July 2015

The ongoing task of writing a 10-year master plan for the Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District is being rushed to the point where citizen reviewers do not have adequate time to digest all the information coming from a team of consultants, the district’s board of directors was told at a meeting on Tuesday night.
“We feel like we’re being rushed too far, too fast,” said fire board member Carl Smith, who sits on the Master Plan Steering Committee that is working with the fire board to review and mold a draft master plan.
“I think the reality is, we’re all looking at some kind of potential mill levy adjustment,” Smith added, referring to the district’s ongoing financial difficulties since the recent recession drastically cut property tax revenues, which are the district’s main source of income.

For a short time several years ago Carbondale had licensed 13 businesses to grow, prepare and sell legal medical marijuana in town, under a voter-approved medical-marijuana law passed as a state constitutional amendment in 2000.
Under the 2000 law, patients as young as 18 were eligible for doctor-approved prescriptions to buy marijuana for treatment of a number of ailments.
But the number of actual, open medical-marijuana businesses never was that high, said Town Clerk Cathy Derby, who explained that some hopeful applicants got their licenses to open shops but never did.

The local fight over Smart Meters took an unusual turn this week, when Carbondale’s Environmental Board got a look at the question of whether the growing amount of atmospheric electromagnetic radiation [EM] is linked to the disappearance of honey bees and the disorientation of migratory birds as well as potentially posing a health hazard to humans.
Carbondale residents Jody Powell and Cedar Rose, along with visiting activist Gary Duncan from Pagosa Springs, Colorado, believe the links are real and told the E-Board members the connections should be viewed as warnings signs of electromagnetic pollution that is threatening wildlife as well as human health.
But members of the E-Board, as it is known, were not quite so sure, and asked Powell and Rose to work with the board’s subcommittee on Energy & Transportation to come up with a recommendation that the E-Board can consider.

It looks as though Basalt’s loss will be Carbondale’s gain, as plans jell for the opening of Butch’s Lobster Shack on a now-vacant lot at the corner of Second and Main streets, possibly within a couple of weeks.
Butch Darden, who has been in the restaurant business in the Roaring Fork Valley since 1979, confirmed to The Sopris Sun on Monday that he has reached an agreement to lease the lot, owned by Bren Simon, that until recently was occupied by a construction trailer linked to the development of the Marble Distilling Company and Distillery Inn.
The distillery is located two doors east on Main from the Lobster Shack’s planned site.

Denise Wright says “There’s nothing more powerful than a group of kids with an idea.”
Wright should know. The Roaring Fork High School teacher has worked with kids for years. This summer, she is the part-time coordinator for a new student-driven group called Teens Giving Back (TGB), which volunteers at CARE, Heritage Park and other public and private organizations. Just this week, TGB volunteers helped pull weeds at North Face Bike Park, part of an on-going project so the town won’t have to spray the invasive plants.
“Kids are some of the most generous people you’ll ever meet,” Wright told The Sopris Sun. “They love giving back.”