May 2017

Let’s unofficially roll out the ninth annual Bonedale Bike Week, coming up May 20-25, with some bicycle trivia, courtesy “Bicycle: The History” by David Herlihy and “The World Almanac Book of Records: First, Feats, Facts & Phenomena” by Mark Young.
• The term “bicycle” was not introduced until the 1860s, when it was coined in France to describe a new kind of two-wheeler with a mechanical drive.

Carbondale’s dance scene has been going through some busy times lately, at least as far as the Dance Initiative organization, housed in the Launchpad facility on S. Fourth Street, is concerned.
A series of planned artistic events, classes in the local schools and now a move by the dance group’s founder, Peter Gilbert, to help re-energize the struggling Glenwood Center for the Arts in Glenwood Springs are all part of Dance Initiative’s growing presence in the lower Roaring Fork Valley.

May 19, 1977: The Town of Carbondale, and the Carbondale Fire District, were feuding over the ownership of the district’s headquarters building at 76 S. Second Street (currently KDNK). The fire district claimed it is the building’s rightful owner, and the town should pay fair market value for it, which it said was $5,000.

The Two Rivers Unitarian Universalists in Carbondale are prepared to become the valley’s first sanctuary church, although at this point there in no one in line to seek their sanctuary.
The program was announced publicly at an interfaith “vigil” in Glenwood Springs on Mother’s Day, May 14. Rev. Shawna Foster, the minister of the TRUU, is also a politically active participant in other social-justice causes, such as the recent mission to send of goods and assistance from Carbondale to the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.

Local organizations announced $128,000 in financial aid for Roaring Fork High School students at scholarship night on May 15 as their proud parents listened to the litany.
Though many of those present gave a great deal of credit to counselor Andrea Caruso, she was humble as she addressed the assembly.

The tire tracks traced the upward slope of the hill and veered across the road to where a group of teens stood by a broken fence, a rough wooden cross and a steadily growing floral memorial on the lip of a 200 foot drop. School had just let out on May 15, and friends of 17-year-old Ayleen Ruiz Alvarado had come to pay their respects at the site of the car accident that had claimed her life and sent five others to the hospital the night before. The accident on the evening of May 14 — Mother’s Day — was all too reminiscent of the other incidents that have marred graduation season here and elsewhere, right down to the spot on Thompson Creek Road (CR 108) known as Sweet Hill.

May 10, 2007: Students at Roaring Fork High School staged a walkout in response to what they viewed as the forced resignation of longtime teacher Jill Knaus — part of a broader trend of teacher turnover. “Our school has lost its meaning — it is education,” said senior Jay Engstrom. “A lot of… the most important teachers in our school are being pushed away when we need them.”

There’s a story behind the some of the seeds and starts you’ll see at Dandelion Day, and Casey Piscura is happy to tell it.
“When you buy a start from us, it’s been under the Colorado sun the whole time,” he told The Sopris Sun. “I’m giving you a packet of seeds for four bucks that are outgrowing hybrids in our greenhouse that are a dollar a seed.”

The Thompson Park housing project, which has been in the works for nearly eight years, is likely to be reduced in scope in the coming weeks, according to town officials and developer Frieda Wallison of Basalt. The project, which initially was planned for a little more than 10 acres along Highway 133 between Triangle Park and the Keater Grove neighborhood, at one time was expected to result in construction of between 45 and 85 homes.