Current News

Larry Sudbay, President and Chief Executive Officer of SymQuest® Group, the region’s leading provider of network and document technology solutions and services, is pleased to announce the winner of the fifth SymPowered Office $25,000 Makeover is the Vermont Center for Independent Living.

Vermont is the beneficiary of more than $500,000 in federal funding to improve health care and education in the northern part of the state. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Thrusday that 100 recipients in 34 states and one territory will receive $30,172,507 to improve access to health care and educational services in rural areas. Funding is provided through the USDA Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) Program. The announcement included a $499,870 grant to North Country Supervisory Union in Newport, VT and an $84,141 grant to Orleans-Essex VNA & Hospice also in Newport.

The US Small Business Administration has announced that federal economic injury disaster loans are available to small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture and most private non-profit organizations of all sizes located in Addison, Bennington, Chittenden, Grand Isle and Rutland counties in Vermont as a result of the effects of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee that occurred from Aug. 27 through Sept. 15, 2011.
"These counties are eligible because they are contiguous to one or more primary counties in New York. The Small Business Administration recognizes that disasters do not usually stop at county or state lines. For that reason, counties adjacent to primary counties named in the declaration are included," said Frank Skaggs, director of SBA's Field Operations Center East in Atlanta.

Sarah London, an Assistant Attorney General in the Public Protection Division who has focused on consumer protection and antitrust efforts, will become Gov. Peter Shumlin’s legal counsel. London replaces former Counsel Beth Robinson, who resigned to take a seat on the Vermont Supreme Court.
‘I am proud to welcome Sarah to my staff and am excited to start working with her. Sarah is an exceptional lawyer who understands the legislative process, has great judgment and will be a pleasure to work with,’ the Governor said. ‘I know she will be missed at the Attorney General’s office and I appreciate Attorney General Sorrell giving Sarah his blessing to join our office.’
As legal counsel, London will provide guidance to the Governor and his administration, spearhead Gov. Shumlin’s transparency-in-government agenda, work with lawmakers on key legislation, and more. London will officially step into the new position on Jan. 3.

Only three months after Southern Vermont endured its worst natural disaster in decades, Mount Snow Resort managed to complete more than $9 million in capital improvements including the installation of the Bluebird Express; the only high speed detachable six passenger bubble lift in North America, which will whisk guests to the mountain's 3,600' summit for the first time this Saturday, December 10 at 9:00am. The resort has a full schedule of festivities planned to celebrate the occasion including a blueberry pancake breakfast, ribbon cutting ceremony, VIP speakers and a lift line party.

People’s United Bank recently presented a $25,000 check to John R. Killacky, Executive Director of Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, Vermont.

The Walter Cerf Community Fund, a component fund of the Vermont Community Foundation, announced 2011 grant awards totaling $115,823 to 40 organizations. Since 2001, the fund has made grants to organizations located in Addison
County or Brandon, or that have a statewide reach and make a unique contribution to Vermont. Priority interests are the arts, education, historic preservation, and social services, reflecting the pattern of giving established by Walter Cerf during his lifetime.
Cerf, a native of Germany who made Leicester, Vermont his home in his later years, gave more than $10 million to organizations and projects in Vermont before passing away in 2001. Cerf focused much of his giving within his community of Addison County and Brandon; grants from the Walter Cerf Community Fund reflect that focus, with two-thirds of the grants reserved for Addison County/Brandon projects and one-third reserved for statewide projects. Each grant awards up to $5,000.

Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility presented its annual Legislator of the Year award last month to two lawmakers responsible for shepherding the state’s historic health care law, Act 48, through the Statehouse.
Senator Claire Ayer, D-Addison, and former Representative Mark Larson, D-Burlington, received the award at VBSR’s 2011 fall conference Nov. 16th at Mount Snow in West Dover. Ayer is the chair of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee and Larson chaired the House Health Care Committee.
‘I worked with Sen. Ayer and Rep. Larson this year while presenting VBSR’s position on health care reform,’ said Don Mayer, the chair of VBSR’s Public Policy Committee and the CEO of Small Dog Electronics. ‘These two legislators listened to Vermonters carefully as they crafted and passed this bill. We would not have the best health care law in the country if it were not for their leadership.’

Warning that ‘American democracy in endangered,’ US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) today proposed a constitutional amendment to overturn a Supreme Court ruling that allowed unrestricted and secret campaign spending by corporations on US elections.
The first constitutional amendment ever proposed by Sanders during his two decades in Congress would reverse the narrow 5-to-4 ruling in Citizens United vs. the Federal Elections Commission. In that controversial decision almost two years ago, justices gave corporations the same First Amendment free-speech rights as people.
‘There comes a time when an issue is so important that the only way to address it is by a constitutional amendment,’ Sanders said of the effort to override the court decision that he labeled ‘a complete undermining of democracy.’

The People’s United Community Foundation, the philanthropic arm of People’s United Bank, announced today that it has awarded $38,500 to several community organizations.
Vermont Foodbank
The People’s United Community Foundation has awarded $20,000 to the Vermont Foodbank.
Founded in 1986, the Vermont Foodbank works to gather and share quality food and nurture partnerships so that no one in Vermont will go hungry. The Vermont Foodbank was started in response to an increased need for emergency food assistance among low-income households in central Vermont. At that time, the Vermont Foodbank distributed food to eight food shelves in the central Vermont area. Today, there are 280 network partners statewide that receive food from the Vermont Foodbank for local distribution.

This afternoon, December 8, at 1 pm, an audible sounding will be conducted on the 37 sirens located within the Vermont Yankee 10-mile emergency planning zone.
The pole-mounted sirens are located in the Vermont towns of Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, and Vernon, and in the New Hampshire towns of Chesterfield, Hinsdale, Richmond, Swanzey, and Winchester. In Massachusetts, the sirens are located in Gill, Colrain, Leyden, Bernardston and Northfield.
The three-minute siren testing is being conducted by the Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts state public safety agencies in compliance with the regulations of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ensure the effectiveness of the notification system.
Residents with questions on the annual testing can contact their town’s emergency management director or Mark Gilmore at Vermont Yankee at (802) 258-4168.

US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) chaired a hearing Wednesday morning on a key foreign investor program that has successfully drawn millions of dollars in economic investment to Vermont’s economy. The hearing was held before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which Leahy chairs, and focused on the reauthorization of the EB-5 Regional Center Program, and its impact on economic development and job creation in communities in Vermont and across the country.
Leahy invited Bill Stenger, the president and co-owner of Vermont’s Jay Peak Resort, to testify at the hearing. Among other important Vermont businesses, both Jay Peak and Sugarbush, two of Vermont’s destination ski resorts, have successfully raised capital through the Regional Center program, and have been engaged in ambitious development projects. Later this week, Stenger will be recognized by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce as the 2011 Citizen of the Year.