The 244-acre biodynamic ranch nonprofit was listed back in April of 2022 for over $24 million with the price increasing weekly. It topped out at $33,333,333.33 and is now deemed “priceless.” According to co-founder Brooke LeVan, the sale was always a publicity stunt. When we think of “developed land” our minds typically jump to buildings and infrastructure. At Sustainable Settings, developing the land has entailed enhancing the soil with practical and spiritual work. Lance Gunderson, director of soil health at Regen Ag Lab, professed, “We have found Sustainable Settings soils to be in the top 1% of soil health gains in the over 140,000 farm soil tests that we have conducted.” Moreover, Jared Minori, who arrived to the ranch in 2016 as an intern, has been hired as development director to propel the project further. “I am a product of Susty, which has always been an arena to cultivate one’s authentic self,” he stated in a press release.
“Now I’m here to help steward our vision into reality.”
The ranch is now undergoing a capital campaign to scale up vegetable and dairy production. Learn more at www.sustainablesettings.org
Art by Larry Day
Seeing in color
This month, VOICES Radio Hour spoke to LGBTQ+ members of our community about their coming-out stories — the moments when they took the leap and stepped into their authentic selves. From stories of personal moments, to parent reactions, to societal challenges, each storyteller’s journey is unique… just like all of us. Tune into KDNK on Friday, Nov. 14 at 6pm for an interview with Myki Jones and Todd Chamberlin.
I finally dared to have a conversation with my mother about my queerness in the throes of the 2020 pandemic. I had softly come out sometime before that. I don’t know precisely when this was, but somehow I managed to avoid those early conversations with my family. I never knew how I could tell them that I didn’t just like boys. I had fallen madly in love with a handful of women and had quietly carried heartbreaks on my own, while outwardly glossing over any sign of emotion from the internal gutting I endured.
Jesus” moment, about Jesus. Well not Jesus, so much as vengeful men who claim to speak for him.
OPINION
What proved harmful was the throughline of their sermons and speeches. While talking about the unconditional love of God, they sprinkled in just enough guilt and shame to remind you that you were undeserving of that unconditional bounty. Though I always questioned the fallacies and expressed the need for clarity, I couldn’t shake the color back in. Until my mother and I finally had a chance to speak heart to heart when I was 21. My walls finally came down.
Although the words “your emotions are embarrassing” was never uttered verbatim to me, the actions of those I grew up with translated that message to me at a very young age. Unlike all of the caffeine I started drinking at that age, this messaging served to stunt my growth. “Too much”;’ “too different”;’ “trying too hard”; “too this”; “too that” — I can’t even begin to put into words the number of times I had already felt like I was a burden.
VOICES
RADIO HOUR
By Myki Jones
The only person who never delivered that message to me then was my mother. Anyone who knows her knows what it feels like to be unconditionally loved. Yet, by the time of one of the most grueling tests of my life so far, I had absorbed too much of the “too much” griping and felt that I was undeserving of the greatest gift she still offered me. The walls around me were built to keep her out, against my will. I internalized so much in order to maintain peace, because I was taught that was more noble, for the sake of upholding the family image. I always imagined this family portrait in the same way I had been accused of thinking and seeing things all my life, in black and white. There was a lot I was seeing in black and white. That is until COVID hit, when I began to see the world in color again.
Why could I not share my heartbreaks? Why couldn’t I tell my mother that I had fallen in love with girls before venturing into the world on my own? It wasn’t until after we had a “coming to
LETTERS
CORRECTION: Garfield County Public Library District Director Jamie LaRue received a letter of interest for a vacant trustee position in early August, but did not forward it to County Manager Fred Jarman until Oct. 1.
Ring the bells
The holiday season is rapidly approaching, but these are difficult times for many of our neighbors. It is hard to think about buying gifts for a family when buying food is already a struggle. This is where the Salvation Army can help.
My name is Jan Sweikert. I have been a volunteer with the Salvation Army here in the Roaring Fork Valley for seven years. I am writing this letter because we are getting ready for our Red Kettle fund raising season. This is how we raise all the funds we use to help our neighbors in need with important and essential services. Every dollar we raise in our valley stays in our valley.
Did you know that in the past year the Salvation Army helped almost 1,000 clients from Aspen to Parachute with emergency financial assistance for rent, utilities, transportation, prescriptions and shelter? We also support our homeless neighbors with tents, sleeping bags, winter clothing, grooming kits and food.
News reports breaking out every day of new COVID deaths left my body in a muted state, but had the inverse effect on my mind, racing at 100 miles an hour. I had no breaks this time. My mouth was finally catching up to all the thoughts I was keeping buried. I started being more unapologetically who I was, when a part of me thought the world might end. I think all of us had that thought come up. Thinking back now, I realize that I only truly started living authentically because there was not a promise of a tomorrow, for the first time in my life.
