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By S. Michael Jundt
With a diverse resume in the corporate world, Susan Burr, owner of Susan’s Flowers & Gifts, has not always been surrounded with the serenity she finds in her current profession. Originally from St. Louis, Susan graduated from Tulsa University with a degree in graphic design.
“Over the past 30 years my design skills,” says Susan, “were used in both the oil and electric industries. I also drew schematics for the aviation world and created package designs for specialty foods.”

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In one of the most eagerly awaited dates in recent history, the new Carbondale Branch Library opens at 10 a.m. on July 20.
The new library covers 13,000 square feet compared to the old library’s 3,600 square feet. The $5.2 million library was funded by a property tax that was levied after residents voted to form the Garfield County Public Library District in 2006. The district also retains a 1/4-cent sales tax for part of its operating budget, according to GCPLD Director Amelia Shelley. Other libraries have been built, expanded or are planned for the five other towns in the district.

Solar Friendly Communities has awarded the town of Carbondale a Silver Level certification for adopting “best practices” designed to make it faster, easier and more affordable for residents to go solar.
“Carbondale has long been a solar leader…,” said Rebecca Cantwell, senior program director for Solar Friendly Communities.

Carbondale trustees are still a few hits away from putting a fine point on the town’s pot regulations, but they are starting to take shape.
At Tuesday night’s work session, trustees indicated they’ll allow retail outlets to cook and sell products such as marijuana-laced brownies, but to do so will probably require a special use permit. The town might establish zone-district “overlays” to determine where retail marijuana stores can and can’t operate. The trustees decided to measure minimum-allowed distances from pot shops to schools as the public would travel them, rather than as the crow flies. The trustees also instructed staff to draft a memo to address the issue of whether to ask voters to put a 5 percent additional sales tax on legally-sold marijuana.

Nearing the end of July and I haven’t had a day off since the middle of June, won’t have one until late August, and while at first I was staying socially buoyant by going to the Snowmass Concert Series, hanging out with friends and sleeping, more than a few weeks ago I hit full-tilt hustle, became a pinball wizard, and have had my eyes glued to the silver ball of my life bouncing around the bumpers and chutes of various local rivers racking up enough fish, funds and clients to keep me afloat in non-profit-teaching-writing land for another year.

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