Editor’s note: As the year draws to a close we have a vague feeling that not much has changed over the past 12 months. But look at the stories we covered, and you will see that 2024 was quite a year on many fronts. Yes, there were some painful moments, but much was achieved, as well. And wasn’t the eclipse a nice diversion? Relive some of those memories in this round up of the year that’s ending and then have a wonderful 2025.

JANUARY

As a new year kicked off in Addison County, seniors in the 5-Town area gathered for the inaugural meeting of “Elder Eagles,” a weekly offering of the Bristol Recreation Department geared at providing local golden-agers with a chance to get together and take part in various activities each week.

January brought news of plans for a new four-level, mixed-use building on South Pleasant Street in Middlebury that would host offices for Marble Trail Financial and a penthouse residence for one of the owners of that business. The Middlebury Development Review Board unanimously OK’d plans for that building, which called for an 8,800-square-foot building standing 47 feet, 4 inches tall.

New owners took over at Vergennes eatery 3 Squares Café in January. Matt and Danelle Birong sold the restaurant to longtime friends Scott Collins and Jody Hayes, a couple with deep ties to the state’s restaurant sector. The new owners planned to partner with Matt Birong on the catering side of the business, the 3 Squares food truck.

The maple season got off to an early start for some when warmer winter daytime temperatures allowed county sugarmakers to begin collecting and boiling sap about a month or so before the season would traditionally be in full swing. That was the case for the team at the Heffernan Family Sugarworks in Starksboro, which had already made over 1,500 gallons of syrup by early January.

Middlebury Democrat Esther Charlestin in January launched her bid for governor. Charlestin, a former Middlebury selectboard member who served for a year as the first Dean of Climate and Culture at Middlebury Union Middle School, listed addressing Vermont’s lack of affordable housing, improving the quality of public education and confronting the impacts of climate change as some of the issues she planned to stress throughout her campaign.

Three longtime members of the Mount Abraham Unified School Board announced they would not seek re-election when their terms expired in March. Those outgoing incumbents were: New Haven representative Sarah LaPerle, Bristol representative Kevin Hanson and former MAUSD Board Chair Krista Siringo, who also represented Bristol.

OVERNIGHT HIGH WINDS during the Jan. 9-10 winter storm took down this tree on Drew Lane in Middlebury. Bristol, Lincoln, and the eastern side of Middlebury along the mountains were particularly hard-hit by the storm, where more than 3,000 customers lost electricity.
Independent photo/John S. McCright

A group of over 20 Vergennes-area teens were busy helping out their community through various projects, including building a playground at the John Graham Shelter and helping fund and install an owl barn and plantings at the Otter Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Those hardworking teens were members of the Vergennes Leos Club, a group affiliated with the Vergennes Lions Club.

As legislators returned to the Statehouse for the start of the 2024 session, local lawmakers firmed up their statewide priorities for the year. Those included boosting the state’s housing stock, continuing the fight against climate change and assisting communities in making millions of dollars in overdue repairs to school buildings.

With January bringing colder temperatures, the small group of houseless campers under Middlebury’s Cross Street Bridge and along the Otter Creek further downstream vacated the area for warmer accommodations. Area human services providers suspected the area would continue to be an appealing spot for houseless individuals once the weather improved, and local nonprofits continued to explore ways to connect the local houseless population with homes and the services they need.

Architects in January were ironing out plans for the major expansion and renovation of Middlebury’s Ilsley Library, with May 7 eyed for a local bond vote.

Local school boards began adopting the spending plans they would field to voters on Town Meeting Day. In drafting those plans, school district officials wrestled with “a perfect storm,” of rising fixed costs, new state legislation, sunsetting federal aid and spiraling real estate values — all of which coalesced into a challenging budget season for districts in Addison County and around the state.

Locals teamed up to support Addison County residents with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia by looking to get Middlebury designated as a Dementia Friendly Community, “a city, town or village where people with dementia are understood, respected and supported.” While that was in the works, they began organizing amenities like a series of Memory Cafes, where members of the memory-loss community could gather to learn and socialize with one another.

FEBRUARY

Addison County State’s Attorney Eva Vekos in February faced growing calls for her resignation or removal from office, with some of those appeals coming from people she’d represented in criminal court cases. The backlash came after Vekos was cited on Jan. 25 for suspicion of driving while under the influence after she drove to inspect the scene of a suspicious death at a Bridport home.

Vekos on Feb. 12 pleaded not guilty in Addison Superior Court, Criminal Division, to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence. Around that time, she also drew criticism following the release of an email she sent to local police leaders stating she “no longer feels safe around law enforcement,” while seemingly questioning the intellect of area law enforcement officials.

In the second month of the year, voters started getting a clearer picture of the pool of candidates competing in municipal and school board races on Town Meeting Day. Nine Addison residents sought three open spots on their town’s selectboard. Two people stepped up to fill an open spot on the Ferrisburgh selectboard, and three candidates emerged for two spots on the Middlebury selectboard. Two Bristol residents were also vying for an open seat on their town’s selectboard.

A cool creation began taking shape in Panton, where David Clevenstine was working on a 14-foot ice tower, the third he’d made in the past four years. The Collins Aerospace engineer said he enjoyed building the ice structures and that his family and others in the community enjoyed looking at them.

Crafty Addison County residents produced around 80 quilts for children living through trying circumstances, and those quilts in February were on display at the Gather space in Middlebury. The effort, organized by the Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community, was known as the Peacemaker Quilt Project and was fueled by donated fabric and labor.

A dynamic duo took over the reins of the Better Middlebury Partnership on Feb. 26. BMP board members named Kelly Flynn and Kathryn Torres as the new co-directors of the organization, filling the role previously held by Karen Duguay.

Volunteers helped tackle projects on local farms in February through “working bee” groups organized by the Addison County Relocalization Network. The initiative, an offshoot of the nonprofit’s Farmer Climate Network, assembled local food producers, ACORN staff and other volunteers to complete various jobs on area farms, such as prepping garden beds or planting trees.

The Mount Abraham Unified School District launched a book study group to help start conversations about diversity, equity, and efforts to address racism in the district and broader community. Participants planned to read and discuss Ibram X. Kendi’s “How to Raise an Antiracist.” The effort was part of a longstanding educational effort in the Bristol-area district, but also followed a few disturbing racial incidents that had occurred in the prior year.

