Wednesday, June 9, 2021
The brick depot has been in jeopardy since Amtrak deemed it to be a safety risk— it sits less than 12 feet from the track — and determined that it must be removed ahead of the long-awaited resumption of passenger rail service between Burlington and Rutland. That route is expected to restart by early next year and will send passenger trains past the station at speeds of up to 59 miles per hour.
The state learned of Amtrak's position on the matter several years ago but only informed New Haven of the predicament this January, setting off a mad dash to determine whether the historic building could be saved.
Tags: Train Station , New Haven , Depot , Saved , Amtrak , Web Only , Image
The new entity will be called Omni Medical, said chief operating officer Maribel Morgan. The move came after the company looked at ways of streamlining its processes and identified some redundant roles, she said.
Omni Medical sells a device that helps pilots relieve their bladders mid-flight without leaving their seats. Omni Precision makes a part for the product.
Morgan said the two entities, which were located side by side, should never have been organized as separate companies. They'll be located in one building.
The two companies, owned by Mark Harvie, had about 84 employees before the merger process started, said Morgan. She expects the new company to have about 48 after some attrition. Some workers from Omni Precision are being offered jobs at Omni Medical. Harvie also owns a training facility in South Burlington called Omni Defense, she said.
Tags: Defense contractor , merge , layoffs , Omni Medical , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, June 8, 2021
The residential care homes, known collectively as Our House, featured prominently in a Seven Days/Vermont Public Radio series on the industry for similar problems dating back to 2015.
State regulators at the Vermont Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living stepped in last month following what court filings describe as a spate of “troubling events” at Our House homes in the last year that showed a pattern of understaffing and inadequate training.
Tags: Our House , Paula Patorti , Vermont Department of Disabilities , Aging and Independent Living , Receivership , Eldercare , Residential Care Homes , Worse for Care , Web Only , Image
Raap, 72, has an ambitious vision for the site. In collaboration with partners, he intends to build an agriculture center that showcases Vermont grains, botanicals and beverages on a working farm that produces these goods.
Envisioned as an “ecosystem” of enterprises, the project would encompass private businesses, nonprofit organizations and agricultural education. Shoreham-based WhistlePig Whiskey would have a tasting room and storage facility at the site , which would also be home to the Cyrus Pringle Museum. Named for the Charlotte-born, 19th-century botanist and grain breeder who cofounded Horsford Gardens & Nursery, the museum will focus on grains in the Green Mountain State.
Tags: Nordic Farms , Nordic 3.0 , Charlotte , Will Raap , Gardener's Supply , Intervale Center , grains , botanicals , entrepreneurs , Whistle Pig , Web Only , Slideshow , Image
The company, InSpace, sells a platform that is designed to ease personal interaction between students and teachers in virtual classrooms. InSpace announced Tuesday that it received $6 million in two rounds of funding, including a $2.6 investment from Boston Seed Capital in January, and $1.5 million each from Gutbrain Ventures of Boston and PBJ Capital of Lincoln, Mass., at the end of May.
Hall is a data science assistant professor and academic program director at Champlain College. She created the platform with software and video engineer Haykanush Lputyan, who lives in Armenia. The two, friends from college in that country, launched it last year as the pandemic sent students and professors out of the classroom to work remotely.
The company said its software is now used by more than 100 universities and schools worldwide. Hall, who lives in Colchester, said InSpace was making money almost as soon as it was founded 11 months ago and now has about 10 employees in Armenia and five in Vermont. She's looking for more employees, including those who can work remotely.
Tags: Narine Hall , InSpace , Vermont-based businesses , Cairn Cross , Web Only , Image
Monday, June 7, 2021
City councilors voted unanimously to lift the city's mask mandate on Monday night. The move comes as the state announced that 79.2 percent of Vermonters age 12 and up have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Gov. Phil Scott has pledged to lift any remaining COVID-19 restrictions once the state reaches the 80 percent vaccine threshold.
Mayor Miro Weinberger had sought to rescind the city's masking order in mid-May, after the state announced that fully vaccinated people could go mask-free in most situations. But a council majority voted to delay the action after some members raised concerns that younger retail workers may not be inoculated until June.
Tags: vaccinations , Vermont , Burlington , mask mandate , city council , coronavirus , Envision 89 , transportation , Web Only , Image
He also urged lawmakers to return to the topic next session and extend the changes to primaries and local elections, too.
“I’m signing this bill because I believe making sure voting is easy and accessible, and increasing voter participation, is important," Scott said in a press release. "Having said that, we should not limit this expansion of access to general elections alone, which already have the highest voter turnout."
Tags: Mail-in voting , Vote-by-mail , Town Meeting Day , General Elections , Phil Scott , Web Only , Image
That's bad news for those who hoped that Koffee Kup's bakeries in Burlington and Brattleboro, which closed abruptly in April, would reopen soon.
"This acquisition brings brands and production capacity in the Northeast, a key growth market for our company," said Ryals McMullian, president and CEO of Flowers Foods. "We have no immediate plans to reopen the bakeries but will be assessing how they may fit our strategic network optimization efforts in the future."
The last-minute change, noted during a remote hearing in Chittenden Superior Court, surprised the previously announced buyer, Blair Hyslop of Mrs. Dunster’s, a Canadian company. Mrs. Dunster's had already started creating new employment contracts with former Koffee Kup workers.
Hyslop said he was planning a Zoom town meeting with employees from both Vermont locations for Monday night. “For now, I will just say that this has come out of left field, and we are shocked and dismayed at the news,” he said.
The struggling 80-year-old Koffee Kup closed its plants in Vermont and Connecticut in April, displacing 500 workers. They included 156 in Burlington and 91 in Brattleboro. Its owners had negotiated unsuccessfully with KeyBank to resolve the company's debt.
Tags: Koffee Kup , layoffs , Mrs. Dunster's , Flowers Foods , Web Only , Image
Sunday, June 6, 2021
The change happened only after a Seven Days reporter informed the party of its mistake.
The Burlington Democratic Committee had planned to caucus on Tuesday, June 22 — a day after candidate petitions are due to the city clerk's office — for the August 17 Ward 3 special election. With a June 22 caucus, the Democrats' chosen candidate wouldn't have been able to run at all.
Seven Days notified party chair Adam Roof, a former city councilor, of the scheduling snafu on Friday afternoon. Roof said he thought the petition deadline was June 23 and has since rescheduled the caucus to June 18. Voting will be conducted online between June 18 and 20, Roof said.
Tags: Burlington , Burlington Democratic Committee , Vermont Progressive Party , Adam Roof , Josh Wronski , election , Ward 3 , Web Only , Image
Saturday, June 5, 2021
Pajala, the Londonderry town clerk, also often hears from constituents unable to find a place they can afford.
Now Pajala faces her own housing crisis. The condo that she rents is up for sale, and she’s having trouble finding another place for her family to live.
As town clerk, she has to stay in Londonderry, a Windham County ski town. The county’s median listing price for a home has risen 14 percent in the last year, according to the Vermont Association of Realtors.
After nine years as town clerk, “I have a pretty good idea of where the rentals are,” said Pajala, the single mother of two boys ages 13 and 14. “And you know, there is just not a lot of options out there.”
Tags: Housing , Vermont , Kelly Pajala , Web Only , Image