Archive

  • Sections: News Published

    Vera Diemoz looks back on Thompson years

    The year was 1911, and: • Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness in northeast California; • The U.S. sends 20,000 troops to the Mexico border as that country’s revolution gains momentum; • The U.S. Supreme Court dissolves Standard Oil; • The Brooklyn Dodgers buy land for what will become Ebbets Field. • Closer to Colorado in 1911: • The settlement of Gypsum, east of Glenwood Springs, is incorporated as a town;  • The largest piece of marble taken from the Colorado-Yule quarry to date is 28 feet long and weighs 55 tons; • And … Vera (Montover) Diemoz is born at old Snowmass Creek, where St. Benedict’s Monastery is now located. From 1911 to 1930, Vera moved with her family to farms at several Roaring Fork Valley locations — including the St. John’s place up Prince Creek, which was part of what is now Two Shoes Ranch — until she married Fred Diemoz in 1930 and settled on his farm on Silt Mesa. This reporter met with Vera, her grand-nephew Vern Arbaney and his wife LeAnn (Thompson) earlier this week on a shady patio at Heritage Park Care Center on the west side of Carbondale. read more →
  • Sections: News Published

    Welcome back; Crew, ERW programs continue

    Welcome to the 2015-16 school year! The beginning of school is always exciting and an important occasion. There are few things more impactful than the beginning of a new school year across our three communities. We look forward to greeting our students and their parents, and know that in our rapidly changing world, a high quality education is more important than ever! We take very seriously our role of preparing kids for the future and know that there is no margin of error, and no chance for our students to get this year back if we don’t do all we can to contribute to their learning. read more →
  • Sections: News Published

    Fire board votes for tax hike ballot question

    The elected leaders of the Carbondale fire department voted on Aug. 19, 4-1, to move ahead with a ballot question this November, asking for a tax hike that would bring in roughly $600,000 more in annual property tax revenues than are now coming into the department’s coffers. The ballot question also would come with a two-year “sunset clause.” That means that a tax hike of 1.75 mills, which would boost the tax rate to 7.653, would be limited to two years in duration, after which the tax rate would drop back to its existing level. If the district still needed additional revenues, it would need to go back to the voters, perhaps as early as 2018, to seek another tax hike. The sole dissenting vote on the tax question came from Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District (CRFPD) board member Carl Smith, a former fire fighter and paid staffer at the CRFPD who won election to the board in 2014 largely based on his public skepticism about the board’s handling of its fiscal affairs. read more →
  • Sections: News Published

    Bears pulling late season forays into valley towns

    The general opinion among wildlife experts in Western Colorado earlier in the summer was that there was more than enough bear fodder in the high country this year, and the bears were not likely to be heading into local towns in large numbers to forage through garbage cans to fatten up for the winter. But, according to area wildlife manager Perry Will, that outlook has changed somewhat. “Activity has really picked up in the last three weeks, as far as bear conflicts,” said Will. He reported that there have been numerous conflicts between bears and humans in the upper regions of the Roaring Fork Valley, and even a few bear sightings in Carbondale. That means it is time for Carbondale residents to think about buying a bear-proof trash container to keep in compliance with the town’s stated and ongoing desire to discourage bears from rooting around in trash cans. read more →
  • Sections: News Published

    Rotary exchange creates “a life in a year”

    Last year, while her classmates were making their way through their senior year of high school, Briana Boland was across the world, taking a different approach to her education. Boland recently returned from Taipei, Taiwan, where she spent the year as a Rotary exchange student. The exchange turned out to be an incredible and life changing experience for Boland; she has returned from her year abroad with a new language, new friends and a slew of new experiences. “Going in I really didn’t know anything much about Taiwan,” Boland said. “I didn’t understand anything that was going on and everything seemed so weird. It’s really a completely different world.” read more →
  • Sections: News Published

