Correction: Last week’s Garfield County Report stated Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) Chair Tom Jankovsky said the BOCC has jurisdiction over the library board and director. In fact, he affirmed the library board has jurisdiction over the library director.
Thank yous, all around
I would like to say thank you to a few people and businesses.
To EverGreen ZeroWaste, thank you for all that you do to keep our waste out of the landfill. Every spring we look forward to yard waste Saturdays starting up, not to mention your gift of compost to all your “spoiled” customers!
To Bob and Kathy Ezra, thank you for the gift that is the Crystal Theatre and for the support that you give our town’s causes by opening (and manning!) your theatre for additional screenings of informative, entertaining films. 5 Point’s “Champions of the Golden Valley” was a serious delight!
To the Village Smithy, thank you for 50 years of delicious, home-away-from-home comfort food with family and friends (we have thoroughly enjoyed 38 of those years)!
To Eric Berry and Rotary, thank you for the Herculean effort of organizing and putting on the Highway 82 cleanup day. I can’t say how good it felt, in this time of chaos and unraveling, to physically work at giving something back: to make our lives more pleasant along the highway that many of us travel every day. How nice it is to have Rotary in our lives. Dos Gringos, thank you for providing us all with lunch — it hit the spot, tasty fuel that carried us through our last two hours of trash collection!
To Sarah Peterson and the Paonia Food Movement, thank you for the goodies: sourdough breads, fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs … that you offer à la carte and deliver weekly — a wonderful way to connect with and support growers and producers on the far side of McClure Pass (in addition to those in the Roaring Fork Valley)!
To RFTA, thank you for providing mass transit. Thank you, too, for the Rio Grande Trail, for all of the maintenance work that is involved in keeping us exercising. We need that more than ever right now! The May 1 opening at Catherine Store bridge always brings a big smile to my face.
To the Town of Carbondale, thank you, all of you, for everything that you do every day to keep our town safe and clean and looking its best, our trees healthy, all of us (children and adults alike) active, exercised, entertained and engaged!
To KDNK, Sopris Sun and Sol Del Valle, thank you/muchas gracias for keeping music in our lives and keeping us truly informed!
To EVERYONE who gives and works and teaches and helps, making this town the remarkable, wonderful place that it is to live, THANK YOU!
Jenny Tempest
Carbondale
Fireball Drop
Carbondale Rotary’s fifth annual Fireball Drop on May 2 was by far our best one yet! An enthusiastic group of spectators joined us at the Village Smithy this past First Friday to witness over 1,000 ping pong balls tumble from a fire ladder truck onto targets on the ground to select our winners. It was the perfect Colorado day and great fun!
A huge thank you goes out to our lead sponsor, Alpine Bank, for their consistent, dedicated support.
The Cowen Center, Glenwood Springs Post Independent, Mike Waski, Obermeyer Wealth, RJ Paddywacks Pet Outfitter, Rivers Dentistry, and Sopris Liquor and Wine stepped up as our supporting sponsors.
Annual sponsors included: ANB Bank, Crystal River Customs, Modern Day Media, Nordic Gardens, Pain Center of the Roaring Fork, Reese Henry, Roaring Fork Oral Surgery, Six Productions, Skip Behrhorst and Mike Sturhan at State Farm.
Our single event sponsors were: Carbondale Car Care, Herschel Ross Family Dentistry, Jack McKay, LB West, Robin Tolan, Karen Pierson at Aspen Snowmass Sotheby’s Real Estate at RVR, RK Wolff Safety Consulting, Roaring Fork Valley COOP, Whitsitt Law Office and Z Group Architecture and Interior Design.
Thanks also to the local businesses who donated this year’s prizes: Meridian Jewelers, Avalanche Ranch Cabins & Hot Springs, Sure Thing Burger and Lulu’s Thrift Shoppe.
We would like to especially thank the Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District. They brought the equipment, manpower, expertise and good energy that made it all possible. Thank you also goes to our event partners: the Village Smithy, Carbondale Parks and Recreation Department, the Carbondale Chamber, The Sopris Sun and everyone at City Market Carbondale.
Congrats also to the Family Block Party for another wonderful community event.
Lastly, many thanks to all of you who bought balls from us, our local Rotary high school scholarship recipients, our exchange students and Ascendigo Autism Services. You’ve helped us raise much needed funds for our community service projects, scholarships and exchange programs. We cannot thank you enough!
