Archive

• Locations: News Published Oct. 7, 2015

  Cat committee reaches compromise, trustees next

  Carbondale's cat controversy appears to be nearing resolution, after members of a committee appointed by the Board of Trustees agreed last week to a series of compromise recommendations to send to the BOT. The recommendations, according to committee member Mary Harris, call for refinements and revisions to the town's existing “nuisance cat” ordinance, which has been on the books for decades but not generally known to town officials or citizens. The trustees, as a group, may get their first, formal looks at the recommendations at the board's regular meeting on Oct. 13, according to Town Clerk Cathy Derby. read more →
• Locations: News Published Oct. 7, 2015

  Local trio releases film critical of gas drilling

  A locally-produced film about oil and gas drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and the use of water in those industrial enterprises will be shown on Oct. 14 in the Calaway Room at the Third Street Center in Carbondale. Carbondale-based film makers Hamilton Pevec and Austin Lottimer, with their partner and co-producer Aaron Milton of Glenwood Springs, have come up with a film that they believe tells the inside and underside story of water use in the booming natural gas industry in Garfield County and the West in general, entitled “Before The Last Drop.” Pevec, who also has been working to bring relief and help to victims of last April’s earthquake in Nepal (he has a Nepali wife, Devika, who is due to give birth to their baby next April), told The Sopris Sun recently that he first heard about the issue of water use in the natural gas industry from Milton in 2012, shortly after Milton had quit a six-month job in the industry. read more →
• Locations: News Published Sep. 30, 2015

  Basalt General Store: a year ’round farmer’s market

  When Clark’s Market left Basalt it suddenly became a five-mile trek to either Whole Foods or City Market for groceries. Basalt’s historic downtown has been trying to lessen that journey and Zach Fischer believes his new “general store” on Midland Avenue is the ticket. Fischer, who has been general manager of the Basalt Mountain Inn since its days as the Green Drake, is a marvelous asset to the town. “I was fortunate enough to get asked to work with several different groups in the town,” says Zach, “such as the chamber of commerce and the business association, and met some great people who helped me to understand better this amazing part of our valley.” Through working at the hotel and conversing with business groups, some ideas started rolling through Zach’s head as to what he can do to help make the town, especially downtown, a better place for both residents and visitors. A reoccurring idea was a convenient location to grab some foodstuffs in between major grocery runs. Thus, the Basalt General Store was born. read more →
• Locations: News Published Sep. 30, 2015

  C’dale cat committee moves closer to a compromise

  A committee working on Carbondale’s controversial cat-crackdown ordinance came a little closer to finding common ground between two entrenched factions at a meeting on Sept. 24, but not before a few fireworks were lobbed into the tense atmosphere of a town hall meeting room. “I will stop,” declared local real-estate agent Cindy Sadlowski, whose Street Cat Coalition has been working to trap, spay and release feral cats (cats that are wild and live on their own) for the past 15 years, thereby preventing feral cats from reproducing and cutting down on their numbers as the adult cats age and die off. Sadlowski feels an effort to pass a law restricting the movement and independence of cats is unwarranted and intrusive. She maintains that the real causes of bird population declines are habitat loss, disturbance by development and other human activities, and pollution. read more →
• Locations: News Published Sep. 30, 2015

  Are Red Hill users loving it to death?

  The volunteer managers of the Red Hill Special Recreation Management Area (SMRA), otherwise known as the Red Hill trails system north of Carbondale, would like to remind users of the area that the trails do not police themselves for trash, little bags of dog do-do, and other refuse that crops up on the trails. In fact, according to a posting on the Facebook page Friends of Red Hill, it was reported “We are currently paying $120 per month for bi-weekly removal (of plastic doggy-poop bags), plus costs of the bags, all of which adds up to $2,000 per year.” The Red Hill Council, which manages the trail system, welcomes the growing numbers of users, but would like to see more of them involved in the upkeep of the trails, a council official said this week. “To my way of thinking, every hour you use the system, you ought to give something back,” said Davis Farrar, a local planning consultant who is the director of the council. read more →
• Locations: News Published Sep. 23, 2015