The Vergennes Area Rescue Squad sought to increase the per capita rate paid by communities it serves as the primary ambulance and emergency medical services provider. The increase from $8 to $15 per capita came after VARS had increasingly been struggling to meet its chartered goal of providing 24/7 services to those communities. VARS representatives stated that the organization had lost volunteer strength since the pandemic and needed stronger funding to raise wages to attract and retain more full- and part-time employees.

Middlebury officials in February were working on a 10-year plan for upgrading the community’s 54-mile municipal water system, some of it over 100 years old, which had been springing an alarming number of leaks in prior months. The system’s condition and shortcomings drew increased scrutiny after a water surge that swept through the water mains in January, exposing weaknesses in the network of underground conduits.

February brought the end of a sweet run for longtime sugarmakers Dave and Sue Folino. The pair sold their sugaring operation, Hillsboro Sugarworks, to Heffernan Family Sugarworks, a neighboring team of sugarmakers who planned to merge the maple farm with their own and continue producing syrup under the Hillsboro Sugarworks name.

MARCH

March in Addison County started off with county voters rejecting most of the school budgets proposed locally on Town Meeting Day, joining a wave of failed budget votes around the state. Voters in the Lincoln and Addison Central school districts approved proposed spending plans on the first try, but elsewhere budget proposals were defeated in the Mount Abraham Unified, Addison Northwest, Slate Valley Unified Union and Otter Valley Unified Union school districts.

ANDREW MANNING RAISES his hand at the Bridport town meeting.
Independent photo/Steve James

The Middlebury Police Department in March was preparing to launch its own Unmanned Aerial System — aka  “drone.” The program was expected to give local officers an extra set of eyes in the sky to help find missing persons, monitor active shooter situations, inspect natural-disasters, and document crime and accident scenes.

About 300 support staff and technical workers at Porter Medical Center voted on March 3 to unionize, a move that was expected to lead to collective bargaining negotiations with Porter’s administration later in the year. A union representative at the time looked forward to talks that they hoped would lead to a contract to improve wages, benefits, working conditions and the quality of patient care.

With spring on the horizon, locals in March reflected on a winter that saw record-warm temperatures and below-average snowfall. Some local businesses — such as ski areas and a company offering ice fishing trips — were affected by the warm weather, which reflected a larger trend of warming winters driven by human-caused climate change.

State Rep. Caleb Elder, D-Starksboro, announced he would take a pass on re-election to the Addison-4 House seat he first won back in 2018 and instead run for one of two seats representing Addison County, Huntington, Rochester and Buel’s Gore in the state senate. He told the Independent that his decision to do so was based on the belief that he could get more done in the senate.

DESSERT LOVERS AND math enthusiasts both had a lot to celebrate this past Thursday, March 14, fondly known as “Pi Day,” since the day’s date (3.14) corresponds with the first three digits of the mathematical constant pi. Shoreham librarian Abby Adams sampled four different options.
Independent file photos/Steve James

The A. Johnson Company in Bristol was entering a new chapter in March, after closing its lumber mill and stopping retail sales in the months prior. General Manager and co-owner Ken Johnson, whose great-grandfather started the lumber business in 1906, acknowledged that the mid-sized manufacturer of boards simply lost a “technological arms race” to bigger or more specialized lumber companies.

County residents in March were gearing up for a highly anticipated celestial show on April 8 — a total solar eclipse. Among them were Tom and Lee Ann Golper, who together had traveled the world chasing eclipses since 1998.

Voters in the Addison Northwest School District communities on March 26 rejected a fiscal year 2024-2025 spending plan for the second time in a 21-day span. The vote was closer in lighter turnout the second time around: Voters said no, 745-727, or 50.6%-49.4%, to a proposed $27.5 million spending plan.

The Vermont Supreme Court in March suspended Addison County State’s Attorney Eva Vekos’s law license after she failed to properly respond to questions about her fitness following her arrest on a charge of driving while under the influence.

Mary Hogan Elementary School teachers asked the Addison Central School District board at a March meeting for more resources — and to preserve a key, student discipline position that was slated to be cut — following a growing number of student behavior issues. They told the board that the behavior problems had been shrinking all children’s learning opportunities and affecting working conditions for educators.

Those reports were confirmed by data collected in the Addison Central School District over the previous seven months, which charted both minor and major K-12 student behavior incidents in the district’s schools. According to information unveiled by ACSD officials in March, there were 1,172 documented minor or major behavior incidents within the school system between August and March.

APRIL

The afternoon of April 8 saw thousands of people flock to Addison County to take in a super-rare occurrence of the moon eclipsing the sun. Groups of Vermonters and visitors spread themselves around town greens, highway pull-offs, community parks, school grounds, cemeteries, parking lots and back yards to get the best view — through protective glasses — of the celestial magic and the eerie cloak of darkness it generated.

Most of our area school districts in April had to deal with fiscal year 2025 budgets that were defeated on Town Meeting Day. The Addison Northwest School District board trimmed $257,737 from an already twice-defeated budget. Vergennes-area voters OK’d that $27.25 million spending plan on April 30 by a 1,346 to 932 tally.

Mount Abraham Unified School District residents on April 16 again rejected — this time by only 57 votes — a revised, $35,957,401 spending plan that was $1.36 million less than the budget they’d defeated on March 5.

While the Addison Central School District didn’t have to deal with budget revotes, it did find itself having to recruit new principals for three of its seven elementary schools — ones in Cornwall, Bridport and Shoreham.

Big news in Vergennes in April: Vermont officials announced a proposal to site a secure juvenile detention facility on state-owned land in the Little City. Tentative plans called for locating the 20,000-square-foot, 14-bed facility on 8 acres on Comfort Hill’s west side, near an existing solar array.

Rep. Joe Andriano, D-Orwell, announced in April that he wouldn’t seek a second term representing the Addison-Rutland House district, citing low legislative pay as a reason for his decision to take a pass on re-election. Andriano, a lawyer, was among a growing number of the state’s part-time lawmakers who complained about compensation levels that hadn’t budged in more than a decade. A bill seeking to boost legislative pay failed to gain traction during the 2024 session.

