April 2014

The feelings I had after the seventh annual 5Point Film Festival are the same feelings I usually have after the blessing of Carbondale’s Mountain Fair: blissful, hopeful, open and connected. Amidst the daily news onslaught of drought, killer storms, climate change, over-population and oil spills, 5Point Film is an alternate universe.
At the Carbondale Recreation Center last weekend, over 50 films portrayed people of all ages from all over the world, celebrating their natural talents and the beauty of the natural world with an unfettered joie de vivre.

Carbondale Fire District observers have something new to discuss and keep an eye on.
Rather than a projected $1.85 million reserve at the end of 2014, the functional figure is about $650,000 less than that.
The reason?
The district put up part of its reserves as collateral and borrowed $900,000 from Alpine Bank to buy a 100-foot-ladder truck, an accompanying tender truck and related equipment in May 2012, according to a report by fire district board candidate Carl Smith and confirmed by Carbondale Fire Chief Ron Leach.
The annual loan payment for the new trucks is $102,036 and two loan payments have been made, Leach confirmed. So, the district’s useable reserves at the end of the year are expected to be about $1.2 million — not the $1.85 million advertised in the 2014 budget.

As the battle wears on over gas drilling in the Thompson Divide area — a vast, scenic zone southwest of Carbondale that stretches from Sunlight Mountain to McClure Pass — some have expressed concern that the town’s water supplies might be contaminated by spills, seeps or other mishaps if drilling ever starts up on an intensive scale.
“The town has concerns about making sure our water sources are well protected,” Carbondale Town Manager Jay Harrington told The Sopris Sun in a recent interview.
“It’s an issue the town’s raised in our opposition to gas drilling up there,” Harrington added, referring to letters sent by the town government to elected officials and bureaucrats at the local, state and federal levels, urging officials to keep drilling rigs out of the Thompson Divide.

After the first round of bids came in too high for CDOT’s Highway 133 construction project, the second round attracted more interest and an apparent low bid from a Grand Junction company.
“The apparent low bidder was United Companies … and CDOT is in the process of awarding the construction contract to United Companies,” CDOT resident engineer Roland Wagner told The Sopris Sun.

Houston and Carbondale don’t seem to have much in common.
Houston boasts a population of 2.1 million, while Carbondale logs in at about 6,000.
Houston sits near the Gulf of Mexico, while Carbondale rests in the Rocky Mountains.
Houston is generally hot and muggy, while Carbondale is cool and dry.
Houston is home to a National Football League team, while Carbondale must rely on the Roaring Fork Rams for its football fix.
And, Houston probably has more yoga studios than Carbondale.
So, what’s one noticeable similarity between Houston and Carbondale? Come October, Carbondale’s soon-to-be roundabout at Highway 133 and Main Street will be graced with a 20-foot-tall James Surls sculpture, the 35-foot sister piece of which was installed at a prominent intersection in Houston’s Upper Kirby district earlier this month.

Curbside dining will be coming to Main Street in Carbondale this summer, when at least two restaurants — phat thai, 343 Main St., and Allegria, 335 Main St. — erect dining platforms in the parking spaces in front of the two adjacent establishments.
The Carbondale Board of Trustees gave its approval for the plan on Tuesday at the trustees’ regular meeting.
“We contemplate the design/construction of a contiguous platform the length of our collective storefronts and the depth of a standard parking spot,” stated a letter from the restaurants to the trustees, which was part of the meeting packet on Tuesday.
The wooden platforms are to be nine feet deep from the curb outward into the street, and traverse the storefronts of the adjoining restaurants, eliminating several parking spaces on Main Street. The sidewalk would be left open to pedestrian traffic.

You and a friend are strolling down Concourse B at Denver International Airport on a slow Thursday evening when a middle-aged German tourist named Hans falls over right in front of you – and he’s not breathing.
You and your friend do not panic. Instead, your friend rushes to grab the automated external defibrillator (AED) on the wall next to a restroom while you start hands-only CPR. Within a few minutes the two of you have literally shocked Hans’s heart back to life before paramedics arrive to speed him to the nearest hospital.

In recent years, Carbondale has developed a reputation for being an environmentally friendly place, but 30 years ago the Town lacked any sort of environmental regulations. Taking matters into their own hands, a group of citizens calling themselves “Down Valley Trash” started working on a recycling program. The group, which included Steve Standiford and Jeff Dickinson, eventually formed an informal “environmental board” to deal with broader issues.

An arts center, a chamber of commerce, a startlingly non-traditional cafe and gathering spot, and a boarding house or hostel — those are the four options being proposed for the still-vacant former home of the old Gordon Cooper Library in Carbondale.
All four were presented to the town’s board of trustees at a work session on Tuesday, and all four will be the subject of a future, formal town board meeting, probably on May 13, said Town Manager Jay Harrington.

As Carbondale voters prepare to cast ballots in the Carbondale and Rural Fire Protection District board election later this month, one issue that has remained of concern for some voters since late in 2013 is the lack of a current fire district master plan for operations and expenditures.
The election is being conducted by mail, with ballots to be sent out between April 14 and 21, and to be counted on Election Day, May 6.