As the dog days of summer unfolded in Addison County, a group of community members had their sights set on the upcoming school year and the fate of the Ripton Elementary School building. The school had shuttered its doors to K-5 instruction the prior month due to declining student enrollment, and a panel made up of Ripton residents and Addison Central School District officials planned to spend the summer brainstorming potential future uses for the school building.

An injunction by a federal judge in early July saved Northlands Job Corps, the federal job training site in Vergennes — for now. The Trump Administration had said it would close 100 Job Corps training programs, including Northlands, which gave job skills to hundreds of young adults over the years and currently employed more than 100 Vermonters. The judge’s decision allows Job Corps centers across the country to remain open while the legal battle to determine their fate continues.

Meanwhile in the 5-town area, Democratic leaders in Bristol, Lincoln, Monkton and Starksboro had supplied Gov. Phil Scott with two names to consider as he prepared to appoint someone to serve the remainder of a two-year term vacated in June by former Addison-4 House Rep. Mari Cordes, a Bristol Democrat. Those names were: former Addison-4 Rep. Dave Sharpe of Bristol, and Lincoln School District Board Chair Jeanne Albert.

Local residents in July expressed mixed feelings about the landmark education reform bill signed into law at the beginning of the month. The bill, then known as H.454 and now called Act 73, set up a process for potentially making significant changes to how Vermont’s schools are funded and run in the coming years. Some residents were worried the legislation would shutter smaller rural schools, while others felt the bill had moved too quickly through the legislature.

In Middlebury, the Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center was gearing up for a new course offering set to kick off in the fall — a two-year track that would allow students to earn credentials ranging from First Aid/CPR to Emergency Medical Technician and Certified Phlebotomy Technician. The new Emergency Medical Responder curriculum would be led by Stefanie E. Wilbur, MSN, RN.

Community members were also bracing for food assistance cuts after President Donald Trump signed into law a massive tax-and-spending bill that included funding cuts and other changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a food assistance program that serves more than 40 million people around the country.

The county’s two homeless shelters were seeing an uptick in demand following the July 1 sunset of the state’s motel voucher program. The end of that program sent over 300 Vermont households into uncertain housing situations.

Federal funding cuts were also casting uncertainty over the future of disaster relief programs that had previously helped Vermont. State and local officials were worried reductions in staff and funding at the Federal Emergency Management Agency could hinder the state’s ability to respond to and recover from future disasters, like floods experienced the prior two summers.

One such weather event blew through the county that month, when severe thunderstorms, high winds and deluges on July 10 resulted in severe damage to homes and other buildings across the county. Roads were closed, trees and powerlines were brought down, and winds peeled back a 4,000-square-foot section of the Middlebury Union High School roof.

In other school news, local districts were wary of how the Trump Administration’s decision to withhold anticipated federal funding from Vermont school districts might affect the services those learning communities provide. The Vermont Agency of Education had been alerted that $26 million of congressionally approved funding would not be made available to the state’s public schools on July 1, and some school leaders were uncertain if districts would ultimately receive those funds.

In Vergennes, Catharine Hays was preparing to step down from the role she’d served in for five years as the director of the Bixby Free Memorial Library. Also in the Little City, officials from Vergennes and Panton unveiled a few options for pinning down the uncertain boundaries between the two municipalities, which had been debated for at least three decades.

In July Bristol got a new town administrator. The selectboard hired Gregory W. Faust to serve in the role, with an anticipated start date of July 28. He would succeed former Bristol town administrator Valerie Capels, who retired from the post in December 2024. He would bring more than two decades of leadership experience in military service, housing development and public sector innovation. More recently, Faust served as project manager for the City of Phoenix Housing Development Division in Arizona.

Over in the county’s shire town, new Middlebury College President Ian Baucom was settling into his role and homing in on priorities for the months ahead. Those focuses included the future of Middlebury College’s graduate school in Monterey, Calif., and efforts to balance the institution’s budget, which had been a contentious issue with faculty and staff earlier in the year.

Officials at Porter Medical Center were working to ramp up safety protocols in the wake of a new state law requiring hospitals to establish and implement “workplace violence security plans.”

And to cap off the month, the popular Addison County Fair and Field Days returned to the New Haven fairgrounds — a week earlier than usual.