Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Today, housing leaders across Vermont are releasing a proposal for the future of emergency housing for Vermonters experiencing homelessness. Bridges to Housing: Accelerating Progress on Homelessness in Vermont lays out five strategies to guide action on emergency housing in the state. Newly-released federal data shows Vermont has the second highest per capita rate of homelessness in the United States behind only California. This sobering news brings national attention to our state’s housing crisis. Many more Vermonters are struggling to remain in their homes or live in substandard housing. Recent estimates indicate that Vermont will need to add 40,000 units of housing by 2030 to return to a healthy housing market.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Federal Credit Union has been named a Top 5 Lender for Volume by the Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) in 2022. Vermont Federal was the only Credit Union in Vermont to receive the award and was recognized in combination with four other mortgage lending partners in Vermont. Vermont Federal Credit Union has received this award for the past five consecutive years.

Vermont Business Magazine On February 2nd, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced grants to address homelessness among people in unsheltered settings and in rural communities. Nationally, nearly $315 million in grants were announced to 46 communities. Vermont received $2,062,533 in funding.

Vermont State Police Multiple law enforcement agencies across Vermont are receiving calls reporting shootings at local schools. At this time, none of these threats is believed to be credible, and the incidents appear to be hoaxes. The calls have been reported to originate from VOIP phone numbers or potentially spoofed 802 numbers and appear to be associated with ongoing nationwide hoax phone threats of school shootings, bomb threats, and other violent events that have proved to be unfounded.

Vermont Business Magazine The Burlington High School Girls Basketball Team read a statement before tip-off of the varsity basketball game vs Champlain Valley High School Tuesday night at UVM's Patrick Gym. The statement stems from a TikTok video in December which included a CVU player. Subsequent to the video several schools canceled games against CVU, including a previous one by BHS.

Vermont Business Magazine Governor Phil Scott and the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) today announced $12.6 million in Healthy Homes Initiative awards to help 36 manufactured housing communities (also known as mobile home parks) repair, replace, and upgrade water infrastructure. Most of the awards will address significant problems with outdated and failing wastewater and drinking water systems. Awardees will use the funding to cover the costs of: A needs assessment with a State-contracted engineering firm, Technical and permitting assistance, and/or Construction needed to improve water infrastructure. Eligible manufactured housing communities included those that are registered through the state’s Mobile Home Park registry, and awardees included communities in every county from which an application was received.

Vermont Business Magazine In a letter to the Rutland Town Selectboard today, the ACLU is drawing attention to numerous examples of trespass notices barring local residents from public property—several of which have been issued at the behest of Selectboard members—part of a statewide trend of local officials restricting residents’ access to public spaces. The letter asserts that Rutland’s current policy for trespass notices is inadequate to protect residents’ due process rights; prior to being contacted by the ACLU, the town had no policy at all. Based on information obtained through public records requests and discussions with local residents, the ACLU learned that from 2020 to 2022, Rutland Town police have issued at least 10 trespass notices restricting access to public property—without providing a reason for their issuance in the notice or a process to challenge them.

Vermont Business Magazine MENTOR Vermont, in partnership with youth mentoring programs, youth mentees, volunteer mentors, legislators, and business supporters, celebrated Vermont Mentoring Month at MENTOR Vermont’s annual Youth Mentoring Celebration at the Vermont Statehouse on Wednesday, February 1, 2023. Comcast and MENTOR Vermont partnered for the eighth straight year to recognize the 2023 Vermont Ambassadors of Mentoring. These youth mentees and adult mentors have committed to working with MENTOR Vermont to raise awareness of the benefits of youth mentoring, the necessity for greater State investment in youth mentoring, and the need for more volunteer mentors to ensure young people in Vermont have supportive mentoring relationships they need to thrive.

Vermont Business Magazine Chooseco, The Waitsfield-based publisher of Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) gamebooks, the fourth bestselling children’s book series of all time, has licensed rights to Penguin Random House for a Stranger Things CYOA. Portland-based poet and CYOA writer, Rana Tahir, authored "Stranger Things: Heroes and Monsters" based on the fourth season of the Netflix series. It will be released by Random House Children’s Books (RHCB), a division of Penguin Random House, on April 18, 2023. "Stranger Things: Heroes and Monsters" will be the longest CYOA book in their Classic series to date clocking in at 280 pages and more than 25 endings. Like all CYOA books, it is written in the second person. The protagonist is YOU, the reader, who is presented with a series of choices that navigate your way through the book.

Vermont Business Magazine Saint Michael’s College President Lorraine Sterritt and Chair of the Board of Trustees Patricia Casey shared the news of President Sterritt’s upcoming retirement, effective June 30, with the campus community today. Sterritt, a national leader in higher education with experience at some of America’s finest institutions, was named the 17th president of Saint Michael's College in January 2018 and began serving as president beginning in July of that year. Saint Micahel's is a residential, liberal arts, Catholic college located in Colchester.