News

March 3, 1977: The first lots were slated for sale in the Crystal Village subdivision – a 70 acre Planned Unit Development anticipated to house between 1,200 and 1,500 people. Although it has since been surpassed by River Valley Ranch, it was then the largest ever addition to the Town of Carbondale, comprising most of the homes on the west side of Highway 133 from Hendrick Drive to Oak Run, as well as two parks and 12 acres of professional, commercial or multifamily space along W. Main Street.

First Friday (March 3) celebrates the Carbondale Creative District as a whole, while the Carbondale Clay Center also presents its annual “Pairings.” The event allows folks to pair ceramic cups created by more than 30 local and national artists with handcrafted local and state beverages.
After two years of holding “Pairings” offsite, the Clay Center is bringing the fund-raiser back to its gallery/studios spaces at the east end of Main Street.

The two men suspected of robbing a Carbondale convenience store at gunpoint on Feb. 16, and then leading area law enforcement officials on a two-day chase through the back-country near Basalt, remain in the Garfield County Jail while awaiting trial on charges of armed robbery.
The two men, Nicholas Ameral and Benjamin Weeks, who are cousins and both 19 years old, were arrested on Feb. 22 during a traffic stop in Basalt.

Carbondale’s elected leaders on Feb. 28 approved an extension of the plat-filing deadline for the Carbondale Marketplace project (site of a new City Market grocery story,) the fourth time the Board of Trustees has had to do so. But while the move was unanimous (except for Trustee Heather Henry, who was not present at the meeting), it was not entirely enthusiastic.
“I hope this is the last time we have to do this,” said Trustee Marty Silverstein.

In articles from the Feb. 22, 1977 issue of the Roaring Fork Valley Journal:
• The Carbondale Board of Trustees was preparing to hold their meeting in the “new” town hall building at Second and Garfield. Previous to that, town hall was located on Main Street in one of the bottom spaces in the Dinkel Building.

Lucianna Phillips witnessed a Peruvian woman this week, who thought she herself witnessed a miracle at the same time. The miracle, as conveyed by Lucianna in her Feb. 20 blog: murky, undrinkable water poured from one bucket to another, turned into clear, clean drinking water in Huanchaco, Peru.

Authorities on Feb. 22 were still looking for two suspects in a Feb. 16 armed robbery in Carbondale, after two men thought to be the robbers eluded police on the morning of Tuesday, Feb. 21, by jumping out of an emergency window on a Roaring Fork Transportation Authority bus stopped at the Holland Hills area on Highway 82 near Basalt.

The Sutey-Two Shoes land swap, involving a total of roughly 1,200 acres of publicly-owned property at the base of Mount Sopris near Carbondale and other public lands in western Colorado, remains in a state of suspended animation. As the trade now stands – according to officials of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and volunteer members of a group fighting against the swap – a panel of administrative judges in Washington, D.C., is preparing to mull over questions about whether the public is getting fair value for its property in the proposed land trade with Ohio billionaire Leslie Wexner and his wife, Abigail.

For years, Lon Winston’s name has been practically synonymous with the Thunder River Theatre Company. This week, it’s official. After the opening performance of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” on Feb. 24, the black box performance space at the heart of the building will be dedicated “The Lon Winston Theatre.”
“I’m proud, of course,” Winston acknowledged. “It just says something so deep in my heart about giving to the community and all the people who were involved. If we don’t maintain the legacy and love of theatre, we’re going to lose something so important as a civilization.”

The Valley Settlement Project, a Carbondale-based project that aims at improving the lives and educational opportunities of immigrants (primarily Hispanic) in the Roaring Fork Valley region, is confident it will continue to provide services and support for numerous clients of all ages following its recent “launch as a stand-alone nonprofit,” according to executive director Jon Fox-Rubin.