News

If you’ve been mourning the loss of The Novel Tea Shop or Town Center Booksellers, take heart — the midvalley has a bookstore again. Bookbinders Basalt, located at 731 E Valley Rd. across from Bristlecone Sports and next to the Midland Clothing Company in the Willits Town Center, celebrates its grand opening all day on June 22 after a little more than a week of quiet business.

While Dead Dog and Hunter fires are contained and unlikely to spread, high water and little rain have local first responders nervous — and they’ve been busy this week.

Ben Armstrong thinks a farmer’s market would make a great setting for a reality TV show.
The Aspen native has been involved in the Carbondale markets as a vendor for Roaring Gardens in the past, but this year he’s in charge of the whole event. “I kind of didn’t know how much work it was going to be to manage,” he said. “Now that it’s starting it’s a lot more rewarding.”

One of the Roaring Fork Valley region’s longest-running humanitarian organizations, Lift-Up, is holding a three-day celebration event this weekend, June 23 – 25, called “Lift Off for Lift-Up,” a hot-air balloon festival at Crown Mountain Park and other venues in the El Jebel and Willits communities. The events, which marks the organization’s thirty-fifth year of operations, will run from Friday evening (starting with a 6 p.m. concert at Triangle Park in the Willits Town Center.

One of the last historic ranches between Aspen and Glenwood Springs recently sold for $7.2 million, according to records at the Garfield County Clerk & Recorder’s office. Variously known in recent years as the TCI Lane Ranch and McClure River Ranch, the 100-acre parcel sits on the south side of Highway 82 along the Roaring Fork River, just upvalley from Catherine Store.

June 25, 1987: KDNK, Carbondale’s then four-year-old community radio station, expanded its reach by striking a deal to join other local broadcasters on the Pitkin County translator system. Though the move reportedly was preceded by “months of tinkering” by engineers and political wrangling, KDNK’s signal finally reached Aspen this week, with plans to ultimately serve listeners in Marble, Redstone, Snowmass, Basalt and the Fryingpan River Valley, not to mention Glenwood Springs.

Valley residents interested in plans to improve mountain biking, hiking and other recreational uses in the Prince Creek area near Carbondale have until June 30 to make their feelings known. That is when a public comment period on the draft Prince Creek Open Space management plan will come to an end, followed by what Pitkin County recreation planners hope will be the start of construction of a new trail alongside the road leading to trails in the Crown area.

At its meeting on May 31, the Carbondale Board of Adjustment (BOA) voted 5-0 to deny a building permit previously issued to Pat Kiernan for a single-family structure at 728 Euclid Ave.
Kiernan has 28 days to appeal the BOA in district court, according to Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure (C.R.C.P.). Kiernan was unavailable for comment for this article.

At some point in the near future, Carbondale police officers will be wearing “body-cams,” which will capture images and sound recordings of everything from traffic stops to street encounters with citizens, similar to the devices worn by big-city cops and made famous in news stories about controversial acts by police around the country. But the local police say their move to outfit officers with the devices was not driven by national news stories or complaints about police behavior.

Carbondale’s cost of living has finally caught up with Trustee Katrina Byars.
“I’ve really put my heart and soul into trying to make my life work here, and it’s just not in the cards for myself and my kids,” she announced as part of her comments at the start of the June 13 Carbondale Board of Trustees meeting. “It’s been an honor and an extraordinary opportunity to serve with each of you. I’m confident that this board represents many things that are dear to my heart.” Byars was elected to the position in 2014, making her the second longest serving member of the current seven-person board.