretary of Civil of Military Affairs, Heidi Tringe will serve as Deputy Chief of Staff. Tringe will replace Deputy Chief of Staff, Dennise Casey when Casey leaves the Governor’s staff at the end of the year to join the Republican Governors Association.
Governor Douglas has also elevated Special Assistant to the Governor, David Coriell to serve as Secretary of Civil and Military Affairs and Communications Director.
Staff changes are effective on January 1, 2010.
Source: Governor's office, 12.15.2009.

The Transformation Policy Commission Report on the future of Vermont public education released its Final Report of Policy Recommendations to the Vermont State Board of Education today. Among its recommendations is new standards and a new evaluation system for students based on outcomes; aligning secondary school curriculums with post-secondary curriculums; teacher evaluations which would include salary levels based on performance reviews; formation of Regional Education Districts, which would expand educational opportunities beyond the town a student lives in while reducing the number of school districts from the current 290 to as few as 13, to provide more choices for students and their families and more resources for the district.

In a first for the renewables and aviation industries, Heritage Aviation, the new General Aviation Facility at the Burlington (Vermont) International Airport, will install a wind turbine on-site at their new facility. Due to a construction delay, the Northwind 100, a 100kW wind turbine manufactured by Northern Power of Barre, Vermont, will be constructed this week rather than last week as originally planned. Heritage Aviation has already installed a 25kW solar electric system and a solar hot water (thermal) system, rounding out its complete on-site renewable energy generation portfolio.

Median family income in Vermont rose to a record high of $68,555 in 2008, according to The Vermont Economy Newsletter’s annual analysis of just-released Vermont Tax Department data. After adjusting for inflation, the income earned by the median family (half of all families earn more and half earn less than the median) rose by $300, or 0.4 percent in 2008.
“The rise in income in 2008 was very small, but it was still positive. Given that the economy was in a recession, it’s somewhat surprising” noted Art Woolf, co-author of the analysis and editor of The Vermont Economy Newsletter. “From 2003, when income growth bottomed out after the last recession, to 2008, real median family income grew by just over $4,000. And since 1975, the first year that we have data, the real income for a typical Vermont family has grown by more than $25,000.”

The Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC) has joined the growing list of educational facilities that are able to take advantage of a direct fiber-optic connection. The historic West Monitor Barn was recently connected in the latest phase of a Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom system upgrade that includes parts of East Main Street and Snipe Ireland Road. Approximately 62 customers in Richmond are now receiving high-speed Internet and telephone services via fiber-to-the-home technology as a result of this upgrade. Fiber-optic technology is a highly reliable and scalable technology that has the potential to offer speeds of more than 100 Mbps.