Top 10 stories of 2019

ADDISON COUNTY — A lot can happen in a year. Each January we sit down to discuss the stories we have covered over the last 52 weeks to decide which had the biggest impact on our community. Here are the 10 stories from 2019 that we felt rose to the top. Click on the headlines below to read the full stories. 1. What’s the future of small, rural schools? In 2019 all three of Addison County’s unified school districts wrestled — or began to cast a wary eye on — the thorny issue of how to deal with their small ru … (read more)

ADDISON COUNTY — In 2019 all three of Addison County’s unified school districts wrestled — or began to cast a wary eye on — the thorny issue of how to deal with their small rural schools in an era of declining enrollment and a state funding system that re … (read more)

Climate justice activism may have reached a critical turning point in 2019. The largest climate protest in history was held in September and Greta Thunberg, a 17-year-old Swedish climate activist, was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and named Time magaz … (read more)

The nonprofit Charter House Coalition in 2019 made a concerted effort to help more homeless people at its warming shelter at 27 North Pleasant St., and the greater Middlebury community learned that the lack of a warm place to stay is just one of many chal … (read more)

Construction on the $72.5 million downtown Middlebury Rail Bridges project hit a higher gear in 2019, with work aimed at preparing the site for a 10-week period during the spring/summer of 2020 when a 360-foot-long tunnel will be installed in place of the … (read more)

Dr. Seleem Choudhury’s tenure as Porter Medical Center (PMC) president ended in October after only five months, following revelations he had plagiarized material for a series of weekly emails he had used to keep the health care community abreast of goings … (read more)

For decades the question in Vergennes has been to bypass, or not to bypass. Earlier this year new hope appeared that an alternate route to take trucks out of the city’s downtown could be built in at least some residents’ lifetimes. In April came word that … (read more)

In 2019 the county’s largest employer, Middlebury College, completed a comprehensive reevaluation of personnel and work processes, eliminating roughly 100 positions and creating annual budget savings of several million dollars — all without laying anyone … (read more)

Vermont agriculture’s new big thing — industrial hemp — suffered from some growing pains in 2019, though hope remained by year’s end that the abundantly useful plant could still make important contributions to the state’s farming economy. Many hemp enthus … (read more)

In addition to the turnover at the top at Porter Medical Center (see story No. 5), a number of important county institutions saw leadership changes in 2019. After leading the Counseling Service of Addison County for 40 years, Bob Thorn at the end of March … (read more)

To be clear, we at the Independent are just happy to see athletes out there running, jumping, skating, dancing, tumbling, throwing, swinging, skiing, kicking, cheering, saving, blocking, swimming, wrestling, shooting, passing and defending. Participating … (read more)