February 2017

Plans for Dandelion Day 2017 are still evolving, but this much we know: Carbondale’s celebration of one of nature’s most useful plants will take place on May 13 and the Parade of the Species will probably march, slither, hop, stride and clip-clop down Main Street as it has in previous years.
As for the ever popular beer garden?

Davis Farrar knows more about local history, and government history, than just about anyone around. That knowledge could come in handy, after Farrar accepted the job of interim Basalt town manager on Tuesday. Basalt’s town manager shuffle started last year when Mike Scanlon left his post.
Farrar told the Basalt trustees he has lived in the Roaring Fork Valley since 1979 and served as Carbondale’s town manager for 13 years.

Carbondale folks learned something important during the first Fat Friday Mardi Gras parade in 2013. The late afternoon sun in early February funnels itself right down Main Street, shining a spotlight on everything it illuminates and casting long shadows in an almost magical way.

An agreement is nearly complete between the Town of Marble and the Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District that will allow work to get underway to clean up what fire officials believe is a relatively small diesel spill from tanks at the Marble fire house, according to fire district officials.

While a blizzard buffeted Carbondale on the evening of Jan. 25, Roaring Fork High School art teachers Leslie Keery and Cathleen McCourt, as well as students in the Girls’ Summit Club, greeted approximately 30 girls of various grades as well as three quarters of the female staff of RFHS in front of the warm fireplace at the Orchard Church for the annual Girls’ Summit.

For nearly 16 years, Jeff Jackel has been the figure most closely identified with recreational programs run by the Town of Carbondale, but that is about to come to an end.
Jackel, 65, is retiring from his $95,000 post as director of the town’s recreation department as of Feb. 3, having overseen projects valued at more than $6.6 million, paid for by a carefully managed combination of local taxpayer funds and grants from a variety of regional and state agencies and entities.

The story and themes in the musical romance “La La Land” may be straight out of Los Angeles, but the dancing is pure Colorado Western Slope. Or at least, choreographer Mandy Moore is.

Feb. 3, 1977
Old Joe, who apparently amused more folks with his antics than he offended, died of pneumonia the previous Friday at an undetermined age. “He’d been sick for a several days and people urged him to go to the doctor,” but he wouldn’t go,” said the lead story in that week’s newspaper. “He confided to one friend that he was afraid they’d put him away and wouldn’t let him come back to Carbondale.”

Dust off your historically inaccurate horned helmets and grab your cross-country skis; “Ski for Sisu” returns to Spring Gulch on Feb. 5.
The 25th annual noncompetitive family event runs from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. with refreshments, Norse costumes, a silent auction and short course for youngsters.

For the first and potentially only time, the “Stokes Speedway” will be open to the public on Feb. 4 for a special Carbondale Clay Center fundraiser.
Sponsored by the Stokes family, Carbondale Clay Center, Amoré Realty and Marble Distillery, the event runs from 4 to 7 p.m. at Blue Creek Ranch (3220 CR 100, just down the way from Catherine Store) and gives locals a chance to race slot cars on the track that took Jim Stokes more than two years to build.