“I want to talk to you about the Pride flags I keep seeing you paint,” my mother said to me one day.
“What do you want to know?” I asked, unsure whether I should be on guard.
I still couldn’t bring myself to say, “I’m not straight.” The black and white filters in my life were slowly fading away, but it wasn’t until what my mother said next that the floodgates of color gave way.
“Do you like girls, Myki? Are you gay?” she asked me, not with disgust like I had heard from others before, not with fear, but with genuine curiosity. Her face was relaxed and inquisitive.
“I’m actually bi, Mom,” I said to her, holding back tears and trying to use the power of will to shrink the lump that was growing in my throat. “I’ve known since I was a kid. I wanted to tell you, but I was scared. I didn’t know how to tell you, and you still love me.”
“Why would you think I wouldn’t love you?” she asked as she rested her hand behind my head, our eyes locking — both now on the verge of tears.
I couldn’t find the right words for her for the first time in my life. But for the first time, I didn’t need words to tell her what I needed at that moment. The moment I saw in color.
We anticipate that this year there will be even more requests for help and assistance. We depend on the community, through donations, to help us fund these services.
The Salvation Army is hoping to recruit 100 more bell ringers this year so that we will have the ability to help our community. The Salvation Army can make a tangible difference in countless lives with your help.
Please consider being a Red Kettle bell ringer at one of the many locations in our valley. It can be for only one hour a week. It’s fun. Come alone, with a friend or bring your kids.
To sign up go to: RegisterToRing.com or call Kettle Coordinator Cheryl Gallo at 916-214-5639.
Jan Sweikert Salvation Army Advisory Board
A hunger solution
Hunger is an immediate issue right now in our community. It is heartening to see how many individuals and groups are stepping up to address it. A couple of us have thought of a way local independent restaurants can help play a role in the solution.
We think restaurants always lose
business when people feel uncertain financially, and that is hard on you and your employees. What if you donated some free meals to neighbors in need, which we and your better-off patrons could subsidize?
A few of us are reaching out to see if this might be another solution, one that prevents layoffs and losses to the small local businesses we cherish. We think that while this crisis lasts, this might be a simple and easy way to combat hunger. We have given some thought to how it could be controlled by each participating restaurant, and would like to share our ideas with you, and hear yours. We would provide publicity and some fundraising support.
If you would like to be a participant, at whatever level seems good for you, please call me and we will try to put something together. Most of the nonprofit and state responses will inevitably have delays.
If interested, please call 970-355-4363 or email laurieraymond16@comcast.net.
It’s not THE solution, but A solution! This crisis won’t last forever, and we want you to survive and thrive as part of a community-wide response to a shortterm problem.
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Rockfall mitigation on hold
The Colorado Department of Transportation has shut down rockfall mitigation work along Highway 82 outside of Carbondale for the winter. Safety for workers and motorists is the primary concern. Work started mid-May and included clearing culverts, rock scaling and more. Crews will resume work next spring.
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Interested in becoming an Underwriter or Nonprofit Partner? Email Todd@soprissun.com or call 970-987-9866
In the first week of November, Lift-Up, a regional organization that confronts food insecurity, served 15% more individuals, 1,001 recipients total, compared to the first week in October. The organization’s software system recorded 29 new registrations the first week of the month as well, which may not include onboarding paperwork that has yet to be processed. There are currently more than 40 food drives benefiting Lift-Up from Aspen to Parachute, including at Roaring Fork High School. The winning homeroom class at Roaring Fork will be treated with donuts from ColoraDough for their efforts. “Our community has stepped up in a big way, and we couldn’t be prouder or more honored,” said Lift-Up’s interim executive director, Elyse Hottel.
Another wolf dies
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) reported that female collared grey wolf #2506 died on Oct. 30. She was one of 15 wolves brought from British Columbia to Colorado in January. Grey wolves are federally listed under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the death, which occurred in the southwestern part of the state. According to Denver7, six wolves have survived of the original 10 released in December 2023. Three of the five pups from the Copper Creek pack plus 10 out of the 15 from British Columbia remain in the wild. An unknown number of pups were born to four wolf packs in Colorado this year.
