Current News

Vermont Department of Economic Development The Business Emergency Gap Assistance Program (BEGAP) application portal will open on Thursday, August 29 at 8 AM. BEGAP is a grant program for businesses, nonprofits, landlords, and farms that suffered physical damage from flooding. It is available for properties damaged in 2023 and/or 2024. Property that is eligible for 2023 BEGAP funding may also be eligible for 2024 BEGAP funding. Separate applications must be submitted for each year's funding, for each physical location. A business or nonprofit can receive grants for up to three physical locations, per flood year.

Vermont Business Magazine A Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) will open in Waterbury, at the Waterbury Armory from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. The joint DRC, a temporary facility established in partnership between Waterbury, the state of Vermont and FEMA, will have disaster assistance specialists available to help disaster survivors apply for FEMA Individual Assistance, upload documents needed for their application and answer questions in person.

Vermont Business Magazine Linda Rossi, State Director of the Vermont Small Business Development Center (VtSBDC), announced today that Phyllis K. Ershowsky has been named the organization’s 2024 State Star. The award, presented annually and recognized nationally, celebrates a member of the organization’s team who demonstrates exemplary performance, makes significant contributions to their networks, and is deeply committed to the success of Vermont’s small businesses.

by Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First, Vermont Business Magazine A small Orange County business, which was hired to install fiber optics in three states for a major national firm, says it has been stiffed out of nearly $1.5 million for its completed work, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in Burlington. Eustis Cable Enterprises LTD of Brookfield has filed the breach of contract lawsuit against Tilson Technology Management Inc., which is based in Portland, Maine and operates a regional office in St. Johnsbury, court records show. Beginning with work billed to Tilson in November 2022 and continuing until at least February 2024, "TTM wrongfully failed to pay invoices."

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont (UVM), Vermont‘s flagship, land-grant university and Cambridge-based BioInnovation Labs (BioLabs), an internationally known innovation laboratory platform with a network of shared lab and office workspaces, will launch a dedicated incubator at UVM’s Colchester facility. The BioLabs Innovation Center at UVM will support entrepreneurs and start-up companies specializing in all areas of life sciences research and development with fully equipped combination office and laboratory space to test and scale their research. Through this strategic partnership, UVM will oversee the new facility and provide technology, equipment, and direct collaboration with faculty at The Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. The college includes nearly 200 research faculty and over 700 clinical faculty who practice in the UVM Health Network. BioLabs will support UVM with facility operations, access to industry partners, and networking and programming events.

Vermont Business Magazine Two Sheehey Furlong & Behm shareholders have earned the honorable distinction of “Lawyer of the Year” for 2025 by Best Lawyers, a peer-reviewed guide to the legal profession. Diane McCarthy has been recognized by her peers as the 2025 “Lawyer of the Year” in Business Organizations for Burlington, Vt. She was also recognized generally in the categories of Banking and Finance Law, Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, and Real Estate Law. Mark Melendy has been recognized as the 2025 “Lawyer of the Year” in Trust and Estates Law for Burlington, Vermont.  Mark was also recognized for high caliber work in Tax law.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and the Vermont Department of Economic Development (DED) today announced that the Business Emergency Gap Assistance Program (BEGAP) application portal will open on Thursday, August 29 at 8:00 a.m. BEGAP is a grant program for businesses, nonprofits, landlords, and farms that suffered physical damage from flooding. It is available for properties damaged in 2023 and/or 2024. Applications are due November 15, 2024 for properties affected by the 2024 floods. Grants will cover 30% of net uncovered damages, up to $100,000. Preference will be given to Vermont-based operations, and 10% of funds have been set aside for Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color applicants.

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Buildings and General Services (BGS) has announced applications are now being accepted for implementation grants of up to $500,000 through the Municipal Energy Resilience Program (MERP). The grants are available to communities that participated in the recent MERP-funded energy assessments and were designated as having a high or highest energy burden in the 2019 Efficiency Vermont Energy Burden Report. All 14 Vermont counties are represented in this group. The participating municipalities have been provided with assessment reports identifying the best-value energy-related infrastructure investments, from envelope sealing to electrical vehicle charging stations. Over 500 facility energy assessments have been completed statewide to date. 

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine For the week ending August 17, the Vermont Department of Health reported that the number of COVID-19 cases in Vermont continues to grow, hospitalizations are up and COVID-related deaths in August already are more than the last four months combined. COVID fatalities increased by 9 in the last week and are at 1,177 since the beginning of the pandemic over four years ago. The weekly report also shows that hospitalizations and general "syndromic" cases have increased somewhat in the last few weeks to about 15 people being treated at a Vermont hospital each week. At the beginning of the summer there were only about 5. The number of COVID cases is elevated and there were 281 cases reported last week. Cases had been falling in April and May and were as low as 31 at the beginning of May. 

Vermont Business Magazine The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced $26 million in funding, including $368,000 allotted for Vermont, to protect children from lead in drinking water at schools and childcare facilities. This grant funding will be used to reduce lead exposure where children learn and play while advancing the goals of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan. In children, lead can severely harm mental and physical development, slowing down learning, and irreversibly damaging the brain. In adults, lead can cause increased blood pressure, heart disease, decreased kidney function, and cancer.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), on Tuesday issued the following statement after drugmaker Eli Lilly agreed to significantly lower the list price for the starter dose of its weight loss drug Zepbound: Last month, President Biden and I co-authored an op-ed demanding that Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly substantially lower the outrageously high prices they are charging Americans for popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs. In fact, we said that if these profitable pharmaceutical companies “refuse to substantially lower prescription drug prices in our country and end their greed, we will do everything within our power to end it for them. Today, I’m pleased that Eli Lilly took a modest step forward, by reducing the starter price of Zepbound.

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) today recognized Vermont’s esteemed research institutions for receiving an accumulative $8,603,831 in investments from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The awards were granted by the NSF this fiscal cycle to a variety of research projects conducted at Vermont institutes of higher learning. Norwich university received $2 million, Middlebury received about $680,000 and UVM received nearly $6 million.