Telegraph Business Ticker

Small Business Center hosts workshop
on starting your own business

The Vermont Small Business Development Center is hosting a workshop for entrepreneurs at the Springfield Regional Development Corp. in Springfield on Thursday, June 1.

Debra Boudrieau, the business advisor at the Vermont Tech Center, will speak. The workshop includes a start-up workbook, handouts, and resources for marketing, financing, management and operations. Also included is a “Business Model Canvas” to evaluate whether a business idea is viable, targeting customers, and selling propositions.

Attendees will also learn how to register a business, apply for tax numbers, how to pitch an idea, and develop a business plan.

The fee is $129, and the workshop runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Anyone who wants to attend can register by clicking here.

Ink Clothing Factory of Claremont, N.H., wins award

CLAREMONT, N.H. 

The New Hampshire Preservation Alliance has given its 2017 Preservation Achievement Award to the Ink Factory Clothing Co., for its work in rehabilitating a former Mill Building on Water Street.

According to the Alliance, Jeff and Sarah Barrette spent $430,000 to refurbish the building, a mid-19th century brick boarding house and used by Monadnock Mills for storage. Federal tax credits and the city’s downtown tax incentive program contributed.

“Restoration included repairing the brick cornice and re-pointing the exterior, patching holes in the walls, replacing 60 percent of the carrying beams, refinishing the floors, and retaining character- defining features of the space, including a rare surviving supervisor’s office on the first floor and the storehouse ramp,” according to the Alliance news release.

The Barrettes moved their business to the restored 12,000-square-foot building last September from a rented space on Pleasant Street.

Rockingham sets up Development Review Board

As of June 30, Rockingham’s Zoning Board of Adjustment will be abolished and replaced by a Development Review Board July 1.

According to the town’s website, the board was created by the Select Board at its April 18 regular meeting. The board’s members will be

• Vincent Cherico (2017-2018);
• Patrick Moyna (2017-2018);
• Thaddeus Guild (2017-2019);
• Kathleen Martin (2017-2019); and
• Alan LaCombe (2017-2020).

Merritt Schnipper (2017-2018) and Holly Bartel (2017-2019) were named as alternates.

The board reviews and acts on proposals for land development. This includes the issuance of subdivision permits, zoning permits, zoning variances, and and hearing appeals of decisions of the town’s zoning administrator. Appeals of decisions made by the Rockingham Development Review Board are heard by the Vermont Superior Court Environmental Division and the Vermont Supreme Court.

Rockingham Development Review Board meetings are open to the public. Meetings will begin at 7 p.m. on the 2nd Wednesday of each month in the 3rd Floor Conference Room of the town offices.

Vermont Equal Pay Compact growing

More and more Vermont employers are signing the Vermont Equal Pay Compact, a project of the Vermont Commission on Women.

In January, the commission reported its 100th signer, the City of Winooski. Last week, the Windham Regional Commission in Brattleboro became the 127th signatory, a 25 percent jump in four months.

Signing the compact is free, and employers are not evaluated on how well they comply. The commission provides strategies and resources for reducing pay inequity for women. The commission will occasionally offer help to improve the equity situation.

According to the commission, “Vermont women earn only 83 percent of what Vermont men earn – resulting in millions of dollars of lost income that is not going into our economy. Vermont women are underrepresented in the jobs that pay the most, and overrepresented in the lowest-paying jobs. Science, Technology, Engineering and Math occupations, and the opportunities they bring, are dominated by men.”

For more information and to sign up, click here.

— Steve Seitz