GarCo welcomes HR director
Renee Thomas has been selected as the new Garfield County human resources director. According to a press release, Thomas’ career spans 25 years in the human resources field, including at Roaring Fork Fire Authority, Commerce City and the Interstate Brands Corporation for Wonder Bread/Hostess Cake. She is a Colorado native and has lived in the Roaring Fork Valley for 12 years. She holds a bachelor of science degree in business management from Metro State University in Denver and two professional certifications
Liebermann (right) flew in all the way from California to help Carbondale
Preservation Commission (HPC) member John Williams sink a post with a plaque that pays respect to the Liebermann family, who owned and operated the Liebermann Bakery at the turn of the 20th century. The bakery burned down in a fire, but the stone oven still remains at the site, across the alley from Steve’s Guitars on 4th Street. Rick’s grandfather, Reinhardt Liebermann, and his wife, Anna Marie, along with their three children (Rick’s dad and aunts) are included in a photo on the plaque. The HPC has installed a few dozen such signs commemorating historical structures of merit in town. To inquire about having a sign installed at your historic home or business, contact Kae McDonald at the Town Planning Department. Photo by James Steindler
from the Society of Human Resource Management. She begins work on Nov. 13.
Butch and Sundance set free Governor Jared Polis pardoned Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He did not mince words when he said, “We value freedom as much as these birds do.” Butch and Sundance are two Colorado-raised turkeys and they have been excused from Thanksgiving dinner. First Gentleman Marlon Reis, Lt. Governor Dianne Primavera and other state officials joined Polis to talk turkey on Monday, Nov. 10 in Denver, encouraging Coloradans to think of their neighbors in need and to give to community food banks.
CMC transfer scholarship
Colorado Mountain College has teamed up with The Denver Foundation to offer the Reisher Bridge Scholarship, intended for students who plan to transfer from CMC to one of nine participating four-year colleges in Colorado. Recipients can receive up to $2,000 a term while at CMC and anywhere from $6,000 to $22,000 upon transferring. To qualify, students must be Colorado residents and either U.S. citizens or permanent residents and currently enrolled in a transferrable CMC associate degree program with fewer than 30 credits left and a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0. For
15% discount for your new pet.
more information, visit www.coloradomtn. edu/scholarships/reisher-bridge
Longhorns bow out of playoffs
Basalt High School football ended its season at 6-4 after making it to the 2A state playoffs as the 16th and final seed, but very nearly upsetting No. 1 Strasburg on Saturday, Nov. 8, falling by a score of 17-21. Playing on the road, the Longhorns held a 17-7 lead through the third quarter, before giving up 14 points in the fourth quarter. Basalt scores came when senior quarterback Karson Schneider connected with senior Parker Sims for a 30-yard touchdown pass, and sophomore Jude Webb ran it in for another touchdown. Junior kicker Sam Volf added a field goal to the tally and senior Will Tarallo had a 2-point conversion.
They say it’s your birthday! Folks celebrating another trip around the sun this week include: Bob Ezra, Maria Flores, Pola Oginska and Riley Skinner (Nov. 13); Amy Fulstone, Ron Leach, Sue Rollyson and Morgan Williams (Nov. 14); Rachel Baiyor and Joyce Leeman (Nov. 15); Martín Bonzi (Nov. 16) Thomas Cerise, Katie Hankinson and Robin Tolan (Nov. 17); Larry Smith and Erin Patricia (Nov. 18); Rowynn Anthes, Kelsey Clapper and Heather Lafferty (Nov. 19).
Rick
Historic
Carbondale Building Department hires new plans examiner, hopes to rebuild trust
JOSIE TARIS
Sopris Sun Correspondent
Processing and issuing building permits is a core function of municipal government, ensuring new and remodeled structures are safe and code-compliant. But a mixture of staffing impacts, a new code and bandwidth issues have resulted in the Town of Carbondale earning a reputation of exceptional delays that have caused tangible financial impacts to local entrepreneurs.
The Town has a plan to combat its backlog of permits, with a new plans examiner that started this month and a new permit managing software, CityInspect, set to go live early next year.
Chester White owns two commercial properties in Carbondale that he’s spent time and money getting through permit review: Main Line Social at 522 Highway 133 and Sprazzo at 689 Main Street. Neither is open yet, despite previous hopes for Sprazzo to open over the summer, due to months and weeks-long waits within the permitting processes.
“Our little town has big government process,” he said. “I’m not opposed to all this stuff. I just don’t think it should take nine months to get through.”
The Building Department previously had only three staff: Aaron Kuhns, building
official, Mary Sikes, building permit technician, and Japeth Hoffman, building inspector. Responsibilities are not interchangeable within the department.
Ryan Hyland, Carbondale’s new town manager, started in his role in August, moving from Silverthorne. He said upon arrival, conversations with staff and community members highlighted the need to prioritize hiring the open plans examiner position, which had been open for nearly a year. Typical mountain town hiring challenges, like housing, made the niche job difficult to fill, according to Hyland. The position was approved during the 2025 budget process.
“We’ll own some of that frustration and some of that criticism. And in some cases, I think it’s probably not necessarily fair,” Hyland said. “Perception is reality, right? And I think that the perception out there is that things are taking too long and that’s something that we need to address.”
Hyland said that the Town missed opportunities to manage and communicate expectations, but also that some applications take longer to reach completion than others.
“You will have folks who really understand the code, and they have great submittals, and that just doesn’t take as long,” he said. “In some cases, if there’s a
lot of having to go back and forth, maybe it takes three or four weeks on the builder’s side to make those adjustments.”
It’s a balancing act of the Town acting as a partner, but not actively designing or contributing to an application.
Ryan Larkin, a 13-year resident of Carbondale, owns Larkin Construction and is the general contractor on the Townline Trucks project, the food truck/bar/ communal-space concept slated for 111 Main Street — on the literal town line.
Anyone seeking permits does need to take care with their applications, Larkin agreed, but said that has become a challenge with staff and code changes and minimal outreach.
“There’s [been] a learning curve, I think, for everyone,” said Larkin, “even people that have been [working with the Building Department] a long time.”
He said he averages one or two projects with the Town annually, and has seen their processing pace grind to a crawl in the past year. For instance, a change from the proposed all-electric heating to a boiler system at Townline Trucks caused an approximate four-month delay.
“What seemed like a simple change that we could easily incorporate had to go back to the Building Department. It had to go back to engineers. It had to go back to energy calculations,” he said. “Then it goes
continued on page 17
Ryan Larkin of Larkin Construction sets up an elevation measuring tool outside of Townline Trucks at 690 Main Street. The project hit an approximate four-month delay when they had to change the interior heating plans from electric to boiler, Larkin said. The project still has rooftop solar panels. Photo by Josie Taris
One last dance
The annual November First Friday Día de los Muertos celebration in Carbondale was a night to remember — the dead, of course. But it also served as a moment to reflect on the significant part Aspen Santa Fe Ballet’s Baile Folklórico program has played for the past many years, breathing life and authenticity into the event. Due to a variety of reasons, including the departure of the program’s beloved executive director, Francisco “Paco” Nevarez-Burgueño, who plans to retire and take care of his mother, Folklórico will sunset at the end of the year.
The event is organized by Carbondale Arts and also included performances this year by Mezcla Socials and the Roaring Fork Youth Orchestra, as well as peripheral events throughout town.
Photo by Klaus Kocher
Photo by Klaus Kocher
Photo by Klaus Kocher
Photo by Klaus Kocher
Photo by Sarah Overbeck, Carbondale Arts
Photo by Sarah Overbeck, Carbondale Arts
Photo by Klaus Kocher
Photo by Klaus Kocher
Photo by Klaus Kocher
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Ute traditions inform water conservation in the Shining Mountains
ANNALISE GRUETER Sopris Sun Correspondent
“If we take care of that water, we know that water is going to take care of us,” stated Lorelei Cloud, who has spent a lifetime advocating for water conservation and access. Cloud, a former vice chairman of the Southern Ute tribe, was also the first tribal member on record to serve on the Colorado Water Conservation Board.
On Thursday, Nov. 6, The Arts Campus at Willits (TACAW) hosted Cloud and a fellow trustee of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Colorado, Johnny Le Coq, for a presentation on their respective backgrounds and water conservation work. The event, sponsored by Roaring Fork Conservancy and TNC, was a special installment of the Brooksher Watershed Institute. Lawyer Ramsey Kropf, who has decades of experience in representing Indian water rights cases in the Colorado and Klamath River basins, emceed.
After some brief introductions, Cloud opened the evening by sharing the history of her people. The Roaring Fork Valley is part of ancestral Ute territories. Though the Utes, who referred to themselves as “Nuche,” or “the people,” and called their home the “Shining Mountains,” were seasonally nomadic before the arrival of colonial miners, Cloud shared that her people do not have a traditional migration story as some Indigenous peoples do. What the Nuche have is a creation story that ties them intrinsically to the soaring peaks and waterways of the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
Cloud explained that the seasonal nomadic moves of the Nuche were not considered to be migration but normal shifts, demonstrating respect and care for the ecosystems.
“We believe that we are one and the same with nature,” Cloud said, elaborating that other species and even elements like water are akin to souls.
The Southern Ute reservation was established in 1886. The territory stretches along the New Mexico border and southern Weminuche mountains near Durango. The descendants of three tribes (Mouache, Capote and the Weeminuche) live within the reservation boundaries. Restriction to reservations was one of many changes to the Nuche way of life and human interactions with the local ecosystems.