While Andriano announced his impending, voluntary departure, a majority of Addison County’s legislative delegation urged State’s Attorney Eva Vekos to resign, citing her Jan. 25 arrest for driving under the influence after having driven herself to a Bridport home on an untimely death report. Vekos would plead not guilty to the charge.

Beeman Elementary School parent Morgen Doane raised concerns about students and educators getting the support they need in wake of a growing trend of classroom evacuations — largely in 1st grade — spurred by students exhibiting disruptive behavior. “We have heard stories of teachers asking for help with students and not getting it,” she told the board at an April meeting. Beeman was not alone in confronting that problem. Staffing challenges were among several obstacles local school administrators throughout the county were facing in their efforts to respond to student misbehavior.

MANY PEOPLE, LIKE this couple out behind the Monkton Town Hall, took a relaxed approach to eclipse viewing. With nothing else to do, this offered many people a chance to really unwind.
Photo by Buzz Kuhns

The Independent told the story of Lincoln’s Will Wallace-Gusakov, a seasoned woodworker who spent six months in France in 2023, helping to rebuild the 700-year-old Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, which was severely damaged by a fire in 2019.

A new county nonprofit popped up in April: Addison County Animal Advocates, which announced plans to partner with the Addison County Sheriff’s Department to promote animal welfare by investigating nonemergency concerns and providing support when the situation demands it.

There was sad news in April for the many fans of WVTK-FM disc jockey Bruce Zeman’s long running “Wake Up Crew” morning show. Zeman — a tireless animal rights activist as well as radio personality — announced he was hanging up his microphone, as he and his wife and pups were relocating to Delaware.

Never underestimate the power of coffee and the kindness of those who drink it and serve it. Dozens of people contributed to a GoFundMe campaign that raised around $30,000 in just a few days to help keep popular Royal Oak Coffee in business.

MAY

Middlebury residents on May 7 voted 956-200 in favor of a $17 million makeover of their town library. The project — of which $4.4 million will be covered by local taxpayers — will pay for a major expansion and renovation of the Ilsley Public Library at 75 Main St. Work is slated to begin early next year. Most of the library’s book collection will be stored at a warehouse in Vergennes, while a smaller portion will be housed — along with basic library services — at the National Bank of Middlebury’s Duclos building, adjacent to Printer’s Alley.

Middlebury College President Laurie Patton announced in May that she’d step down from her job to lead the Cambridge, Mass.-based American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Patton — Middlebury’s 17th president and the first woman to hold that post — took office in 2015.

Several Vermont School districts in May were still trying to get a fiscal year 2025 budget passed. Among them were the Mount Abraham Unified School District and the Slate Valley Unified Union School District, which includes Orwell. Residents of the SVUUSD on May 9 defeated, for the third time, a proposed spending plan, while MAUSD officials began preparing for a third budget vote in June.

The local field for various Vermont House and Senate contests began to take shape in May. Lincoln Democrat Jeanne Albert and Starksboro Democrat Herb Olson were among the first to declare, both for the Addison-4 House district. One of the incumbents in that two-seat district — Starksboro Democrat Calen Elder — decided to run for lieutenant governor rather than seek re-election to the Vermont House of Representatives.

Speaking of veteran leaders moving on, longtime U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., conveyed to the Independent some of the highlights of his storied, 48-year career as a federal lawmaker. Leahy exited the Senate at the end of his final term, in 2023.

The Addison Central School District hired three news principals in May. Jennifer Urban, who had been serving as acting principal of Shoreham Elementary, was picked to take the reins of Bridport Central School. Nadya Bech-Conger was named new leader of Cornwall’s Bingham Memorial Elementary School, and Lashawn Whitmore-Sells, became top administrator of Shoreham Elementary School.

In an example of global politics having a local impact, more than 100 Middlebury College students formed an encampment on campus in solidarity with the people of Gaza, joining a nationwide student movement protesting Israel’s war with Hamas. The students dismantled their encampment roughly a week later, after having signed an agreement with college officials supporting calls for an immediate ceasefire of hostilities in Gaza.

Many Panton residents in May began mobilizing opposition to one of the biggest proposed solar arrays in the history of the state: A 50-megawatt installation that would be sited on 300 acres off Route 22A. The array — pitched by Freepoint Commodities of Stamford, Conn. — would spread across roughly 2% of Panton’s land. Some residents signed a petition urging state and local authorities to reject the plan, based in part on its potential impact on the viewshed.

At Middlebury College’s Bicentennial Hall this past Thursday, three of Chemistry Professor AJ Vasiliou’s upper class students stage a “Wizard Chemistry Show” that demonstrated fun and practical aspects of the study of chemistry. Molly Daly of Cornwall gets to ride a cart powered by air.
Independent file photo/Steve James

Stewards of the Ripton Community Coffee House took a well-deserved bow after a 29-year run of hosting wonderful live entertainment. Richard Ruane and Andrea Chesman helped create and shepherd the coffee house shows, which came to an end this past fall.

Lloyd Komesar announced in May that he would step down as producer of the Middlebury New Filmmakers Association, an annual event he had co-founded 10 years earlier. Komesar would make MNFF10 his swansong as producer, after which he helped recruit the festival’s first ever executive director, Caitlin Boyle.

JUNE

Sadly, we found out in June that more Addison County residents need help putting food on their tables. During the first quarter of 2024, low-income residents made 2,947 visits to Middlebury-based Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects’ surplus- and gleaned-food repository on Boardman Street — a 41% increase from the 2,085 visits during the same period of 2023, HOPE officials reported in June.

A state plan to build a locked facility for “justice involved” youth in crisis on 8 acres on Comfort Hill in Vergennes came into sharper focus in June. State officials unveiled an architectural rendering of the proposed facility at a public meeting. Among other things, officials shared that the facility would offer a six-bed program to provide short-term “stabilization” of youths in crisis, probably for stays of up to two weeks before a move to other Department for Children and Families facilities, and an eight-bed program to provide longer-term mental health care for those with that need.

Addison County’s Aug. 13 primary picture also gained some clarity. Based on candidate filings, it was clear that primaries would be needed to whittle down the field of Democrats and Republicans vying for the two House seats representing the Addison-4 House district (Bristol, Starksboro, Monkton and Lincoln), as well as for the two seats representing Addison County, Rochester, Huntington and Buel’s Gore in the state Senate. The Addison-4 filed included three Democrats — Jeanne Albert and incumbent Rep. Mari Cordes of Lincoln plus Starksboro’s Herb Olson — and three Republicans — Monkton’s  Lynne Caulfield and Renee McGuinness, plus Chanin Hill of Bristol. The state Senate field included Democratic incumbents Christopher Bray of Bristol and Ruth Hardy of Middlebury, along with Starksboro state Rep. Caleb Elder running for the senate as a D; and Republicans Lesley J. Bienvenue of Leicester, Huntington Republican Landel James Cochran and Bristol Republican Steven Heffernan.

Officials at the Counseling Service of Addison County this month spoke candidly of efforts to more creatively deliver services in a post-pandemic era marked by short staffing and a surge in clients of all ages dealing with mental health problems stemming, in part, from isolation.

The impacts of the COVID pandemic were indeed lingering. Mount Abraham Unified School District parents conveyed concerns to the MAUSD board about some students they said are “falling through the cracks,” in terms of not getting the extra supports needed get the most out of their learning experiences.

As the spring sports seasons wound down, Addison County high school athletes found themselves in the thick of the playoff action. In one week, five local teams vied for state championships — and three won them.

THE NEW ADDITION to the Town Hall Theater in Middlebury appears to be literally rising out of the ground late last week as workers raised steel girders from the basement floor toward the sky. A Bread Loaf Corp. official said the project seems to be on track to open by New Year’s Eve.
Independent file photo/Steve James

First the No. 2-seed MUHS boys’ tennis squad defeated Champlain Valley in the Division I final. Then the Mount Abe-Vergennes cooperative boys’ lacrosse team beat Green Mountain Valley for the D-III title.

That same evening saw the unlikely pairing of a No. 6 seed and No. 8 in the D-II baseball final — and those two teams happened to be Mount Abe and MUHS. After a cray finish to the game, the Tigers walked away with the crown.

The other finalists was Tiger boys’  lacrosse, which rallied from six goals down to push CVU into overtime, but the Redhawks ultimately prevailed.

Other local athletes won state titles on the track. MUHS junior Jazmyn Hurley was dominant at the D-II championship meet, winning titles in the 100, 200, 400 meters. Mount Abraham senior Siena Stanley claimed the other victory for a local athlete with a big win at 3,000 meters. In D-III, VUHS senior Calder Rakowski won the 800 individual race and competed on the winning Commodore 4×800 relay team with classmates Riley Gagnon and Calvin Gramling and junior Grey Fearon.

Not all the MAUSD news was discouraging in June. District residents finally backed a fiscal year 2025 budget for the 4-town district that includes Bristol, New Haven, Monkton and Starksboro. The third time proved to be the charm, with the $35.4 million spending plan winning approval by a 1,243-743 margin.

Also on the school budget front, Slate Valley Unified Union School District stakeholders breathed a collective sigh of relief, when constituents (which included Orwell residents) went to the polls and passed a fiscal year 2025 budget — on the fifth try. The margin OK’ing the $30,810,135 spending plan was 930 yes to 794 no.

In other education news, new Addison Central School District Superintendent Wendy Baker began her new role, with some big challenges on her agenda. They included a tough budgeting forecast for fiscal year 2026 and keeping the Ripton Elementary School vibrant with fewer than 40 enrollees.

Exiting Middlebury College President Laurie Patton described some of her final goals, from advancing fundraising efforts to ensuring the continuity of various initiatives she’d jumpstarted during her nine years leading the institution.

Vergennes residents got some welcome news after having been startled by school tax increases. Thanks to a surplus, the city council approved a fiscal year municipal budget of $3.318 million that would limit the municipal tax rate hike to 1 cent, or around 1%.

SEAN SWEENEY OF Leicester leads a peloton approaching
Bread Loaf.
Independent photo/Steve James

JULY

Tragedy struck Middlebury’s homeless community at the end of June: Steven Parsons, who had been living in the small encampment behind Ilsley Library, took his own life in the trees near the Marble Works. In early July, the folks who knew Parsons, as well as the larger Middlebury community, were still processing the loss.

Local human service worker Tyler Proulx noted a common lament among Parsons and the rest of the homeless. “It’s that sense of ‘no way out; I feel like I’m playing against a stacked deck,’” Proulx said, referring to the hurdles of inflation, a lack of available permanent housing, and the challenges of reclaiming one’s sobriety and/or mental health.

The conversation around homelessness continued. Later in the month, the Charter House Coalition temporarily suspended its practice of taking in additional homeless people on an emergency basis once the shelter’s 25 beds are full. Shelter officials made the move because of growing concerns for the safety of the facility’s guests and staff.

The Turning Point Center of Addison County landed a $100,000 state grant to acquire outdoor vending machines dispensing free Narcan, a medication that rapidly reverses the effects of opioid overdose. The machines were slated to be installed in Middlebury and Vergennes by the fall.

The Ripton community rallied behind a Black family targeted in a racist incident on the Bread Loaf campus. A young man in a dark, old-model pickup truck slowed on Route 125 as he neared the mom and two children and yelled, “Go home (f-word) n****rs,” and sped off.

A new OSHA rule threatened local fire and rescue groups, requiring firefighters and rescue personnel to participate in far greater training, planning and equipment/vehicle replacement mandates. Local officials worried this would dry up an already shallow volunteer pool.

A tractor-trailer transporting compressed gas on Route 7 in Ferrisburgh caught fire for unknown reasons. The same thing happened at almost exactly the same spot on that highway, the year before. This time, 12 fire departments responded and the damage was arguably greater. Plus, two people were injured.

Kathleen Ramsay, Middlebury’s town manager for 12 years, announced she’d step down in early September to take a new job with the Vermont League of Cities and Towns.

The Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival hired Caitlin Boyle, a nationally known, Vermont-based consultant in the film industry, as its first-ever executive director.

Two locals were honored in July: It was announced that Ellen Kahler will be inducted into the Vermont Agricultural Hall of Fame. The Starksboro resident has spent nearly two decades collaborating with other Vermonters to strengthen the state’s food system through her role as executive director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund. Lincoln musician Michael Chorney was recognized for his many contributions to the state’s arts community when he was awarded the 2024 Herb Lockwood Prize in the Arts.

