The U.S. Department of Labor has approved federal disaster unemployment assistance for Vermonters who lost work because of the flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Beryl on July 9 and 10, the state Labor Department said Monday.

Last week, President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for parts of the state that were hit by the flooding, including individual assistance disaster, which covers unemployment assistance, for residents in Addison, Caledonia, Chittenden, Essex, Lamoille, Orleans and Washington counties, the state said. People living in those areas may be eligible for the unemployment assistance if they were injured during the disaster and are unable to work; if their workplace was damaged or destroyed; if their transportation to work is not available or if they cannot get to their job because they must travel through a damaged area, the department said.

Gov. Phil Scott has made a separate disaster declaration request for flood damage caused by storms on July 30.

Heavy rains washed out roads in Vermont in the latest round of flooding to hit the state.

Beryl’s remnants dumped more than 6 inches of rain in just a few hours on parts of Vermont, destroying and damaging homes, knocking out bridges, cutting off towns and retraumatizing a state where some people are still awaiting assistance after catastrophic floods that hit exactly a year earlier. Two people were killed by the floodwaters in early July.

“Vermonters across the State have found their lives, homes, and businesses impacted again by this recent disaster,” Labor Commissioner Michael Harrington said in a statement. “Our immediate priority is to ensure that individuals whose employment was impacted by the flooding can receive the benefits they desperately need.” 

Individuals must first file for regular unemployment benefits and indicate if they lost work due to the flooding, the state said. The Labor Department will determine if the individual is eligible for regular unemployment or should apply for the federal benefit.

Earlier this year, Montpelier firefighter Jake Larrabee says a colleague was looking through Vermont’s database of unclaimed property when he discovered a surprise.

“One of our members was looking online, checked himself in the unclaimed property search, and then said, ‘I wonder if there’s anyone else,’” the lieutenant firefighter said. “And then he went through his family and then he put in the association for whatever reason — I don’t know what prompted him to do that — and found it.”

The association in question was the decades-old Montpelier Firefighters Association. For years, the non-profit raised and distributed funds for Montpelier firefighters and their families in need of assistance. But as members retired, Larrabee said, the association fell dormant, with only a scholarship fund remaining active.

The organization had a bank account — under the names of some of the inactive members — and Larrabee assumed the money would still be accessible if they chose to reactivate the association.

As it turns out, that was not the case. At some point, the $33,000 in that account was handed over to the state, as required by law.

Modern life is full of financial assets: bank accounts, insurance payouts, paychecks, investment funds. Most of them are correctly tied to their owners, but inevitably some will fall through the cracks. People move, people die, people lose track of property tied to their name.

But that property is still theirs, even if they haven’t claimed it yet. In every state and territory in the country, property holders must make an effort to return unclaimed property to its owner for a period of time before turning it over to the state, a process known as escheatment.

From there, it’s the state’s responsibility to return it. In Vermont, it falls under the authority of the Office of the Treasurer’s Unclaimed Property Division.

It isn’t just financial assets, either: the department also holds personal documents, coins and even family heirlooms.

“We always say that anybody can have unclaimed property,” said State Treasurer Mike Pieciak. “I think what most people think about is individuals, but when you look through the unclaimed property rolls, you find that there are a lot of pieces of property for small businesses, very large recognizable businesses, a lot of nonprofits. Municipalities have unclaimed property. The state of Vermont has unclaimed property.”

And the numbers continue to grow. This past fiscal year, the Treasurer’s Office returned a record 19,010 properties, totaling $5.8 million — but it also received a record level of new properties, at $18.14 million.

In an effort to increase the amount of reclaimed property, the office has taken a proactive approach, with a pilot program earlier this year targeting 350 Vermonters with unclaimed property achieving a 99% success rate, Pieciak said. A separate pilot program saw $150,000 returned to 250 nonprofits. From the division’s perspective, it can be easier to verify organizations than people.

“You know a business is that particular business. You know a hospital is that particular hospital,” Pieciak said. “When you get a claim that says John Doe or David Smith that lives in Brattleboro, and there’s five other people by that same name, it just becomes more complicated to determine who is the rightful owner of the funds.”

In the case of the firefighters association, Larrabee applied for the funds and, because his name was on one of the signature cards, was able to reclaim the money without too much hassle.

While the association is defunct, Larrabee said the money will be used to help members and their families just as it had in the past, only under an account held by the union, which remains active. He recommended others check the database, too.

“Take a couple minutes to check every so often: check your name, check your family, your friends, the process is really quite easy. And everybody at the unclaimed property division and the state of Vermont and the treasurer’s office has been very helpful and accommodating,” Larrabee said. “This was a significant amount of money that we’re very, very fortunate that we were able to get back.”

Not all unclaimed property is lost or inaccessible. Don and Bernadette Pierson learned that when they recovered $24,000 from their foundation’s PayPal account.