Alan Cole & Rachel Hahn
Carbondale Rotary
Healthcare scare
I am a family physician writing to share health issues that our community may soon face as a result of legislative changes. Proposed Medicaid cuts, recently passed in the House of Representatives, could reach $880 billion and significantly reduce coverage for single mothers, children from low-income families and individuals with diagnoses such as spinal cord injuries and Down syndrome. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation estimates that proposed cuts could result in approximately five-million people being denied Medicaid, including at least 100,000 Coloradans from each Congressional district. The repercussions of such a loss could include 34,200 more deaths each year. Without Medicaid payments supplementing their finances, community hospitals, especially in rural areas, may find it difficult to maintain services. This will diminish their ability to care for all patients.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) enables working families to access insurance. Proposed legislative changes would shorten enrollment periods, make it more difficult to enroll and make plans more expensive. Two-million people could lose insurance coverage next year alone. The ACA currently requires that insurances cover preventive care such as screening labs and mammograms. This benefit may not survive challenges which would reduce preventive services for 150 million privately insured Americans. Women are at particular risk for loss of healthcare. Funding freezes have led to Planned Parenthood closures, limiting access to birth control, pap smears, cancer screening and infection treatments.
Funding for childhood immunizations are expected to be cut by $2 billion, in the midst of a measles outbreak that has caused more than 800 confirmed illnesses and deaths of two unvaccinated children. 2025 already has the highest number of measles cases in the past 25 years. The Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that if vaccination rates drop even 10%, there will be 11 million more measles cases in the next 25 years. If vaccination rates drop 50%, there will be 50 million more measles cases, 10 million more rubella cases, four million more polio cases, 10 million additional hospitalizations and 158,200 more deaths.
Prescription drugs may also be significantly affected by proposed laws. Food and Drug Administration cuts will lead to limited medication safety monitoring and decreased information about drug side effects and recalls provided to physicians. Studies developing and evaluating valuable new medications are being cancelled. Import tariffs are expected to raise medication prices by almost 13%, or $51 billion annually. These tariffs may particularly raise the prices of generic medications.
Any of these changes will significantly undermine the quality of American healthcare and are extremely concerning. Eventually, they will impact a friend or family member of every person reading this letter. We have the power to express our concerns on proposals, cuts and legislation that will affect the health of our communities. All of us must reach out to our senators, representatives and governor to express our opinions on these critical issues!
Maria Chansky, MD
Glenwood Springs
Attn: Red Hill Lofts
I live in the condos next to Red Hill Lofts. The community gardens are such an amazing asset and it is sad to see so many boxes going unused. I am reaching out to see if any tenants are looking for help maintaining their boxes or are interested in renting out any unused boxes.
Meredith Janos
Meredith.L.Janos@gmail.com
Writing Constitution by hand
I spent April tutoring my daughter-in-law, Devika, for her citizenship test. The information she needed to learn was about our U.S. Constitution, considered the law of the land. We all learn about it in school but for me that was long ago. Inspired by a social artist who is copying it out by hand and my daughter-in-law, who passed her citizenship test on her birthday, I am now at the Carbondale Library with a new notebook, two new pens and an American flag to copy our U.S. Constitution by hand. This is what every president and elected official must swear to defend.
Come join me if you wish to participate in this activity to honor our nation’s commitment to “liberty and justice for all.”
Illène Pevec
Carbondale
Is it happening here?
Two famous American novels, “The Iron Heel” (1908) by Jack London and “It Can’t Happen Here” (1935) by Sinclair Lewis, are worth reading or rereading in these troubled times. (You can find a synopsis of each on Google).
Unfortunately, the grim takeover of our democracy (as predicted in these two novels) by a demagogue (who seems to be able to make Draconian decisions without the approval of our senators and representatives) and extremely wealthy capitalists may actually be taking place right now, right here. And we, the citizens of a threatened and possibly fading great democracy, must act individually and/or in groups now!
“Uncle Sam needs you” to join the fight for the preservation of democracy! And he needs you now!!! Write your elected officials in the Senate and House of Representatives. Join action groups. Above all, don’t just sit back and let others fight the good fight for you!
Clay Boland Jr.
Carbondale, Colorado
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.