Folks saw a lot more bears lumbering through their properties than usual during the summer. A bear expert said county residents’ increasing reports of bears passing through backyards and rummaging in garbage cans were on par with what officials had been hearing from Vermonters in other parts of the state. Vermont Fish & Wildlife Black Bear Project Leader Jaclyn Comeau said there were a few factors behind the increasingly common encounters, notably bears more often associating homes with food and the state’s bear population having bounced back in recent decades.

For the second year in a row, it was another wet July. Remnants of Hurricane Beryl dumped several inches of rain on parts of the county, especially Monkton and Starksboro, which received upwards of six inches of rain late on July 10 into the morning of July 11. Fortunately, the damage was not nearly as devastating as the flooding of 2023.

It did, however, prompt important contingency planning conversations, such as the town of Middlebury’s effort to site an emergency access across train tracks to make sure the Seymour Street neighborhood could be accessed by the largest emergency response vehicles during future flood events. Twice recently, the road was completely impassable where it dipped down under the railroad tracks near Greg’s Meat Market after flash floods covered the road in eight- to 10 feet of water for a short time.

In Bristol, officials continued to seek solutions for a stretch of Briggs Hill Road that was badly damaged by 2023 flooding and has experienced more erosion since then.

And Wildlife officials said the heavy rainfall and flooding would likely result in a decline in some fish and herptile populations. While those populations are expected to bounce back within a few years, experts note that it’s unclear how species will fare as severe storms become increasingly common due to climate change

AUGUST

The month kicked off with a dire prognosis for the Vermont healthcare system from Dr. Bruce Hamory, an independent clinician hired by the Green Mountain Care Board to recommend ways of revitalizing the state’s financially floundering healthcare delivery network. “This will require concerted system transformation, sustained over time … and unrelenting effort,” Hamory said of the challenge ahead, one he stressed will require effort from all healthcare stakeholders.

One of his recommendations was greater use of home-based care as part of a broad, cost-saving strategy. But at the same time, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and U.S. Congress have been pounding nonprofit home health agencies with Medicare reimbursement-rate cuts making those agencies less capable of maintaining current services, let alone setting them up for playing a greater role in an evolving health care system. “These are the headwinds we face,” said Deb Wesley, executive director of Addison County Home Health & Hospice.

Three board members of the Otter Creek Watershed Insect Control District —chair Jeff Schumann, vice chair Doug Perkins and treasurer Lynne Peck — resigned abruptly at the end of July, leaving the district with three vacancies to fill in early August.

The primary elections at the start of the month saw victories for Democratic Senate incumbents Ruth Hardy and Chris Bray, who defeated a challenge from Rep. Caleb Elder of Starksboro. On the Republican side, Bristol’s Steven Heffernan and Huntington’s Landel Cochran prevailed, finishing ahead of Lesley J. Bienvenue of Leicester. In the Addison-4 House race, incumbent Mari Cordes and Herb Olson edged out Jeanne Albert in the Democratic contest. In the GOP primary, Chanin Hill and Renee McGuiness defeated Lynne Caulfield.

GREEN MOUNTAIN POWER linemen pick up an electricity transformer that was broken when it smashed onto Route 116 after its utility pole fell during the 60 mph winds on Friday evening. Power was restored in the area by Saturday morning.
Independent file photo/John S. McCright

Esther Charleston, an educator and former selectboard member from Middlebury, won the Democratic Party’s nomination to face Gov. Phil Scott.

Goodro Lumber got an unlikely pair of new owners: James Burgess and Andrew Noh, entrepreneurs in their 30s who recently left the biotech world in the greater Boston area to helm the lumber business in East Middlebury.

Addison County Fair & Field Days brought together sheep shearers, skillet tossers, dairy cow lovers and fairway revelers for four days of fun, fried food and agricultural sharing. It did rain a little bit, of course.

The rollout of Maple Broadband, Addison County’s nonprofit provider of high-speed fiber-optic internet service, picked up steam, doubling its customer base, from 144 to 361, and more than doubling the miles along which its cables are hung on utility poles, from 103.7 to 225.4 miles.

The Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival kicked off its 10th year, featuring screenings of 130 films, a visit from four-time Academy Award winner Oliver Stone, and a whole lot of mingling. It marked the end of an era, too: Founding producer Lloyd Komesar announced it would be his last leading the festival.

Local filmmaker Andy Mitchell attempted to break the Guinness world record for “most dogs to attend a film screening” at Middlebury’s Memorial Sports Center. Folks were invited to bring their dogs to a screening of the Netflix documentary Mitchell directed called “Inside the Mind of a Dog.” A good time was had by all, but the effort fell short of breaking the record by about 10 pooches.

In education news, a pair of elementary schools got new principals: Lashawn Whitmore-Sells took the helm in Shoreham; Jenny Urban in Bridport. Longtime childcare worker Ashley Bessette of New Haven was appointed as the Addison County Universal Pre-K Coordinator, replacing Meg Baker, who took on a new role at the University of Vermont.

MIDDLEBURY’S LUCY BOWDISH competes in the Under-10 skillet toss at Field Days on Wednesday afternoon.
Independent photo/Steve James

And the Willowell Foundation revived the well-loved Walden Project, an outdoor public education program formerly run through Vergennes Union High School for 24 years that was one of several items cut from the Addison Northwest School District’s fiscal year 2025 budget. The resurrected Walden Year will be run in connection with area school districts and the Community College of Vermont.

A massive infusion of new money — $125 million to be exact — into Vermont’s childcare system through last year’s Act 76 helped create 1,000 new childcare slots statewide and spurred a renaissance in the industry here in Addison County, which had sustained major losses in childcare offerings during the COVID pandemic. Local and state officials celebrated the sector’s growth at a gathering at Mary Johnson Child Center.

The Climate Economy Action Center of Addison County launched a new free program called Addison County Energy Navigators, which offers one-on-one support for local renters and homeowners in identifying ways to reduce their homes’ carbon footprint.

At the end of the month, Addison residents reversed by a wide margin — 283-164 — their November 2022 approval of a $2,068,019 bond to fund restoration and renovation of Addison’s former — and now vacant — 160-plus-year-old town hall on Route 22A into town offices and a community center.

