March 2017

In Carbondale they are called “micro-units” rather than their more common designation as “tiny houses,” and there are some key differences in how local governments view the growing national phenomenon of ultra-small houses, compared to the viewpoints of other jurisdictions.
For example, in Carbondale if the tiny house is perched on wheels it can only be located in an RV Park. But if it is built on a permanent foundation and can be hooked up to the town’s water and sewer systems it can be located in a more traditional residential subdivision, according to Chief Planner Janet Buck.

Read early accounts of life in Carbondale, or look at photos from back then, and at least one feature stands out – trees were few and far between. “Carbondale was a sage brush plain (in the 1880’s),” Tree Board Chairman Dan Bullock told The Sopris Sun.” According to published reports, one of the town folks’ first municipal projects was to plant trees, mostly Siberian elm, on their own property and also town property.

A little more than two weeks ago, Carbondale’s elected leaders and three closely-interrelated energy-efficiency consulting companies came up with a list of projects and programs on which to spend the $50,000 the town has set aside for energy programming in 2017.
The three consulting firms — mostly known by their acronyms; CLEER, CORE and GCE — have been working with the town for years to reduce Carbondale’s “carbon footprint” by helping local businesses, homeowners and the government itself to upgrade the structures around town by installing solar technology and energy-efficiency technology as a way of helping locals reduce their energy consumption.

Following Donald Trump’s unexpected presidential win in November, online activists around the country – including those in Carbondale, Basalt and Aspen – started communicating via social media and email on how to counter his agenda and prepare for the 2018 congressional elections.

The Sopris Sun is conducting a series of interviews with folks you may not have seen in the paper before – a sort of introduction to your neighbors. This week, we caught up with Heladio Sanchez, who runs things in the back warehouse at the Roaring Fork Co-Op.

March 24, 1977: Margaret Darien (neé Letey) announced her retirement after a teaching career spanning 50 years. “I’d like to teach a couple more years if I could,” she told the Valley Journal, but the school district – which didn’t even exist when she started teaching – had instituted a mandatory retirement age.

About 30 people from all around the Roaring Fork Valley made the trip to Ashcroft on March 18 and 19 for a public art project with an environmental slant. Organized by the Community Office of Resource Efficiency (CORE) as part of its brand new “High Five” approach, the project centered on the vision of California artist Sonja Hinrichsen.

Vail Mountain ended Roaring Fork’s two-game, season opening winning streak with a decisive 5-0 soccer win at home on March 18.
“They (Vail Mountain) were last year’s state tournament runners up,” said head coach Nick Forbes after the game.
Unfortunately, the Rams not only lost the game, they lost sophomore-starting defender Solana Teitler to a season-ending injury. Forbes said that going into a “defensive 50/50 tackle” she collided with the defender through the ball and fractured her femur above the knee. “Her first question was ‘did they score’,” Forbes told The Sopris Sun.

Roaring Fork School District no longer needs money or even, strictly speaking, approval from the Town of Carbondale to build a staff housing complex on Third Street, but that won’t stop RFSD from trying to live up to the “Community Partnership” name. The Carbondale Planning and Zoning Commission certainly found little to object to as the Roaring Fork School District voluntarily went through the standard approval process on March 16, while the sole public comment came down to questions more than objections.