Will Grandbois

Several years ago, Bill Gates met Carbondale resident Jim Calaway at the Aspen Institute, and as they shook hands, the Microsoft founder said, “I hear you’re the Bill Gates of the valley.”
Indeed, Calaway’s reputation precedes him in the Roaring Fork Valley, as a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist working diligently to give away his wealth to organizations he says touch his heart, of which there are currently about 15.
“It makes me feel warm and loved,” Calaway said. “I got a beautiful letter last week from a woman down in Florida thanking me for helping build the Calaway/Young Cancer Center [at Valley View Hospital] because her relative was treated here and was so well cared for. It’s not unusual for me to get a letter like that or for people to want to talk to me.”

Kelly Harding, one of two Carbondale residents arrested while driving through Ohio last January and charged with possession of 128 pounds of marijuana, said this week that he is fighting the charges and believes he was set up by the Ohio State Patrol.
The other man involved in the case, Craig Voigt, concurs with Harding’s assessment of their situation, and believes the alleged set-up was actually part of a federal drug agency’s scheme to entrap Voigt, and that Harding was unfortunate enough to get caught in the net.

A total of six people — three curious residents, the head of information technology for Colorado Mountain College (CMC) and two reporters — showed up at a meeting at the Carbondale Branch Library on June 15 to learn how Garfield County is faring as it considers ways to expand broadband service in this area.
Garfield County has set a goal of “improving the speed and reliability of internet service for businesses and residents throughout the region,” as outlined in a May 17 statement on the county’s website (www.garfield-county.com).

A Carbondale Environmental Board online survey appears headed for some tweaking, after a consultant agreed with The Sopris Sun that it seems deficient in at least one area and probably others.
Question #7 on the survey, which was posted on the town’s website (carbondalegov.org) on Friday, asks: “How should sustainability programs and expanded services (editor’s note: such as a circulator bus) be funded? (Choose your top three).”
The options are:
• Dedicated tax;
• Bond with voter approval;
• Increased utility program funding;
• Severance tax/federal mineral lease money;

Dance Initiative will be welcoming a different kind of dance company for its next Artist In Residence, according to a press release.
The six members of the New York City based company HEWMAN will be in residence from July 11-16 at The Launchpad. HEWMAN is an unconventional collaborative dance project that strives to involve at least one medium other than dance, to collaborate with others to create an open-ended creative process and to present dance in new spaces where dance performance is not usually found.
HEWMAN will be taking advantage of the Carbondale Farmer’s Market from 1-2 p.m. on July 13 for a site-specific pop up performance. The public is welcome to observe and possibly participate in HEWMAN’s creative process during an open rehearsal at the Launchpad from 4 to 6 p.m. on July 14.

Bicycle riders of all ages can celebrate Colorado Bike to Work Day on June 22 with a free breakfast at the Glenwood Springs Branch Library or at the RFTA Carbondale Park and Ride.
“In Glenwood Springs, stop by for breakfast burritos, coffee and orange juice, and to meet other riders,” said Librarian Sue Schnitzer, manager of the Glenwood Springs Branch Library.
“Carbondale riders can stop by or park their bikes at the RFTA Carbondale Park and Ride,” said RFTA spokeswoman Jennifer Balmes. “We’ll be serving coffee and snacks, and offering info on bus schedules and bikes on buses.”

Every chair was filled and people lined the walls at the sides and back of the meeting room in the Church at Redstone Tuesday afternoon, where government officials and their constituents addressed a proposal to seek official Wild and Scenic designation for the Crystal River, which flows outside the church.
At the church, officials from Pitkin and Gunnison counties, as well as the Town of Marble, took testimony from a couple dozen people, most of them residents along the 39-mile stretch of the Crystal that is the subject of the designation effort.

The jury in the murder trial of Carbondale resident Arturo Navarrete-Portillo, accused of murdering his wife with a machete last year, was expected to begin deliberations on Wednesday after closing arguments from the prosecution and the defense, according to court officials.
The jury has heard days of testimony about the incident, which took place on Feb. 16, 2015, when Navarrete-Portillo, 47, allegedly beat up his wife during an argument and then slashed her face and neck with a machete that had been hanging in a closet of their Carbondale apartment.
His defense attorneys from the Glenwood Springs public defender’s office have not disputed that Navarrete-Portillo killed his wife, and the defendant reportedly admitted it while testifying.

A panel discussion sponsored by High Country News will take place in Basalt on June 10 at 6:30 p.m., at the Rocky Mountain Institute’s newly constructed Innovation Center, focusing on the topic of “The Fate of Our Public Lands.”
The conference, according to HCN Managing Editor Brian Calvert, is meant to describe an effort by right-wing activists in some western states to force the federal government to relinquish its control of hundreds of millions of acres of public lands.
At the heart of the controversial proposals — which are described in numerous articles in HCN and other publications — is what HCN writer Jonathan Thompson termed “a new and more dangerous Sagebrush Rebellion” in an article on Feb. 10 of this year.

When Garfield County voters start mailing in their ballots this month (they were mailed out on June 7) for the 2016 primary election, only Republicans will actually be making choices.
That is because there are no competitive primary races involving Democrats on the Garfield County ballot.
County Clerk & Recorder Jean Alberico told The Sopris Sun this week that state law requires that she send out ballots for the Democrats anyway, but only on the Republican side of the political ledger are there any races where two or more candidates seek their party’s nod to appear on the Nov. 8 general-election ballot.