Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Farmers Kara and Ryan Fitzbeauchamp and Sam Rowley have won conservation awards, the Vermont Land Trust (VLT) announced today. Farmer and teacher Sam Rowley of the Green Mountain Career and Technology Center received VLT’s Land & Lives Award. Kara and Ryan Fitzbeauchamp of Evening Song Farm in Shrewsbury won the 2023 Eric Rozendaal Memorial Award. The winners received the awards at the land trust’s annual member meeting in Barnard on September 13. 

Vermont Business Magazine Average gasoline prices in Vermont is $3.77 per gallon, down 1 cent/g from last week, down 3 cents/g from last month and down 9 cents/g from the same time a year ago, according to GasBuddy. The lowest price in the state is $3.53/g in Ludlow, while the highest was $4.59/g in South Burlington. The national average price of gasoline has risen 1.6 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.79/g today.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Community Broadband Broad (VCBB) approved Lamoille FiberNet Communications Union District’s (Lamoille FiberNet) $13,588,636 construction grant application at the VCBB’s September 11 meeting. The construction grant will fund broadband for approximately 4,800 unserved and underserved Lamoille County homes and businesses, and the 630-mile network will be built in two phases. Phase 1 represents 550 miles — connecting 4,170 addresses — and is scheduled to be completed in 2024. Phase 1 will connect all unserved and underserved addresses in Belvidere, Eden, Johnson, Hyde Park, Morristown, Waterville, the Lamoille FiberNet portions of Elmore and Wolcott, and significant portions of Stowe and Cambridge. 

Vermont Business Magazine Following catastrophic flooding in Vermont, Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Representative Becca Balint (D-VT) today introduced the Building Up Farmland Frontiers for Ecological Resilience (BUFFER) Act, legislation that would ensure all states, including Vermont, can access Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) funding to implement buffer zones, agricultural tools used by farmers to protect farmland from flooding, erosion, and water pollution. Representative Balint introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives. 

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott today announced the appointment of Denise Reilly-Hughes as secretary of the Agency of Digital Services (ADS)and Jason Batchelder as commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservations (DEC). Secretary Reilly-Hughes was appointed deputy commissioner of ADS in January of 2023. She has served as interim secretary since July, following the retirement of Secretary Shawn Nailor.

Vermont Business Magazine Black River Innovation Campus (BRIC) in Springfield is launching the latest iteration of Actuator, a free 8-week Entrepreneurship Program designed to help tech and tech-enabled startups get their business concepts off the ground. The course provides a suite of tools and insights to support a “Founder’s mindset” for a lifetime of entrepreneurship. The new version of Actuator engages entrepreneurs at various stages of business development and introduces regional innovators to BRIC's vibrant startup ecosystem and NASA Goddard tech transfer partnership. BRIC also welcomes a new Executive Director, Vincent Fusca. Vin comes to the organization with a venerable wealth of relevant knowledge and experience. His background with digital health technology startups, economic development, and operations make him a fantastic addition to the BRIC team. 

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Chairman of the Senate, Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Sen. Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kan.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security, announced Thursday that they have reached a deal on landmark legislation to address the primary care crisis in America and the major shortages of nurses, primary care doctors, and other important health care jobs across the country, and to increase critical funding for community health centers, the National Health Service Corps, and Teaching Health Centers.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department held its annual permit lottery for muzzleloader antlerless deer permits on September 13 and says it now has unallocated muzzleloader antlerless deer permits available for use in the antlerless-only October 26-29 season and the regular December 2-10 season. The unallocated permits are available because not enough people applied for them in the lottery. 

Vermont Business Magazine A Missouri law firm exclusively practicing Rails-to-Trails litigation nationwide has recovered $118,715.52 from the federal government on behalf of two landowners along 1.57-miles of abandoned railroad line in Bennington known as the Bennington Path Rail Trail. Landowners who owned land along the 1.57-mile stretch of abandoned railway spanning from River Street north to the bridge over Furnace Brook recovered money earlier this year in lawsuits filed in the US Court of Federal Claims, M & L Rogers, LLC v. United States, Case No. 22-411, and Montcalm Point Associates, Inc, v. United States, Case No. 22-1760. 

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Mental Health has named Wendy Shapiro as the CEO of the Vermont Psychiatric Care Hospital (VPCH). Shapiro’s background in human services spans more than three decades, encompassing both direct service roles and high-level leadership positions. She comes to Vermont having most recently served as CEO of Clarion Psychiatric Center in Clarion, PA, where she led her team to earn the prestigious 2021 Quality Award for outstanding achievements in outcome measures, patient satisfaction, restraint reduction, and regulatory success. 

Vermont Business Magazine Saint Michael’s College will name its Center for the Environment for alumnus and former-U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy ’61 and his wife Marcelle in honor of their lifetime of service and contributions to Vermont, to the country, and to the College. An event to celebrate the Leahys and the Center will be held on campus on September 23.  The Center – which will be named The Patrick ‘61 and Marcelle Leahy Center for the Environment – received one of the largest grants in the College’s history earlier this year thanks to Leahy’s hard work and leadership on the 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. The $6.5 million in funding will fund the Center’s continued growth and development over the next four years.   

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel (VT NDCAP) will hold its second regular meeting of 2023 on Monday evening, September 18, 2023 from 6 PM to 9 PM. At this meeting, NorthStar and Vermont State Agencies will provide updates of recent Vermont Yankee (VY) decommissioning activities.  Recent activities of the Panel’s Federal Nuclear Waste Policy Committee will also be discussed.