Prior to this week’s meeting, Town Council held a public work session with the West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition (WMRHC) to learn more about their recently-launched Good Deeds program, which provides buy-down assistance to Roaring Fork Valley employees looking to shift from renting to homeownership. Good Deeds works on a basic exchange: WMRHC offers up-front […]
Will Buzzerd
Posted inEnvironment
Carbondale rancher Tai Jacober steps up to CPW Commission
On Friday, Aug. 16, Governor Jared Polis appointed Carbondale cattle rancher Tai Jacober to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) Commission. Selected to represent agricultural producers west of the Continental Divide, Jacober intends to bring the concerns of ranchers in the Roaring Fork Valley to Denver and find a balance between Colorado’s booming recreation economy […]
Posted inLocal Government
Basalt Report: Bear incidents the highest in five years
Prior to this week’s regular meeting, the Town Council held a public work session with the citizen-run Basalt Affordable Community Housing (BACH) group. During this session, Town Planning Director Michelle Thibeault presented BACH’s 2025 plan to improve housing availability and address market difficulties in Basalt. Based on information gathered from a community housing needs assessment […]
Posted inNonprofits
MANAUS, sunsets this year, looking back on achievements
This spring, social justice nonprofit MANAUS announced that 2024 will be its last. MANAUS, formerly the Manaus Fund, has spent the past two decades piloting community-led and co-designed projects and nonprofits throughout the Roaring Fork Valley.At the end of 2023, MANAUS’s staff, the board of directors and partners convened to discuss the future of the […]
Posted inLocal Government
Basalt Report: Midland Streetscape reaches paving milestone
Prior to the meeting, the Basalt Green Team held a brief presentation outlining both its accomplishments in 2024 and the work ahead in 2025. The Green Team’s areas of expertise are fourfold: Improving Basalt’s built environment, tracking climate goals, educating the public on climate-friendly practices and encouraging greener transportation. The past year, the Green Team […]
Posted inEducation
Wading into the Arctic from Carbondale
For Sarah Johnson of Wild Rose Education, an environmental education program based in Carbondale, switching between the microcosm of the Roaring Fork Valley and the global scope of climate science can be perplexing. “It’s kind of incredible,” Johnson told The Sopris Sun. “I sit here in my office in the Third Street Center and I’ll […]
Posted inLocal Government
Basalt Report: More rentals go condo
Prior to the regular meeting, the Basalt Town Council held a public work session with private financial consultant Economic & Planning Systems, Inc. (EPS), which performed a rigorous housing assessment for the Town of Basalt and presented its findings and recommendations to the council. In 2023, EPS found that the median sale price of a […]
Posted inLocal Government
Basalt Report: Basalt Center Circle apartments go condo
Conversations about affordable housing took center stage during this week’s Town Council meeting, beginning with a presentation by the Basalt Regional Library and culminating with a contentious second hearing concerning the new apartment complex coming to downtown Basalt. Basalt Regional Library At the start of the meeting, Amy Shipley, executive director of the Basalt Regional […]
Posted inEnvironment
Mixed feelings for mixed-use trail along the Crystal River
On June 28, 2024, the White River National Forest released their final Decision Notice authorizing the construction of a seven-mile, multi-use trail from Redstone to McClure Pass, which would become a part of the larger 83-mile Carbondale to Crested Butte trail.While exciting to overnight cyclists and thruhikers looking for safer passage up the Crystal River […]
Posted inBusiness
Cacao price surge, a bitter taste for chocolatiers
As the calendar drifts into the dog days of summer, business has slowed down for Carbondale-based Pollinator Chocolate. Pollinator Chocolate founder Mark Burrows has been staying afloat selling wholesale to restaurants and hotels in the Valley and beyond, plus keeping busy selling coffee to loyal clientele at the Cocoa Club on Highway 133. All the […]