While residents in the seven Addison Central School District towns are thinking about how they can keep their elementary schools open with declining enrolment, they found out in December that there’s one outlier among the nine school buildings ACSD is sizing up for potential upgrades — Middlebury Union Middle School. Architects told the school board that MUMS could use more space to accommodate a student body that has swelled since it began receiving the district’s sixth-graders three years ago. District officials reviewed a report that suggests a range of $41.9 million to $45.4 million in repairs and additions to the district’s middle school, which was built in 1996.

Citing mounting professional and family responsibilities — and his conviction that volunteer boards need regular turnover — longtime Middlebury selectboard Chairman Brian Carpenter made it official that he won’t seek reelection in March. He said he was very busy dealing with an expansion into New York of his business, Champlain Valley Equipment. “The town needs focus, and my focus is going to be elsewhere for a couple of years,” he said.

While one prominent local food purveyor was getting ready to sell his business, another was ramping up. After 43 years as owner of Middlebury’s Green Peppers Restaurant, Mark Perrin can make pizza pies in his sleep. This month, he and his spouse Donna said they’re selling their 10 Washington St. business to Christian Bloom, who owns and operates The Retro Realm, an old-school arcade located in the same building as Green Peppers.

At the same time, Bristol’s Farmhouse Chocolates, a business that makes dark chocolate hand-rolled truffles, salted caramels and chocolate bars, among other treats, said it has partnered with Eat Vermont — a collaboration that will net their company resources and support to modernize its operations, expand its reach, and plan strategically for the future. Through the partnership, Eat Vermont has invested in the business and acquired a minority stake in Farmhouse Chocolates.

Over in Vergennes, local promoters thought they’d try something a little different to get the Little City into the holiday mood. Santa got help from the local farming community in spreading good cheer to folks when he showed up in Vergennes’s first-ever Holiday Roll Tractor Parade. The parade, which drew an estimated 1,200 spectators, included a festive lineup of tractors, riding mowers and side-by-sides — all decked out in holiday lights.

Sports fans read about how Vermont is in the midst of an alarming referee shortage — a problem unfolding nationwide, but one that has hit hard in a state with a small and aging workforce. In the Green Mountain State, officials are spread thin covering games across 23 sports at over 70 high schools in the Vermont Principals’ Association. Trainees aren’t offsetting the number of retiring veteran officials, and the resulting gap in personnel is forcing games to be postponed or canceled. “What was just affecting a couple sports out of the wide pool of varsity sports in the state — now it’s virtually every sport,” said Devin Wendel, president of the Vermont State Athletic Directors Association and athletic director at Mount Abraham Union High School.

Vergennes got some million-dollar news on the housing front. A big grant and a property transfer moves forward the effort to develop 74 units of workforce housing on a 14.4-acre parcel off North Main Street that mostly lies behind the Vergennes police station. The project is called “Vergennes North.” First, the Northern Borders Regional Commission that it would grant $1 million to Vergennes to put toward the cost of building a road and related infrastructure for that project. Then the developer, Peter Kahn, a principal in Vergennes Housing Partners LLC, told the Independent the partnership had completed purchase of the property.

The Holiday Shop has been a seasonal HOPE fixture in Middlebury for years. This year’s edition opened on Dec. 6 and will serve eligible families through noon on Christmas Eve. The shop — thanks to the enormous generosity of Addison County residents and businesses — ensures that no children in our area will go without gifts during this special time of year. Early in the month, a trip through the shop saw shelves stacked with books, toy trucks and cars, Barbies, craft kits, puzzles, magic markers, coloring books and so much more.