Fifty years ago this week, newspaper readers in Addison County could buy a copy of the Addison Independent for 15 cents.
Here are some of the top stories that appeared in the Feb. 19, 1970 edition of the Independent:
•  State Rep. Henry Carse asked Starksboro residents to vote in favor of annexing the unincorporated area of Buel’s Gore. Carse claimed the gore needed to be annexed “if the area is to have any development and any residents” and to “be governed in the manner of organized towns.”
•  The Citgo service station in Middlebury was damaged in a fire, possibly caused by a short-circuit in a radio.
•  The Mount Abraham Union High School Drama Club began rehearsals for the play “St. Patrick’s Day,” which they performed as part of their annual one-act play contest.
•  Joan Cameron of East Middlebury celebrated the one-year anniversary of her used car dealership, Pioneer Auto Sales in Leicester. Cameron was the first woman in Vermont to own a car dealership.
•  The Vergennes city council’s search for a suitable location for the city’s landfill was once again thwarted when negotiations to use the Bristol landfill fell through. The board had initially agreed on a contract with the Bristol selectboard, but the Bristol board decided that what space remained in the landfill ought to be reserved for their own community. Vergennes had recently looked into the possibility of a proposed landfill in New Haven, but that plan was ruled out.
•  Bixby Library in Vergennes received a donation of nine new books in memory of Walter Jackson of Panton, whose family commemorated his birthday each year by giving books to his local library. Librarians also reported that Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather” was the most popular fiction book in their collection, and “The Peter Principle” by Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull was the most popular non-fiction book.