SEPTEMBER

COL. SILAS ILSLEY and wife, Mary Osborne Ilsley, who donated $50,000 to build Middlebury’s public library a century ago, arrive at the Main Street institution on Saturday to celebrate its 100th birthday. Middlebury Community Players provided the costumes worn by Amy Mincher and Joe McVeigh. Photo courtesy of Joe McVeigh

September began with some exciting openings: A new trash and recycling drop-off station opened in New Haven. An inclusive playground accessible to children of all physical abilities opened at Bristol Elementary School. And a new childcare center opened in Salisbury in the town’s former elementary school building.

But something else new to the area was much less welcome: Officials began warning Vermonters about the risk of EEE, or eastern equine encephalitis virus, a rare and sometimes fatal mosquito-borne disease that killed a New Hampshire man, and infected someone in Chittenden County in August. The Vermont Health Department designated several Addison County towns as having a higher than average risk for infection.

The town of Middlebury began considering a homeless encampment policy that would give community officials more guidance on potentially regulating temporary settlements of homeless individuals within the shire town. For comparison, they were eyeing a policy already in place in Montpelier.

And then tragedy struck: An airplane crash in Ferrisburgh claimed the lives of four people, including a 15-year-old girl learning to fly and her mother, who had flown up from Connecticut for brunch at the Basin Harbor resort.

Middlebury College in September welcomed students back — 2,774 were enrolled at the Middlebury campus for the fall semester. That’s a slight decrease from the previous fall when the college anticipated around 2,800 students.

The Addison Northwest and Mount Abraham Unified school districts announced a new partnership that will allow students in those Vergennes- and Bristol-area learning communities to take certain classes at either of the districts’ high schools while maintaining enrollment in their sending schools. The initiative is designed to ensure students have access to a variety of courses that meet their needs and interests by offering students opportunities to take advantage of courses offered in either district. The collaboration was expected to kick off during the 2025-2026 school year.

MAUSD also began considering expanding its middle school to include sixth-graders.

In Ripton, things were heating up over enrollment at the elementary school. Parental backlash over K-1-2 combined class came to a head with the sudden resignations of both the teacher of that multi-grade class and Ripton Elementary Principal Megan Cheresnick. The ACSD board flirted with the concept of suspending kindergarten and grade 1 instruction at RES for the rest of the 2024-2025 academic year.

But Ripton parents and community members — fearing that removing two grades from a school with only 39 students would bring RES closer to shuttering for lack of enrollment — met with school officials to repair frayed relationships and preserve the K-1-2 class, the teacher of which withdrew her resignation.

A non-profit initiative called the “Vermont Futures Project” was busy writing a plan to help preserve the state’s health in the long term. The cure, according to VFP officials, is in large part predicated on the state boosting its population — from the current 646,000 to 802,000 people — and its housing inventory — from the current 300,000 to at least 350,000 non-seasonal units by 2035. “At the core of this is, ‘People are the solution,’” VFP Executive Director Kevin Chu told the Addison Independent.

A panel on Vermont’s housing policies, held at Middlebury College as part of this year’s Clifford Symposium, offered this takeaway: The state’s housing crisis is among the most complex and pressing issues facing us. As a result, the state’s approach to addressing its housing deficit needs to be multi-faceted and consider the various economic and societal issues the housing crunch is intertwined with.

Organizers and supporters of a major expansion of Middlebury’s Otter Creek Child Center gathered at the Weybridge Street facility to mark the ceremonial start of a $10 million, 7,000-square-foot addition that will allow the center to add 77 childcare slots.

Middlebury’s Ilsley Public Library celebrated its 100th birthday with a party and cake for everyone.

OCTOBER

As October began, local folks heard Vermont Health officials urging residents to take steps to prevent mosquito bites after an Addison County horse tested positive for Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE). The Salisbury horse, which was tested on Sept. 23, was unvaccinated and is now deceased. EEE spreads through the bite of an infected mosquito and is rare but can cause serious and life-threatening illness in people and some animals. Many locals were glad to see the first hard frost arrive.

The first of the month also saw Middlebury residents go the polls to weigh in on a June 25 selectboard decision to give Vermont Gas Systems (VGS) a free easement to funnel natural gas to St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church at 3 Main St. The vote was triggered by a citizens’ petition drive by a resident who has maintained that while St. Stephen’s is entitled to its choice of fuel, VGS should be required to pay fair market value for the town easement through town land. Citizens voted, 601-416, to back the free easement.

Two local libraries learned this month that they had been awarded very big grants to improve their infrastructure. Bristol and Salisbury are among 14 Vermont communities whose public libraries will share $15.9 million in federal funding for much-needed capital projects. The Salisbury library has won a $978,807 ARPA grant that will help fund the repair or replacement the building’s HVAC system, a new plumbing system, water systems upgrades, as well as interior and exterior renovations for Americans with Disabilities Act compliance. Bristol’s Lawrence Memorial Library will receive $483,000 in ARPA funds that will help pay for a new HVAC system, building envelope repairs for structural integrity, as well as electrical and mechanical system updates.

ORGANIZER ELIO FARLEY, with a bullhorn, helps hype
the crowd during a walk on Main Street to kick off the third
annual Pride Festival in Middlebury in October.
The Middlebury College student worked with local youth, the Ilsley Public Library and Teen Center to pull off this
year’s event, which drew some 800 people to a parade
and party full of rainbows and good vibes on the town
green.
Independent photo/Megan James

Further south, just outside of Addison County, the Brandon Free Public Library has nabbed a $1.4 million ARPA grant that will help subsidize installation of a four-story elevator with related renovations and improvements for ADA compliance, and repair or replacement of windows for energy efficiency.

Conspicuously absent from the 2024 Vermont Department of Libraries list of ARPA beneficiaries was Middlebury’s Ilsley Public Library, whose boosters had hoped to secure $1.5 million VDL grant. Officials said they will have to do a little more fundraising.

The town of Middlebury recruited a familiar face to temporarily serve as its top administrator. Tom Hanley — who retired last fall as the shire town’s police chief after more than 30 years of service — began serving as Middlebury’s interim town manager while the selectboard considers a permanent replacement for former Manager Kathleen Ramsay.

Later in the month, the Middlebury selectboard hired a new town manager, Mark A. Pruhenski, the current town manager of Great Barrington, Mass. He is slated to start work Jan. 15.

Around the same time, Bristol found out that it would need to replace its top administrator. Bristol Town Administrator Valerie Capels announced that she would retire at the end of the year.

