Hide Author

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.

Mountain Fair notes • Off to the CrossFit games • Wyly news • GCSO members excel

Town selling surplus equipment and vehicles • Garfield County adopts new land use code

Carbondale’s art scene continues to expand with the opening of its newest gallery, Art 215. Located at 215 12th Street, this large, airy space contains artwork of every style, size and price, with much of it being sold on consignment.
George Scott and his wife, artist Suki Scott, told The Sopris Sun they are enthusiastic about their new venture, which features many oil paintings done by Suki as well as traditional and contemporary works from a variety of other artists.
The gallery’s first room (on the ground level) is comprised primarily of consignment art, George said, with European prints, works by Louis Icart and “early Suki work.”

Imagine a world where dreams come true. That’s the world being created by the visionary children of Camp Run-a-Muk, an after school and summer camp in Carbondale. Last week they celebrated the realization of a wish made by a special Roaring Fork Valley resident, Amanda Boxtel, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a skiing accident in 1992.
For the past 21 years, wheelchair-bound Boxtel has dreamed of walking again. It was a dream shared by many, including Jennifer Soucie who taught preschool with Boxtel before her accident. Believing in the power of intention, they created a ritual of envisioning Boxtel walking, which they kept to nearly every day at 11:11a.m.

Huge drum sale after the circle • English in Action seeks volunteers • Davi Nikent goes M4W • Clay Center holding classes • RFC seeks monitors

The Roaring Fork Valley has long been known for its amazing local music scene. Local middle and high school instrumental music programs are now following suit and literally bursting out of the schools’ band rooms.
This coming year alone there will be 325 new fifth and sixth grade student musicians in school programs in Glenwood, Carbondale, Basalt and Aspen. With the help of Jazz Aspen Snowmass and others, people up and down the valley are starting their journey as life-long musicians in our public schools.

Thanks to the work of many — and a great partnership with Footsteps Marketing — The Sopris Sun is pleased to present our community with this new, improved website, your portal to all things Carbondale. Let us know what you think! This is just Phase I. We’ll be rolling out many more great features over the coming months. We hope you’ll visit often. Enjoy!