Dear Jamie LaRue,
Thank you for very nearly four years of incredibly compassionate leadership of the Garfield County Libraries! We so needed you! Thank you for listening to staff, for letting them take the ball and run with their passions, creativity and innovative ideas. Your dedication inspired so many people!
Thank you for expanding the outreach of our district’s libraries, for reflecting the diversity of our communities within your libraries’ staffs and collections, for early literacy programs, special events, performances, partnerships, for steadfastly preserving our threatened intellectual freedoms and First Amendment rights!
Thank you for your eloquent and enlightening opinion pieces, for your kindness, and generosity, and gently firm leadership. It is apparent that you care deeply for our diverse communities’ go-to learning repositories.
Our district’s current libraries truly do make our communities great. They foster inclusivity! They “encourage curiosity!” Jamie LaRue, in true partnership with your district’s staff, you have done your fiscal homework, promoted and reinvented a vibrant, welcoming, free-to-all resource — a force for learning and growing and expanding our horizons.
I thank you for being here for us all. Now, get out there and dive into your next chapter!
Wishing you all the very best,
Jenny Tempest
Carbondale
Water restrictions, please
The writing is on the wall. We are so, so dry. Little rain all last year, barely any snow this winter and a remarkably early spring … Unless we get A LOT of rain very soon, our water supplies will be extremely limited this summer. Instead of waiting, might the Carbondale “Powers That Be” decide on some kind of water restriction sooner rather than later? Are pristine green lawns worth compromising water supply for the fire mitigation that will certainly be a concern this summer? Thank you for considering an early proactive water plan, rather than a later desperate reactive one.
Sue Zislis
Carbondale
Trans visibility
On March 31 at 6:30pm, PFLAG Roaring Fork Valley will be hosting a Transgender Day of Visibility Film Festival at Crystal Theatre in Carbondale. This free event is an opportunity I hope our community won’t miss.
For many in the Roaring Fork Valley, transgender people exist primarily as a political debate, something argued about in school board meetings or on social media. But we’re not abstractions. We’re your neighbors, coworkers, the parents at your kids’ school, the server at your favorite restaurant. We have the same hopes, struggles and dreams as anyone else in this valley.
This film festival is a chance to get to know us. We’ll be screening “Expanding Gender,” a collection of award-winning documentaries featuring the lives of trans youth and young adults: from a 7 year old who loves hockey and wearing skirts to a Hawaiian girl dreaming of leading her school’s hula troupe to young trans men of color navigating their identities. Between films, trans community members from right here in the Roaring Fork Valley will share their own stories.
If you’ve never had the opportunity to sit down with a trans person and hear their story, this is your invitation. Come learn about our lives beyond the headlines. See our humanity. Connect with the real people behind the political rhetoric.
And for those within our LGBTQ+ community, this is an evening to celebrate the beauty and resilience of trans lives, to hear stories that might mirror your own and to stand together in visibility and pride.
Everyone is welcome. Free admission. Crystal Theatre, March 31, 6:30pm.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Ashley Stahl
PFLAG Roaring Fork Valley
Talk’n mushrooms
Morel season is right around the corner for the Valley, and for those hoping to strike fungal gold, here’s a pro tip from the Western Colorado Mycological Association (WCMA): Watch riverbanks and grassy floodplains near narrowleaf cottonwoods (look when they start leafing). Morels are often associated with these riparian zones because of the moisture, soil biology and tree relationships that make them a happy springtime companion. They’re elusive, delicious and just unpredictable enough to keep the rest of us humble.
If you’d like to learn more about mushrooms, mycology and how to tell a choice edible from a bad idea, consider joining WCMA. Our next club meeting is April 6, from 6 to 8pm, at the Carbondale Community School, featuring Dr. Gordon Walker, @fascinatedbyfungi. Dr. Walker, author of “Passport to Kingdom Fungi,” offers an engaging and accessible introduction to the strange and astonishing world of fungi.
Widely regarded as a go-to resource for a new generation of mycophiles, foragers, wild food enthusiasts and fermentation nerds, Walker’s work has helped transform the way people learn about mushrooms. This talk explores the remarkable diversity of fungi, the surprising ways they live and the many ways they shape our lives. Attendees will also get an overview of edible, toxic, functional and dye mushrooms, making this an ideal event for both curious beginners and longtime mushroom lovers.
And it’s free and open to everyone!