Lincoln residents and wildlife officials in October were looking for a black bear cub that had been orphaned after a local hunter shot and injured the bear’s mother. The young sow was shot on Sept. 21 and had to be put down, Vermont Game Warden Dale Whitlock told the Independent. “(The hunter) shot a sow, and it was a mother that had been raising two cubs all summer, and all the locals had been watching the cubs grow,” he said. “While it wasn’t technically illegal for him to do that, it wasn’t ethical.”

A spike in Middlebury’s houseless population in October prompted a renewed sense of urgency among town officials to enact an “encampment policy” to delineate which parts of the community’s public property should be off limits for overnight, outdoor stays.

After battling a devastating cold snap and heavy rains throughout 2023, orchards around Addison County have enjoyed a much sweeter apple season this year. This month, local orchardists reported plentiful crops and more agreeable weather this fall, and they say there’s still fruit prime for the picking as the season winds down. “We had a great season,” Aaron Stine of Monkton’s Stine Orchard told the Independent. “The weather was very good, and our crop was incredible — that includes apples, four kinds of pears, plums, everything did really well this year.”

The Vergennes Union High School Class of 2025 set a goal of raising $3,500 for its Senior Walkathon, which was held on a cool and mostly cloudy Thursday, Oct. 24, on behalf of the Wounded Warrior Project. Before the seniors started on the nine-mile journey from school auditorium to the shore of Lake Champlain at Button Bay State Park, the roughly three-dozen seniors who walked heard good news that they had raised more than $4,000, and the total was steadily growing as donations kept coming in.

Meanwhile, out on Lake Champlain, Mount Abe sophomores Hailey and Isayah Isham netted a title this month when the twins became the 2024 Vermont High School Bass Fishing Champions. In a boat operated by team Coach Carroll Isham, the Ishams reeled in six bass — including the event’s largest, a 5.3-pound large-mouth — totaling 23.84 pounds.

YOUNG CHILDREN ARE silhouetted against an evening sky as they stand on the sledding hill behind Ferrisburgh Central School Oct. 1 during a garden party and picnic that kicked off the school’s educational theme, which this year unites language and nature in events throughout the school year.
Photo courtesy of Rae Donovan

The Friends of the Vergennes Opera House continued to make progress toward a planned February groundbreaking for the theater’s All Access Project, which will upgrade and provide handicap access to not only the theater but also to Vergennes city offices. In October it got word of a $500,000 Congressionally Directed Funding grant — an earmark.

An inescapable metallic hum could be heard at the October unveiling of the new Middlebury Resource Recovery Center constructed by PurposeEnergy. That hum — emanating from an onsite, 1,014-kilowatt generator — played like a symphony for PurposeEnergy officials. The din provided tangible proof that the plant was successfully receiving organic waste from local food/beverage industries and transforming it into renewable energy that’s being fed into the statewide electricity grid.

Once upon a time, most Vermont communities had a general store where you could buy anything from paper clips to smoked bacon. Local gossip was thrown in for free. At the end of October we sadly lost another formerly vibrant general store when Buxton’s Store in Orwell closed its doors. The owners pointed to rising costs, fewer workers, and competition from a big box store just down the road as contributing to the decline

NOVEMBER

November brought change to the composition of Addison County’s legislative delegation to Montpelier, one that mirrored gains statewide for the Republican Party.

In the race for two Vermont Senate seats, Bristol Republic Steven Heffernan outpolled incumbent Bristol Democrat Christopher Bray to win the second seat along with the top vote-getter, Middlebury Democrat Ruth Hardy, also an incumbent. Bray had served more than a decade in the Senate after first winning a seat in the Vermont House in 2006.

Meanwhile, another long-serving Democratic incumbent, Vergennes Rep. Diane Lanpher, lost her seat to Ferrisburgh Republican Rob North in a four-way race for two seats in the Addison-3 District that includes Vergennes, Ferrisburgh, Addison, Panton, Waltham and a slice of New Haven. North was the top vote-getter. He will join incumbent Rep. Matt Birong, D-Vergennes, in Montpelier. Birong edged Lanpher for the district’s second seat.

Another newcomer was Democratic first-time candidate Herb Olson, who successfully ran for a vacancy in the Addison-4 district that includes Bristol, Monkton, Lincoln and Starksboro. The Starksboro resident will join Democratic incumbent Mari Cordes of Bristol in the Statehouse. Incumbents prevailed elsewhere on the ballot around the county. They also backed incumbent GOP Gov. Phil Scott’s reelection bid, but joined the rest of the state in voting against the President-Elect.

In Panton, residents in an advisory vote said no, 307-100, to a proposed 50-megawatt, 220-acre solar array, but the vote was advisory only. The Vermont Public Utilities Commission will have the final say.

In an effort to keep the Henry Sheldon Museum’s collection relevant and vibrant, the Middlebury institution announce in November its “Shape the Sheldon” campaign. Coco Moseley, rounding out her first year as the Sheldon’s executive director, said the 140-year-old  museum has a sound foundation, but she believes it’s mission could benefit from some tweaks to make it more relatable to visitors of all ages and backgrounds. Sheldon officials believe community members are thirsting for new ways to interpret their history. What emerges from the Shape campaign will inform new programs, initiatives and exhibits to meet the community’s expectations.

“I see it as a way to enliven the collection so you can see the story behind the object, the significance beyond what you’re looking at. And that comes from active engagement and where we are in the 21st century,” Moseley said.

Two local sports’ teams made state finals to cap good seasons, but in Division II the Mount Abraham girls’ soccer team lost to top seed Milton, and in D-III football Otter Valley fell to No. 2 Woodstock.

A RESIDENT CONCENTRATES on her ballot in the Panton Town Hall in November.
Independent photo/Steve James

The ACSD school board looked at a draft 2025-2026 budget hoping to keep spending to a 2% increase. A laudable goal, but board members learned that because of increases in contracted salaries, insurance premiums, busing costs and other fixed expenses, they would have to cut an estimated $2 million to achieve that goal.

The rifle deer season got off to a good start in Addison County on Nov. 16. Hunters locally claim around 200 deer on opening weekend.

The Mount Abraham school district was hoping to keep the district tax increase to about 6%, but its board asked its superintendent to go back to the drawing board after an initial proposal meeting that goal including cutting more than 15 jobs, including many in classrooms.

