August 2017

Carbondale’s signature consignment store, Miser’s Mercantile at 303 Main St., is now a week into a transition, following seizure of the store and its contents by landlord Dale Eubank on Aug. 10. Eubank contends that former owner Sam Hunter owes more than $12,000 in back rent. Most of the existing employees have been retained and continue to work at the store, according to a statement on Aug. 15 by spokesperson Diane Angelo.

Aug. 18, 1977: An investigation was underway after a series of issues plagued fire department attempts to douse a burning home in Satank, which was completely consumed. It reportedly took 20 minutes for word of the fire to reach the volunteer department after the dispatcher put out the call on the wrong channel. When crews did arrive, they were unable to get any usable pressure out of a nearby hydrant, while Fire Chief Ron Richards had reportedly taken one of the tanker trucks and the coupling for the other one to a fire in New Castle.

For the past 20 years, garrulous Carbondale dentist Gene Covello has been a long-distance commuter, driving the 90-plus miles from Grand Junction (where he has a home and a practice) to Carbondale, in order to continue seeing patients who are as much his friends as they are clients. But that has come to an end. Covello, 67, on Aug. 8 had his last appointment as a dentist in Carbondale, though he will continue to practice at an office in Grand Junction, which he opened after moving there in 1997 for family reasons. Meanwhile, his practice is now owned by his former partners, Matt and Taylor Verheul.

The 81623 zip code has a new postmaster — and his door is always open. Well, except when The Sopris Sun and KDNK sat down with him to find out a bit about his background and philosophy. Soft spoken and polite, Reza Tehrani ushered us past the folks waiting to buy stamps and into his simple office just off the public area.

Miser’s Mercantile was open under new ownership on Friday, Aug. 11 after being closed most of the week. Although some residents recalled the consignment shop being open in the interim, staff members — who were retained in the transition — told The Sun that it had been closed since Aug. 7. A printed notice was posted on the glass front door of the store on Aug. 10, detailing landlord Dale Eubank’s assertion that the store’s former management owes $12,380 in back rent.

The Aspen Valley Land Trust (AVLT), which turns 50 this year, has invited its supporters to a party and silent auction near Aspen this weekend to help the organization celebrate its half-century of successfully preserving land from development and other despoliation. The “Promise of Forever 50th Anniversary Land Gala” is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 12, from 5:30-11 p.m. at the White Star Ranches property of Suzanne Farver, situated in the McLain Flats area just outside of Aspen.