News

Carbondale’s elected leaders on Tuesday continued an ongoing discussion about installing lights along town streets, trails and paths that historically have been dark sections, out of a concern for public safety stemming from recent nighttime attempted sexual assaults and other problems.
Discussions about public safety have taken on added urgency following reports by women of attempted sexual assault in recent weeks, and Trustee Ben Bohmfalk announced at the trustee meeting that the town’s Bike/Pedestrians/Trails Commission recently talked about the need to provide better lighting on trails and streets, particularly along the Rio Grande Trail.

Carbondale’s citizen managers of the town parks and recreation facilities will meet next week to consider a proposal by a local ranching family to make some improvements to Nuche Park, a rustic expanse of pasture and grassland tucked between the Crystal River and Highway 133 at the south end of town.
The topic is scheduled to come up at the Aug. 10 meeting of the Carbondale Parks & Recreation Commission, which will take place at 7 p.m. at the Sopris Park Picnic Shelter, rather than in the confines of a meeting room at Town Hall, according to Recreation Director Jeff Jackel.

Regional public lands conservationists cheered last week when the BLM announced, as its “preferred alternative” under a recently completed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), that it plans to cancel 25 controversial gas-drilling leases in the remote region known as the Thompson Divide area near Carbondale.
While the news generally was acknowledged as good by those who want to keep drilling rigs out of the relatively untrammeled Thompson Divide area, that outcome is by no means assured by the BLM’s announcement, according to experts on the situation.

Carbondale’s “pioneer home museum” has been closed more than it has been open since it was deeded over to the town last year, but those in charge of the facility hope that is about to change.
Officials with the Mt. Sopris Historical Society had hoped to open the Historic Thompson House, a city-owned museum and surrounding grounds that dates back to the 1880s, earlier this summer, said the society’s executive director Beth White.
But a number of delays got in the way, said White and the president of the society’s board of directors, Lew Ron Thompson (a member of the family that owned and lived in the house for more than a century), meaning the historic facility is likely to remain closed to the general public until sometime in the fall.

It is easy to under-appreciate a local farmer’s market. Patrons show up during open hours, and voilà: where there was once a quiet intersection there is now a bustling bazaar with an array of fruits and vegetables, organic honeys and jams, and, in the case of Carbondale’s weekly 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. farmer’s market, wild-caught Alaskan fish.
Kaleb Walker of Kaleb’s Katch is a farmer’s market star.

Two Carbondale natives, who have been absent from town for decades but have recently returned, have started what they expect will be a year-long project or longer to rehabilitate a roughly 1,900-square-foot, 133-year-old home at 710 Euclid Ave., at the corner of 7th Street and Euclid Avenue.
Known as The Red House, its core is a log cabin built by the Fergusons, a pioneering local ranching family, but the structure lately has fallen on hard times.

Carbondale is on track to ask voters in November whether the town should actively work toward providing unlimited broadband Internet service to its residents, in keeping with a Garfield County-wide broadband examination that has been underway for months.
The town’s Board of Trustees (BOT) on Tuesday approved a ballot question that asks voters whether they want to “opt out” of SB 152,

Carbondale resident and former Tibetan Buddhist monk, John Bruna, is about to head out on a national book tour for his first book, “The Wisdom of a Meaningful Life: The Essence of Mindfulness” (Central Recovery Press), but not before he celebrates the book’s Aug. 1 launch with a pre-release party on July 25 in the Calaway Room at the Third Street Center. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. with a talk by Bruna, followed by a book signing and chance to visit with the author. (Special arrangements were made with the publisher to have books available for purchase here in advance of the official publication date). Light refreshments will be served, and everyone is welcome.
“The Wisdom of a Meaningful Life: The Essence of Mindfulness” was written to offer readers an accessible, practical distillation of the spiritual teachings and life experiences that inspired and supported Bruna on his own path of recovery

As Carbondale prepares for the 45th annual Mountain Fair at the end of this month, another annual celebration, the 78th Garfield County Fair at the fairgrounds in Rifle, is well underway, at least in terms of traditional 4-H competitions and exhibitions that help make up the backbone of the event.
Rifle is located 25 miles west of Glenwood Springs, along the I-70 corridor, at the Colorado Highway 13 interchange.
The main County Fair schedule, of course, does not get going until Aug. 1 and runs until Aug. 6, and will include two rodeos, a demolition derby, a monster truck exhibition and a live concert at the outdoor arena on Aug. 5, featuring country music stars Josh Turner and Chris Janson.

Ron Stein, an endocrinologist living in California, is hoping to develop a three-quarter-acre parcel of land that abuts Highway 133 — between Colorado Avenue and Main Street — as a mixed-use project with rental apartments and commercial businesses.
To do that, he has applied to the town to rezone the parcel from its current PC (planned commercial) to MU (mixed use), in part because the new mixed-use zone in the Unified Development Code (UDC) allows for a blend of residential and commercial uses.