My name is Jocelyn Durrance. I was a librarian for 30 years. I joined the Garfield County Public Library Board in March 2020. Things were good. Board meetings ran smoothly. Library board trustees included an attorney, a single Latina mom with high school aged children, a 30-year retired librarian and a Parachute resident with years […]
Opinion
Posted inColumns
Seeking Haystacks: Part of ‘the good fight’
My class recently came to our house for the end-of-the-year dinner. It is always a tender time as we get to appreciate them for what they have done, what they have given us and who they are! We ate, marveling at a large bull snake that seemed to want to share our burritos, and then […]
Posted inOpinion
Ps & Qs: The American Dream costs about $300k
When I was a kid, you could buy a house in Aspen for about $300k and I remember when my parents sold our house on Twining Flats Road in 1979 for $179,000. Fast forward 20 years to Carbondale in 2000, when the first house on your right as you entered Satank was for sale for […]
Posted inLetters
Letters – June 5, 2025
MVDS gratitudeMany thanks to the generous members of our community who supported Mountain Valley Developmental Services (MVDS) at our Greenhouse Open House & Picnic on May 17. We had the best first day of sales since the Mountain Valley Greenhouse opened in 1984 as a year-round commercial greenhouse selling annual and perennial bedding plants, house […]
Posted inColumns
Rhythms of the Heart: How to be a good Carbondale resident or visitor
We’re a small town full of mostly friendly, respectful folks, who believe that it is up to us to create and maintain the wonderful quality of life we’re so blessed to enjoy. That means we have a responsibility to and with one another to exercise awareness and common courtesy to all. Acknowledge and honor other […]
Posted inColumns
Dream Well: Such stuff that dreams are made on
To mark one year of this column, I would like to share my own dream that I had when I was first questioning if I should follow the path of a dream guide years back. I had many signs pushing me in this direction, but I was unsure and didn’t want to make a large […]
Posted inColumns
Pope Francis: A voice from the end of the world
This installment of a regular column, “Anchors Away” by Felipe Perez, originated from Sol del Valle and has been translated for English readers. In 2013, after the traditional Habemus Papam announcement from the Vatican balcony, the newly-elected Pope Francis greeted the world with unexpected humility: “It seems my brother cardinals went all the way to […]
Posted inLetters
Letters – May 29, 2025
Speak up!June 5, at 2pm at the Carbondale Library, the library board of trustees discusses if it is their role as trustees to restrict access to books found objectionable by a small group of people based on a political or religious ideology. Censorship is to restrict or impede access to information. This past year, this […]
Posted inYouth News
Sopris Sun graduates shoot for the stars
Yesenia Benavides Burgos, Gus Richardson and Isaac Sterling have made the most of their time as interns at The Sopris Sun. The former two, who graduated on Saturday from Roaring Fork High School, have been enrolled in the youth journalism program (or Youth News Bureau, as we like to call it) since their sophomore year. […]
Posted inColumns
Historiography: Carbondale’s pioneering entrepreneur
In July 1944,“The Colorado Magazine,” an arm of the state’s Historical Society, published “A Pioneer of the Roaring Fork,” as told to Ivah Dunklee by William M. Dinkel. A footnote explained that though Dinkel died in 1918, his stories were relayed to Miss Dunklee in many after-dinner chats at his home in Carbondale. Dinkel’s story […]