Up to $10 Million is available through VEDA’s Hurricane Irene Assistance Loan Program to assist Vermont businesses and farms in their efforts to recover from direct physical damage caused by flooding related to Hurricane Irene.

On its 20th anniversary, employee-owned Chroma Technology in Bellows Falls has a lot to celebrate. The company, which manufactures optical microscope filters and coatings for laboratories all over the world, recently opened a sales office in Xiamen, China. And for the third consecutive year, it has been honored by Inc. Magazine, which released its prestigious Inc. 500/5000 - a list of the nation's fastest-growing private businesses - on August. 23.

Here is the most recent updates from various sources regarding the aftermath of Hurrican Irene, including emergency management action and news from some of the state's electric utilities.  Governor's Office. August 31, 2011, 2 pm:   Governor Shumlin will be visiting the communities of Pittsfield (approximately 2:45 p.m.), Stockbridge (approximately 3:45 p.m.) and Rochester (approximately 4:25 p.m.) this afternoon. 

Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CWST), a regional solid waste, recycling and resource management services company, Monday reported financial results for its first quarter fiscal year 2012, and reaffirmed guidance for its 2012 fiscal year. Highlights for the quarter included: 

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc., (GMCR) (NASDAQ: GMCR), a leader in specialty coffee and coffeemakers, today announced a definitive Stock Purchase Agreement pursuant to which ARAMARK Refreshment Services, LLC (ARAMARK), a leading provider of office coffee and refreshment services, will acquire all outstanding shares of Van Houtte USA Holdings, Inc., also known as the Van Houtte U.S. Coffee Service business or "Filterfresh" business from GMCR, for an aggregate cash purchase price of approximately $145 million.

Areas of Vermont are still under water but rivers are now receding. Much of the state is starting to dry out but there are still many hazards and the public is encouraged to exercise caution.  Everyone is asked to stay off roads unless absolutely necessary.  Many roads are still damaged, and many may be washed out under the road surface and could give away at any time.  A number of towns are asking that all traffic stay away, please respect detours and all road closures. See map and list below. 

The state of Vermont issued the following announcement this morning, Monday August 29, 2011.

Early Monday morning about 200 utility workers fanned out across Vermont Electric Cooperative’s (VEC) service territory to repair damage that left thousands of VEC members without power. During the course of this outage event caused by Tropical Storm Irene, over 8,000 VEC accounts lost power. 

The remnants of Hurricane Irene have moved out of Vermont, but not before washing dozens of utility poles and roads away and leaving Central Vermont Public Service with an army of workers unable to access thousands of customers in need.  

As of 10:30 am on Monday, Green Mountain Power has roughly 2,800 outages throughout its service territory, down from 12,000 last night.  The bulk of the outages are in Washington and Windham Counties.  In Washington County, about 1,300 GMP customers are without power largely due to the Waterbury substation being down as a result of flooding last night.  The remaining outages are scattered throughout Addison, Bennington, Caledonia, Chittenden and Windsor Counties.  See www.vtoutages.com for updated details.&