Current News

Vermont Venture Network serving the entrepreneurial community since 1989
May Monthly Breakfast Meeting
Thursday, May 23, 2002, 8 A.M.
Michael H. Gurau, President, CEI Community Ventures, Inc. 36 Water Street, PO Box 268, Wiscasset, ME 04578, Tel: (207) 882-7552, E-Mail: [email protected]
CEI is a non-profit community and economic development organization founded in 1977. CEI’s latest initiative is CEI Community Ventures which is a community development venture capital fund formed pursuant to the SBA New Markets Venture Capital Program. CEI Community Ventures is eligible to invest in all of Essex and Orange counties in Vermont plus 24 other census tracts, including Burlington.
Randee Fagen, Vice President Sales, Marketing and Customer Services C3Gateways Services, Inc.
5005 Jean Talon West, Suite 200 Montreal, PQ H4P 1W7
Tel: (514) 908-2400
“Multi-Tasking CRM”

Vermont State Colleges (VSC) professional employees voted to unionize with the American Federation of Teachers' Vermont affiliate,
United Professions of Vermont (UPV).
In two elections administered by the Vermont Labor Relations Board, a majority of employees who voted, voted to be represented by the United
Professions of Vermont/AFT. In a 75 to 28 vote the Professional, Administrative, and Technical employees voted in favor of unionization and
in a 30 to 14 vote the Supervisory employees voted for the union. The election took place at the four campus based State Colleges: Johnson State College, Lyndon State College, Vermont Technical College, and Castleton State College.
United Professions of Vermont/AFT already represents all the full-time and part-time faculty at the Vermont State Colleges.

Vermont Business Magazine presents the 2002 Vermont SBA Small Business Person of the Year Awards to be held Wednesday, June 12, 2002, from 4:00pm to 7:00pm on the Green at Vermont College of Union Institute & University in Montpelier. The Vermont District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration announced the winner of the Small Business Person Award and various Advocacy Awards.

The SMALL BUSINESS PERSON OF THE YEAR winner is: Clint "Jito" Coleman, President Northern Power Systems, Waitsfield, VT.

Brattleboro, VT, April 18, 2002 -- The Vermont Supreme Court recently affirmed the judgement entered in favor of Chroma Technology Corp. that the Chroma defendants did not violate any legal obligation to their former employee when they founded a competing business in 1991. In so doing, the Court clarified the law in the State of Vermont on the important issue of when and how employees may go into direct competition with their employers. Prior to this decision, no case in Vermont had squarely addressed the issue since the early years of the 20th century.
Heidi Harvey, of the firm of Fish & Richardson P.C., Boston, MA, was lead
counsel for the Chroma defendants at trial and on appeal. She observed, "This decision is an extremely important statement of the modern law in
Vermont on one of the most difficult issues that faces employees and employers - who has the burden of drawing the line between the employees'

C & S Wholesale Grocers, based in Brattleboro, announced April 1 that it would move its headquarters to a campus-like setting in Keene, NH, by the end of 2003, taking with it 300 employees.

C & S is the third largest wholesale grocer in the country and expects sales to reach $9.5 billion in 2002. It is also the largest Vermont-based company and ranked 20th by Forbes for privately held companies in the country. On Vermont Business Magazine's Vermont 100+, C & S has been the largest Vermont-based company for over a decade, and the first to ever reach $1 billion in annual sales, accomplished in 1995.

Green Mountain Power (NYSE:GMP) proposed a series of innovative programs that would pay its commercial, farm and water heating customers to reduce electric loads during peak usage periods in order to protect electric reliability and to save money for all energy users.
The Company filed with the Vermont Public Service Board Monday five new programs that it developed as part of a statewide and regional effort to develop “load response programs” designed to reduce peak loads when wholesale power prices spike during the hot summer months.
Green Mountain Power made its proposals in a Vermont Public Service Board proceeding initiated to develop statewide load response programs. Green Mountain’s proposals will now be reviewed by the Vermont Department of Public Service and the Vermont Public Service Board, the state's two utility regulatory agencies.

Triple Peaks, LLC, the company formed by Tim and Diane Mueller, owners of Okemo Mountain Resort in Ludlow, was informed March 27, 2002, by the American Skiing Company of Bethel, ME, that they were not going to proceed with the closing of the sale of the Steamboat Ski and Resort Company in Steamboat Springs, CO.
"We are quite surprised and disappointed at this action," said Tim Mueller. "Contrary to some reports, we have been ready, willing and able to close this transaction for some time. We had accommodated ASC's request for a temporary postponement, never having an inkling that they were going to breach our agreement. We are presently exploring with our attorneys the best course of action, before formally responding to this outrageous turn of events."

Dramatically broadening its appeal to target
the corporate meeting and wedding market, The Equinox has broken ground on construction that will create 3,200 additional square feet of flexible, state-of-the-art function space by fall 2002, just in time for the popular fall foliage season.
The centerpiece of the project is The Rockwell Room, named after the internationally renowned New England painter, Norman Rockwell, whose work

Vermont Labor Force Statistics (Seasonally Adjusted)
February 2002 January 2002 February 2001

Total Labor Force 345,500 345,300 333,800

Employment 333,400 332,800 323,000

Unemployment 12,100 12,600 10,800

Elizabeth Bankowski, a consultant in communication and corporate social responsibility has been nominated to serve on Green Mountain Power’s Board of Directors. The election will take place at the Company’s annual meeting of shareholders in May.

Tim and Diane Mueller, owners of Okemo Mountain Resort, will offer eleven scholarship awards for the 2003 school year to high school seniors and college students to assist them to further their education. Okemo has been offering scholarship awards to students since 1988 as a symbol of their commitment to the region's youth and education. Criteria used to select the scholarship recipients include academic achievement, co-curricular involvement and the composition of an essay.
For the 2003 school year, a total of eleven scholarship awards will be offered to high school seniors and college students. The Okemo Mountain Employee Student Scholarship Awards will be presented to four high school or college students who are employed at Okemo. The Okemo Mountain Dependent Student Scholarship Awards will be presented to four dependents of Okemo employees who are high school seniors or to a student

CHILD CARE COUNTS HONOR ROLL 2002

NATIONALLY ACCREDITED CHILD CARE

HOMES

Susan Alexander
1150 Mill Pond Road
Benson, VT 05743
Telephone: (802) 537-2831
CDA

Geralyn Barrows
750 Legend Lane
New Haven, VT 05472
Telephone: (802) 453-3707
CDA

Christina Blais
PO Box 652
North Troy, VT 05859
Telephone: (802) 988-2819
CDA

Louise Bouffard
139 Lakeview Drive
Newport Center, VT 05857
Telephone: (802) 334-1453
CDA

Barbara Bowers
13 South Hill Drive
Essex Junction, VT 05452
Telephone: (802) 878-6061
CDA

Cynthia Brier
18 Hilltop Avenue
Barre, VT 05641
Telephone: (802) 476-5991
CDA

Laura Butler
52 Maplewood Avenue
Milton, VT 05468
Telephone: (802) 893-7501
CDA, NAFCC