“I grew up in a home with no running water on the homesite,” Cloud said. Broader effects of human changes included the Colorado River Compact of 1922. At a meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico, representatives of the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming negotiated and documented water distribution of one of the longest rivers in the United States. Indigenous peoples of the southwest were excluded. In recent years, work by TNC, local nonprofits and advocates, including Cloud, has started to address that. At the 100-year anniversary of the Compact, in 2022, Indigenous representatives from across the seven states were welcomed. Cloud said she is proud to work with TNC, as the organization has centered Indigenous values and perspectives in ecosystem advocacy for years.
Le Coq lives in the Gore Range along the Blue River tributary of the Colorado River. He turned from photography to entrepreneurship in the late ‘90s, when he founded Fishpond. The flyfishing equipment company became the first B-Corp in the industry, and uses sustainable production processes and recycled materials. In his advocacy work, Le Coq amplifies Indigenous voices and emphasizes cross-demographic conversation.
“All of us here have a sphere of influence when it comes to advocating for the outdoors,” said Le Coq.
Among his endeavors is Science on the Fly, an initiative of citizen scientists doing water testing and sampling to track the health of watersheds. This data is especially important, Le Coq said, in areas like the Southwest with significant water use, because “80% of the water used in Colorado is for agriculture.”
He noted the progress that has been made around the inclusion of Native Americans in conservation decisions. “The First People in this nation are so vital to everything we do around the environment,” he emphasized.
Kropf and Cloud rejoined Le Coq on stage for a short conversation on takeaways from their respective work. When Kropf asked them about how serving as TNC trustees has influenced their work, Le Coq expressed his admiration for the organization’s grassroots work in over 80 countries toward a global vision. He also shared that, to him, “Ecology and economy are not opposing interests. You need both to work together to solve these problems.”
In response to Kropf’s closing question about calls to action, the guests approached it from different angles. Cloud recommended that people “pray for your water, pray for your environment, reconnect to your ecosystem on a spiritual level.” Le Coq shared a call to support human-centered work: “I think it’s important that we do what we can to support community organizations like Roaring Fork Conservancy.”
Roaring Fork Conservancy, founded in 1996, works on water testing and community education. The Roaring Fork River watershed is nearly one-million acres, or over 1,450 square miles — an area the size of the state of Rhode Island. Since its founding, the Basalt-based nonprofit has conducted tens of thousands of water quality tests within the region and taught over 110,000 students, from local schoolchildren to adults. Roaring Fork Conservancy opened its River Center in 2020, just below the confluence of the Roaring Fork River and the Fryingpan River.
Chris Roseberry, MD
Alexandra Kovar, MD
Federal shutdown placed public lands strain on local governments, nonprofits
ANNALISE GRUETER
Sopris Sun Correspondent
As of Nov. 11, the federal government had been shut down for over 42 consecutive days. While some employees in various agencies remained at work with or without pay, many were furloughed or otherwise suspended via reduction in force orders.
These limitations strained public lands management throughout the country. Colorado, as the state with the third-highest number of federal public lands employees in the nation, was especially impacted. According to the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, the tourism industry contributes $28.5 billion to Colorado’s economy and supports over 188,000 jobs.
Consequences are high in the Roaring Fork Valley, given how much of the region falls within the White River National Forest and other wilderness areas. In 2019, a Forest Service report indicated over 12 million recreation visits per year to the White River National Forest, with a corresponding economic impact of $1.59 billion.
The six-year-old report estimated over 22,230 jobs directly connected to this national forest area.
The Sopris Sun reached out to several local governments and nonprofits for comment on how the federal shutdown and layoffs affected their work and local public lands. “Our public lands and our public land managers are a crucial part of the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond,” said Shelly Braudis, natural resource manager with the City of Aspen. “Without management of these lands, deferred maintenance projects don’t get completed, public requests aren’t responded to, routine maintenance like toilet cleaning and trail clearing aren’t done and so much more.”
Michael Gorman, Wilderness Workshop’s campaign director, expressed similar sentiments. “Public lands staff are critical for managing recreation and visitor experiences, protecting wildlife and interacting with the public,” Gorman said. “The shutdown has impacted work on wilderness, recreation and conservation, while retaining staff and work focused on fossil fuel
extraction and timber production.”
Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers (RFOV) Executive Director Becca Schild shared that the shutdown indefinitely delayed the trail work nonprofit’s annual planning. “RFOV’s 2026 project selection process and planning has been delayed because we haven’t been able to meet with our federal land managers to discuss their priorities and the logistics of our collaboration,” she explained. “I would imagine that this planning is delayed for other partners as well.”