Town of Middlebury projects got a combined $3.5 million shot in the arm from Middlebury College in November. The college’s trustees announced they had decided to give $1 million toward the $17 million makeover of the Ilsley Library and invest $2.5 million in Stonecrop Meadows, a 218-union housing development planned to be built in phases on 35 acres off Seminary Street Extension.

Winning one NCAA Division III title is an accomplishment. What should winning seven in a row be called? Even labelling that feat — which the Middlebury College field hockey team accomplished by defeating Tufts, 2-1, in this year’s national championship final — a dynasty hardly does it justice. A miracle? A phenomenon? A legend?

Before the end of the month the Panther men’s soccer team had punched its ticket to the NCAA final four, and the volleyball team won two NCAA matches before falling to the nation’s undefeated top-ranked D-III team.

The ANWSD also took its first look at a draft budget in November, but district officials said there were so many moving parts in Montpelier it was difficult to assess what impact changes in state funding would eventually have on the district schools and taxpayers. For the record, the roughly $27.8 million spending proposal would preserve all programs and could increase taxes by about 5%. But stay tuned.

DECEMBER

Many in the community — both in Middlebury and outside the shire town — were upset about some books being read in a kindergarten classroom at Mary Hogan Elementary School. Two Mary Hogan parents challenged gender-related instructional materials that included the titles “They He She Me: Free to be!”; “Bodies are Cool”; and “It Feels Good to Be Yourself.” The parents apparently felt that their five-year-olds were too young to hear anything about gender and sexuality.

The challenge prompted an outpouring of support from others who believe children should be taught to recognize and accept difference among their peers and themselves, and they supported the professional educators to determine what material was age appropriate. At a school board meeting, several people related personal stories of how seeing themselves and their differences in the books they read probably saved their lives.

As we entered the last month of 2024 we read the sobering news that our effort to reduce climate-changing emissions have not been succeeding. Addison County is not only failing to make progress in its fight against climate change, but new data also show it is losing the battle, according to the 2024 Addison County Greenhouse Gas Inventory published by the Climate Economy Action Center of Addison County. The county’s greenhouse gas emissions rose an estimated 8% from 2017 to 2022, setting the region further back in meeting local emissions reduction goals by 2030.

In the good news category that week, we also learned that Monkton now officially has a town forest. The town had just purchased 450 acres of forestland from the A. Johnson Company, conserving the land with the Vermont Land Trust and establishing the Monkton Town Forest. The purchase culminates a years-long, collaborative effort.

Middlebury residents found out they will likely vote on a proposed $49.5 million makeover of their town’s wastewater treatment plant this coming March. It’s an outlay that would improve the plant’s ability to process sludge, as well as pay for several age-related upgrades to the 24-year-old facility.

The mystery surrounding the gun-shot death of a man in Bristol just before Thanksgiving started to become a little clearer as the feds took Daryn Barsalou into court for having weapons when he was not allowed to. Police records associated with that case show that Barsalou was likely with the Bristol man (whose name has not been released) when he died in his Bristol apartment.

SCORES OF PEOPLE get into the holiday spirit on Saturday, Dec. 7, through a series of “Very Merry Middlebury” events held in an appropriately snowy downtown. Maddy Quesnel, 8, and her brother Max, 4, of Salisbury enjoy hot chocolate at the Hot Cocoa Hut at Cannon Park.
Independent file photo/Steve James

The Turning Point Center of Addison County on Dec. 3 closed on a deal to buy a building at 79 Court Street in Middlebury that will soon serve as the new headquarters for the organization, which helps people recover from various addictions.

Thanks to one major new $361,307 grant, plus a smaller grant and a number of donations, the Bixby Free Memorial Library can see a series of energy-efficiency improvements and a more efficient gas boiler on the horizon.

The bad news was that the best Middlebury College men’s soccer season ended with a loss on Dec. 5. The good news was that the team had its best season in 17 years, and the loss came in the NCAA Division-III semifinal game at the University of Las Vegas-Nevada. It was the first time Panther men’s soccer had reached an NCAA semifinal since 2007.

With the number of people still living outside in downtown Middlebury as the weather turned cold, the town was crafting an encampment policy that could set ground rules for where houseless people can and cannot pitch their tents. At the same time, Middlebury officials cited a variety of safety, emergency access and winter maintenance issues to close the community’s most populated homeless encampment, off Bakery Lane behind the Isley Library. The half-dozen people who lived there scrambled to find somewhere to go.

Word came to us that the Bristol Hub Teen Center is booming. The center, which gives local youth a safe, supervised space to hang out after school, is seeing more and more teens come through its doors. It saw 798 visits from 154 teens in October, compared to 649 visits from 135 youths in October 2023.

The ANWSD school board determined that almost half of the Vergennes Union High School building will get new roofing starting next June at a cost of $672,477. But school district residents will not be asked to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for the project, because the money will come from a Capital Improvements Fund that was built up over years.

The Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History in Middlebury announced it had been awarded a $650,000 grant by the Mellon Foundation. The funds will be used to advance exhibition research and curatorial practices to include new stories and narratives in its permanent exhibits. Sheldon officials are excited to engage the community and reimagine how it tells history as it explores a more comprehensive and complex history of our region, highlighting the voices and experiences of people who have previously been left out of the museum’s narrative.

Finally, as the Middlebury police department was preparing to welcome two new police officers and a police dog, in December it honored several of its officers for acts of heroism during the year. It awarded Distinguished Service Medals for “outstanding personal bravery or heroism through which the recipient demonstrates to some great degree characteristics of selflessness, personal courage, and devotion to duty.”

Officers Ethan Jones and Jared Harrington earned their Distinguished Service Medals for their actions on Aug. 30 when they were called to the Porter Hospital Parking lot. There they calmed a man who “was suffering from extreme paranoia and delusions” and had a handgun and his family in his car. Jones and Harrington deescalated the situation and it ended peacefully.

Middlebury Police Sgt. Nathan Hayes earned his Distinguished Service Medal for his actions during the aftermath of a March 20 stabbing on College Street, not far from the college campus. Hayes and Vermont Fish & Wildlife Game Warden Justin Goodwin kept a man with knives at bay until he ran away and stood in the river threatening himself and others. The two officers used tactics they had been trained in to bring the incident to a close.