Monday, May 10, 2021
The tax breaks, reduced fees, grants and technical assistance that the dwindling number of dairy farms received between 2010 and 2019 illustrate just how dependent the industry has become on state assistance for its survival.
Unlike other reports from State Auditor Doug Hoffer’s office that attempt to ferret out fraud or waste in state spending, the “investigative report” neither finds fault with the funding nor recommends any changes.
“This report is intended to serve as a resource for State policymakers, program managers, and the public as they consider the future of dairy in Vermont and what role public funds should play," the report states.
Tags: dairy , Vermont , pollution , farming , Web Only , Image
Friday, May 7, 2021
A Massachusetts baking company appears to be interested in filling the void left by Koffee Kup Bakery's sudden closure late last month, receiving approval this week to participate in a state program that promises payments in exchange for job creation.
East Baking Company, which is headquartered in Holyoke, Mass., could receive more than $2 million in grants through the Vermont Employment Growth Incentive program should it create and maintain an unspecified number of jobs in the state.
The company manufactures and distributes bakery products nationwide and is a frequent government contractor, serving a customer list that includes hospitals, schools and federal prisons.
And while it is unclear exactly how its plans involve its now-shuttered competitor, East Baking Company is staking out familiar terrain. Among the scarce details made public about the company's applications is that they involve locations in Burlington and Brattleboro — where Koffee Kup once operated bakeries.
Tags: Koffee Kup Bakery , East Baking Company , Vermont , VEGI , Web Only , Image
Monday, May 3, 2021
But it looks like the number, which was widely quoted in January, was inaccurate, said Joyce Manchester, a senior analyst at the JFO, and Mat Barewicz, an economist at the state Department of Labor. It probably overstates the discrepancy.
The figure of 73 percent came from the Legislature's Joint Fiscal Office and the state Department of Labor, using data from the U.S. Department of Labor. It was shared with lawmakers and by advocates for women. It prompted conversations about how to help women return to the workforce.
Manchester said last week she had backed away from using the number.
“I have been spreading the word that we may have been misled by data that somehow isn’t quite right,” said Manchester, who had cautioned in January that she needed to do more analysis on the data she was using. “There may be something funky in the data set.”
Tags: Vermont women , unemployment , department of labor , Web Only , Image
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
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
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
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.
Tags: Koffee Kup , Web Only , Image
The Saint J Brewery, located in St. Johnsbury's Green Mountain Mall, has since deleted the April 21 post, which garnered more than 200 comments while it was still active.
Many expressed anger at the brewery for using a term that has come to be associated with anti-Semitism and far-right conspiracies. One of the musicians mentioned in the post, Lefty Yunger, wrote that he would no longer be playing at the April 30 show. A Facebook event for the evening was later canceled.
Scott Salmonsen, the brewery's owner, did not respond to interview requests.
Tags: Saint J Brewery , St. Johnsbury , Globalist , Web Only , Image
Monday, April 26, 2021
The department is reporting a huge increase in fraudulent claims this spring, part of a national wave. The scope of the fraud is “unprecedented,” said the U.S. Department of Justice, which has set up a task force to combat it.
As many as 70 percent of the claims filed this month in Vermont are fraudulent, state Labor Commissioner Michael Harrington said Monday.
Under the schemes — which are now being investigated by an alphabet soup of federal and state agencies, as well as banks and state attorneys general — scammers use unsuspecting people's personal information to collect benefits.
Tags: unemployment insurance , fraud , Howard Dean , Web Only , Image