There were some familiar names and events in the newspaper 50 years ago this week. Here are some of the top stories that appeared in the April 16, 1970, edition of the Independent:
•  The Beach Family, owners of the Basin Harbor Club in Vergennes, became the new owners of the Middlebury Inn.
•  Perry LaSalle of Bristol suffered a broken neck in a car crash when he lost control of his car while driving on Route 17 in New Haven.
•  Two Bristol men, Roland Brace and John Chamberlain, refused the help of an attorney and decided to act as their own defense lawyers and cross-examine witnesses themselves in their trial. The men were charged with possession of a loaded weapon in a motor vehicle.
•  The Middlebury selectboard approved a proposal for a westerly by-pass to reduce traffic through downtown. The board also hoped that completion of a new by-pass would convince the state to help fund the construction of a much-needed new bridge in town.
•  Addison County’s annual Arts and Humanities Festival was set to be held on April 17 and 18. Many local schools as well as Middlebury College and professional artists prepared for the grand event, creating over 1,000 pieces of art for exhibition at Middlebury Union High School. In addition to the art exhibition, professionals were set to give demonstrations to the public on photography, glassblowing, music and other subjects.
•  “Literally thousands” of Addison County residents from all walks of life volunteered to collect trash from the roadsides for Vermont’s first-ever Green-Up Day. With volunteers set to gather at their local schools on April 18 and many civic groups providing meals for the trash collectors, the very first “citizens’ cleaning crusade” was set to be a real community event. Among the volunteers were almost 1,000 people from Middlebury — including 100 Middlebury College students — over 600 from Brandon, over 400 from Vergennes, and 50 from Salisbury. Students at Shoreham Elementary School got a head start by cleaning up the Shoreham village common the Friday before Green-Up Day Gov. Deane Davis, who flew “all over the state in a helicopter (to) see how the clean-up campaign progresses,” stopped in Brandon and spoke with town officials about the new Green Up program.
— Emma Pope McCright