Jami McMannes, communications and outreach specialist for Pitkin County Open Space and Trails, spoke to cascading capacity strains. “There’s a clear void in the services provided by our federal partners. Positions have been cut, and when staff resign, those roles remain unfilled,” she said. “We’re proud to have close, collaborative relationships with our federal land partners, but the recent administrative changes have strained their capacity to maintain the same level of engagement. As a result, our public lands are feeling the pressure from increased visitation
Photo by Annalise Grueter
and reduced maintenance and oversight, and so are the people who care for them.”
McMannes shared about how Pitkin County has been responding to the circumstances. “We’re focusing on how to make limited time, funding and resources go further. This means strengthening our partnerships with local organizations to amplify responsible recreation messaging, post updated information at trailheads and portals, staff recreation areas and coordinate volunteer clean-up and conservation efforts,” she explained. Many local stakeholders had already started coordinating in late spring
and early summer to navigate these challenges through the newly formed Roaring Fork Public Lands and Water Forum.
“This summer and fall, we shared information at Highlands about the reduced services at Maroon Bells, like the limited water, ranger presence and restrooms,” McMannes said. “The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office also deployed a backcountry community response officer into high-use public lands to help with education and visitor safety when federal rangers were unavailable.” McMannes shared that the backcountry community response
continued on page 22
The Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness was among sections of the White River National Forest that received an exemption at the beginning of the federal shutdown, allowing the access area to remain open with limited staffing. It will close to motor vehicles for the winter on Nov. 15, after facing additional strains the past six weeks due to minimal staffing.
Grants galore and more
AMY HADDEN MARSH
Sopris Sun correspondent
No public comments at this week’s Garfield County commissioners’ (BOCC) meeting. “It’s a skinny audience,” observed Commission Chair Tom Jankovsky. The meeting itself took up a little over an hour of Jankovsky’s and Commissioner Mike Samson’s time. Commissioner Perry Will was absent.
The consent agenda was approved and discussion moved into fourth quarter discretionary grants.
Last week, nine local nonprofits each requested $5,000 and the situation on Monday turned into one of those math story problems. If nine nonprofits ask for $5,000 each, the total is $45,000. If the county discretionary fund has $44,000 left for the year, how much does each nonprofit receive? Samson picked up the ball and worked his way up from the bottom of the request list.
“Number nine, the New Ute Theater Society, I would say we give them $5,000. The Colorado River Chamber of Commerce? $5,000. Symphony in the Valley, $5,000,” said Samson. But when it came to Community Health Services - Aspen, Jankovsky said, “I would like to zero that out and request they go to the mini-grants for Human Services.” Samson concurred and moved up the list.
“Carbondale Community Access Radio, $5,000. Garfield County Search and Rescue, $5,000. Mount Sopris Nordic [Council] Spring Gulch cross country ski trails, $5,000. Western Slope Veterans Coalition, $5,000,” he announced. “And the Roaring Fork Valley Wildlife Collaborative, I would say $2,000.”
So how much does that leave in the discretionary fund? If you said $7,000, you’d be correct. And it’s a good thing, because the Middle Colorado Watershed Council (MCWC) was on the agenda for another $5,000 request. This time for matching funds for a $262,500 forest restoration and wildfire risk mitigation grant. Kate Collins, MCWC director, told the BOCC that all other matching funds have been secured from
towns in the western end of the county, Chevron, Holy Cross Energy and more.
The grant will allow MCWC to hire a program manager for the Colorado River Wildfire Collaborative — a group of municipalities, fire districts, land agencies and citizens across the county working on wildfire risk and community resilience. Collins said the hire is for three years. “They’ll do defensible space inspections and support all the on-the-ground activity and recovery and resilience planning,” she added.
The BOCC awarded the request, leaving a remainder of $2,000 in the discretionary fund. Jankovsky suggested awarding the entire $7,000 in the discretionary fund, but Samson thought it would be best to maintain a small balance. “Because you know as well as I do, we got the rest of November and all of December, and somebody’s going to come and say, can you just give me $1,000 for this?” he cautioned.
The BOCC then approved a $773,441 contract to Citadel Security Group for security services for the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office in 2026.
A presentation about GovAI was postponed until Commissioner Will returns.
Next up, a presentation about instream flow water rights from Marielle Sidell, hydrologist for the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) and Kate Birch with Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW). Sidell told the BOCC that this was an informational presentation only. “I’m not going to be requesting any board actions this morning,” she said. The presentation included information about 2026 instream flow recommendations within Garfield County, the Instream Flow Program (ISF) and the instream flow water right process.
Senate Bill 73–97 gave the CWCB authority to appropriate water from natural water sources to preserve the environment by protecting stream flows and lake levels. The ISF Program involves new appropriations, acquisitions
and legal and physical protection. Sidell talked about the ISF acquisition process and more, including examples of various creeks in western Colorado.
