Current News

A multimillion dollar factory in Barre Town that will produce components for electric and hybrid cars and a blighted public housing project in Rutland were among the winners of $3.6 million in grants awarded by the state of Vermont Wednesday. At a ceremony at the Forest Park housing complex, which is receiving $750,000 for rehabilitation, Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie announced Vermont Community Development Program grants to 10 Vermont communities.
“Projects like this will help Vermont emerge from the current national economic challenge with a stronger and more resilient economy, and with improved infrastructure and housing,” Dubie said.
The money will be granted to the City of Rutland, then loaned to Housing Vermont and the Rutland Housing Authority for the first phase of the revitalization of the Forest Park housing complex, a nearly $8 million project.

There were 1,224 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, an increase of 1190 from the week before as filings continue their upward trend. The September Vermont unemployment rate is 6.7 percent, down one-tenth from August. However, economists believe that it will rise to over 7 percent by the end of this year. The current US rate is 9.7 percent. Altogether 9,981 new and continuing claims were filed, an increase of 410 from a week ago and 3,076 more than a year earlier. The Department also processed 4,746 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 23 more than a week ago. In addition, there were 1,171 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is an increase of 96 from the week before. The Unemployment Weekly Report can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/.

With a nip in the air, Central Vermont Public Service today kicked off the annual CVPS Shareheat fund drive to provide emergency fuel assistance to Vermonters in need.
“While fuel prices are down, unemployment figures give us great pause as we begin the heating season,” CVPS President Bob Young said. “It’s critical that Shareheat, a vital bridge for many families, continue to be available to those in need.”
Thanks to CVPS shareholders and other business supporters, CVPS Shareheat will match contributions from the public dollar for dollar up to $140,700 this winter.
CVPS shareholders will provide $100,000 to Shareheat, and through the Shareheat Business Partnership Program, other Vermont businesses added $40,700 to the matching pool. The funds will be used to match contributions from customers and donated to local community action agencies to help Vermonters in need.

Vermont Public Radio met its October membership drive goal on Monday morning, surpassing its goal of $600,000. As a result, Chittenden Bank, which agreed to make a donation to the CVPS Shareheat and Warmth programs for every pledge to VPR, will donate about $25,000 to help keep families in crisis warm this winter.
I want to thank all of our generous listeners who help make Vermont Public Radio one of the strongest and most successful in the country, said VPR President Robin Turnau. The success of this drive sends an incredibly positive message about the power of public radio and our listeners tremendous sense of community.

Central Vermont Public Service will receive over $31 million in federal stimulus funds to aid in the implementation of CVPS SmartPower, the company s smart grid customer service and reliability program. The U.S. Department of Energy announced the funding as part of a statewide grant today.
This grant will allow CVPS to conduct ground-breaking pilot programs that will benefit not only Vermont, but potentially the country, CVPS President Bob Young said. The success of this statewide grant is testament to the cooperation of Vermont s utilities, all three of our congressional offices, the governor, the Department of Public Service and the state stimulus office.

The Vermont/New Hampshire chapter of the Association of Builders and Contractors is honoring the McNeil Generating Station, the 50 megawatt woodchip plant in Burlington s Intervale, for installing an RSCR (Regenerative Selective Catalytic Reduction) NOx-reduction unit at McNeil, which is cutting the NOx emissions from the plant by over half. The award will be received by plant manager John Irving at an awards dinner in Concord, NH, on Thursday, October 29.
The association recognizes The Best of the Best in construction and considered the RSCR installation at McNeil to be in that category.
With the installation of the RSCR unit, the Renewable Energy Credits at McNeil can now be sold in the Connecticut RECs market, which means that the unit will pay for itself in about two years.

On Thursday, October 9, the Vermont Department of Public Service announced that they had arrived at an agreement with the owners of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to pass the facility along to a spin-off company called Enexus.
In an eight-page memorandum of understanding, the state officials who negotiated the deal said the agreement was made possible by financial guarantees from Entergy Vermont Nuclear that this new company would safety and effectively operate Vermont Yankee. This marks a reversal from the position previously held by the Department, which had said earlier that the deal would not be approved.
The key provisions of the deal between the state of Vermont, Entergy, and Enexus include:

The Vermont Congressional Delegation – Senator Patrick Leahy (D), Senator Bernie Sanders (I) and Representative Peter Welch (D) – announced today that Vermont Transco, LLC, will receive $68,928,650 in federal support to launch Vermont’s Smart Grid technology. The funds are part of $3.4 billion in Smart Grid grants across the nation that President Obama announced – the largest awards made in a single day from this year’s American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

After years spent at their Lakeside Avenue plant in Burlington's South End, General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products has announced plans to relocate. In a statement released on Friday the 23, the company revealed that it will be moving its operations to IBM Road in Williston next year. The company is one of Burlington's largest private employers, with a roster of nearly 450 people.
According to General Dynamics, employees will remain at the existing Lakeside Avenue site until the new facility is reconstructed to the company's specifications. The new facility, owned and operated by IBM Corp., consists of 112,000 square feet of office space.
General Dynamics received nearly $522 million in business with the federal government during 2008. According to figures provided by Bill Mastersons from the Vermont Procurement Technical Assistance Center, the company is Vermont's largest beneficiary of federal contracts.

Co-operative Insurance Companies was recognized this month for its achievements in improving electronic communication with its agencies. In presenting Co-op with the 2009 Interface Partner Award, insurance technology company Applied Systems noted Co-op’s leadership, innovations, and commitment to providing its agents with easy access to the most up-to-date quoting and policy information.
“The continued commitment of forward-thinking carriers such as Co-op keeps our industry advancing,” said Doug Johnston, vice president, Partner Relations & Product Innovations at Applied Systems. “We recognize the company’s dedication to interface partnerships with its agencies, and for overall benefit to the industry.”

Roger Allbee, Vermont Secretary of Agriculture yesterday announced the appointment of Diane Bothfeld as Deputy Secretary. David Lane, formerly Deputy Secretary of the Agency of Agriculture recently resigned to pursue another opportunity.
“Diane is very enthusiastic, dedicated and concerned about agriculture in Vermont and nationally. She brings an excellent skill set and energy to the position,” said Allbee. “We look forward to working with her in this new role for the agency.”
Most recently, Diane held the position of Dairy Policy Administrator for the agency. In this role she represented the Vermont dairy industry on many levels and implemented dairy policy on the state and national levels.

US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) today announced $944,000 in federal funding for state law enforcement and first responders. Sanders secured $506,000 to for the Vermont Department of Public Safety to improve communications equipment and technology. Another $250,000 will allow the Vermont State Police to take advantage of the most advanced in-cruiser camera technology available, according to Col. Tom L’Esperance, the state police director.
“This technology will ensure Vermont State Police meet our goals of flawless evidence collection, efficient investigations, swift prosecution, transparent performance, and bias-free policing,” L’Esperance said.