Monday, May 3, 2021
But couple from Connecticut is working hard to fix that, with plans to start serving up microbrews from their new Dirt Church brewery in tiny East Haven on July 4.
Bruce Lindsay and Anna Cronin have spent the latter half of the pandemic renovating a 900-square-foot church that Lindsay bought in September for $85,000. The church came with less than an acre of land and a dilapidated former Grange hall that the two have replaced with a post-and-beam seven-barrel brewhouse. Lindsay is a longtime homebrewer.
Tags: craft beer , brewery , Essex County , Dirt Church , Web Only , Image
Friday, April 30, 2021
Earlier this week, state Labor Commissioner Michael Harrington told Seven Days that as many as 70 percent of the claims filed this month were fraudulent. The U.S. Department of Justice has cited a national wave of unprecedented unemployment insurance fraud and has set up a task force to combat it.
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean told Seven Days on Sunday that he had gotten no fewer than 10 booklets for claimants, which the department mails automatically to people who filed for benefits. Dean said he had filed no claim. And even after he reported what was happening, he said, the mailings kept coming. "This is crazy," he said.
The state will continue to accept new claims, but they must come in by phone through the UI Claimant Assistance Center at 877-214-3330. It's open Monday through Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Tags: fraud , unemployment insurance , Michael Harrington , department of labor , Web Only , Image
The complaint in U.S. District Court in Vermont alleges the longtime doughnut and bread maker violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN Act, which requires companies with more than 100 employees to provide 60-day notice to employees — as well as local and state officials — before mass layoffs.
Tags: Koffee Kup , Jeff Sands , Vermont Department of Labor , WARN Act , American Industrial Acquisition Corporation , Web Only , Image
He also updated the state's outdoor mask mandate following the release of new guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control. Vermonters, regardless of whether they are vaccinated, no longer need to wear facial coverings outdoors when physical distancing can be maintained, though businesses and municipalities can enact stricter rules if they want.
"As an example, if you're walking down the street, you don't need to wear a mask," Scott said at a press conference. "If you're at the dog park and you're not in a crowd, you don't need to wear a mask. If you're with people outdoors in accordance with the gathering policy, you don't need a mask."
Tags: Vaccinations , Mask Mandate , Reopening Plan , Gov. Phil Scott , Web Only , Image
Thursday, April 29, 2021
Drysdale passed away in the company of his wife Marjorie and his sons Robin and Jamie, the paper noted, adding that a full obituary would appear in the next issue.
"He was a really avid newsman, but he was also a really intent member of the community," said the paper's publisher, Tim Calabro.
Calabro was a photographer when, in 2015, he purchased the then-140-year-old paper from Drysdale. At the time of the purchase, the paper was called the Herald of Randolph.
Tags: M. Dickey Drysdale , the herald of randolph , white river valley herald , journalism , new england newspaper hall of fame , Web Only , Image
S. 20 would prevent food containers, rugs and ski wax made with PFAS chemicals from being distributed and sold in the state.
The bill received lengthy testimony and debate in the House Human Services Committee, much of it involving how firefighting foam containing the chemicals should also be phased out. The foam is used at the Vermont Air National Guard base in South Burlington, where it has polluted the groundwater, and by the petroleum industry.
The issue was complicated by concern that the state lacks the power to regulate the use of the foam by the Guard, which is governed by Department of Defense regulations but provides fire protection to the civilian Burlington International Airport.
Ultimately, the committee required firefighting foam used in the state to be free of such chemicals by October of 2023, with a limited one-year extension for petroleum distributors who use it for fuel fires. The date aligns with the target the Department of Defense has set for shifting to new firefighting foams.
Rep. Ann Pugh (D-Burlington) pushed back against some of the criticism, including from members of her own committee, that earlier versions of the bill contained too many exemptions for industry groups and others that opposed it. An early version proposed exemptions for the petroleum industry stretching to 2028.
“We didn’t do this for industry. We didn’t do this for the military. We didn’t do this for the rug companies or for the ski wax people. We did this to protect Vermonters,” Pugh said.
PFAS compounds are called "forever chemicals" because of how long they take to break down in the environment. The same durability that makes the chemicals effective as coatings for cookware or strengthening textiles also makes them last in the environment. After they were discovered in groundwater in Southern Vermont in 2016, subsequent state testing has found elsewhere.
Water systems, groundwater, landfill leachate and wastewater treatment plants in the state have all tested positive for PFAS chemicals, many at levels significantly higher than the 20 parts per trillion standard set by the state for drinking water.
The bill is intended to expand the state’s response from merely cleaning up the mess to preventing PFAS chemicals from being used in Vermont in the first place. The consumer products identified in the bill are those known to have high PFAS levels or — as in the case of some food packaging— a direct pathway to consumers’ bodies.
The bill is expected to get a full House vote next week, after which it would need concurrence by the Senate.
Tags: PFAS , toxic , groundwater , Vermont Air Guard. , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Akande’s departure was made public on Wednesday afternoon. In a press release, Champlain College announced that Akande had accepted a leadership position at an investment banking and financial services firm in St. Louis, Mo. Prior to taking the helm at Champlain College in July 2020, Akande had been an administrator at Washington University in St. Louis.
As the school searches for Akande’s successor, former Champlain College president Dave Finney will serve as interim president, effective June 1. Finney was president of Champlain College from 2005 to 2014; since February, he had been acting as a consultant to Akande.
Both Akande and Board of Trustees president Charles Kittredge were unavailable for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Tags: Champlain College , Benjamin Ola. Akande , Web Only , Image
Ninety-one employees in Brattleboro were affected by the closure of Vermont Bread, which is owned by Koffee Kup’s parent, KUPCO. Another 156 lost jobs in Burlington.
Employers saw an opportunity. TwinCraft, a soap company in Winooski, put signs on the door of the Koffee Kup bakery in Burlington saying that TwinCraft was hiring. Hannaford, the supermarket chain, reached out to former Koffee Kup workers on Facebook, emphasizing that it has jobs in Burlington.
There appears to be no shortage of positions for the workers who were abruptly terminated Monday. The state Department of Labor has already heard from still other employers eager to contact them.
Tags: Koffee Kup , unemployment , michael harrington , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
For the last year, the unemployment system in Vermont, as in other states, has served as a COVID-19 safety net for those unable to make an income as a result of the pandemic.
But with vaccination rates rising and businesses reopening, state officials said
that it’s time for many of the estimated 20,000 people who are collecting regular unemployment benefits to start trying to reenter the workforce.
Tags: Vermont , coronavirus , pandemic , COVID-19 , unemployment benefits , Phil Scott , governor , Web Only , Image
"It was very abrupt," Gov. Phil Scott said at his regular COVID-19 briefing Tuesday. He added that regional development corporations around the state are looking for potential buyers to revive Koffee Kup. "We all learned of this very recently," he said.
Koffee Kup has been a mainstay for decades, and many Vermonters sought out the bakery's doughnuts and rolls in grocery and convenience stores.
"A family tradition since 1940," reads a sign on its industrial-size bakery complex on Riverside Avenue in Burlington. For years, Old North End residents were accustomed to sweet aromas wafting over the neighborhood in the early morning hours. Many employees of that facility were New Americans.
One potential buyer is a Rochester, N.Y., pie-maker who said he has made six offers on the business — and still wants it.
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