Business

In a real estate transaction completed on Thursday, Nov. 14, Strolling of the Heifers has acquired the Robert H. Gibson River Garden property on Main Street in downtown Brattleboro.

The building was sold by Building a Better Brattleboro, the organization that built it in 2001 and has operated it since then.

Orly Munzing, founder and executive director of Strolling of the Heifers, announced that Strolling of the Heifers would launch a Farm/Food Education Center at the River Garden, with year-round programming, exhibits and events related to farming, local food and food systems.

The Brattleboro Energy Committee is pleased to announce the three recipients of the 2013 Sustainable Business Awards. The three award winners are Triple T Trucking, Cultural Intrigue, and the Brattleboro Food Co-op. These awards are given annually to Brattleboro-area businesses and nonprofits that are making extraordinary efforts to reduce energy and water use, lower carbon emissions, use renewable fuels, reduce solid waste, promote local food production, and use recycled materials and other environmentally-friendly products.

The awards will be presented at the Tuesday, November 19 Brattleboro Selectboard meeting, beginning at 6:15 pm in the Brattleboro Municipal Center, 230 Main Street.

Community Capital of Vermont is a nonprofit, statewide small business and microenterprise lender. Our loans range in size from $1,000 to $100,000 and can be used for business start-up or growth and expansion. CCVT specializes in providing loans to business owners who lack the collateral or credit history to qualify for traditional bank loans.

Loan proceeds can be used for working capital, equipment or vehicle, inventory, or to refinance debt.

Howard Weiss-Tisman is reporting that Kate O’Connor has been selected by the Chamber board as the new Director of the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce, replacing retiring Jerry Goldberg (who was recently named “Person of the Year.”)

WILLISTON, Vt., Nov. 4 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today was joined by Gov. Peter Shumlin and representatives of IBM, Sandia National Laboratories and the U.S. Department of Energy to launch the Vermont Photovoltaic Regional Test Center. The center will research ways to cut the cost of solar power and integrate solar energy into Vermont’s statewide smart grid.

The Regional Test Center is a $3 million project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative, which aims to reduce the cost of solar energy by 75 percent by 2020 and make solar power account for at least 15 percent of America’s electricity generation by 2030.

Building a Better Brattleboro will hold a meeting of its membership on Thursday, November 7, 2013 at 5:30 p.m. at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden. BaBB will present its FY 2015 work plan and budget. Following the presentation the membership will vote on whether to approve the budget in accordance with Chapter 15 of Brattleboro’s Code of Ordinances.

BaBB’s membership, as well as the public, is encouraged to attend.

Building a Better Brattleboro
babb@sover.net

Public testimony from 5-7 pm in Vernon

On Monday October 28th, the Vermont House Commerce and House Natural Resource and Energy Committees will hold a joint hearing in Windham County to hear about community and economic impacts expected from the date certain closure of Vermont Yankee. The hearing is scheduled from 1:30 to 4:30 for regional organizations, municipalities and others to testify with an open time for public testimony from 5-7 pm at the Vernon Elementary School.

BDCC, southeastern Vermont’s regional development corporation, and SeVEDS (Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies) will testify at 2:15 PM about the pressing economic development needs, and the plans they have developed to meet those needs, in the Windham Region.

By Dave Bonta, President of USA Solar Store

Carol Levin and Richard Gottlieb ran Sunnyside Solar for 30 years out of their home in Guilford selling their first PV panel in 1983! They have helped over 600 folks get solar; either as students, installers or customers.

Their remarkable story started in the Chelsea House Folklore Center, a Red Barn on the edge of West Brattleboro where Richard met Carol during  one of her famous country dances. Back in 1979 folks used to come from all over to “promenade” the night away at the Chelsea house. Today the Chelsea Royal diner still sports the name, which Carol used, inspired by the Joni Mitchell song of the 1960’s. Carol & Richard married at the Chelsea House in 1979.

Brooks Memorial Library is pleased to announce that Michael Shuman, author of several books including “Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity,” will be featured at the first annual “New Economy Lunch at the Library” to discuss how buying local can positively impact the economy. The lunch talk will be at noon on Friday, October 11th in the library’s meeting room on the 2nd floor. The event is free and open to the public, and a brown bag lunch may be brought into the meeting room. The Library will be using the new videoconferencing equipment received as part of the Vermont Department of Libraries/Google grant. 

Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation and Springfield Regional Development Corporation have received an additional $500,000 in Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds through the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) to assist businesses with “unmet disaster recovery needs” related to Tropical Storm Irene. The two groups have scheduled free, mandatory, workshops in October for those interested in applying for funding through this program.

Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS) has reelected the following board members to 3 years terms: Patrick Moreland, Brattleboro Interim Town Manager, Bill Colvin, Bennington Region Planning Commission, Colby Dix, Vermont Geeks.

