Current News

Vermont Agriculture Secretary Roger Allbee yesterday met with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack at a town hall meeting in Concord, New Hampshire, where he joined other Northeast agriculture commissioners, emphasizing the serious need for assistance for dairy farmers in Vermont and across the nation.
At his first face-to-face meeting with the Obama administration official, Allbee thanked Secretary Vilsack for the leadership he has already provided the dairy industry including moving surplus products into food export and nutrition programs. He also asked for more direct assistance, explaining the dire need for help on behalf of the State s 1,046 dairy farmers.
Secretary Vilsack indicated yesterday that he understands the seriousness of the situation our dairy farmers are facing and that he is continuing to work on additional options for the industry. He also stated the need for USDA to renew its focus on regional food production, said Allbee.

Governor Jim Douglas and New Hampshire Governor John Lynch will be in Beecher Falls tomorrow at the Ethan Allen furniture plant to address employees and offer state support and resources to the roughly 260 employees who were recently informed that they would be let go. At least half of the employees reside in New Hampshire.
I want to thank my good friend Governor Lynch for taking the time to come to Vermont and for his Administration s commitment to work with mine so that our labor officials can deploy every possible resource to the employees of Ethan Allen, said Governor Douglas. We will continue to work together to offer support to this important employer and to the people of this region. This is a very difficult time for our state s economy, especially in the Kingdom, and we must do all we can to be sure that when the economy rebounds we are prepared with the tools and economic support to help Ethan Allen thrive again.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, in cooperation with USDA and the Vermont Department of Forest, Parks and Recreation, invites you to attend a free educational workshop designed to teach volunteer citizens how to identify the Asian longhorned beetle (ALB). This will help to ensure early detection and better chances of eradication quickly of this destructive non-native forest pest.
The preferred host for the ALB is maple trees making it a real and serious threat to the Vermont landscape and economy. Just last year, ALB was found in Worcester, Mass.
The workshops will include two hours of classroom time followed by one hour in the field to teach volunteer citizens how to identify ALB. Classroom work will include information on the threat to Vermont s forests, the biology of ALB, including how to recognize the larval and adult stages, how to recognize external symptoms of ALB infestation on host trees, and who to contact should they see this pest.

For more than 40 yeas, the Vermont Chamber of Commerce has recognized an outstanding citizen with the prestigious Citizen of the Year award. Nomination materials will be collected through July 31, and a special selection committee will meet soon thereafter to select this year’s recipient.
Nominees are judged on three criteria: This award is presented to a Vermonter who has made major contributions to the progress and betterment of the Green Mountain State; has been distinguished through outstanding service to his or her community and region; and in the judgment of the selection committee, typifies the true spirit of service and self-sacrifice in representing the finest ideals of Vermont citizenship.

The chief executives of Vermont s leading businesses seem cautious over capital expenditure and employment levels for the summer and fall when compared against expected increases in their sales volumes for that same time frame. In general, however, the attitude of the business community appears to have stabilized from the last quarter. The current mood was assessed at the end of June and released today by Vermont Business Roundtable Chair Bill Stritzler and President Lisa Ventriss.

Business leaders in New England are cautiously optimistic about the local and national economies, according to a new survey conducted by the National Association of Corporate Directors New England Chapter (NACD New England). Seventy-eight percent of the boardroom directors and other business leaders surveyed believe that the U.S. economy will recover either significantly or slightly within the next 12 to 24 months. Only five percent believe the economy will worsen, and 16 percent expect it to remain the same.
NACD New England's 2009 Leadership Survey on Economic & Corporate Governance Trends surveyed 145 business leaders who serve on corporate or non-profit boards or hold other leadership positions at New England companies regarding the economy, as well as corporate governance issues including risk management, government oversight and boardroom diversity.

There s a new big man on campus this summer at Champlain College Samuel de Champlain in the form of a new bronze statue by Vermont artist and sculptor James Sardonis of Randolph.
The new statue, commissioned by Champlain College Trustee Emeritus John W. Heisse, Jr. M.D., was unveiled in a special ceremony Thursday afternoon on the opening day of the When the French Were Here, Quadricentennial history symposium.
The statue, which rests on a column of polished black granite from Quebec, depicts the French explorer as he might have looked in the summer heat of July 1609 when he arrived in the region by canoe. The 39-year-old explorer Champlain is posed kneeling, looking out on the lake with a spyglass. The statue, located in the Rozendaal Courtyard between Alumni Auditorium and the IDX Student Life Center, has a view to the west overlooking Champlain College s Perry Hall and the lake.

A federal court on Tuesday overturned the Bush administration's last attempt to weaken rules governing management of America’s 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Bush rules, issued April 21, 2008, repealed key protections for national forests mandated under the National Forest Management Act (NFMA).
The case was filed by a coalition of conservation groups -- including the Vermont Natural Resources Council -- represented by Earthjustice. The ruling was handed down by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The effect of the ruling in Vermont is that important safeguards will need to be maintained on the Green Mountain National Forest, according to Jamey Fidel, forest and biodiversity program director of Vermont Natural Resources Council.

As part of a multi-site settlement, G-I Holdings Inc. has agreed to address asbestos contamination caused by its past operation of the largest chrysotile asbestos mine and mill in the country, the United States and the state of Vermont announced Thursday. The deal includes $7.75 million to secure the site, up to $26 million to cleanup the site, and $850,000 to offset environmental damage. The deal does not include the current owners of the site, Vermont Asbestos Group of Morrisville, whom the state has also sued. The site has been closed since 1993.

Vermonters interested in the workings of their state government now have a powerful new tool: www.vttransparency.org. The new website, a joint venture of Ethan Allen Institute of Kirby and Public Assets Institute of Montpelier, has a wealth of information about state revenues and spending, both current and historical.
It allows viewers to search state payments to vendors and compensation of state employees. It offers links to federal stimulus spending, economic development credits, rainy day funds, school district spending and outcomes, and municipal web pages.

The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has announced that, as a result of a bridge inspection completed earlier this year, repairs will be made to the Lake Champlain Bridge, also known as the Crown Point Bridge, spanning Lake Champlain between Crown Point, New York and Chimney Point, Vermont.
Work will incorporate the use of a temporary signal system to control one-way, alternating traffic operations anticipated to begin on Friday, July 3. Motorists may encounter significant travel delays.
During the inspection, completed in June 2009, several areas of steel deterioration to the bridge s truss system were discovered. The weight posting on the bridge will also be reduced to 40 tons, the legal maximum load on a New York State bridge without a special permit. Legally-loaded tractor trailers will be permitted to use the bridge; however, overweight vehicles will be prohibited.

Magic Mountain, a classic ski area located in southern Vermont, has announced that it is officially selling shares of the mountain effectively offering ownership opportunities for skiers, snowboarders and enthusiasts of the mountain. As the second ski resort in New England to ever offer ownership to its pass holders and customers, Magic Mountain shareholders will enjoy an equity position in the mountain, season pass discounts, reduced ticket prices, and voting rights in operational decisions. Modeled after the Mad River Glen ski area co-op, the opportunity for individual ownership aims to increase customer loyalty, and fund significant upgrades to the resort.
After reviewing the success of Mad River Glen, we realized that we had a tremendous opportunity to allow loyal fans of Magic Mountain to invest in something special and participate in saving and reviving a classic Vermont ski area, said Jim Sullivan, President, Magic Mountain.