Birch, CPW’s instream flow specialist, explained that the agency is involved in the ISF Program to ensure that wildlife and habitat are protected. “Our strategic plan specifically directs us to participate in the Instream Flow Program to recommend instream flows, protect reservoir levels and influence water management activities,” she said.
She presented examples of various creeks in the state and how the program has helped native Colorado fish, including hydrology requirements, fisheries and more. You can find the complete ISF presentation on the Garfield County website.
The BOCC ended the meeting after discussing calendars for November. County Manager Fred Jarman confirmed that the BOCC will conduct interviews for library board trustee appointments Dec. 12 at 8am at the County building in Glenwood Springs.
Chairman Tom Jankovsky, portrait by Larry Day
Midland recognized for resiliency and sustainability
WILL BUZZERD
Sopris Sun Correspondent
The Town of Basalt proudly received two statewide awards recognizing the Midland Streetscape Project for its planning and improvements to Historic Downtown Basalt’s infrastructure. The awards were given by the Colorado Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA) and the Colorado Chapter of the American Public Works Association (APWA), which both host annual awards programs to recognize public projects for their impacts on their respective communities.
APA recognized the Midland Streetscape Project with the Resilience, Sustainability and Environmental Design Award on Oct. 23. The project was featured in APA’s digital magazine, Planning Matters, which praised Midland’s integration of infrastructure improvements with special programs (like the Summer Concert Series) designed to ease construction impacts and kickstart historic Basalt’s revival into a lively, accessible community asset. In the words of the APA, the new Midland “[Honors] Basalt’s historic, quaint and small-town
character while also modernizing infrastructure and accessibility.”
APWA awarded the Midland Streetscape Project with the Sustainability award in the Small Community category on Oct. 21.
This award highlighted the project’s improvements to Basalt’s stormwater, electric and communications infrastructure, which makes the area both safer and more resilient.
“The most significant improvements of the Midland Streetscape Project are what was constructed underground, as opposed to what we currently see at street level,”
GLENWOOD SPRINGS REPORT
Basalt Engineer Catherine Christoff said in a newsflash released by the Town of Basalt last week.
The APA and the APWA both featured Midland in their respective newsletters and publications and presented their Awards to the Town of Basalt at their annual meetings.
These are not the first awards the Midland Streetscape Project has received. Last April, community-building nonprofit Downtown Colorado gave the project its 2025 Excellence Award for Best Place in its Small Community division.
Council member shames local business for selling tobacco to minors
JOHN STROUD
Sopris Sun Correspondent
Glenwood Springs City Council had a light agenda for its regular Nov. 6 meeting, wrapping up in just under an hour. Among the main action items were formal approvals of the 2026 City budget and signing of the initial South Bridge federal grant agreement.
Six of the seven council members were present, with Councilor Erin Zalinski absent.
Appearing before the council for items not on the agenda was Bennett Avenue resident Rachel Windh, who renewed a request to have street parking spaces delineated on Bennett with painted stripes. Overflow parking from downtown businesses often takes up parking on the street, she said, but there tends to be large gaps between cars that aren’t big enough to fit another vehicle.
“I’m not saying I need to park right in front of my house, but I would like to park on my block,” she said.
Public Works Director Matt Langhorst offered to meet with her on site to assess the problem and consider striping.
City Councilor Mitchell Weimer took the opportunity under council announcements to call attention to a concern he has about tobacco use among minors, and retail stores illegally selling tobacco products to minors.
A recent sting operation allegedly caught Thunder River Market on Highway 82 south of Glenwood selling tobacco to a minor, for which Weimer said they were fined and had their license suspended for a short period of time.
“I think we should start shaming retailers who are selling tobacco to minors,” Weimer said. “Whether it’s a culture thing, or maybe it was the guy’s first day on the job, frankly it doesn’t matter … The law is the law, and ignorance is no excuse.”
Mayor Marco Dehm also reported on a recent Garfield County mayors meeting in Silt. Among the items discussed was a possible intergovernmental agreement among municipalities to “stop stealing cops from each other,” Dehm said.
Budget, grant agreement
Following a presentation and public hearing last month, City Council unanimously approved a budget for 2026.
The total annual budget of $106.1 million includes a $29.5 million general fund, $11.3 million for streets and infrastructure, $11.9 million for police and fire, $3 million for public transportation, $450,000 for parks and trails improvements, $749,000 for workforce housing, $535,000 in upgrades to the Community Center, and $427,000 for professional staff development.
Councilor Sumner Schachter noted that the budget represents several months’
Town approves housing plans
During this week’s meeting, Basalt Town Council approved an ordinance and a resolution to increase the pool of available market-rate and affordable housing units outside of Willits.
