Friday, May 28, 2021
Night owls seeking a drink or some grub will soon have more options: Citing the state's vaccination progress, Gov. Phil Scott has lifted the 10 p.m. curfew for Vermont bars and restaurants, effective Saturday.
The move, which eliminates a monthslong curfew aimed at limiting transmission of the coronavirus, arrives ahead of the typically busy Memorial Day Weekend. Further, the number of Vermonters ages 18 to 29 getting vaccinated continues to climb; just over half that group has received at least one dose, representing a 20 percent jump during the last month.
"We felt there was no reason to keep the limit in place," Scott said at a press conference Friday.
Bars and restaurants must still obey all other COVID-19 mandates — at least for now. Those who aren’t vaccinated must still wear masks when not seated, for example, while establishments must provide six feet of space between tables and monitor capacity limits.
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Thursday, May 27, 2021
Mrs. Dunster's Bakery — a New Brunswick baked goods distributor — announced its intentions in a press release on Thursday, saying it was facilitating the purchase through the newly-formed North Atlantic Baking Company, which will be based out of Burlington.
"We have been advised that North Atlantic Baking Company is the preferred purchaser of the Koffee Kup assets and we are focused on moving quickly to conclude negotiations which will lead to restarting operations very soon," wrote Blair Hyslop, who co-owns and runs Mrs. Dunster's with his wife, Rosalyn, in the release. VTDigger.org first reported the news.
The likely new owners say they are now negotiating a lease with a court-appointed receiver and hope to have it completed within the next few days. They said they plan to resume operations at Koffee Kup's two Vermont bakeries while they try to sell off a third facility in Connecticut.
"The lease agreement will allow us to quickly get employees back to work and products back on the shelves while we work through the formal transferring of assets, the details of which have been largely agreed to," Hyslop wrote.
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Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Hopkins’ son built the school building in the late 1800s as a tribute to his father. It's on a large scenic parcel that includes Lake Champlain shoreline.
In 1861, the elder Hopkins penned A Scriptural, Ecclesiastical and Historical View of Slavery, a pamphlet in which he criticized abolitionists and argued that slavery was not a sin.
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Tuesday, May 25, 2021
The event marked the one-year anniversary of Floyd's death and drew elected officials, community leaders and others to City Hall Park, where attendees held a silent vigil lasting nine minutes and 29 seconds — the same amount of time that former officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck.
C D Mattison, who organized the vigil, briefly addressed the crowd to reflect on Floyd's final moments, which were captured on video by a 17-year-old bystander and quickly seared into the national consciousness.
"George Floyd should be alive today. We know that," Mattison said. "And what pained me so much for his family — and most certainly for George Floyd, as he cried out for his mother — was the gathering of people who were there in witness, and how excruciating it was for them that they felt they could not intervene on his behalf and save him, because their very own lives were at risk as well."
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Monday, May 24, 2021
Also Monday, councilors approved new water rates, appointed a city department head and passed a resolution encouraging young Burlingtonians to serve on city boards and commissions.
Burlington Electric Department general manager Darren Springer said the rate increase — which the state's Public Utility Commission also must approve — will make up for revenue lost during the coronavirus pandemic. The department brought in $2.1 million less in sales than was budgeted for during the current fiscal year and is owed more than $1.3 million in unpaid customer bills. Expenses next year are expected to be 8.5 percent more than the current year, according to Springer.
The average residential customer’s bill will go up $4.92 per month; low- to moderate-income customers are expected to pay an additional $4.27 a month.
Customers will see the new charges on their August bills.
"We understand the challenge of the moment for the community, and we definitely view a rate increase as a last resort," Springer said.
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The bill is part of a larger measure aimed at improving the quality of long-term rental housing and setting up a professional health and safety inspection system to replace the one that is now largely staffed by volunteer town health officers.
“We’ve been trying to get something like this across for essentially 12 years,” said Rep. Tom Stevens (D-Waterbury), a longtime housing advocate who is chair of the House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs. He said the bill was rejected by many Republicans who saw the proposed registry as government overreach.
Friday, May 21, 2021
The suit, filed Friday in Washington County Superior Court, alleges that Vermont Technical College, which operates within the state college apparatus, lured Chris Gray and his wife, Laura Brown, into the partnership under false pretenses, then entered into a secret contract with the Upper Valley Land Trust that nearly forced the family off the property. The suit seeks $500,000.
In the summer of 2015, Gray and Brown moved from West Pawlet to the 358-acre Norwich Farm Creamery to teach cheese-making classes to Vermont Tech students. The educational component of the operation had allowed Vermont Tech to secure the 358-acre farm, then valued at some $2.5 million, as a donation from the previous owner.
The thinking behind the venture, according to the suit, was that the program would generate student revenue for Vermont Tech; Gray and Brown, in turn, would enjoy access to free labor and a state-of-the-art facility built, in part, with grant funding from the college. Gray and Brown signed a five-year lease with Vermont Tech, and the two parties developed a business plan, with the eventual goal of producing a line of European-style cave-aged cheeses to be sold for profit, a portion of which would go to Vermont Tech.
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The close of the first — and likely last — fully-remote legislative session of the General Assembly was accompanied by congratulations from leaders for all they’ve accomplished this session.
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The governor initially set the Fourth of July as the date to lift all restrictions. But he said during one of his twice-weekly COVID-19 news briefings that he hopes to be able to lift restrictions sooner than that. Bars and restaurants, for instance, remain limited in the hours they can operate.
“Vaccines work, and we’re vaccinating faster than I think anyone imagined,” Scott said.
As of Friday, 88 percent of all Vermonters were eligible to be vaccinated. Of that population, 74.9 percent had received at least one dose, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That means an additional 27,954 people need to be vaccinated to reach the 80 percent threshold, according to Scott.
The highest proportion of people who had received one dose was 77 percent, in Chittenden County, according to the state Health Department’s COVID-19 dashboard. The lowest was Essex County, with 54 percent.
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Thursday, May 20, 2021
Employers will not face extra insurance charges if they laid off workers as a result of the pandemic in 2020. The bill, S.62, was sent Thursday to Gov. Phil Scott's desk for his signature.
Lawmakers and lobbyists started talking last October about how to charge employers under the state’s “experience rating” system, which effectively penalizes companies for laying off workers. The rating system charges employers high rates of unemployment insurance if they frequently lay off workers; the money goes to the state's unemployment trust fund, which is used for benefit payments.
In 2020, many companies laid off workers because the state ordered businesses to close to limit the spread of COVID-19. Employers and business groups had argued that businesses shouldn't see their insurance rates rise as a result of that anomalous year.
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