Pages of the Past: It never rains but it pours

From the archives of the Roaring Fork Valley Journal

July 13, 1978

A cloudburst in the midvalley accompanied by severe lightning left almost an inch of water in the streets of Carbondale in less than three minutes as a torrential downpour hit the area. Some minor flooding in town was reported. The incident resulted in minor damage at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School; minor injuries for a Crystal River motorist near Redstone; a world-wide power and communications interruptions on a grander scale.

In other news… Dr. Gary Knaus began his practice in Carbondale on July 17.

July 14, 1988

The Mountain View Inn again applied to the Town of Marble for a liquor license. Inn owners appealed a previous turndown of their application to the District Court and the court ordered a new hearing because Marble did not have a complete record of the earlier hearing.

The new hearing was held before an overflow crowd in the Marble Town Hall. A contingent form the tiny hamlet of Crystal bounced six miles down the dusty road into Marble to state their objections to the license. Crystalites raised the spectre of drunks from Marble racing up the one-lane road and disturbing their tranquility.

The town board did not vote at the end of the hearing, but they were expected to decide on the matter in August.

In other news… Carbondale Town Council members considered ways to deal with wood-stove pollution, possible parking problems associated with a Main Street restaurant-lounge proposal and a request to council for support of a town park located skateboard ramp.

July 9, 1998

Nine candidates were in the running in the then-annual Kiss-A-Pig contest, which Garfield Youth Services hoped would raise $75,000. The program operated 35 programs that serviced 3,000 families a year.

The winner got to perform a lip lock with a pig at the Garfield County Fair in August. The candidates solicited votes at $1 each, and the one with the most votes got to kiss the pig.

In other news… Hungry midvalley residents were looking forward to the slated late July or early August opening of 689, named for the building’s Main Street address.

July 10, 2008

Rising from the ashes of its contentious past, the 52-unit Keator Grove housing development finally made affordable housing a reality for a few Carbondale residents.

While not all the dwellings in the development were completely finished, they began to go on the market in late May, though predictably at higher prices than those suggested during the planning stages of the project a few years prior.

Keator Grove survived several funding problems and eventually succeeded through a lot of work by a partnership of public and private organizations and entities.

Pitkin County helped fund the project with a grant of $50,000 and a loan of $450,000 in 2005. The town of Carbondale kicked in $10,000 in 2006, and granted fee waivers where it could to help get the project off the ground. Garfield County decided against making a contribution to the project.

In other news… The Carbondale Wild West Rodeo hosted Miss Rodeo Colorado Megan Grieve for the special “Tough Enough to Wear Pink” event.