News

The Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District may not be asking voters for a tax hike in November, based on an informal polling of members of a special citizens advisory task force at its monthly meeting on Monday.
Fire district voters rejected the district’s plea for a tax increase last year, largely due to a public perception that the omission of a “sunset clause” on the tax increase could result in a windfall of unneeded cash for the district, and unnecessarily high tax bills for district residents.

It wasn’t an up or down vote, but fire district citizens advisory task force members on Monday indicated they are leaning away from recommending the fire board put a tax-hike proposal on the November ballot.
After the monthly meeting on June 16, task-force member Allyn Harvey told The Sopris Sun an informal poll at the meeting came up and then went down as follows.

Carbondale appears to be making progress toward clean energy goals: since 2009, more than 216 homes and businesses have made improvements; government and school facilities have cut energy use 15 to 27 percent, according to a press release; and solar panels town-wide produce 701 kilowatts of electricity.
But given goals of increasing energy efficiency 20 percent, reducing petroleum consumption 25 percent and generating 35 percent of electricity from renewable energy by 2020, there is more work to do, said organizers of the Clean Energy 2020 open house at the Third Street Center on Monday night.
Recent reports on rising global temperatures are focusing increased national attention to how the U.S. can address climate change.

The town trustees’ decision to accept a free piece of James Surls’ sculpture for the intersection of Highway 133 and Main Street doesn’t appear to have been a roundabout process.
With little or no public discussion or notice, the trustees voted 6-0 on July 23, 2013, to move forward with accepting a free piece of sculpture — sight unseen — from Surls.

Despite apparent misgivings on the part of some members, the Board of Trustees on Tuesday gave its nod to the Carbondale Council on Arts and Humanities (CCAH) and its partner, Dance Initiative (DI), to take over the recently vacated Gordon Cooper Library building.
The vote to accept the CCAH/DI proposal for gallery space and dance studios came down to 5-1 (Trustee A.J. Hobbs recused himself because he was involved in one of the proposals). The sole dissenting vote came from Trustee Frosty Merriott, who felt the entire selection process was mishandled.

For those in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, there are two constants in life once the recovery process has begun — the need to avoid having a drink, one day at a time, and the need for coffee to satisfy one’s oral fixation and to keep up the energy to stay off the booze.
And now the coffee and the sobriety are about to be blended, if readers will pardon the pun, in one establishment.
After three years of operations, The Blend coffee shop, 1150 Highway 133, is about to be taken over by Jaywalker Lodge, a for-profit alcoholism and addiction recovery center that opened its doors in 2005 and has spawned several ancillary facilities in Carbondale.
According to Wade Newsom, the 38-year-old founder of the coffee shop, there is to be a “grand reopening” later in the summer to celebrate the change in management and, Newsom hopes, the continuation of what he described as the “wonderful, wonderful thing” he created and nurtured at the corner of Highway 133 and Garfield Avenue.

Not that the members need to pack a suitcase, but the Carbondale Fire District Board of Directors are slated to discuss a passel of topics when it goes on the road for a monthly meeting at the Redstone Fire Station on June 11.
Among the items listed on the draft agenda:
• The 2014 budget;
• Planning for the 2015 budget;
• Revising the Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District’s bylaws;
• An election update.

The Carbondale Branch Library’s inaugural (L.I.T.) Crawl kicks off First Friday at 4 p.m. on June 6, with different performers at each of the new Art aRound Town installations.
“I love the idea of combining literary art with visual art on location,” said L.I.T. Crawl organizer Adrianna Pevec Brown. “The live performances will enhance and inform the viewers’ experience, making it richer and more textured than it would be if they were just looking at the sculptures. Sculptures installed around town are already an opportunity to experience art more personally, but the addition of literature and music invites us all to participate with the art in a more experiential way. Art inspires art, I do believe.”

With 13 years of service to Roaring Fork Valley patients under his belt, first in Basalt and then in Carbondale, acupuncturist and herbal medicine specialist David Teitler believes he knows his community and how to give back to it in gratitude for his patients’ support.
This week, for the second time since setting up practice six years ago at 54 Weant Blvd., across from Sopris Park, Teitler on Friday will be using his Carbondale Acupuncture Center business to raise money for local causes — specifically, for the Thompson Divide Coalition, Advocate Safehouse Project, and the Roaring Fork Family Resource Center.

1941-2014
Friends and family of Brad Hendricks were mightily saddened last week with the sudden passing of the long-time Carbondale resident, who died May 22, 2014, from an apparent heart attack. The former town councilman and well-known raconteur was 72.
Born on Dec. 16, 1941, in Los Angeles, California, Mr. Hendricks was the middle child of George and Louise Hendricks and attended public schools in Glendale, California. He later graduated from Arizona State University in Tempe with a degree in mechanical engineering.
After college, his first (and last) steady job was with the energy technology giant Schlumberger, for whom he worked as a production logger and trouble shooter in the oil and gas fields of eastern Utah and northwest Colorado. It was during his time with Schlumberger in the early 1960s that he met and later married, Jane Jochems, who was teaching Classical Languages at Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale.