Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Farm & Forest Viability Program, a program of the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board (VHCB), announces its 2023 grant awards to working lands entrepreneurs, totaling $897,607.09 to support businesses improvements and improve water quality. This year, 22 farmers were awarded $755,041.50 to invest in on-farm capital improvements that enhance water quality. Additionally, 16 farm and forest businesses were awarded $142,559.59 to complete projects that support business development and viability.

Vermont Business Magazine Two months after welcoming residents to the newly constructed Bellows Falls Garage Apartments, the project partners are celebrating another achievement – the completed installation of a 30kW solar photovoltaic array on the rooftop of the building. Developed by Windham & Windsor Housing Trust in collaboration with General Contractor DEW Construction, the new Bellows Falls Garage was designed for optimum energy efficiency, and exceeds the Efficiency Vermont High Performance Building standard.

Vermont Council on Rural Development Barre community members, organizations, and partners are invited to come together to participate in an open, inclusive dialogue to build understanding around flooding experiences and recovery and resilience efforts and begin to create ideas for action for the immediate and long-term future of the city. The evening, facilitated by VCRD, will start with a FREE pizza dinner in the Opera House lobby at 5:30pm, followed by a full community discussion at 6pm, and breakout forums at 7pm and 8pm. The forum topic areas include Housing, Long-Term Recovery and Resilience, Helping Efforts, Individual and Youth Wellness, Recovery Resources, and Natural Resources and Climate. 

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCBB) has joined a coalition of almost 300 broadband experts, internet service providers (ISPs), community leaders, nonprofits, consumer advocates, and business groups that have joined forces to highlight concerns about the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. In a letter today to NTIA head Alan Davidson and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, the group warns that the program’s letter of credit requirement could block the vast majority of smaller operators, community-centered ISPs, and publicly owned networks, such as Vermont’s Communications Union Districts (CUDs), from securing grants.

Vermont Business Magazine FEMA’s Disaster Recovery Center in Barre, Washington County will close early, at noon, Saturday, September 9 and will reopen at 8 a.m., Monday, September 11.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Community Foundation and the organizing committee for the Con Hogan Award for Creative, Entrepreneurial Community Leadership have announced that HB Lozito will be honored with this year’s award. Lozito is the executive director of Brattleboro-based Out in the Open, which is working to build a multi-issue, multiracial social justice movement of rural LGBTQ+ people.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and mental health professionals today urged Vermonters to check in on themselves and on others, and to learn about the many mental health supports and resources available throughout the state. September is also National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, a time when we can focus on helping ourselves and others to navigate stressors and difficulties, and recognize the warning signs that someone is in crisis. In 2022 there were 127 suicide deaths among Vermont residents. This is a slight decrease from 2021.

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington Electric Department (BED) issued a peak alert for today/Wednesday, September 6 part of its Defeat the Peak program launched during summer 2017, encouraging members of the Burlington community to reduce their energy usage from 5:00-8:00pm today.  The purpose of the Defeat the Peak program is to reduce our energy costs by reducing usage during a peak event. Burlingtonians can lend a hand by taking the following steps on what is projected to be an unusually hot summer day:

Vermont Business Magazine The Cabot Disaster Recovery Center will close permanently at 6 pm, Thursday, September 7, 2023. The center is currently open 8 am to 6 pm Monday through Saturday. Other recovery centers remain open 8 am to 6 pm Monday through Saturday (closed Sunday).

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont set a record for the fourth consecutive year in total external support for its rapidly growing research enterprise, inspiring discovery, innovation, and creativity across its full scope of scholarly disciplines. Research at UVM funded by federal and state agencies, corporate partners, foundations, and individual donors reached nearly $263 million in the fiscal year ending June 20, 2023 – only the second time the figure has soared above a quarter-billion dollars. 

Vermont Business Magazine Casella Waste Systems, Inc (Nasdaq: CWST), a regional solid waste, recycling, and resource management services company, announced that it completed the acquisition of the collection, transfer, and recycling assets of Consolidated Waste Services, LLC and its affiliates (dba “Twin Bridges”) on September 1, 2023. The purchase price of the acquisition was approximately $219 million and was funded through proceeds from the Company’s equity offering completed on June 16, 2023. The acquisition includes two hauling operations, one transfer station, and one material recovery facility in the greater Albany, New York market, and is expected to generate total annualized revenues of approximately $70 million.

Vermont Business Magazine The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and VEIC have released a report on Vermont’s Electric School and Transit Bus Pilot Program. As a part of this pilot, three schools and one transit agency replaced a total of eight diesel-powered buses with electric buses, yielding significant cost savings and reductions in harmful air pollution, including nitrogen oxides (NOx) and greenhouse gases compared to conventional buses. The pilot was funded with $4 million of Vermont’s $18.7 million allocation of the Volkswagen (VW) Environmental Mitigation Trust fund. The settlement fund was created with the goal of achieving reductions in NOx emissions after VW violated the federal Clean Air Act.