Current News

Vermont State Police On 03/14/23 at 0744, Troopers from the Vermont State Police – Williston Barracks responded to a two-motor vehicle crash located between Cochran Road & Cochran Way in the Town of Richmond. Upon arrival, Troopers located the first vehicle at a position of uncontrolled rest facing east on Cochran Road and the second vehicle at a position of controlled rest on Cochran Road facing west. Further investigation revealed that Operator 1, Macauley Bernier was traveling east on Cochran Road and lost traction while on the slight curve and sideswiped Operator 2, Cris Cote who was driving the school bus traveling west on Cochran Road. As a result, all drivers and students aboard the bus sustained no injuries and none of the drivers provided any signs of impairment.

Vermont Business Magazine Walker & Dunlop, Inc announced Monday that it closed a $46 million 232/223(f) refinancing of Terrace Portfolio, a group of four assisted living facilities located in Vermont and New Hampshire, including Woodstock Terrace and Valley Terrace in White River Junction. Walker & Dunlop's Frank Cassidy led the Senior Housing Finance team in refinancing a bridge loan that the Walker & Dunlop team previously arranged in December 2020 to facilitate a partner buyout and re-leverage the portfolio. The bridge loan was structured as eligible debt in anticipation of the HUD takeout.

Vermont Business Magazine The Rutland Area Medical Community Scholarship committee will extend the 2023 application deadline from March 15 to April 1, 2023. The 2023 Rutland Area Medical Community Scholarship application is currently available for qualified candidates who are interested in pursuing or furthering their career in healthcare. Eligible candidates include high school seniors, local college students or Rutland area medical community employees. The Rutland area medical community established the scholarship program in 2016. Since that time, twenty-eight scholarships have been awarded to local recipients.

Vermont Business Magazine At the VNA & Hospice of the Southwest Region (VNAHSR), volunteers play a critical role in enhancing the end-of-life experiences of people facing serious illness and their families. Volunteers represent all life experiences and are drawn to hospice for a variety of reasons, but the defining characteristics that unite them are compassion and the desire to help others. Their many skills are matched to important tasks within our mission. VNAHSR provides training for those interested in becoming hospice volunteers. Training will be held on Friday, April 14 from 8am – 4pm in the Casella Conference Room at the Rutland office, located at 7 Albert Cree Drive.

Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council The need for more Service Supported Housing for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) is the centerpiece of a new study that will be released by the Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council at a State House press conference on Wednesday, March 15 at noon in the Cedar Creek Room. Resources exist to build, rehabilitate, subsidize, and enhance housing for financially eligible Vermonters, including those with I/DD, but disability service providers and housing developers have not traditionally worked together in Vermont, according to the report. During the 2022 legislative session, parent of adults with I/DD came forward to advocate that more housing options be created for their sons and daughters. The result was Act 186, which commissioned the Council to prepare the report and set aside $500,000 for pilot planning grants for new housing models. The grants will be awarded later this spring.

Vermont Business Magazine Grace Cottage Hospital has joined a nationwide initiative to improve health care specifically for older adults. The Age-Friendly Health Systems Initiative is helping hospitals and other care settings implement a set of evidence-based interventions specifically designed to improve care for older adults. In its letter congratulating Grace Cottage Hospital for its “Age-Friendly” level 2 recognition, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) calls Grace Cottage Hospital “a leader in this rapidly growing movement committed to care of older adults.” Grace Cottage is the only Vermont hospital that has achieved this recognition.

Vermont Business Magazine The NEK Council on Aging announced that it will be participating in the 21st^th Annual March for Meals – a month-long, nationwide celebration of Meal on Wheels and elder neighbors who rely on this essential service to remain healthy and independent at home. During the last fiscal year, the NEKCOA’s 14 partner meal sites across the NEK, served over 224,343 take home, congregate, or home-delivered meals.

Vermont Business Magazine The Center for Community News (CCN) at the University of Vermont has announced a new program to fund faculty champions at 33 universities and colleges who are starting and growing local news partnerships. Local news is in a crisis with two community papers disappearing a week, according to research by the Local News Initiative. University-led student reporting programs are stepping in, providing a new source of news to millions of Americans. The 33 faculty champions come from 21 different states. Fifteen of them work at minority serving institutions where student populations are majority non-white, including historically Black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions. Total funding of $54,000 is provided. Champions receive $1,000 each.

Vermont Business Magazine In February Community Bank System, Inc (NYSE: CBU) announced the completion of a balance sheet repositioning related to its investment securities portfolio. The company is the parent of Community Bank NA with branches across Vermont. The company executed the sale of $786.1 million in book value of its lower-yielding available-for-sale debt securities for an estimated after-tax realized loss of approximately $39.6 million. Proceeds from the sale of $733.8 million were redeployed towards paying off existing wholesale borrowings with a spread differential of approximately 320 basis points higher than the securities that were sold. The company said in a press release that it estimates that the loss will be recouped within approximately two years.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Works for Women (VWW) is creating a pathway from incarceration to employment for women in a three-year community-based pilot program. The program, called BEAM: Building Employment and Meaning, offers eligible participants stable housing, immediate employment, and wrap around support from a VWW re-entry services program manager. The BEAM program’s first employer partner is Middlebury College. The program is the first of its kind outside the justice system in Vermont and is mutually beneficial to the participants, for whom employment is a major success factor and contributor to reduced recidivism, and to Middlebury, which like many employers in Vermont has contended with staffing shortages and faced challenges in filling positions.

Public Assets Institute The share of Vermonters who are working has fallen off in the wake of the pandemic and has not regained the levels held for four decades before Covid. From 1981 to 2019, two-thirds of Vermonters 16 and older were working each year, on average. That percentage dropped under 60 percent in the first year of the pandemic and crept up to 61.5 percent in 2022, according to new federal data. During the 40 pre-COVID years, Vermont ranked among the top 10 states in the percentage of the working-age population that was employed. In 2022 Vermont’s position was just 18th. If the state’s employment-population percentage returned to long-term pre-pandemic levels, 20,000 more Vermonters would be employed.