News

If you live in the Roaring Fork Valley, you’ve likely used any one of the several Facebook group pages that exist specifically for residents’ needs. There’s the Roaring Fork Swap, Roaring Fork Rentals & Roommates, Roaring Fork Events, Roaring Fork Road and Weather… and those are just some the larger groups with “Roaring Fork” in front of their names. With more than 22,600 members, Roaring Fork Swap is the undisputed behemoth among the groups — in fact, many of the other pages that are now staples for communities sprang from the Swap’s posts and comments outgrowing the platform’s intent.

While the question of the moment for The Crystal River Trail has been where exactly it should go, a sizable contingent at a public meeting on Oct. 17 urged Pitkin County to consider not building it at all.
It’s far from a new perspective in the decades long debate. According to Open Space Director Gary Tennenbaum, the trail was first considered in 1994, with a feasibility study in 2004 and the first five miles completed in 2011. Governor Hickenlooper recently lent urgency to the project by highlighting it among the “Colorado 16” regional trail gaps in the state.

Roaring Fork High School senior Iliana Castillon Prado admits that when she dresses up for the school’s Spirit Week that culminates with the homecoming dance, she looks in the mirror and thinks: “Wow, I look really stupid.” “But as soon as you walk through the high school doors, you think, ‘Wow, we all look really stupid,’ which makes it worth it,” Prado said, reflecting on RFHS’s themed costume days that took places last week. Spirit Week aims to strengthen the school community and build pride.

Oct. 13, 1977: About 40 concerned citizens turned out at an organizational meeting for a proposed gravel pit and batch plant northeast of Carbondale. Mostly, they were there to protest, with concerns ranging from traffic and noise to increased water temperatures and mosquito population. On the flip side, the town was set to receive 6 cents per ton extracted and the 30-acre parcel was to be donated to the town by 1988.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, driving one mile emits about 411 grams of carbon dioxide. So, roundtrip from Carbondale to the South Canyon Landfill in Glenwood Springs, the average driver will emit 12,330 grams of carbon dioxide — not to mention having to spend more than one hour in the car. Fortunately, locals wanting to also be exemplary environmental stewards won’t have to make that trek Saturday; they can simply go to the town’s Household Hazardous Waste Day.

A performing arts space called The Temporary in Willits Town Center is poised to become the midvalley’s happening new hangout. The venue, operated by nonprofit organization The Arts Campus at Willits (TACAW), opened Aug. 11 and has since attracted a cadre of fans with an array of performances. The buzz is growing and crowds are pouring in to several events per week, according to board member Jeff Orsulack and managing director Ryan Honey.

After nearly two years of planning, community members celebrated boots-on-the-ground progress of the Rio Grande ARTway last weekend with two volunteer work sessions at the new DeRail Park near Highway 133. A third volunteer work day is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 14 at the Latino Folk Art Garden along the path near Eighth Street.
Carbondale Arts has been developing the Rio Grande ARTway, a 1-mile section of the Rio Grande Trail that bisects Carbondale. The concept is to establish a “creative place-making project that reflects the cultural diversity of the community, inspires greater use of non-motorized transportation, preserves our heritage, and strengthens our core creative community,” according to the ARTway master plan.

Many on the Board of Trustees presumed the public hearing would be relatively straightforward: The Laughing Dog Group, which manages a marijuana infused products (MIP) facility at 500 Buggy Circle, has been noncompliant regarding managing odors. The town was officially requesting that the board, therefore, revoke the company’s special use permit that allows Laughing Dog to do business in the marijuana industry.
After hearing all witness testimonies and public comment, however, it became clear that the case wasn’t so clear.

As alpinists around the world mourned the death of talented climber Hayden Kennedy, Carbondale locals struggled to find words to express the deep heartbreak over the loss of one of their own.
Hayden, 27, a Carbondale native, took his own life Oct. 8, one day after he and his girlfriend, Inge Perkins, were caught in an avalanche in the southern Madison Mountains near Bozeman, Mont.
Perkins, 23, of Bozeman, Mont., did not survive the slide.
According to the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center, Hayden was able to escape the avalanche debris and proceeded to search for Perkins before trekking out of the area for help. On Monday, rescuers discovered Perkins’ body beneath 3 feet of snow.

One suspect fled and another was taken into federal custody when law enforcement raided an illegal marijuana grow on public land near Redstone on Sept. 28, according to a criminal complaint filed in United States District Court. The complaint provides an affidavit by a special agent for the United States Forest Service for the events leading up to the arrest of Fernando Esquivel Herrera, 25 or 26.