Will Grandbois

After a mixed start in December, the Roaring Fork High School basketball season returns in earnest this week, with both teams traveling to Gunnison on Jan. 10 and hosting Glenwood Springs on Jan. 11.
The boys enter the month at 3-2, with a pair of losses at their own Brenda Patch Tournament followed by a series of victories over Coal Ridge, Grand Valley and Olathe. That’s a better record than the Gunnison boys’ 1-5, but falls short of Glenwood’s six game domination last month.

A distinguished old dame with a checkered past recently had some major work done, in order to, in the words of construction specialist David Fischer, “bring her back to her former luster.”
Fischer was the contractor chosen to renovate the building on 55 N. Fourth St. that private account manager Ron Speaker is leasing from Tom Bailey, who purchased it in 2001 through an LLC called Morningwood.

If you missed the December deadline to buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, you can breathe a small sigh of relief. The open enrollment period to get coverage for 2014 continues through March.
But local insurance brokers are advising individuals who still need to sort out their coverage or who need new plans altogether to sign up for a plan sooner versus later.
“Don’t wait till the last minute,” said April Trulove of Martin Insurance Group in Carbondale. “This is a yearlong decision; you don’t make a decision like this on the fly. You want to make sure you’re making the right decision for your needs.”

Ivone Munoz, most recently an English Language Learner teacher at Roaring Fork High School, died on Dec. 27 following a long battle with cancer.
Muñoz, 40, was a Carbondale native and mother of four, with an extended family that included her grandmother, parents, brother, sister, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. Here are some recently compiled remembrances and those included in a Sopris Sun article:
“I have a single word to describe Ivone: graceful. The way she advocated for her students, made her disagreements known, led her life, accepted her illness, and left this world were done with a grace that few people share.” — Sharon Moya

The rumors have been confirmed.
Sunday, Jan. 5, will be the last day of business at Russets restaurant. After just shy of 10 years of operation, including the recession’s rough years, owners Sue and Claude Van Horton are hanging up their hats.
The decision is, according to Sue, purely economic. Although billed as a “neighborhood restaurant and bar,” the establishment has a reputation for fine dining that has been both a blessing and a curse. When the eatery opened in February 2004, times were good and people had income to spare. When things got tough, Sue surmises, people didn’t think of Russets as a place to just grab an appetizer and glass of wine.
Since word began to get out that they’re closing their doors, they’ve been packed almost every night. Folks are eager to get one last taste of their favorite dishes. In particular, the wild mushroom soup and lobster bisque have been in great demand.

When Carbondale band “All the Pretty Horses” announced the retirement of their old name at their Dia de Los Muertos concert in November, some folks drew comparisons to Prince’s 1993 moniker change. But by the time this issue hits the stands, fears that the band will adopt an unpronounceable symbol as their new name will have proven unfounded. After nearly two months of input and discussion; Oliva Pevec, Mateo Sandáte, Ashton Taufer, Frank Martin, Aaron Taylor, and Sophia Clark will be known collectively as “Let them Roar”.

“It’s like we’re at the starting line and we’re ready to floor it.” That’s how Amy Galicia describes the RE-1 school district’s readiness to address the needs of English language learners. Galicia was hired this past summer as the new coordinator of the district’s English Language Development program (ELD).

Secret revealed on Dec. 31
“It’s a secret,” according to vocalist Olivia Pevec.
The band that she founded, formerly known as All the Pretty Horses, will perform at Steve’s Guitars on New Year’s Eve. Not only will the band reveal its “secret” that evening, it is also the official release of their new EP, which they’ve been working on for the last two years.
“Actually, it’s the coming out party for our new name,” Pevec told The Sopris Sun in an exclusive interview. Although she won’t reveal the moniker before the night of Dec. 31, she did say that “it’s inspired by audience participation and it contains a local reference.”
The reason the band changed their name, she said, is mostly for Internet search reasons but also because they have grown a lot from their beginnings.
Band members include Pevec, Mateo Sandate, Aaron Taylor, Ashton Taufer, Frank Martin and Sophia Clark.

In February, the Sopris Sun will celebrate its fifth birthday. We couldn’t be more excited. Each year, the paper has gotten better. Our content has continued to improve, our readers have told us how much they like the changes, our new website is state-of-the-art, and our support from our advertisers continues to grow. What we need now is the financial support of the community.

An interesting year: 2013
Even for Carbondale — which in recent years saw residents slap a 20 cent fee on paper bags at City Market in order to protect the environment, and hammered shopping-center developers so badly they have yet to return – the year 2013 was an interesting one.
While other towns and counties dithered, dathered and weaseled around with whether to allow licensed stores to sell marijuana, the Carbondale Board of Trustees barely nodded to each other before plowing into an eventual nine-month discussion that would result in ordinances that allow up to five “pot shops” to sell limited amounts of the still federally-banned plant in 2014.
Meanwhile, a special taxing district (in this case the Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District), got the word from voters loud and clear they did not want to pay more money in the form of increased property taxes, even though it could mean emergency response times might be slower than in previous years.
On a sunnier note, Carbondale Mountain Fair started charging for folks who want to enjoy the festivities under private shade tents; town trustees gave an internationally known sculptor the old library building for $1 a year so he can display his work under the auspices of a museum; and the 100+year-old Thompson House received federal historic designation status.