The Piersons run The Stefan Pierson Wish Foundation; a charity created in honor of their son Stefan, who died of cancer in 2015.

Stefan wanted to attend the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but was slightly too old to qualify for Make-A-Wish, his mother, Bernadette, said. A high school friend crowdsourced the funds, allowing him to attend. In his honor, the foundation provides similar wish-fulfilling services for young adults.

To raise money, the foundation ran soccer tournaments every summer. Part of the money was held in a PayPal account, Don said. During the pandemic, the Piersons had to cut back on foundation work to care for another one of their children, Ian, and the threat of COVID meant the tournaments had to be put on hold, as well.

The Piersons did not lose access to the account, but they didn’t touch it, believing they could use the money once the pandemic was over. At some point, though, PayPal remitted the funds to the state, as it’s required to do by law for any unclaimed property.

“They may have sent something to us, but I’ll tell you, I wasn’t watching my [foundation] email because we were kind of on hold.” Don said. Bernadette added, “We were staying up around the clock to take care of our son with just very few people, our kids basically, and us, and I was still working, so we just had heads to the ground trying to get our son through each day.”

A friend of the family who works in the unclaimed property office recognized the Pierson name in the state database of unclaimed property and put the family in contact with the state treasurer. The Piersons had nothing but praise for the treasurer’s office.

The news was bittersweet. Ian died shortly before the family learned of the funds. The family said they will use the money the same way it had been used in the past: to grant the wishes of young adults with cancer like Stefan.

While the state’s unclaimed property holdings are available to be reclaimed by their rightful owners, the state doesn’t just sit on the money. The treasurer’s office estimates the excess amount of money the unclaimed property division receives versus how much it will return to Vermonters and injects that into the general fund. In fiscal year 2024, that was $9.3 million. A reserve fund is available to ensure the Treasurer’s Office is able to pay out claims.

Vermont’s unclaimed property database can be searched at vermont.unclaimedproperty.com, while a national database can be found at missingmoney.com.

Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message. Or contact the reporter directly at corey.dockser@vermontpublic.org.

Bear hunters will be in the woods soon in Vermont, as the early season opens on Sept. 1 and runs through Sept. 15, with one exception. Nonresident hunters using dogs are not allowed to start hunting until Sept. 15.

The late bear hunting season starts on Nov. 16 and continues through Nov. 24. Hunters are limited to one bear during the year.

Early-season hunters must have a special bear tag, which costs $5 for residents and $15 for non-residents. For late-season hunters, a bear tag is included with their hunting licenses. In addition to a hunting license, a bear hunter using a bow or crossbow must have a bow license or a certificate showing completion of a bow hunter education course.

Bears must be field-dressed before the reporting station in Vermont

Game Warden Jeremy Schmid, who covers an area stretching from Bolton to Cambridge, said Vermont Fish and Wildlife requires bears to be field-dressed before showing up at a reporting station, so the meat can be preserved and cooled as quickly as possible.

“Bear meat has a tendency to spoil quicker than deer meat, especially in the early part of the season when temperatures can be hot,” Schmid said.

Joshua Morse, Fish and Wildlife’s public information officer, said the department wants people hunting bears to “make good use of the meat.”

Bear hunters are also required to collect and submit a pre-molar tooth from the bear at the time it’s reported, or within 30 days. The tooth provides important information on the age, structure and size of the bear population.

Do hunters have to return to the kill site if requested?

Hunters, whether of bear, moose or deer, are required by Vermont law to return to the kill site at the request of a warden. Schmid declined to say what might trigger such a request, but he said the purpose was to make sure the game in question was taken legally, and in the case of bears, to make sure the animal wasn’t baited into the site, which is illegal.

“We monitor all reports as reports get inputted to our database by the reporting stations,” Schmid said. “We have live access to the reports.”

Where can bears be found in Vermont during hunting season

Bears will be feeding along power lines and in forest openings and old fields where berries and apples can be found, as well as in forested beech and oak stands, Jaclyn Comeau, Vermont’s bear biologist, said in a news release.

“They also are likely to be feeding on standing corn,” she added.

How likely are hunters to find a bear in Vermont

Vermont Fish and Wildlife reported recently that Vermont’s bear population is between 6,300 and 7,600, which is down from a record year last year, but still robust, making it a great opportunity for those who have never hunted bear to give it a try this year.

Comeau asks hunters not to shoot a bear with cubs, or bears observed in groups, as they are usually made up of sows with cubs.

“Black bear cubs are dependent on their mother through the following spring,” Comeau said. “It is important to maintain these family groups.”

Fish and Wildlife has tips on its website for identifying sows with cubs, as well as the 2024 Black Bear Hunting Guide.

New Vermont law prohibits selling black bear paws and internal organs

Vermont also has a new law in effect that prohibits the sale of paws or internal organs of a black bear, which is a problem around the country, fueling a black market. Bear gallbladders are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and bear paws are used to make a soup that’s considered a delicacy.

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT.