Thursday, February 27, 2020
Net tuition revenue decreased 15 percent between fiscal 2015 and 2019, and enrollment declined 20 percent, according to the February 20 downgrade announcement.
Moody's reported a slip from Baa1 to Baa2 bond status. It also warned of a "negative outlook" for the fiscal health of the college, which was founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund Roman Catholic order of priests.
"The negative outlook reflects the possibility of additional credit deterioration if the college is unable to stem enrollment losses and improve financial results,"
the ratings company wrote.
Tags: St. Michael's College , higher education , Moody's Investors Service , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Important documents and checks have been lost or stuck in limbo. And Hunt says her efforts to get answers by contacting the U.S. Postal Service carrier station on Pine Street in Burlington have often been unproductive.
"I feel when you do call the post office, they don't seem to really care, and they don't seem to know what's going on, either," Hunt told Seven Days.
She's not alone. Hunt is among several people in the neighborhood just south of the Burlington line who have taken to Front Porch Forum to express frustration with erratic delivery.
"I've called Pine Street to complain and just get a song and dance. Something has to be done," another Proctor Avenue resident wrote on Front Porch Forum February 16.
Tags: South Burlington , U.S. Postal Service , delivery , mail , Web Only , Image
Thursday, February 20, 2020
A Winooski police officer pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he strangled, assaulted and repeatedly threatened his girlfriend.
Christopher Matott, 31, faces seven charges, including two felonies for aggravated domestic assault and unlawful restraint. Other charges include three counts of domestic assault and two counts of criminal threatening.
Matott did not speak during his brief arraignment in Vermont Superior Court in North Hero. Attorney Robert Katims entered pleas on his behalf and told Judge Samuel Hoar that his client had entered counseling.
Tags: Christopher Matott , Winooski Police Department , Drug Enforcement Administration , domestic violence , Grand Isle County , extreme risk protection order , Robert Katims , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Supporters including Mayor Miro Weinberger have touted the potential for so-called accessory dwelling units to boost the city's housing stock and benefit both homeowners and renters.
The changes were among several housing initiatives proposed in the wake of the mayor's 2019 Housing Summit.
Under the new rules, additional off-street parking will no longer be required for accessory dwelling units. They will also be allowed on some lots previously deemed too small, so long as stormwater treatment requirements are met.
Tags: accessory dwelling units , Burlington , housing , affordability , Web Only , Image
Burlington will not reinvest any proceeds from last year's sale of Burlington Telecom back into the company.
City councilors early Wednesday nixed a proposal by Mayor Miro Weinberger to use $2.4 million of the proceeds to purchase a small stake in the new company, a subsidiary of Indiana-based Schurz Communications.
The fateful decision, made after midnight during a marathon meeting, ends a tumultuous two decades of municipally owned broadband.
Tags: Burlington Telecom , Burlington City Council , Miro Weinberger , Brian Pine , Joan Shannon , Jack Hanson , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Yet the “official document” was actually a plea for donations from the Republican National Committee. The form imitated a U.S. Census questionnaire — except for the types of questions it contained and the request for funds at the end.
“Do you approve or disapprove of the Democrats’ never-ending witch hunt to try to destroy President Trump?” one question reads, with “approve,” “disapprove” or “unsure” as possible responses.
The final of 41 questions asks for a credit card number, donation amount and certification that “the answers to the enclosed 2020 Congressional District Census Document are my own.”
Tags: 2020 , Burlington , Donald Trump , Election , Election 2020 , Phil Scott , Primary 2020 , Republican National Committee , U.S. Census , Web Only , Image
Monday, February 17, 2020
The advisory, issued Saturday, affected much of Burlington and parts of South Burlington that rely on Burlington's municipal supply. It was lifted early Monday.
The Department of Public Works posted the update on its website in English, Swahili, French, Somali and Nepali.
Tags: boil water advisory , Burlington , Web Only , Image
Saturday, February 15, 2020
The City of Burlington is advising residents to boil drinking water following a water main break and depressurization of the system.
The advisory is citywide, except for what the city calls its "high service area," which includes the University of Vermont and the UVM Medical Center. It extends to South Burlington residents who are on Burlington's municipal water supply. The city published a map of the affected area.
"We are currently working on the required sampling protocol to ensure all drinking water is safe to ingest," says the advisory, issued Saturday. "At this time, the precautionary boil water advisory is likely to last through most of tomorrow."
Some city businesses were affected. City Market, Onion River Co-op closed both of its Burlington stores.
For updates, check the Department of Public Works' Facebook page. You can also sign up to receive alerts.
Tags: boil water advisory , Burlington , water main break , Web Only , Image
Friday, February 14, 2020
Waitsfield-based Chooseco, whose founder popularized the "Choose Your Own Adventure" interactive children's books, claims Netflix cribbed the concept for an episode of the technological dystopian show "Black Mirror." It's asking for $25 million in damages.
In late 2018, Netflix released an interactive film, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, with the conceit that viewers could direct the plot with their remote. The show's premise centered around a video game programmer who is inspired by what the character describes as a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book.
Tags: Chooseco , Netflix , trademark infringement , U.S. District Court , Black Mirror , Choose Your Own Adventure , Bandersnatch , Web Only , Image
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
A self-made man who grew up dirt poor in Rutland, Miller gave away millions to Vermont nonprofits in cash donations and in-kind work through his company, REM Development. He and his wife, Holly, who survives him, contributed to the King Street Center, Champlain College, the Visiting Nurse Association, the VNA Respite House, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts and many other local organizations. Their 2013 contribution to the University of Vermont Medical Center was valued at $13 million.
Miller invented himself. With just a high school education, and a winning combination of charm and audacity, he worked his way up through the building industry in Vermont. Despite losing an arm at birth, he became an auto mechanic, then convinced a Burlington engineering firm to hire him as a draftsman. After learning on the job, he started New England Air Systems in 1972. Twelve years later, he sold the business to his employees. "It gets companies spread out to people who would never own them," he told me when I profiled the Millers 20 years ago in Seven Days. He started REM Development in 1984. Although it is based in Chittenden County, the company also built, bought and rehabbed properties in downtown Newport and Rutland.
Despite his financial success, Miller was not a typical businessman. He preferred verbal agreements to written ones and engaged in all manner of creative financing to spark economic development. He happily rented office space to Seven Days when the paper started in 1995 — a windowless room in the basement of his building, Miller’s Landmark, at the top of Burlington's Church Street. He suggested we pay $300 a month for the first year and, if Seven Days were still in business at the end of it, we could pay him the difference between that sum and the real rent — aka a balloon payment.
We had nothing in writing — just a handshake deal. When I expressed concern, Miller held out his good arm and suggested with his signature grin: “Touch me, I’m gold.”
In so many ways, he was.
Visiting hours are Tuesday, February 11, from 3-6 p.m. at the Robert E. Miller Expo Center in Essex Junction. A Celebration of Life is scheduled in the same venue on Wednesday, February 12 at 11 a.m. Burial will be held privately in the spring.
Tags: Robert "Bobby" Miller , philanthropy , Web Only , Image