News

What did you do last weekend? That’s a common question in these parts, which is often answered with a list of outdoor activities, no matter what the season.
There are now more backcountry recreation options than ever: camping, climbing, cycling, fishing, hiking, horse packing, hunting, skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, trail riding and wildlife viewing to name a few.
With so many locals and visitors enjoying public lands in so many ways, it’s important that everyone do their part to minimize the impact they make on habitat and wildlife.

Go do some cob building • Hike the Middle Thompson • Town still looking for commissioners • Aspen offering childcare help • Library offers Universal Class • Inward Bound starts July 29 • Pro bike race seeks volunteers • Sportsmen’s caucus slated for Eagle

Whenever my life feels out of balance my first instinct is to get on the river. Over the past 19 years I have floated over 15,000 miles of rivers — kayaking, raft-guiding and doing swiftwater rescue/CPR training. The river feels like home to me. However, I have seen and experienced some life-threatening moments in those years.
Recently, I watched a woman lose consciousness after two other boats with small children got surfed and almost flipped in the ledge-hole (on-river left) at the kayak park in Glenwood Springs. Incredibly, the woman was resuscitated by five kayakers that got her to shore. They began CPR and revived her before the paramedics arrived.

According to newly-hired CRES principal Heather Cremeans, one of the most important things she learned while getting her administrator’s license was the importance of a good fit between a principal and a school. The more she learned about Crystal River Elementary School, the more passionate she became that this school was the perfect fit for her.
In her 18 years of education she has always enjoyed working with diverse groups of students, including students from various socioeconomic groups and native Spanish-speakers — the very population she found at CRES. She loves working to create a unified sense of community among students from diverse backgrounds. She speaks Spanish as well.

What’ll it be for the center of the new roundabout at Highway 133 and Main Street?
A specially commissioned piece from Missouri Heights sculptor James Surls?
How about a rotating work of art as part of the town’s on-going Art aRound Town series?
Then there’s always the minimalist approach — nothing but concrete.

CDOT holds 133 open house • Valley View holds blood drive • CMC informs students • RFOV goes 14ers • Pitkin County distributes broadband survey • Bike park open house slated • Library district holds finance meeting • Senior matters starts Chatter Box • Crystal Caucus meets

Send in Mountain Fair memories • Grett heading to Lindenwood • Free yoga session • Renegade Band rehearsal • Sopris Run-off returns • C’dale residents graduate CMC • Dr. Peters joins Red Hill

Faced with escalating costs and at times escalating tempers, Mountain Fair is holding a first-ever lottery for 20 shade-tent spaces this year.
According to the Carbondale Council on Arts and Humanities’ current newsletter, CCAH members who are chosen in the lottery will be charged $100 for a 10’X10′ spot to pitch their open-sided tents during the three-day party, while non-members will pay $125.
Money raised will go toward Mountain Fair creating a “shade structure” or structures that will be put up in years to come to create shade for everybody.

The Carbondale Board of Trustees voted 5-1 to allow a 170-foot-long solar array at the entrance to the Nature Park on Tuesday night, but not before John Foulkrod invoked one of the environmental movement’s most quoted songs.
“We’re paving paradise to put up a parking lot,” said Foulkrod, paraphrasing one of Joni Mitchell’s best-known songs. “ … we’re destroying one of (the most) beautiful things we have left in town.”
Foulkrod voted against the array. Voting for it were Stacey Bernot, John Hoffmann, Elizabeth Murphy, Pam Zentmyer and Allyn Harvey. Frosty Merriott was absent.

Years of planning and discussion between the town of Carbondale and the Colorado Department of Transportation will translate into actual construction this September, when crews begin removing power lines along Highway 133.
Electric, cable TV and fiber-optic lines should be completely relocated and buried by November, opening the door to a major overhaul of the highway itself in April-October 2014. A third traffic lane will be added in the center of the highway to function as a left-turn lane for both northbound and southbound cars, and a new roundabout will take the place of the existing signalized intersection at Main Street and 133.
While they’re at it, crews will also make a series of pedestrian- and bicycle-oriented improvements — adding paved trails and crosswalks to ease travel along the highway and across the highway.