Alex Tarika first joined the Aspen Science Center (ASC) as a member of the education staff in February 2024. She came from a background in classroom science education, having taught at Aspen Middle School from 2018 to 2022 and Carbondale Community School from 2022 to 2023. When Tarika joined ASC as a new mom, she […]
January 2026
Posted inColumns
Dream Well: The walk of a lifetime
Natalia Snider is a certified dream practitioner living in Carbondale. She works with people’s dreams and imaginations to facilitate self-healing. Every month, she will analyze someone’s dream in The Sopris Sun. Anyone can submit a dream for personal analysis or inclusion in this column by visiting: www.dreamhealings.com DreamI had a dream my dad came to […]
Posted inColumns
Protecting Snowmass Falls Ranch
Our public lands are treasured by most Americans and they deserve our protection. But there are rare exceptions when public lands can best be protected by key parcels of conserved private land. Most land incorporated into wilderness today is remote, high elevation mining claims. But with some land — like Snowmass Falls Ranch (SFR), with […]
Posted inLocal Government
RFTA Report: Annual planning, mobility discussions, e-bike concerns
The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA) board started the year with reviews of 2025 accomplishments and the 2026 organization work plan. The group also heard a detailed presentation on the data from the October and November Zero Fare pilot program and held board officer elections for the next year. During the public comment period, community […]
Posted inLocal Government
Glenwood Report: CARE gets $10,000, Council hears Ride Glenwood On-Demand update
A packed Jan. 15 agenda to start the new year took Glenwood Springs City Council about four hours to work through. Included were lengthy conversations around extra funding for the primary animal shelter that serves the area and a data dump and contract extension for the City’s on-demand transit service. All council members were present […]
Posted inColumns
Historiography: The last picture show
“Carbondale History, 1887-1976,” by the Carbondale Study Club (1976): In the early days of the town, there was a motion picture theater on the north side of Main Street [351 Main, now The Pour House]. Every week there was a show … on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Admission was 10 cents for children and 15 or […]
Posted inLocal Government
Lepkowski returns, Feds urged to pay state disaster relief, county fair revenues up
Silt resident John Lepkowski is at it again with a new complaint about books in the Silt Library. The books are a series of graphic novels titled “The Boys” by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, the same books that a woman complained about last week. Lepkowski told the Garfield County Commissioners (BOCC) Monday that he […]
Posted inColumns
CVEPA Views: Earth, water, fire and air!
Woe is us. Yes, the millions of people in the Great American West who depend on the snowpack for 80% of our water. This year has shaken us to the bone. Apparently, there was a warmer and drier year, winter 1980, that we are competing with. Oddly, more prominent in people’s memory was the terrible […]
Posted inEnvironment
The Arctic Hoarder returns to Colorado
The North American wolverine (Gulo gulo luscus) is a survivor. It is called the Arctic Hoarder for good reason. This small mammal, a member of the weasel family, lives at high elevations where it’s cold and snowy. Wolverines scavenge for food in the summer and cache it away for winter. And they are returning to […]
Posted inObituaries
Jeff Handwerk
August 18, 1951 – December 20, 2025 With heavy hearts and deep shock, we confirm Jeff Handwerk was the skier involved in the accident on Aspen Mountain on Dec. 19, 2025. He passed away from his catastrophic injuries the following day in Grand Junction. Jeff was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1951 to Glenn E. […]