Current News

VermontBiz  Today, Mayor Weinberger provided the following statement in response to the Scott Administration’s proposal to open a temporary, congregate shelter at 108 Cherry Street in Burlington:  

“It is shocking that the State’s motel guests, Vermont cities, affected downtowns, schools, law enforcement officials, and service providers are being given hours to prepare for the opening of four huge temporary shelters around the state. For the good of the Burlington community and the hundreds of Vermonters who are about to lose a place in the motels, the City of Burlington is working hard to help the State implement their emergency shelter plan. We will always work hard to keep Vermonters sheltered. 

VermontBiz Today, U.S. Senators Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, hosted a briefing with World Central Kitchen (WCK) Founder and Chef José Andrés on Capitol Hill to discuss the critical need to get food into Gaza, Ukraine, Haiti, and other communities where food systems are disrupted by conflict or natural disasters and there is widespread hunger and disease. The discussion focused on WCK’s innovative, lifesaving work to combat famine around the globe by partnering with local organizations and community leaders to deliver meals, food kits, and supplies to people in need. 

Vermont Business Magazine On March 2, hundreds of UVM students, faculty, and staff danced the night away to raise funds and awareness for the UVM Children’s Hospital. RALLYTHON, the University of Vermont’s Miracle Network Dance Marathon, raised $106,532 by the end of the evening. The RALLYTHON’s student leadership team will present a check to UVM Children’s Hospital Chief of Pediatrics Lewis First, MD, on April 16. Now in its ninth year, RALLYTHON has raised a cumulative total of $904,797 for The University of Vermont Children’s Hospital. The event is part of a movement of more than 100 Colleges and Universities across the country who come together to raise money for their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), alongside Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Col.), Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), Bob Casey (D-Penn.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Richard “Dick” Durbin (D-Ill.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jacklyn Rosen (D-Nev.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on Wednesday sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, urging him to stop any changes to United States Postal Service (USPS) service standards that would result in job losses and further degrade mail delivery performance, especially in rural states.

Vermont Business Magazine Today, US Senators Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) joined US Representatives Nick Langworthy (R-NY-23) and Joe Courtney (D-Conn.-02) in leading their colleagues in the bicameral, bipartisan introduction of the Making Agricultural Products Locally Essential (MAPLE) Act, legislation that supports the maple industry by providing a new market for maple syrup producers while increasing seniors’ access to nutritious, locally sourced maple syrup products. The MAPLE Act would add maple syrup to the eligible products under the Seniors Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP), which gives low-income seniors access to locally grown fruits, vegetables, honey, and herbs at farmers’ markets, roadside stands, and community-supported agriculture programs.  

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) is seeking applicants for the fifth Climate Catalysts Leadership Program. Over the past four years, Climate Catalysts have worked to implement projects such as building a county-wide Farmer Climate Network; establishing community-wide weatherization efforts; facilitating the development of community solar projects; starting a town energy and climate committee; and more. The Climate Catalysts Leadership Program participants arrive with, or develop, transformative, community-scale climate economy related projects and work toward developing their concepts into reality while building peer connections, strengthening leadership skills, and receiving project development support. 

Vermont Business Magazine Here’s another great example of generous Vermont Electric Co-op members contributing to the success of young people in our region. The VEC Community Fund – supported by VEC members who voluntarily contribute by rounding up their electric bill or donating their member capital – recently awarded $1,000 to go toward prizes for North Country Supervisory Union students competing in a regional science and engineering fair. Aaron Miller, the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) coordinator for NCSU said the donation will add to the excitement of the North Country Science and Engineering Fair and contest, where students from grades 5-8 compete for prizes with science and engineering related projects.

Vermont Business Magazine The Northern Forest Canoe Trail (NFCT), based in Waitsfield, has announced its stewardship programming for the 2024 season, which will be supported by a growing professional staff and provide opportunities for as many as 50 volunteers to help steward the waterways along the trail. The NFCT is a nonprofit organization that stewards a 740-mile water trail that weaves through New York, Vermont, Quebec, New Hampshire and Maine. Projects this year span from the Saranac Lakes in the Adirondacks to Maine’s Allagash Wilderness Waterway. With an ambitious slate of work scheduled, the NFCT has hired an assistant trail director and an Allagash crew leader to support its work. 

Vermont Business Magazine The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a list of projects, including the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge Complex Aquatic Connectivity and Forest Restoration project in Vermont, to support climate resiliency and ecosystem restoration in a landscape called the northern forest. This area encompasses 12 states, including nearly 450,000 forested acres of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service administered land in the Midwest and Northeast regions. Through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, this $1.3 million investment in Essex County is part of a $25 million allocation through the Inflation Reduction Act — the largest climate investment in history. 

Vermont Business Magazine Despite warnings that gasoline prices are certain to climb and soon, average gasoline prices in Vermont are $3.25 per gallon, unchanged from last week. They are 2 cents/g higher than a month ago and 20 cents/g lower than this time last year. The lowest price in the state is $3.05/g in Middlebury, Rutland and West Dover, while the highest is $3.44/g in Burlington and Lyndonville. The national average price of gasoline has risen 1 cent per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.42/g today.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Fish and Wildlife is asking drivers to slow down and be cautious when travelling at night in early spring or to take alternate routes to avoid driving roads near wetlands and ponds that salamanders and frogs cross during their breeding season. Every year, typically in early spring, many of Vermont’s amphibians leave their overwintering sites and migrate to the wetlands and ponds where they will breed and lay eggs.  The timing of this annual event, termed Big Night(s), coincides with melting snowpack, thawing soils, relatively warm evening temperatures, and rainfall.  Due to this year’s mild winter, these conditions are expected to align and trigger spring amphibian migration, earlier than usual.

Vermont Business Magazine If you are an avid Lake Champlain angler or someone who would like to learn more about the vast array of fish species that live in Lake Champlain, be sure to reserve March 23 to attend a meeting with fisheries biologists in Essex, New York. The Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative -- a working group of fisheries professionals from the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service -- will host a ‘State of the Lake Fisheries’ meeting at Whallonsburg Grange, 1610 NY-22, Essex, New York from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 23.