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  • Locations: News Published

    Carbondale counts 14 marijuana related businesses, two under review

    For a short time several years ago Carbondale had licensed 13 businesses to grow, prepare and sell legal medical marijuana in town, under a voter-approved medical-marijuana law passed as a state constitutional amendment in 2000. Under the 2000 law, patients as young as 18 were eligible for doctor-approved prescriptions to buy marijuana for treatment of a number of ailments. But the number of actual, open medical-marijuana businesses never was that high, said Town Clerk Cathy Derby, who explained that some hopeful applicants got their licenses to open shops but never did. read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    “Smart Meter” debate continues on the E-Board

    The local fight over Smart Meters took an unusual turn this week, when Carbondale’s Environmental Board got a look at the question of whether the growing amount of atmospheric electromagnetic radiation [EM] is linked to the disappearance of honey bees and the disorientation of migratory birds as well as potentially posing a health hazard to humans. Carbondale residents Jody Powell and Cedar Rose, along with visiting activist Gary Duncan from Pagosa Springs, Colorado, believe the links are real and told the E-Board members the connections should be viewed as warnings signs of electromagnetic pollution that is threatening wildlife as well as human health. But members of the E-Board, as it is known, were not quite so sure, and asked Powell and Rose to work with the board’s subcommittee on Energy & Transportation to come up with a recommendation that the E-Board can consider. read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    Butch moving his lobster shack to C’dale

    It looks as though Basalt’s loss will be Carbondale’s gain, as plans jell for the opening of Butch’s Lobster Shack on a now-vacant lot at the corner of Second and Main streets, possibly within a couple of weeks. Butch Darden, who has been in the restaurant business in the Roaring Fork Valley since 1979, confirmed to The Sopris Sun on Monday that he has reached an agreement to lease the lot, owned by Bren Simon, that until recently was occupied by a construction trailer linked to the development of the Marble Distilling Company and Distillery Inn. The distillery is located two doors east on Main from the Lobster Shack’s planned site. read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    Teens Giving Back to Carbondale all summer long

    Denise Wright says “There’s nothing more powerful than a group of kids with an idea.” Wright should know. The Roaring Fork High School teacher has worked with kids for years. This summer, she is the part-time coordinator for a new student-driven group called Teens Giving Back (TGB), which volunteers at CARE, Heritage Park and other public and private organizations. Just this week, TGB volunteers helped pull weeds at North Face Bike Park, part of an on-going project so the town won’t have to spray the invasive plants. “Kids are some of the most generous people you’ll ever meet,” Wright told The Sopris Sun. “They love giving back.” read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    E-Board recommends expanding ban on plastic bags

    Carbondale’s Environmental Board this week recommended that the town expand its ban on plastic shopping bags to include all businesses, instead of just City Market, the town’s largest grocery store and its biggest generator of sales tax revenues. The E-Board, as it is known, on Monday approved a proposed ordinance to be sent on to the town’s Board of Trustees. It was the E-Board that came up with the town’s existing bag ban, passed in 2011, which outlaws the use of plastic shopping bags by all grocery stores larger than 3,500 square feet, and requires grocery stores to charge a 20-cent fee on any paper grocery bags handed out to customers who do not have a reusable bag for their purchases. A portion of that fee can be retained by the grocer, for use in educating consumers about the bag ban, under the original ordinance. read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    City Market kicks off application process for new store

    With repeated assurances that the action would not carry over to broader approvals or “entitlements” for this or other nearby development proposals, Carbondale’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday agreed to waive a Community Impact Assessment requirement for a planned new 58,000-square foot City Market grocery store, on land once tied to two failed, large-scale development proposals — the Village at Crystal River (VCR) and the Crystal River Market Place (CRMP). The 7.8-acre project site, at the northwest corner of Main Street and Highway 133 on land once owned by the Colorado Rocky Mountain School, also would contain a gas station and a smaller retail building. The grocery store is meant to replace the existing City Market store, which the owner, Kroger Corporation, called “outdated and dysfunctional” in a memo to the trustees. read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    Nepalese expect disaster with upcoming monsoon

    There is a feeling among all the relief workers and local people that when the monsoon hits, so will disaster. The surface has been loosened by earthquakes and prepped to wash away in the rain. “The monsoon is coming” has added a new level of urgency to our work. At the beginning of June. Robin, Collin, Devika and myself went back to the Dalit village, Bonpale, to determine if they wanted to learn to build earth bag houses. We knew we had to pass through Palungtar, the village that previously ignored half of it inhabitants because they were from a lower caste. I felt compelled to go back and deliver the supplies requested by those excluded in an attempt to balance things out, right the social injustice. On one hand it felt good, but on the other I couldn’t help but wonder if this will only perpetuate the caste divisions. Just talking about it, even writing about it is a way of acknowledging that the system is in effect. I believe that if you want to induce major social change, one must begin with the language. “Choose your words carefully.” read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    Cops crack down on Sopris Park booze

    Continuing a zero tolerance policy that started during Dandelion Days, Carbondale police issued three citations for open containers of alcohol at Sunday’s inaugural Summer Music Series concert at Sopris Park. Carbondale resident Sam Schroyer, the recipient of a $130 citation for bringing wine into the park in a plastic bottle, responded by writing a lengthy letter to the town trustees, Police Chief Gene Schilling and Town Manager Jay Harrington that said in part, “My … experience left a very negative impression, and if what happened to me happens to visiting tourists, I believe Carbondale will very rapidly get a bad reputation.” (A short version of the letter is printed on page 2). read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    Carbondale woman cultivating industrial hemp for seeds

    The nascent Colorado hemp industry has gotten a double boost in recent months, with a federal decision that made it legal to import hemp seeds into the state for research purposes, and the production of thousands of pounds of seeds by the Colorado Hemp Project. And here in Carbondale the industry is beginning to take root, as activists start growing their own plots of hemp with the plan of producing seeds for sale to other hopeful hemp farmers. The news that hemp seed can now be imported into Colorado by entities engaged in official research projects was announced on May 11, in a story by KUNC public radio sin Greeley. The story, by former Aspen Public Radio reporter Luke Runyon, revealed that the Colorado Department of Agriculture had received permission from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to import industrial hemp seeds from other countries. read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    Lawyer lauds town over Thompson Divide issues

    Carbondale’s elected leaders were encouraged to keep up the pressure against oil and gas development in the Thompson Divide area during a phone-in discussion with the town’s contract attorney in oil and gas issues, Mike Chiropolos of Denver. “That’s the way this battle is being won,” Chiropolos said at a meeting of the board of trustees on June 9, after he praised the town and its citizens for their activism on behalf of Thompson Divide. The fact that Carbondale is being listened to in the Thompson Divide matter, Chiropolos declared, “really speaks to the resiliency and combativeness” of the local effort. read more →