The high school sports calendar turns to the winter season this week, with Roaring Fork High School boys and girls basketball getting things rolling by hosting the annual Brenda Patch Tournament. A mix of Western Slope, Front Range and Eastern Plains teams will be in Carbondale this Thursday through Saturday for the tournament, which honors […]
December 2025
Posted inLocal Government
GarCo Report: Santa says, ‘You gotta be nice’
The first of December brought snow to the Roaring Fork Valley but it did not bring public comments to the Garfield County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting. For the first time in a few weeks, no one had anything to say that wasn’t on the agenda. Not even about the upcoming library board of trustees interviews (which […]
Posted inNews
Sopris Sun brings Thomas Friedman to TACAW
UPDATE: Due to a personal emergency, Thomas Friedman is unable to make his annual holiday trip to the Valley this year. Tickets purchased for the Dec. 23 “Coffee with Tom Friedman” event will be promptly refunded. The Sopris Sun and TACAW look forward to rescheduling a talk with Mr. Friedman later in 2026, as schedules […]
Posted inNews
Preventative care pioneer receives humanitarian award
Dr. Greg Feinsinger did not go through medical school to become a doctor and make a bunch of money. In fact, his parents put the thought in his head when he was just a kid, imparting that a common purpose people share is to help one another. Feinsinger was recently honored with the Humanitarian Award […]
Posted inNews
Racing time
Vaughn Shafer’s birthday parties are legendary. For decades now, on a chilly evening in late January, some 50 people have trekked up to Shafer’s 36-acre property near Lookout Mountain to ride vintage American Flyer sleds down his steep, 2.5-mile long driveway. Before it was sleds, they’d pile into Shafer’s river canoes, using the paddles to […]
Posted inNews
Scuttlebutt
Bridging BionicsThe Bridging Bionics Foundation announced Monday, Dec. 1, receiving a monumental $1.5 million grant from an anonymous donor. The first $1 million will immediately support the acquisition of Bridging Bionics Foundation’s Center for Neurorehabilitation at 2605 Dolores Way, Carbondale. The remaining $500,000 has been committed as a three-year matching challenge to support the new […]
Posted inLetters
Letters – Dec. 4, 2025
Correction: One correction and an important clarification are needed for the article about the Spring Gulch Nordic ski area that appeared in the Nov. 27 Sopris Sun. First, the capital campaign was $750,000. Also, volunteer labor was used to install fencing, replace sign posts and work on weed mitigation and revegetation, while the major improvements, […]
Posted inColumns
For What It’s Worth: The Sopris Sun continues to be community journalism at its finest
Community journalism has been the very definition of my more than three decades in the trade. And I couldn’t love it more than in my current role as one of the many freelance correspondents for The Sopris Sun. My very first byline, aside from student publications, came as a young journalism major in college, when […]
Posted inLocal Government
Negotiations secure Hogback bus service in 2026
In early November, Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA) CEO Kurt Ravenschlag presented to the Garfield County Commissioners. He was speaking to the role public transportation plays in regional commuting, and asked the commissioners to allot funds specifically to help cover RFTA’s Hogback services west of Glenwood Springs. Garfield County has contributed varying amounts toward this […]