Current News

An early-bird sales deadline had Okemo Mountain Resort skiers and snowboarders scrambling to purchase their 2009/2010 season passes before rates went up after Columbus Day. As a result, year-to-date season pass sales are at an all-time high, breaking all previous early-bird sales figures – in units sold and in revenues.
“Okemo is up more than 11 percent in the sale of season passes,” says VP of Marketing and Sales Scott Clarkson. “We’re also up nearly six percent in revenue. Due to our decision to hold some of our pass rates at last winter’s pricing, we saw brisk sales prior to our April 30 renewal sale when prices were lowest.”
Some Okemo season passes offer added benefits including skiing at Okemo’s sister resorts, Mount Sunapee, N.H., and Crested Butte, Colo. Okemo’s pass alliance with Vermont’s Stratton Mountain continues this winter as well.

Mount Snow fired up nine of its state of the art fan guns on the Launch Pad Learning Area Wednesday night. With night time temperatures in the 20 s the window of snowmaking is available to attempt an opening with lift service on Saturday morning. The plan is for the Discovery Lift to run from 10am-4p both Saturday and Sunday and the trail will have a smattering of boxes and other features. Lift tickets will be $10 or a donation of 10 non-perishable food items. All proceeds will go to the Deerfield Valley Food Pantry.

Mount Snow was recently voted the #1 park and #1 resort in the east by Transworld Snowboarding readers. For updated snow conditions please go to www.mountsnow.com.

Source: Mount Snow. WEST DOVER, VT (October 14, 2009)

YWCA Vermont announces that Andrea Rogers, Flynn Performing Arts Center Executive Director will receive the 2009 YWCA Thrive Award. Ms Rogers will be honored at the YWCA Thrive luncheon on Thursday, October 29 for her leadership in the community.
YWCA Thrive award recognizes the intrinsic value successful women and girls bring to their communities, workplaces, and the world. This year's thrive awardee exemplifies this important purpose through her own unique leadership and vision.
Rogers was previously the director of prevention for the Vermont Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, she ran the University of Vermont Church Street Center, was instrumental in the fundraising required to reopen the Flynn in 1981 after which she served as the capital fund director. In 1983 Rogers became the Flynn s executive director. She is also co-founder of the Discover Jazz Festival.

Sierra House/Washington County Mental Health has received a $1,000 donation from Northfield Savings Bank for their transitional program. Sierra House is a Montpelier based non-profit supporting and advocating inclusion of all persons into our community, and actively encourages self-determination and recovery by serving individuals and families coping with mental health and developmental related challenges.
About Northfield Savings Bank

Citizens Financial Group, Inc has announced it set a company record for new checking accounts opened by Citizens Bank and Charter One customers during a one-week period. From October 3 through October 9, 2009, Citizens opened tens-of-thousands of new checking accounts throughout its 12-state retail footprint, surpassing its previous one-week record in 2007 by nearly 200 percent.
We are committed to simplifying our customers busy lives by making banking easier, said Vice Chairman Martin Bischoff, who heads Consumer and Business Banking at Citizens Financial Group. Our recent offers have enabled us to attract tens-of-thousands of new Citizens Bank and Charter One customers. As part of our focus on exceptional service, we look forward to providing our customers helpful banking solutions to achieve their financial goals.

The University of Vermont (UVM) Extension and the Vermont Dairy Industry Association have selected the 450-acre Richardson farm in Hartland as the 2009 Vermont Dairy Farm of the Year.
The University of Vermont (UVM) Extension and the Vermont Dairy Industry Association (VDIA), presenters of the annual award, chose the Richardson farm for the honor based on its overall excellence in dairying, including outstanding herd performance and superior milk quality. Judges described the three-generation farm as the epitome of an exemplary Vermont dairy farm, both in terms of milk and herd quality as well as high quality of life. They also cited immaculately clean grounds and a detail-oriented approach to farming.

Governor Jim Douglas announced Wednesday that the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) has awarded $3.9 million in Federal Transit Administration grants over the next three years to six public transportation providers to help them either start new or expand existing bus routes.
These grants will assist public transit providers across Vermont with their efforts to increase public transportation opportunities for the people of our state, said Governor Jim Douglas. These funds will also help us ease traffic congestion along some of our heaviest traveled routes and improve air quality.
Awards were made based on the provider s ability to mitigate congestion and its associated air quality impacts as well as their ability to show the viability and sustainability of the new or expanded route.

The State’s Emergency Board met today in Montpelier and approved a plan proposed by Governor Douglas and Treasurer Spaulding to make $135 million of low interest bonding authority available statewide for economic development projects through the Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA). The bonds which are issued will be revenue bonds, and so the state’s credit rating is not affected by this issuance. Neither the federal nor state government nor VEDA provides any kind of credit guarantee for these bonds so the projects and applicants must be able to satisfy investors that they will be repaid. In general, bond funding must be used to acquire or construct new depreciable assets. VEDA will underwrite applications and assist borrowers in placing their bonds. All bonds must be issued by December 31, 2010 and the maximum bond issuance for any one project is $25 million.

For the Week of 10/10/2009. There were 900 new regular benefit claims for Unemployment Insurance last week, an increase of 97 from the week before. Altogether 9,332 new and continuing claims were filed, the same as a week ago and 3,276 more than a year earlier. The Department also processed 4,661 First Tier claims for benefits under Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08), 46 more than a week ago. In addition, there were 1,017 Second Tier claims for benefits processed under the EUC08 program, which is an increase of 52 from the week before. The Unemployment Weekly Report can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/. Previously released Unemployment Weekly Reports and other UI reports can be found at: http://www.vtlmi.info/lmipub.htm#uc

Stefan Balaz, PhD, Chair and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences’ Vermont Campus, has been awarded a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health in the amount of $1,350,000. Dr Balaz and his team will develop an approach that will model how chemicals are transported and accumulate in biological membranes, helping researchers predict how new drug candidates are likely to behave in the body.
The results of the research will be combined with modeling of protein binding and incorporated into software, tentatively called cell-QSAR. Once the software is available, researchers will need only sketch the drug’s structure to understand the rate at which it will be transported through the membranes of the body. The transport rate is critical to determining whether a drug will be distributed throughout the body or if it is more likely to remain close to the location where it was administered.

The Vermont Agency of Transportation today opened Route 108 through Smugglers Notch. It will remain open until Mother Nature forces us to close it again. The Vermont Agency of Transportation had closed Route 108 through Smugglers' Notch because of icy conditions. VTrans annually closes this segment of Route 108 for the winter.

The Institute of Green Professionals (IGP) honored five individuals for their "extraordinary, outstanding and meritorious contributions to the sustainability sphere." The Honorary Fellow designation (Hon. FIGP) was awarded to Adam Werbach; architect R. Nicholas Loope, FAIA; Eric A. Woodroof, Ph.D.; Vermonter Mark W. McElroy, Ph.D.; and Dr. Diana Balmori. According to IGP's President, Grant W. Austin, the Institute is a "global education and credentialing membership group for professionals and academics in sustainable development, specifically architects, engineers, land planners, landscape architects, appraisers, IAQ experts, CSR specialists, accountants and attorneys."