Stuff by Will Grandbois

  • Locations: News Published

    “Green rush” is over, industry keeps shaking out

    When the so-called “green rush” of marijuana businesses began several years ago, Carbondale at one time boasted 13 pot shops selling to customers throughout the middle portion of the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond, when one counted tourists and customers from other parts of the Western Slope. Today, that town’s roster of pot related businesses has dwindled to a total of nine. That list, according to Town Clerk Cathy Derby, includes: • Three “recreational” pot shops, which do not require doctor’s prescription for sales (with one application pending), and one medical marijuana dispensary where a doctor’s prescription is required; • Three cultivation operations or “grows” (with one application pending); • One outfit making “marijuana-infused products” or MIPs, also known as edibles; • And one testing facility, for testing for contamination and other aspects of the process of growing, cooking with and selling pot to the public. “It’s kind of like … the green rush is over,” said Derby, referring to the thinning-out process that has cut into what once was seen as a massively expansive growth industry. read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    Trustees OK child care center, OK budget

    Carbondale is about to become the new home of the Faith Lutheran Church Child Care Center, which is moving from a previous location in Glenwood Springs to a new site at the juncture of Eighth Street, Merrill Avenue and the Rio Grande Trail, a short distance to the northwest of Town Hall. The center is approved for 15 children initially with the understanding that the number of kids could go as high as 28 starting in the center’s second year of operations. The special use permit approved by the trustees gives the child care center a three-year operating permit. The structure, at 788 Merrill Ave., is a house built in 1885 that is owned by Carbondale resident Bill Roberts and the Roberts Land & Cattle Co, and has been used as an office since the 1980s, according to application documents presented at the Dec. 9 meeting of the board of trustees. Although technically licensed as a child care center, because it will be an all-day operation, the facility is to be called the Faith Lutheran Pre-school. Pre-schools, under state law, can only offer half-day care for children, according to the application documents. read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    KDNK GM hangs on to job following ouster bid

    Steve Skinner, the general manager at KDNK, Carbondale’s community access radio station, held onto his job this week despite an attempt to oust him over his refusal to sign a set of “directives” aimed at tightening oversight of his duties by the station’s board of directors. The decision to keep Skinner on the job came after a tense three-hour special meeting on Dec. 1 at the station, during which at least three members of the board, President Mark McLain, Treasurer Susan Darrow and member Bob Schultz (who was not at the meeting but sent in a written statement of his feelings), indicated that Skinner’s 11-year reign over the station had run its course and should be ended. Skinner, in his own defense, stated at one point, “I haven’t done anything wrong. I haven’t been accused of doing anything wrong.” read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    Price tag for shopping center: $9.7 million

    The new owners of the Crystal Village Plaza shopping center in Carbondale paid approximately $9.7 million for the property, which covers a little under five acres of land at the intersection of Highway 133 and Main Street. The plaza, which is called the TKG St. Peters Shopping Center in documents on file at the Garfield County Courthouse in Glenwood Springs, was purchased on Sept. 13 from the Carbondale Square LLC partnership, according to the county assessor’s office. And at least for now, the new owners, The Kroenke Group out of Missouri, have no immediate plans for development on the site, according to a spokesman, Mike Tamblyn of Denver. “At the moment, it’s business as usual,” Tamblyn told The Sopris Sun on Tuesday. read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    Wexner fight not over, new group plans appeal

    Organizers say they are likely to appeal the recent denial of at least one of three protests filed over a controversial land swap between the federal Bureau of Land Management and an Aspen couple, Leslie and Abigail Wexner, involving land at the base of Mt. Sopris near Carbondale. The appeal, according to area resident Anne Rickenbaugh, would be based on arguments that the BLM undervalued the public lands included in the exchange, by calculating the public lands’ value according to appraisal standards that assumed public ownership, instead of appraisals based on private-land values. “They didn’t apply the free-market standards at all,” said Rickenbaugh, “even though they could have.” Rickenbaugh is the board secretary of the Colorado Wild Public Lands, Inc. (CWPL), a relatively new organization which has members throughout the Roaring Fork Valley, which filed one of the protests over the land swap. read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    Crystal Village Plaza sold to billionaire developer

    Carbondale’s second-oldest shopping center, the Crystal Village Plaza at the southwest corner of Highway 133 and Main Street, has been sold to a nationally-ranked real estate investment company with ties to the Walton family, of Wal-Mart fame. Neill Taylor, a resident of River Valley Ranch and former co-owner of the shopping center, confirmed on Monday that the property had been sold recently to the Kroenke Group, headquartered in Missouri, though he would say no more. “The rest of it is under a confidentiality agreement,” he told The Sopris Sun. read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    Administrators post memo on Sirko controversy

    Following a Sopris Sun guest opinion on Nov. 20 that publicized Superintendent Diana Sirko’s request to have her contract extended, the Roaring Fork School District Executive Team e-mailed the following memo to school district staff members. The Sun asked for and received a copy of the memo and prints it here in its entirety: read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    Phillips stars in “The Creep Behind the Camera”

    Roaring Fork Valley resident Josh Phillips stars in the feature film “The Creep Behind the Camera,” which will play for one day only at the Crystal Theatre at 2 p.m. on Dec. 6. Originally from northern California, Phillips has been an on-again, off again Carbondale resident since the early 1990’s. While he is well known in the valley as an accomplished rock/blues guitarist, Phillips also has an acting career that many were unaware of, according to a press release. Long-time locals may remember him as the front man for 12BarFlies, Big Swifty, Zec Nebula, Fire In the Asylum, and more recently Betty Ford Explorer, The Roosters, and the acoustic duo Josh and Ananda. After spending the 1990’s in the Roaring Fork Valley as a ski-lift operator by day and rocker by night, Phillips headed back to Los Angeles where he spent 11 years working as an actor in films, television shows, commercials, video games and anime voice-overs. Upon returning to Colorado in 2010, one of his Los Angeles contacts suggested that Phillips read for the starring role of Vic Savage in a Colorado Springs-based independent film. read more →
  • Locations: News Published

    Meet Pa Fig: Hat-shaper with worldwide clientele

    By WB

    Special to The Sopris Sun

    Pa Fig, hat-shaper, has laid hands on more than 10,000 hats for clients all over the world. Discretion prohibits mention of his more notable customers, but Carbondale’s crowned heads are quietly finding their way to Pa’s stand, which he sets up around… read more →

  • Locations: News Published

    Music festival finding its niche

    By Lynn Burton

    Sopris Sun Staff Writer

    It started with a borrowed Aspen Earthmoving flatbed truck at Fourth and Main, and a handful of local musicians on a summer Saturday in 2001.

    The next year the Mountain Music Fair expanded to two days to accommodate more players… read more →