The 689 Main Street building is receiving a new moniker and concept this fall. But first, the regular Board of Town Trustees meeting on Aug. 8 opened with a ceremony honoring police officers Quinn Kimminau, Kevin Waymire, Arthur Fields and Paul Lazo. Kimminau and Waymeyer both received promotions — to Police Officer II and Police Officer I, respectively. Kimminau and Fields received the Life Saving Award for their effective response on July 15 to a man suffering cardiac arrest. And Lazo received the Department Achievement Award for his work on a sexual assault case reported in February that led to discovering other crimes and victims in three jurisdictions.
The consent agenda included accounts payable, meeting minutes, liquor license renewals for Carbondale Beer Works and Rhumba Girl Liquors, special event liquor licenses for Stepping Stones, Colorado Mountain College, Roaring Fork Leadership and Roaring Fork Youth Orchestra, reappointment of Suzanne Frazier to the Public Arts Commission, an agreement with Manifest Communications for signage at off-leash dog parks and a retail marijuana license renewal for LOVA.
This final item was pulled for discussion. The store received conditional approval for a marijuana license last year for a store to replace the abandoned building facing Main Street west of 7-Eleven. The new building, designed using shipping containers, was then stalled for not meeting Carbondale’s building standards. LOVA is now working with Bldg Seed Architects, a local firm, to start fresh with the building permit process.
Trustee Marty Silverstein, joining via Zoom, was not in favor of renewing the license. “This was their idea to go with cardboard shipping containers,” he said. The item was approved, however, and the remainder of the consent agenda was approved unanimously.
Trustees then heard from eight members of the public opposing the Forest Service’s redevelopment, which went out to bid on July 21. Patty Lecht announced that more than 700 signatures opposing the project had been collected. Acknowledging the Town doesn’t have jurisdiction over the federal property, she said she hopes they will support asking for an alternate plan that fits in better and doesn’t take away so many mature trees.
Eric Doud spoke for the buildings. “I feel like with the loss of the buildings, there’s a real loss for the community.” He opined that the stable building is most important, representing a time the Forest Service used horses and Sopris Park was their pasture. “I hope our trustees keep an open mind at least about relocation of the stables building onto town property.”
Mayor Ben Bohmfalk explained that Town staff in 2020 asked the Forest Service to pull its design up to the street, as required by Historic Commercial Core zoning. “We’ve formally asked them to go in this direction, so to take that back would go against the zone district and our own past direction.”
Town Manager Lauren Gister explained that the feasibility of the Town trying to relocate any of the structures is scheduled for discussion with the Historic Preservation Commission during the Aug. 22 regular meeting.
“I’m still in favor of putting it on an agenda,” said Trustee Chris Hassig. “I’ve been extremely critical of this process since they had open houses in 2018. I think this has been a bad project all along and it’s been presented to us as done from the very beginning.” He added, “I don’t think Aspen would get treated this way.” With support from Hassig, Luis Yllanes and Colin Laird, the item will be added to future agenda for further discussion.
Back to The Painted Pig, that’s the name for a new venture by Kade Gianinetti at 689 Main Street. “It’s a long story,” he said about the name. “I’ll tell you over beer or a coffee.” His concept is to have the building serve as a café during the day and restaurant at night, also selling prepared goods, dried goods and other goods. The venue will highlight Aquila Cellars, a Paonia winery. Unanimous approval was granted for the new liquor license.