Current News

Vermont Business Magazine U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Chair of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development and Energy, today celebrated major investments by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) in Vermont communities, totaling nearly $1.3 million. The announcements include funding to advance economic development across Vermont through the USDA’s Rural Business Development Grants Program. Funding will support projects across the state, including a grant of $200,000 to the Town of St. Johnsbury to establish a food cooperative, $200,000 for the Center for an Agricultural Economy, and $90,000 for Catamount Film and Arts Company. 

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Soap and skin care products manufacturer Twincraft Skincare will expand into Williston this fall. CEO Peter Asch told VermontBiz that the rapidly growing company has outgrown its two Essex Junction locations and is taking advantage of the recently available industrial space previously occupied by Keurig Dr Pepper. Keurig roasted and distributed Green Mountain Coffee from the 224,000-square-foot plant off Marshall Avenue. Twincraft will take possession of the plant in September with a lease-purchase option with owners the Miller family. Production should begin in Williston in about a year. The plant will require extensive retrofitting to handle the production of Twincraft’s skin care division. Twincraft already occupies 25,000 square feet of warehouse space in a separate building on the same parcel. Twincraft eventually will buy both buildings and the 37 ½ acres that goes with them. 

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) headlined a groundbreaking event today marking the beginning of construction of 38 permanently affordable apartments, a new Veterans’ Center, and space for Burlington’s Community Justice Center. The Howard Plant VFW Post 782 sold the building to the Champlain Housing Trust this past year. Post Apartments, when complete, will include 38 apartments will be nine set aside for people experiencing homelessness – five of which will be reserved for Veterans. Champlain Housing Trust’s resident services team will support tenants and connect them to other resources in the community. Expected occupancy for the South Winooski Avenue building is the fall of 2025.

Vermont Business Magazine Jenna’s Promise has announced the Fourth Annual Open House and Benefit Concert on August 24th, 2024. This is the organization’s most important event of the year, and will be hosted at Jenna’s House, 117 St Johns Street in Johnson, which is the community center of the nonprofit. Community members from across the region are invited to enjoy food, entertainment, and speeches from state and local leaders. This year, the Jenna’s Promise team is thrilled to introduce a benefit concert by the band THEM, a 70s and 80s rock cover band. They have played for many charitable causes. The concert is in honor of Rhonda Miller, who is courageously battling a major health crisis. 

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine Today, the Vermont Department of Labor released data on the Vermont economy for the time period covering July 2024. According to household data, the seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate for July was 2.1 percent. This reflects no change from the prior month’s revised estimate. The civilian labor force participation rate was 65.7 percent in July, no change from the prior month’s revised estimate. The comparable United States rate in July was 4.3 percent, an increase of two-tenths of one percentage point from the revised June estimate. The seasonally adjusted Vermont data for July show the Vermont civilian labor force increased by 303 from the prior month’s revised estimate. Vermont has the second lowest jobless rate in the nation. South Dakota is lowest at 2.0 percent and Nevada is highest at 5.4 percent.

Vermont Business Magazine The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont in Burlington stated that Stephen Loewe, 42, of Bellows Falls, Vermont, was charged by complaint with robbing the Claremont Savings Bank in Springfield, Vermont, on August 13, 2024. Mr. Loewe had his initial appearance in federal court yesterday afternoon and is currently detained in federal custody. A hearing will be held next Thursday to determine whether he will remain detained pending trial. According to court records, Mr. Loewe committed a burglary of a Springfield, Vermont store in the early hours of August 13, 2024. Later that morning, he entered an M&T Bank branch in Springfield and demanded cash. Later that afternoon, he entered the Claremont Savings Bank in Springfield and demanded $500, stating in a note that it was a robbery. Mr. Loewe then stole a car from a gas station in Springfield. 

Vermont Business Magazine School is starting back up for Vermont students and the Agency of Education (AOE) is encouraging all families with school-aged children to “Fill the Form.” By returning the Household Income Form, or School Meals Application to their child's school, families can help secure important funding that benefits Vermont students and schools. The data collected by school districts and reported to the Agency is used to draw down the maximum federal funding for the state’s Universal Meals program. This not only reduces the program’s cost to taxpayers, but also helps to secure and equitably distribute tens of millions of dollars in other federal funding to Vermont schools for a broad range of education programs.

Vermont Business Magazine 2024 Olympic Bronze Medalist, and Burlington High School (BHS) alum, Ilona Maher is returning home to Burlington this weekend! The community is invited to celebrate her success at 10 AM at Battery Park on Saturday. Maher will be recognized by Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak as well as by her former field hockey coach Allyson Archacki. Maher will also receive the “Keys to the BHS Athletic Fields” before speaking to the crowd. 

Vermont Business Magazine New England state air quality forecasters are predicting elevated concentrations of fine particle air pollution due to wildfires in Quebec and Western Canada. The primary concern is high concentrations of fine particle air pollution that is unhealthy, especially for sensitive groups such as people with respiratory disease, the elderly, or people with compromised health.  Areas that are forecasted to exceed the Federal air quality standard for 24-hour particle pollution level concentrations are: Massachusetts (Central and Western areas), New Hampshire (Carroll, Cheshire, Coos, Grafton, and Sullivan counties), and Vermont. 

Vermont Business Magazine Today, members of the Afghan community in Vermont came together to mark the 3-year anniversary of the collapse of the Afghan Government and the U.S. Government withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Vermont Afghan Alliance, a non-profit providing essential services to the Afghan community hosted the public gathering in Burlington. The Alliance is state and federally funded to serve the growing Afghan community in Vermont, including driving lessons, employment assistance, interpretation services and case management. The Alliance also trains the Afghan community on legal rights and civics and supports immigration proceedings. By design the organization – both the Board and staff – is predominantly Afghan led. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation is holding a public meeting to present plans for an additional camping loop at Lake St. Catherine State Park, located in Poultney, Vermont. The meeting will be held from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm on August 29, 2024, at Lake St. Catherine State Park in the Nature Center. The plan reviews the opportunity to provide more camping sites at the park to support new recreational activities including a disc golf course and mountain bike trail access. The drafted plan proposes a new camping loop, which provides the opportunity for new services like hookups for waste, electric, and water.

Vermont Business Magazine In an historic moment today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced millions of Medicare enrollees across America will benefit from lower prescription drug costs made possible by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. New prices for the first 10 drugs will go into effect for enrollees of Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage beginning January 1, 2026, and will save patients 38-79% off the list price of drugs. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) championed this policy as a member of the House of Representatives, and successfully fought to include policies within the Inflation Reduction Act to end the ban on Medicare negotiating lower drug prices for seniors.