Current News

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont State Colleges System (VSCS) today announced that Vermont State University (VTSU) President Parwinder Grewal has tendered his resignation and is stepping down effective immediately for personal reasons. Former Vermont Agency of Human Services Secretary Michael (Mike) Smith will assume the role of interim president beginning next week. The announcement comes after much consideration about how best to lead the upcoming launch of Vermont State University set for July 1. Grewal had faced significant pushback for his proposals to go to essentially a digital-only library system, which would have eliminated nearly all the books and several staff, and reduce some of the athletic programs, as the state college system attempts to overcome financial deficits.

Vermont Business Magazine KORE Power, Inc will supply American-built battery energy storage systems to Cordelio Power (Toronto) for the repowering of Cordelio’s 20 MW/44 MWh McHenry (Illinois) standalone storage facility in the PJM Interconnection. Repowering with KORE’s deep-rack battery systems will increase the power, safety and flexibility of the facility. KORE Power, a leading manufacturer of lithium-ion cells and energy storage solutions, will build the NMC deep-rack solutions for Cordelio at its facility in Waterbury. This is the latest in a number of recent agreements which will deploy KORE Power products in energy storage applications across the globe.

Vermont Business Magazine Bar Harbor Bankshares (NYSE American: BHB), the parent company of Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, has announced that the bank has been recognized by Forbes as one of the “World’s Best Banks” based largely on service and trust metrics. Of the 75 US based banks to make the list, Bar Harbor Bank & Trust is one of only three banks headquartered in Northern New England.

Vermont Business Magazine Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, today announced that the committee will hold a hearing on Thursday, April 20 at 10 a.m. ET to consider the nomination of Julie Su to serve as Secretary for the US Department of Labor. “I am confident Julie Su will be an excellent Secretary of Labor,” said Chairman Sanders. “I look forward to working with her to protect workers’ rights and build the trade union movement in this country.”

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Corrections (DOC) today announced the initiation of an investigation into an allegation of misconduct at Southern State Correctional Facility (SSCF) in Springfield. Per standard DOC practice, SSCF Superintendent Mike Lyon was placed on paid administrative leave while the Vermont Department of Human Resources conducts an independent investigation. SSCF Living Unit Supervisor Monique Sullivan will serve as Acting Superintendent until further notice. These actions resulted after a specific allegation of misconduct was submitted to DOC leadership. The alleged misconduct is not related to any deaths of incarcerated individuals at the facility.

Vermont Business Magazine The newly released findings from a Building Bright Futures (BBF) survey give insights into how Vermont’s early childhood system is working well for families, and how the system can do better. From August through October 2022, BBF’s Families and Communities Committee led a survey called the 2022 Vermont Early Childhood Family Needs Assessment that drew responses from more than 600 caregivers of young children across all regions in Vermont. The survey specifically asked about services and supports for children from the prenatal period through age 8. The goal of the survey was to better understand the experiences of families in order to inform policy and programs in Vermont’s early childhood system. It asked families about their experiences with accessing a range of services, including child care, early intervention services, healthy food, pediatric care and transitions between settings and services.

Vermont Business Magazine KeyBank announces today that Business Banking Senior Vice President Joseph R. McGowan has been appointed Market President for Vermont. McGowan will continue to serve the needs of KeyBank’s business clients in Vermont and nearby areas; in addition, he will take on the market president responsibility of overseeing and coordinating KeyBank’s go-to market strategy across its various lines of business and serve as Key’s face and voice to the Vermont community. McGowan joined KeyBank in 2011 as a branch manager for Key’s South Burlington branch, and was later promoted to Vice President, Area Retail Leader overseeing the retail, small business, and mortgage lending teams in Vermont. In 2019, he transitioned to Commercial Banking, managing a commercial lending portfolio, and serving Business Banking and Middle Market clients throughout the state and nearby areas.

Vermont Business Magazine Average gasoline prices in Vermont today are $3.46 per gallon, according to GasBuddy, up 7 cents per gallon from last week. Prices are up 2 cents/g from a month ago and down 59 cents/g from a year ago. The lowest price in the state is $3.15/g in Middlebury, while the highest is $4.29/g in West Bridgewater. The national average price of gasoline has risen 8 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.63/g today. The national average is up 18 cents per gallon from a month ago and stands 44 cents per gallon lower than a year ago.

Vermont Business Magazine A ledger documenting the everyday activities of a Black woman living in a segregated neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana after World War II is driving research by the woman’s granddaughter – an academic fellow at Saint Michael’s College – and giving insight into how residents of these neighborhoods used education and literacy to work toward attaining liberation. Jolivette Anderson-Douoning, the Edmundite African American Fellow in the Saint Michael’s History Department and a PhD Candidate in the Purdue University American Studies Program, has used the ledger kept by her grandmother to inform parts of her dissertation research.

Statement from Nicole Clegg, Acting CEO, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England “Planned Parenthood of Northern New England continues to offer medication abortion to our patients. We have no plans to change our protocol at the moment. The decision issued Wednesday night ignores more than a decade of scientific and medical advancements in abortion access."

Vermont Business Magazine This week, Senator Peter Welch (D-Vermont) joined 240 Members of Congress, led by Senators Schumer, Murray, Sanders, Durbin, and Blumenthal and Representatives Jeffries, Clark, Pallone, Nadler, Lee, and DeGette, in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the case of Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA. The brief supports the Biden Administration’s appeal of federal district court judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk’s Friday ruling that suspends the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) more than 20-year-old approval of mifepristone—threatening access to mifepristone for patients in Vermont and nationwide—as well as FDA’s congressionally-mandated authority and drug approval process.