    City Market developer slates open house at TSC

    The developers who hope to put a new City Market grocery store on the west side of Highway 133 have scheduled an informal open house to present the project to the public at the Third Street Center from 5 to 7 p.m. on Aug. 26, according to a notice sent to nearby by residents. “This meeting is being held as a courtesy to the community that the proposed development site is on,” said the notice. “ … The intent of the meeting is to inform you of the proposed project and to engage an open dialogue of any issues and/or concerns you may have.” According to the notice, the applicant is City Market/King Soopers, 65 Tejon St., Denver, CO 80223. The rest of the project team is Galloway & Company Inc, (consultant), 6162 S. Willow Dr., Suite 320, Greenwood Village, CO 8011 and Aaron McLean (site development coordinator) 303-770-8884; Sopris Engineering, LLC (engineer) at 502 Main St., Carbondale; and Naos Design Group, LLC (architect) 5031 S. Ulster St., Suite 300, Denver, CO 80237. Next Wednesday’s open house comes nearly 15 years after plans first emerged for development of a 24-acre parcel of land on Carbondale’s western edge. Recently, the town accepted an “an introductory application” from King Soopers (locally known as City Market under the corporate banner of the Kroger grocery store chain). The land in question is located to the north and west of the intersection of Highway 133 and Main Street, and does not include the existing 7-Eleven store at that corner, or the real estate office next to it. read more →
  • Sections: News Published

    Local Bernie Sanders organizer says he can win in 2016

    Carbondale resident John Field had not expected to become the local organizer of a “Roaring Fork 4 Bernie Sanders” presidential campaign organization. But, he admitted somewhat ruefully on Aug. 10, that’s essentially what he is, at least in terms of his role in the 2016 presidential election. “I’ve never really done anything … as far as organizing is concerned,” said Field, who moved to the Roaring Fork Valley about three years ago and currently works as a bus driver for the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority. A few weeks ago, however, he went to the presidential campaign website for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and learned that there was to be an online, live-stream campaign event for the candidate on July 29. Impressed by what Sanders had been saying on the campaign trail, Field reserved the Calaway Room at the Third Street Center for the time of the event and started telling people to come and watch the man that Field believes will be the next President of the United States. He did not advertise beyond word of mouth, although the candidate’s website (berniesanders.org) contained a listing for the Third Street Center as a place to go, and he was happily surprised by the turnout. read more →
  • Sections: News Published

    Bull rider shoots for the Guinness

    Bull riders hang on for eight seconds to make their ride. Greg Casteel has been hanging on for 41 years and his biggest ride might still be to come. He applied to Guinness World Records to be recognized as the world’s oldest professional bull rider and expects a company representative to visit the Carbondale area to check him out. “It (the Guinness) is a goal to ride for,” Casteel told The Sopris Sun, few days after competing in the Carbondale Wild West Rodeo on Aug. 6. He plans to ride on Aug. 13 as well, and in Cody, Wyoming later in the summer. Casteel, 54, grew up in Arkansas, “on the west bank of the Mississippi.” He met a bull rider when he was 12 and was fascinated with him. “He told me I should come and ride a bull.” When Casteel was 13, he talked his father, Arlen, into taking him to a rodeo to get on a bull. “He wasn’t involved with rodeo … He said ‘we’re going to get this over with real fast.’” That was in 1975 and Casteel is still riding. “It’s my passion.” read more →
  • Sections: News Published

    Former coal miner looks to reconnect with others

    Guys found their way into the Mid-Continent coal mines west of Redstone in lots of ways. Some took the good pay and headed underground straight out of local high schools. Some became coal miners after serving in Vietnam. For others, coal mining ran in the family for generations and they continued the tradition. Rob Mulford came to the job in a different way. He and his wife were living in Philadelphia in the late 1970s, when he saw a “60 Minutes” segment on TV about coal mining in western Colorado. He had a desk job designing electric controls at the time but wanted to get out of the rat race. “So I asked my wife if she wanted to move to Colorado, and she said ‘yea, yea, yea,’” Mulford told The Sopris Sun. “That was my dream … to live in the mountains and get out of the rat race.” The wife’s go-head was good enough for him, so after contacting the Colorado Coal Mine Association for a list of mines, he settled on Mid-Continent. “They paid the best.” read more →
  • Sections: News Published

    Art writ large: Pencil Garden pops up

    More than three months in the making, the Pencil Garden has popped up in downtown Basalt, with the official unveiling during the Wyly Art Center’s “Pencil Us In” gala on Aug. 8. “Basalt’s arts and cultural assets are vital to our downtown’s redevelopment,” said Mike Scanlon, Basalt town manager. “The presence of community art, like The Wyly Art Center’s Pencil Garden, will increase attention and foot traffic downtown by attracting visitors and increasing the length of time and money they spend in Basalt.” Artists, designers, creators and dreamers of all ages and abilities were asked to interpret what the pencil – the humblest of all art supplies and integral to many art forms – means to them. read more →