Trump’s battle on immigrants came to Addison County in October when Panton’s Juan De La Cruz, a native of Mexico who has lived in the United States for two decades — reported to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in St. Albans in October for a check-in with no assurance that he would not be held and deported, as many other immigrants around the country have been. A crowd of around 100 of his supporters accompanied him to the building and erupted in cheers when he exited the building. Married to a local woman, the father of two U.S. citizen children and employed as a stone mason and meat cutter with no criminal record, ICE said they’d allow De La Cruz to remain in Panton for at least another six months, when another mandated check-in will occur.

After years of discussion, Addison Northwest School District in the fall of 2024 moved its 6th-graders from Vergennes Union Elementary and Ferrisburgh Central School and began educating them with 7th- and 8th-graders at Vergennes Union Middle School, which shares a Monkton Road building with the high school. A year after taking the momentous step, school officials in the fall of 2025 were calling the move a success. The key, they said, was getting buy-in from teachers, administrators and students.

Addison Central School District restarted a discussion it had put on hold. An architectural firm working with the district to map out improvements to the ACSD’s nine school buildings this month suggested $20.8 million in upgrades to Middlebury’s Mary Hogan Elementary. It would address deferred maintenance and create more appropriate K-5 learning spaces. Price tags for fixes as the other school buildings would be coming this year.

Students at Bristol Elementary School welcomed a special guest to the learning community in October — Whiskey the cow. The cow, which belongs to the family of MAUSD Superintendent Patrick Reen, was there to take part in a “Kiss the Cow” Principal’s Challenge at the elementary school. Such events are intended to celebrate good student behavior and consist of the school’s administration team completing an activity that’s silly, slightly embarrassing or challenging in some way. Students and staff at the school gathered outside and cheers as, one by one, Principal Aaron Boynton and Assistant Principals Bill Huggett and Anne McKinney took turns planting a kiss on the cow. From photos of the event, it appeared that Whiskey was unimpressed.

In October, Vermont Health officials reported mosquitoes in Vergennes had tested positive for the Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus. They urged Vermonters to protect themselves from mosquito bites, warning the virus — while rare — can be serious and deadly to humans.

This month we reported that Bristol American Legion Post 19 members Ron LaRose and Jeremy Revell had been elected to serve in national positions. LaRose will serve as American Legion National Vice Commander for the Northeast Region, and Revell was elected to serve in the same role for the Sons of the American Legion.

After the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Vergennes closed in March and the Vergennes Rec Department took it over, city Rec Coordinator Martha DeGraaf told the Vergennes City Council this month that more youths are coming to 20 Armory Lane to what is now the Commodore Club than did this past spring — an average of 15. And over the summer, the club partnered with the school district to offer lunch and breakfast.

Among the private groups that support veterans is one that has spent the past 22 years stitching together fantastic fabric creations designed to metaphorically and literally impart warmth to the nation’s veterans. The group called “Quilts of Valor” is an organization of avid craftspeople who each year make hundreds of quilts that are then given to those who served (or who continue to do so). Representatives of Quilts of Valor and Ferrisburgh’s Patriotic Spirits turned out at the Middlebury Quilt Show in October to drape seven area veterans (and one from Maine) in fabric finery featuring stars, stripes, red, white, blue, deer, soldier silhouettes and other “wow” factors.

Addison County residents joined the millions nationwide who took part in No Kings Day protests in all 50 states on Oct. 18. Marchers of all ages voiced their support for the country, with more than 1,000 gathered in the county’s shire town. Vergennes City Green hosted a lively protest that saw more than 750 participants waving signs and accepting positive honks of support. Nearly 500 showed up in downtown Brandon. The message to our elected president was simple: Be nice, follow the law, tell the truth, stop treating your detractors as enemies, and it takes all kinds of people to make a great nation.

The stage was set for the long-awaited major renovation of the Salisbury Free Public Library and the Town Hall that hosts the institution when the library in October began a move into the basement of Salisbury Congregational Church, just 350 feet away.

Not insignificantly Addison Independent publisher Angelo Lynn in October announced a new revenue mix that will help keep the newspaper vibrant and competitive. A centerpiece is creation of a tax-exempt nonprofit, Addison Independent Trust LTD., that will allow people and foundations interested in supporting democracy and civic engagement through local journalism to donate money that would be tax exempt. In  addition, the newspaper has dedicated two employees to expand digital services for local businesses and expanded circulation that includes digital subscriptions for all Middlebury College students. “Our vision is a community where every citizen of the greater Addison County area is informed and engaged through open dialogue and trusted journalism, and where strong newspapers help grow strong communities,” Lynn said.

As the month wound down, the community was getting anxious looking for Lia Smith, a Middlebury College senior who was missing. Teams of people were looking for her, and trying not to expect the worst possible outcome. But two weeks after she went missing, authorities found her body near the college garden and confirmed she died by suicide.

New Haven residents gathered to share ideas to better the community’s future. The town is working with the Vermont Council on Rural Development on a Community Visit process, through which neighbors work together to identify priorities for the town and steps to move toward those priorities.

Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark stopped in Addison County to give an update. She said she had filed 32 lawsuits against the Trump administration since the president’s inauguration in January, and they shared a common theme: “Almost every case, if not every single case, really relates to the rule of law,” she told the Independent. Litigation has been a defining factor of the second Trump administration, as it is in his business career. He has acted quickly issuing executive orders on everything from immigration and climate change to healthcare and even the name of a body of water.

On Vermont’s behalf, Clark has filed many lawsuits to block some of Trump’s actions — more than half as many lawsuits in the just 10 months as the state filed during Trump’s entire first term. Most of the actions were taken alongside attorneys general from anywhere from 11 to 24 other states. Clark said Trump’s rule-by-decree approach to enacting policy, often through executive orders, has pushed the boundaries of what’s legal in a system that divides power among the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government.