Will Grandbois

For some local nonprofits, it seems as if they’ve been around forever. Take Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers (RFOV), which works with the Forest Service and other agencies to repair and build trails on public lands, and undertake projects that state and federal agencies can’t afford. RFOV is marking its 22nd year of improving access to public lands through the work of volunteer crews.
“We’ve accomplished quite a lot since our first project season in 1995, when we had only three projects and 105 volunteers,” said RFOV Director David Hamilton on the nonprofit’s website.

If producing a Daniels Fund recipient or Boettcher scholar is a feather in a school’s cap, Roaring Fork High is on its way to a headdress.
This year, the graduating class of fewer than 80 students boasts six such scholarships – two Boettchers (a full ride anywhere in the state) and four Daniels (a full ride anywhere in the country).

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on Monday announced that the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA), a panel of administrative judges within the BLM, had given the go-ahead to the controversial Sutey-Two Shoes land exchange deal, and that the deal had been signed and sealed that day.

In Carbondale they are called “micro-units” rather than their more common designation as “tiny houses,” and there are some key differences in how local governments view the growing national phenomenon of ultra-small houses, compared to the viewpoints of other jurisdictions.
For example, in Carbondale if the tiny house is perched on wheels it can only be located in an RV Park. But if it is built on a permanent foundation and can be hooked up to the town’s water and sewer systems it can be located in a more traditional residential subdivision, according to Chief Planner Janet Buck.

Read early accounts of life in Carbondale, or look at photos from back then, and at least one feature stands out – trees were few and far between. “Carbondale was a sage brush plain (in the 1880’s),” Tree Board Chairman Dan Bullock told The Sopris Sun.” According to published reports, one of the town folks’ first municipal projects was to plant trees, mostly Siberian elm, on their own property and also town property.

The Carbondale Board of Trustees gave a somewhat tepid response on Tuesday to a proposal to annex about 2.6 acres of ground at the north end of town and make it home to a new mini-storage complex along Highway 133. But the trustees did not indicate an unwillingness to work with the developer, Dr. Ron Stein and his corporate persona, Huntington L.P., headquartered in Burbank, Calif. Stein, also owns the Sopris Shopping Center on Highway 133, as well as land between Main Street and Colorado Avenue at Highway 133, which is hopes to develop into a mixed-use project of homes and businesses.

A little more than two weeks ago, Carbondale’s elected leaders and three closely-interrelated energy-efficiency consulting companies came up with a list of projects and programs on which to spend the $50,000 the town has set aside for energy programming in 2017.
The three consulting firms — mostly known by their acronyms; CLEER, CORE and GCE — have been working with the town for years to reduce Carbondale’s “carbon footprint” by helping local businesses, homeowners and the government itself to upgrade the structures around town by installing solar technology and energy-efficiency technology as a way of helping locals reduce their energy consumption.

Following Donald Trump’s unexpected presidential win in November, online activists around the country – including those in Carbondale, Basalt and Aspen – started communicating via social media and email on how to counter his agenda and prepare for the 2018 congressional elections.

The Sopris Sun is conducting a series of interviews with folks you may not have seen in the paper before – a sort of introduction to your neighbors. This week, we caught up with Heladio Sanchez, who runs things in the back warehouse at the Roaring Fork Co-Op.