MONDAY EDITION
ADDISON COUNTY
INDEPENDENT
Vol. 29 No. 16
Old money, new money • Some misprinted currency issued by the National Bank of Middlebury in 1875 just sold at auction for $60K. See Page 32.
College in need of a new dean
Middlebury, Vermont
Gun range dispute in Whiting intensifies By WILL DiGRAVIO WHITING — Tempers were high at the Whiting Town Hall last Wednesday, Aug. 2, as those involved in a zoning hearing over the legality of a gun shooting range argued the facts of the case and even questioned the veracity of a video of the previous hearing. At issue was a shooting range operated by Nicolas Iocco on his property at 299 Stickney Road.
Whiting Zoning Administrator Katharine Briggs on May 3 notified Iocco that he is violating town zoning regulations by hosting an illegal, commercial gun range that poses a safety hazard and nuisance to his neighbors. If found in violation of the zoning law, Iocco could be fined $200 per day per violation. He appealed to the Zoning Board of Adjustment. (See Whiting, Page 7)
Monday, August 7, 2017
28 Pages
$1.00
Vt. Congressman works on a bipartisan health care reform By MICHELLE MONROE St. Albans Messenger WASHINGTON, D.C. — Vermont’s sole Congressman, Democrat Peter Welch, is hopeful Congress will be able to address some of the weaknesses in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), more commonly called Obamacare, following Republican efforts to repeal the popular law.
Welch is part of a bi-partisan group in the House of 20 Republican representatives and 20 Democrats calling themselves the Problem Solvers. They have proposed four actions Congress can take to reduce premiums in the individual insurance market and provide stability for insurance companies. It is the first time since the (See Bipartisan, Page 27)
• Middlebury administrator will step down to return to the classroom. See Page 3.
Firefighters douse chopper • Three departments put out a fire on a piece of farm equipment that can be suseptible to flames. See Page 3.
Rip it up Middlebury pool is heating up • Recent changes at the town pool have upgraded a municipal asset — and helped its swim team. See Page 14.
LUCAS RAYMOND, 1 1/2, gets his hands on the controls of an excavator set in the middle of Main Street in downtown Middlebury last Wednesday for the town’s block party. The excavator was a steady source of fun for kids during the four-hour party. For more block party photos see Page 2. Independent photo/Trent Campbell
Ilsley Library seeking $9.6M for big expansion By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — Ilsley Public Library trustees have hired a consultant to determine how much money could be raised locally to underwrite a major expansion and renovation of the library — a project tentatively estimated at around $9.6 million. The board’s decision to commission a fundraising feasibility study comes on the heels
of a newly released report that recommends removing the library’s two most recent additions and erecting a new, 14,000-square-foot structure onto the back of the original, 1924 Ilsley building. The new addition and related renovations would give the library — now a veritable hodgepodge of deficient, mismatched spaces jammed into a 19,000-square-foot, three-level building — a net gain of 6,600 square feet and produce a more user-
friendly facility, according to gbA Architecture & Planning, which authored the report. “Removal of these additions was an agonizing, but finally unanimous, decision driven by the limitations of the earlier additions, the tight building site, the goal to provide a solution that will serve the needs of the community for 50-100 years, and a commitment to invest the (See Ilsley, Page 13)