Five new board members have also been elected: Ann Andresatos from New Chapter has been elected to a three year term. Cynthia Stoddard, Putney’s Town Manager, has been elected to fill the remaining two years of SeVEDS founding member and former Brattleboro Town Manager Barb Sondag’s term. Ariel Brooks of Marlboro College, Francis “Dutch” Walsh from the Town of Rockingham and Konstantin VonKrusenstiern from the Brattleboro Retreat have each been elected to fill the remaining one year terms of seats vacated by Julia Sorensen, Tim Cullenen and Dan Yates.

Working professionals, jobseekers, and students are encouraged to stop by the Quality Inn in Brattleboro, Sept. 26, to learn about the variety of careers that Southeastern Vermont businesses have to offer. Twenty five employers, along with several colleges, technical schools, and employment services agencies, will
be staffing informational tables from 2 to 6 p.m. as part of Windham County’s first ever Career Expo.

The Expo will showcase several of the county’s largest employers in health care, hospitality, manufacturing, wholesale trade, food production, and energy, among other industry sectors. A complete list of exhibitors is available at www.vermontcareerexpo.com/exhibitors.

Building a Better Brattleboro will hold its annual meeting on Thursday, September 26, 2013 at
5:30 p.m. at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden. The BaBB Board of Directors is seeking public input into the organization’s Fiscal Year 2015 work plan and budget. The public is encouraged to attend.

Kate O’Connor
Building a Better Brattleboro Board of Directors
(802) 490-2073
www.babb@sover.net

I have heard quite a few numbers thrown around regarding the eventual closing of VY. Will Brattleboro really have 630 homes on the market, and lose an equal number of well-paid residents?

I decided to ask Jeff Lewis of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation. He, along with Pat Moutlon Powden, Director of Workplace Development, answered questions about what they currently know and don’t know about the impact on Brattleboro.

They said that the data that BDCC and SeVEDS has thus far is somewhat limited.

Working professionals, jobseekers, and students are encouraged to stop by the Quality Inn in Brattleboro, Sept. 26, to learn about the variety of careers that Southeastern Vermont businesses have to offer. Twenty five employers, along with several colleges, technical schools, and employment services agencies, will be staffing informational tables from 2 to 6 p.m. as part of Windham County’s first ever Career Expo.

The Expo will showcase several of the county’s largest employers in health care, hospitality, manufacturing, wholesale trade, food production, and energy, among other industry sectors. A complete list of exhibitors is available at www.vermontcareerexpo.com/exhibitors.

from:
Jenna Pugliese, Chair of Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS)
Stephan Morse, Chair of SeVEDS Post Vermont Yankee Task Force
John Meyer, President of Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation

We are deeply concerned about the loss of over 650 highly paid jobs and the impacts that will have on the lives of the VY employee families. We are equally concerned about the overall impact to the regional economy and the impact to the many contractors and other businesses that do business with VY.

The announcement that Entergy will close Vermont Yankee in 2014 significantly exacerbates the economic challenges facing Southeastern Vermont. This adds even more urgency to our need to act to implement existing and developing strategies.

Last night Bunti from India Palace told my sister they are closing today. I had no idea! He said they’ll expand the store.

I really like the people there and will miss being able to get Indian food without having to cook it!  

With the closing last month of ReNew Building Materials & Salvage, some may be under the impression that building materials reuse has gone back to the informal economy.  And while this is true for sourcing used materials, it need not be for building deconstruction and salvage services. 

Slowly and quietly deconstruction is alive, in the form of Deconstruction Works, a start-up firm hoping to create a niche as an employee-owned cooperative in the next few years.  While Deconstruction Works is currently a sole proprietorship, as work grows- so will the team. 

Vendor applications are now being accepted for the eighth season of the Winter Farmers’ Market which will again be held at the River Garden in the heart of Brattleboro, VT. Space for new vendors is limited but interested parties are encouraged to submit an application prior to the September 1 deadline.

The Winter Market opens on November 2 for the 2013/2014 season and will be open every Saturday through March 29, 2014 for a total of 22 markets. The regular market hours for the Winter Farmers’ Market will be 10 am to 2 pm with hours extended to 3 pm for the markets between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Growing out of her experience with the Chamber of Commerce and after Wilmington was decimated by Tropical Storm Irene flooding, Laura Sibilia of BDCC helped create what she terms “two separate mechanisms” to address collaboration in the areas of tourism and employee recruitment.

When Atlas Advertising of Denver, CO representatives visit this area July 23-25, they will meet with focus groups comprised of the top five to ten employers in each area within the region. These are the “major stakeholders” identified by the Chambers of Commerce. The visit will begin with a focus on recruitment, meeting in Bellows Falls with major emloyers, in Brattleboro with workforce development, followed by tours of Bennington and Bellows Falls and meeting with the Human Resources group in Manchester.