  Cat control committee not purring along so well

  A group of Carbondale residents and officials apparently are having difficulties over a proposed new ordinance intended to keep cats from killing birds by treating felines like dogs in the eyes of the law. The committee, created by the town board of trustees on Sept. 8, is charged with figuring out how Carbondale should deal with what some say is a local cat population that is killing an unacceptable number of birds. But others maintain that the cats are not to blame, and that it is human activities that are responsible for whatever declines may be observed in the region’s bird population, not just locally but regionally and nationally. The committee has had one meeting, on Sept. 17, and a second meeting is planned for Sept. 24. read more →
• Locations: News Published Sep. 23, 2015

  Trustees OK 50 percent pay hike for future boards

  After getting mixed reviews from members of the public, the Carbondale Board of Trustees voted 4-1 to approve a 50-percent pay hike for future trustees on Tuesday — though the raise will not apply to anyone on the board until the next municipal election, in April 2016. Trustees, who currently are paid $600 per month, would earn $900 a month, and the mayor’s paycheck would increase from the current $1,000 a month to $1,500 per month. Trustee Pam Zentmyer, whose term expires next year and who cannot run for reelection due to term limits, was the only trustee who voted against the pay raise (Trustee A.J. Hobbs and Mayor Stacey Bernot were absent). “I can’t get on board with this,” Zentmyer told her fellow trustees. “I just can’t get past the fact that we are the only board (in town government) that does get paid.” read more →
• Locations: News Published Sep. 23, 2015

  New TRUU minister also an ordained Zen priest

  Florence Caplow, the new minister for the Two Rivers Unitarian Universalist (TRUU) fellowship that meets weekly in Carbondale, arrived Aug. 7 more or less sight unseen. That is, she had never been to the Roaring Fork Valley before and had only met with members of TRUU’s search committee and congregation via phone, Skype, and e-mail prior to her arrival. It’s not the first time Caplow, a field biologist for much of her adult life, had landed in a new place knowing very little about it. “I’m used to just showing up somewhere and finding my feet. And I love that actually,” she told The Sopris Sun. Caplow grew up 75 miles southwest of Indianapolis in the town of Terre Haute and attended college at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where she studied botany and ecology and received her B.A. degree in 1987. Her work as a field biologist focused on identifying and protecting rare plant populations throughout the West, including species new to science. For this move to Colorado, she uprooted from Port Townsend on the Washington coast, which had been her home for the last year. Despite her years in the Pacific Northwest, she’s no stranger to the drier landscapes of the Southwest, having conducted research in the Mojave Desert and the Intermountain West in the past. read more →
• Locations: News Published Sep. 16, 2015

  Community steps up for CRES

  As students at Crystal River Elementary School (CRES) returned to classes this year, they were full of “oohs” and “aahs” when they saw the new amphitheater-style space on the western edge of the campus. Over the summer, a group of parent volunteers and valley professionals designed and constructed the school’s 750-square-foot outdoor learning space that has four rows of concrete seating on a large concrete pad next to the town’s historic ditch system. A steel structure defines the edges of the space and provides shade. The outdoor classroom can seat 30-40 children. CRES held a ribbon-cutting event prior to Back-To-School events on Tuesday. Members of the Parent Teacher Organization took charge of the project after the school was awarded a $5,000 Lowe’s Toolbox for Education grant. read more →
• Locations: News Published Sep. 16, 2015

  USDA cites Marble Distilling for leadership

  The management at Marble Distilling Company (MDC) recently got word they have received a $197,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which recognizes the distillery’s “leadership” in water conservation and energy efficiency, according to distiller Connie Baker. The grant acknowledges the MDC’s system for recycling four-million gallons of water and using heat-transfer technology to leech energy from the water at certain points in the system to heat and cool the distillery building as well. “MDC is taking a leadership role among 50-plus craft distillers of Colorado by launching their innovative Water Energy Thermal Storage (WETS) design to save both energy and process water,” Baker said in a written statement this week. Baker told The Sopris Sun that her company plans to reach out to distilleries large and small to encourage them to make use of the MDC designs for their own facilities. read more →