Toward the end of the morning session of Monday’s Garfield Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting, when commissioners typically discuss their calendars for the month, Commissioner Perry Will mentioned that he will attend the American Stewards of Liberty (ASL) Land and Liberty summit on Feb. 13 and 14 in Fort Worth, Texas. Event topics, according […]
February 2026
Posted inLocal Government
Basalt Report: Town to pursue speed cameras to slow traffic
This week, Basalt Town Council discussed a new form of automated speed enforcement technology that may come to Highway 82 in the near future in order to slow traffic at exits. The presentation was led by Lieutenant Aaron Munch of the Basalt Police Department (BPD) and Brendan Knox, a representative of municipal-enforcement software company Dacra […]
Posted inColumns
Will Call: Movie Business 101
As the Crystal Theatre suddenly finds itself the only cinema between Rifle and Aspen, it seems like a good time to publicly address a question I’ve heard almost daily since we went nonprofit last September. Why don’t we show more new movies? Exactly what someone means by that varies a bit, but the answer almost […]
Posted inLocal Government
Carbondale Report: Town properties to host 93 events in 2026
The main event at Tuesday’s Board of Trustees meeting, Feb. 10, was approval of the special events calendar for 2026, representing 93 unique happenings hosted on Town properties. With Mayor Ben Bohmfalk absent, Mayor Pro Tem Erica Sparhawk led the meeting. First, a consent agenda was approved including meeting minutes; accounts payable; an intergovernmental agreement […]
Posted inColumns
Money Juice: The Stock Market for Dummies
Picture this: You’re a 16-year-old boy… wait, it gets worse! You’re hired to crew a ship on a voyage to a faraway land to trade for exotic spices and textiles and medicine. The voyage is dangerous: rough seas, foreign animals and insects, unfriendly strangers, scurvy… but what an adventure, huh? When successful, the payoff was […]
Posted inObituaries
Joanne Joy Howard
1933 – 2026 Joanne Joy Howard was born in Ohio on Aug. 27, 1933, daughter to John and Ann Becker. Married in 1954 to Richard (Dick) Howard, they had four children: Leanne Montoya, Lauri James, Lynnea Washburn and Rick Howard. They were also blessed with seven grandsons, six great grandchildren. Joanne and Dick lived in […]
Posted inNews
Women’s Inner Leadership spring cohort begins in March
Lindsay Gurley is not one to shy away from deep conversations. As a longtime leadership coach in the Valley, she has seen a powerful ripple effect when women are supported through the tides of messy thoughts and difficult experiences. It is in those deep conversations that women can shed old stories, reveal their most authentic […]
Posted inEnvironment
New round of decisions on track for proposed Uinta Basin Railway
Late last year, Uinta Basin Railway (UBR) backers, Utah’s Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, filed a 35-page motion with the Federal Surface Transportation Board (STB), asking the Board to reaffirm its original decision to approve the railway without further environmental review. But the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is not on board with the idea. The […]
Posted inNews
‘Newspaper isn’t dying yet, not as long as I’m around!’
A look inside the newspaper printing process Last Thursday, Jan. 5, after sending Sol del Valle to print, the Sol del Valle and Sopris Sun teams traveled through the Glenwood Canyon to the printing press where both newspapers, along with many other local publications, come to life on paper. The Colorado Mountain News Media (CMNM) […]
Posted inBusiness
Crystal Valley Echo flips the page
Just up the Crystal Valley, in a cabin on Redstone Boulevard, Gentrye Houghton has kept busy behind the keyboard, often basqued in the blue light of her laptop late into the night to get The Crystal Valley Echo to print. While the winds of the Pacific have whispered in her ear that it’s time to […]