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Governor Phil Scott has appointed Lyle Jepson as commissioner and Nick Grimley as deputy commissioner of the Vermont Department of Economic Development, effective November 3.
Scott said the two bring valuable experience in education, business, and entrepreneurship that will strengthen the state’s economy.
Jepson has served as executive director of the Chamber and Economic Development of the Rutland Region since 2020. He previously spent three decades in public and technical education across Vermont. Jepson said he looks forward to advancing the administration’s priorities of supporting businesses, strengthening rural communities, and improving affordability.
Grimley has worked in the department since 2017, most recently as director of entrepreneurship and tech commercialization. Before joining state government, he co-founded LaunchVT, which helps early-stage businesses grow. He said he remains committed to fostering innovation and job creation statewide.
VT burn ban rescinded
Though much of Vermont remains classified as suffering from extreme drought, the statewide burn ban that had been in place for more than a month was lifted on Friday, the Journal-Opinion reports.
According to a news release from the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, town forest wardens can once again issue burn permits, though they may still restrict those permits based on local conditions.
Vermont burn ban was instituted on Sept. 22.
New Hampshire’s statewide ban, which was implemented the same day as Vermont’s, remains in effect as of Monday morning at 8 a.m.
Shadow war subject on Military Writers’ symposium
Norwich University will host the 2025 Military Writers’ Symposium, “The Shadow Front: Unconventional Approaches to Warfare,” on October 27–28 in Northfield. The event will explore how modern conflict unfolds through espionage, cyberattacks, disinformation, and other irregular tactics that challenge traditional warfare.
Lt. Gen. Michael S. Groen, USMC (Ret.), former director of the Defense Department’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, will deliver the keynote address. The 2025 William E. Colby Award will be presented to TIME correspondent Simon Shuster for The Showman, his book on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wartime leadership.
Hosted by Norwich’s John and Mary Frances Patton Peace and War Center, the symposium brings together authors, scholars, and military professionals to examine how technology and information are reshaping global security.
More details and the event schedule are available at norwich.edu/research/peace-war-center/military-writers-symposium.
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Categories: SHORTS
The GOVIE has created two jobs with these two appointments. Comment from Richard Day.
I’m going to tell you a long story so I can make a point – and hope you can take the time to bear with me.
I don’t know Lyle Jepson from Adam. But we have had similar positions regarding Vermont’s Technical Centers. As a Workforce Investment Board Member and School Board Director at the River Valley Technical Center (RVTC) in Springfield, I also worked to establish business intern and apprenticeship programs for Vermont high school students, as well as taking a leading role in extracting the RVTC organization from its management (i.e., mismanagement) by the Springfield School District. In the process RVTC became a public School Choice school district unto itself, in control of its own budget and programs.
Did that correct its management methodology. No. The people who worked in the system then were nothing more than education ‘deep staters’. The cover changed. Not the bureaucracy. Businesses achieved precious little more input into the technical curricula the schools provided. The transformation of the RVTC was all ‘pro forma’.
In fact, as a local manufacturer and a school board director (appointed, not elected), when I asked to have input into the RVTC’s Computer Aided Design (CAD) program, because a had two companies that had developed state of the art CAD applications, I was basically told to go jump in the lake. And when I began to delve into the RVTC’s budget process, finding no substantive ROI (Return On Investment) analysis, my appointment was abruptly terminated.
What I was looking for in my budget analysis was the ROI data on RVTC promotional spending, because RVTC, now a School Choice program, advertised itself to high schools across the State. RVTC served statewide and interstate students with one of the first public online education programs in Vermont. That was 20+ years ago. And because my educational background was advertising/management, I was assigned the task.
Keep in mind that this story is now more than 20 years old. Data and details change every year, not only by design (to obscure accountability), but to enhance State and Federal grant awards. There were no advertising expenses listed in the RVTC budget. But I knew the RVTC was spending money on brochures and radio ad campaigns. So where was the data?
Longer story shorter, I found much of the advertising costs listed in [get this] a Gender Equity Account line item. Yes, even 20 years ago. When I asked school administrators why Advertising costs weren’t listed in their own area, I was told that the Gender Equity spending qualified for matching Federal education grants and that Advertising expenses didn’t qualify for those grants. So, school administrators were cooking the books to fraudulently pad their grant applications.
Again, my appointed position on the RVTC school board was abruptly terminated. And again, I told you that story to make this point. As I read Lyle Jepson’s resume, I saw no private sector experience.
Earlier Career (1990s–2010s) – Sixteen years as a technical center director, including at Stafford Technical Center in Rutland, where he collaborated with industries to create educational opportunities for high school students and adults. He was named Vermont Technical Director of the Year in 2013.
Pre-2018: Dean of Entrepreneurial Programs at Castleton University (now part of Vermont State University) and Executive Director of the Rutland Economic Development Corporation.
2018–2020: Director of the Career & Technical Teacher Education Program at Vermont Technical College (now Vermont State University Randolph Campus). Developed programs to train educators in career and technical fields, building on his prior experience in technical centers.
Jepson’s career spans over 30 years in public and technical education, higher education, and economic development, with a strong emphasis on workforce preparation and community collaboration.
So, does that qualify him to be Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Economic Development?
Phil Scott seems to think so. And that should tell us just a little bit more about Phil Scott’s judgment and understanding of the Vermont education deep state.
Vermont’s Education Act 73 is being implemented as we speak. It’s a ticking bomb unfolding like a bad sequel to every governance overreach we’ve dissected. Signed into law July 1, 2025, as H.454, it’s billed as a “transformation”: forced consolidation into fewer (potentially five massive) districts by 2028, a weighted student funding formula kicking in then, statewide tax rates to “equalize” the base, and the death of local budget votes—replaced by top-down spending caps and class-size mandates. School boards scrambling with October surveys on supervisory unions, a Redistricting Task Force due with up to three mega-district maps by December 1, and zero real transparency on how this shakes out for sparsity grants for rural holdouts.
Critics (from Public Assets Institute to rural Dems) are howling about the “unfairness”—it doubles down on property taxes as the hammer while ignoring healthcare inflation and teacher pensions, all to chase “efficiencies” that history (Act 46, anyone?) shows just breed bureaucracy.
And the tip-over signal? If the legislature greenlights those maps in 2026 without an opt-out for locals, watch property bills spike 10-20% in non-metro spots as the “equalized” rate funnels cash to urban cores—straight-up confiscation by spreadsheet, with no voter say.
I’m concerned that our new Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Economic Development is one of these ‘team’ players.