Hamilton Pevec
Carbondale
Protest
If you’re all depressed about the state of the world, you’re not alone. But maybe you’ll sleep better if you join like-minded citizens at the No Kings rally on Grand Avenue and culminating at Sayre Park in Glenwood, 1 to 3pm, this coming Saturday, Mar. 28.
You could make an eyecatching sign to hold up for traffic on Grand Avenue, or wave Old Glory. You’d be astonished at how many passing motorists honk and wave. It’s actually kind of fun. Peacefully protesting authoritarianism and the secret police does not make you a terrorist or Antifa operative. It makes you a patriot.
You’ll surely be impressed by how many of your friends and neighbors from up and down the Valley you run into, judging by the size of the turnout (4,000) at the last one!
I guess you could play golf that afternoon instead, or catch up around the house, if you’re not working three jobs to pay the rent. But Saturday offers an opportunity.
We stare into an abyss. Look away, or stand up for America. You decide. Down the road, what if your grandkids ask, “Were you, like, part of that democracy movement back in the day?” What are you going to tell them?
Ed Colby
New Castle
MAGA
I want to thank the letter writing disciples of No Kings for alerting me to the next No Kings on Saturday, March 28, from 1 to 3pm. I will be there … across Grand Avenue with my lonely conservative signs and “not-fit-for-print” t-shirts.
I say lonely because most MAGA folks spend their weekends with family and home projects. But if you can spare a few minutes, the show in the park is free. Besides, their silly signs and Halloween costumes are hilarious.
So come join me on the sane side of Grand Avenue for grins and giggles
Bruno Kirchenwitz
Rifle
Urban identity theft
Glenwood Springs and Carbondale are both unique small towns.
Each has its own “personality” and charm. Even the people living in both are different in how they view the Roaring Fork Valley, Garfield County, Colorado and our nation. And that is how it should be in a democracy.
Now, we are faced with a proposal for a very large housing project half way between Glenwood Springs and Carbondale on the already over-utilized Highway 82.
The obvious problems in regard to the effect on wildlife and increased traffic have been addressed by many and are very important reasons for the Garfield commissioners to reject this urban project.
Less obvious, perhaps, is the possibility that such a project would be the missing link to unite Glenwood Springs and Carbondale as one continuous town; a town that will, perhaps one day, be called Glendale, Colorado — preserving a little reminder of both communities when they were separate and uniquely different.
If you are concerned about the impact of this project in regard to wildlife, increased traffic, urban density and/or loss of your urban identity, please contact your local commissioners.
Clay Boland Jr.
Carbondale
Sparhawk for mayor
In times when it can be hard to feel hopeful, Erica Sparhawk gives me hope! She is so smart, thoughtful, dedicated, engaged, considerate and truly cares for Carbondale as a COMMUNITY. She’s been a great town trustee, and I am so glad she is running for mayor! Vote for Erica for Carbondale mayor.
Zuleika Pevec
Carbondale
Entrance to Aspen
It looks like Mother Nature answered our prayers for a solution to the entrance to Aspen. “No snow. No traffic.” Problem solved by Mother Nature.
While this works for the short-term, it is not going to work for the future. The City of Aspen wants to do better than the Solution of “no Snow no traffic.”
Find out about the City’s Solutions. Give your opinion.
Open house: Thursday, March 26, 4pm to 6:30pm, CMC Aspen across from the airport.
Short presentations, 5pm and 6pm. Free food and drinks.
Visit the Entrance to Aspen website to learn more: www.entrancetoaspen.co
Until then… Pray for rain to keep us from fire danger.
Toni Kronberg
Snowmass Canyon
Voting rights
Every politician who voted (or will vote) for the SAVE Act, including our Representative Jeff Hurd, should be voted out of office. Under the guise of “safe-guarding” voting, it is designed to thwart democracy. Although Republicans have been unable to prove widespread voter fraud, they are willing to challenge millions of women who took their husband’s last name, or voters who vote by mail, or voters who don’t have access to passports or birth certificates. Voter fraud is astonishingly rare, and it’s just as likely to occur with Republicans as Democrats. The SAVE Act is nothing more than 21st century Jim Crow laws.
Peter Westcott
Missouri Heights
Letters policy: The Sopris Sun welcomes local letters to the editor. Shorter letters stand a better chance of being printed. Letters exclusive to The Sopris Sun (not appearing in other papers) are particularly welcome. Please, no smearing, cite your facts and include your name and place of residence or association. Letters are due to news@soprissun.com by noon on the Monday before we go to print.