Current News

Vermont Business Magazine If your business sells fossil-based heating fuel—including oil, propane, natural gas, coal, and kerosene—into or in Vermont, you must register with the Vermont Public Utility Commission. Complete your registration form online at puc.vermont.gov. Registrations are due by January 31, 2024, and are required by Act 18, which was enacted last year to design a potential Clean Heat Standard to address fossil-fuel emissions from Vermont’s heating sector.

Vermont Business Magazine Union Bankshares, Inc (NASDAQ - UNB), based in Morrisville, has announced results for the three months and year ended December 31, 2023, and declared a regular quarterly cash dividend. Consolidated net income for the three months ended December 31, 2023 was $3.0 million, or $0.68 per share, compared to $3.4 million, or $0.77 cents per share, for the same period in 2022, and $11.3 million, or $2.50 per share, for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to $12.6 million, or $2.81 per share for the year ended December 31, 2022. The Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.36 per share for the quarter payable February 1, 2024 to shareholders of record as of January 27, 2024.

Vermont Natural Resources Council Did you know that VNRC is Vermont’s state affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF)? NWF has been working across the country on behalf of wildlife since 1936, fighting for conservation and wildlife protection in the face of the biodiversity crisis. Once per quarter, NWF produces National Wildlife, a comprehensive magazine highlighting wildlife and conservation efforts, and spotlights the work of state affiliates. We are honored to have our work recognized in the Winter 2024 issue of National Wildlife, and hope you enjoy reading a bit about what we’ve been up to through the eyes of NWF! 

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and The Hartford, a leading provider of employee benefits and leave management, will begin offering the Vermont Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FMLI) program for employers on February 15. Employers with two or more employees will have the opportunity to design a plan to fit the needs of their employees and business, with benefits beginning on July 1. The FMLI benefits provide partial income replacement for workers who need to take care of a family member with a serious health condition, bond with a new child, tend to their own serious health condition, care for a military service member’s serious injury or illness, or address certain needs related to a family member’s covered active military duty or call to active duty.

Vermont Business Magazine State Treasurer Mike Pieciak announced today the formation of the Vermont Saves Advisory Board. Consisting of retirement, payroll, and HR specialists and business representatives from across industries and regions, the Advisory Board will work with the Treasurer’s Office to help launch their public retirement initiative, Vermont Saves. The Advisory Board will provide guidance on program design and rule development and support outreach and educational efforts. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Central Vermont Medical Center Board of Trustees in Berlin recently appointed Mike Dellipriscoli to its board for his deep ties to central Vermont and experience with health care governance. As part of the group’s reorganization, Trustee Joyce Judy, president of Community College of Vermont, was elected board chair. Erica Metzger Hare, the chief financial officer of Aspire Living & Learning, was elected vice board chair.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets (VAAFM), alongside our many statewide partners, invites those involved with agriculture in the state to participate in our 2024 listening sessions, focusing on hearing from producers, processors, distributors and service-providers on topics such as: severe weather impacts, grant and programming feedback and business/industry needs. In 2023 the Agency and partners co-hosted three listening sessions – two in-person for Windsor, Chittenden and Washington counties and one (virtual) state-wide session. In each session legislators, Agency employees, producers and service providers came together to discuss hard topics including farmer and farmworker housing, disaster relief needs and climate resiliency and planning. 

Vermont Business Magazine After more than 75 years in Burlington, the Vermont Department of Health is moving most offices and operations to the Waterbury State Office Complex. The state is selling the Zampieri State Office Building, located at 108 Cherry Street in Burlington, which currently houses the Health Department and the Department for Children and Families’ Division of Economic Services local office. The Health Department’s move will take place in stages starting Jan. 29 and continue over the next two months. No changes in services are expected during this time.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Labor Commissioner Michael Harrington gave the following statement regarding the announcement of layoffs at Putney Paper Mill operated by Soundview Vermont Holdings LLC.  According to the Brattleboro weekly The Commons, the paper mill has operated next to Sacketts Brook in downtown Putney for more than 150 years - a tradition that came to an abrupt end on January 16 with its sudden closure by its current owner, New Jersey–based Soundview Vermont Holdings LLC. All 127 workers were laid off.

Vermont Business Magazine The Housing & Homelessness Alliance of Vermont (HHAV), Vermont Interfaith Action, and Chittenden County Homeless Alliance are planning the upcoming 2024 Homelessness Awareness Day in which we as shelter and service providers, various stakeholders, and community members work to raise community awareness of the homelessness issues facing the people of our state. Persons with lived experience and those working in the field will provide testimony to the house and senate committees at the State House in Montpelier on the morning of January 18th, 2024. The “Pop up Soup Kitchen” event will take place at the WRJ VA Healthcare System campus on Thursday, January 18th from 10:00-1:00p or until the food runs out.

Vermont Business Magazine A recent Americans for the Arts study found that Greater Burlington Area nonprofit arts organizations generated $93.5 million for the local economy in 2022. On January 17, 2024, at the BCA Center, leaders from the Vermont Arts Council, Vermont’s Agency of Commerce and Community Development, Burlington’s Business, Workforce, and Development department, and Burlington City Arts shared and celebrated the results. The Vermont arts and business organizations were joined by New England Foundation for the Arts Executive Director Harold Steward. Americans for the Arts released the findings of the Arts and Economic Prosperity study (AEP6) in late 2023. The study documents the economic and social benefits of the nation’s nonprofit arts and culture industry.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) joined his Senate colleagues in urging Senate Appropriations leadership to support funding for the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail (IPR) grant program in the fiscal year 2024 spending legislation. The Joint Economic Committee passed the U.S. Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill which included $100 million for the account. However, the funding is at risk of being eliminated by House Republicans, which would devastate efforts to improve rail infrastructure throughout the Northeast, including projects such as the Vermonter route expansion to Montreal.