The first ordinance was for the construction of five residential units above a Silich Construction warehouse and cabinet making shop on 230 Park Avenue in Basalt Industrial Park. The applicant, AWATEA LLC, proposed constructing a second story on top of the existing building which would host two studio units, two one-bedroom units and one three-bedroom unit. The two studio units are planned to be category two deed-restricted housing. The applicant also proposed a publicly accessible open space area so that potential residents can have a taste of greenery instead of the bare asphalt presently filling the site.
With recommendations from Roaring Fork Fire Rescue, Basalt Planning and Zoning Commission and the Basalt Affordable Community Housing Commission, the council unanimously approved the application upon a
second reading so the applicant can pursue the necessary planning reviews for construction.
The second site for additional housing is the Town-owned parcel at Sopris Meadows, located between the Willits Rugby Field and the Lakeside Townhomes on the west side of Highway 82.
A plan to construct 14 affordable housing units on the site was originally designed in January, but after a work session later that month, during which councilors expressed a desire to take as much advantage of the parcel as possible, the number of units was increased to 16.
Z-Group Architecture and Connect One Design created the sketch plans for the development in partnership with the Town of Basalt.
The income categories of the units and whether or not they will be for rent or sale are factors yet to be determined and will depend on the final funding requirements of the project.
Council unanimously approved the preliminary PUD application, pushing the planning process along and slowly paving the way for more affordable housing options in the area.
Glenwood Springs Mayor Marco Dehm and members of the Glenwood Fire Department recognize Trever Wooldridge, an employee of the Conoco gas station on South Glen Avenue, for his “act of heroism” recently when he rushed to assist an elderly customer whose car had caught fire at one of the pumps. Wooldridge extinguished the fire and got the customer to safety with only minimal burns, and “quite possibly saved the store and other patrons from significant damage and harm,” according to the proclamation. City of Glenwood Springs courtesy photo
worth of work, calling it a “long, diligent, excellent process.”
The council also unanimously approved the initial agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation to receive a $49.7 million Rural Surface Transportation Grant to go toward completion of the planned South Bridge project.
City Engineer Ryan Gordon and City Attorney Karl Hanlon referred to it as a “straight-forward, boiler plate agreement” that’s non-negotiable, though some of the fine details could still be tweaked.
The agreement does, however, include a provision that, pursuant to a preliminary court injunction out of California, the federal government will not enforce
the Trump Administration’s “challenged immigration enforcement condition” for receiving the grant, meaning the City will not be forced to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs (ICE) and other federal agents on immigration enforcement.
Other business for the council included approval of a 7% increase in landfill rates, and a new fee schedule for parks and recreation programs.
Prior to the regular meeting, the council had a joint work session with the Garfield County commissioners, including an update on the county’s efforts to budget for a $9 million revenue shortfall for 2026.
In the past month, two statewide organizations recognized Midland Avenue for strengthening infrastructure and community in historic Basalt. Courtesy photo
Local entrepreneur launches online community hub in partnership with The Sun
RALEIGH BURLEIGH
Sopris Sun Editor
Are you craving thoughtful community dialogue online and finding traditional platforms like Facebook overwhelmingly toxic? You’re certainly not alone. And lucky for you, there’s a new game in town.
Carbondale local Stephen Shapiro has put his tech skills and resources to use developing a locally-focused, communitydriven platform that aspires to become a civic engagement hub for the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond. Mountain Perspectives quietly launched in partnership with The Sopris Sun a few months ago, and now welcomes all our readers to participate.
“Watching the Facebook group for Carbondale and its content made me wish for something more,” Shapiro said.
Tracy Kallassy, Carbondale Library branch manager and Sopris Sun proofreader, agreed. “There’s so much hatred and negativity, and you never know if you’re talking to a real person or a bot,” she said about Facebook. “Everything feels so manipulative, and it’s so easy to get caught in your own echo chamber. Whereas with this, it’s a lot easier to get
out of your own circle.” Kallassy was among the early Mountain Perspectives beta testers.
According to Shapiro, Facebook and other social media platforms were “destroyed with the attention economy,” because incendiary comments often garner more interactions and thus dominate a conversation.
Shapiro founded Sopris Apps, a company that developed a product similar to Mountain Perspectives designed specifically for school districts called SchoolBlocks, implemented in over 1,000 schools including Roaring Fork School District and Aspen School District. His engagement featureset is built upon the concept of meritocracy: rewarding constructive behaviors with badges and visibility while sinking comments that are deemed unhelpful or even cruel. Artificial intelligence is utilized to help moderate the content, alleviating that burden for humans who are of course given oversight.
“With Mountain Perspectives, we can take advantage of a moment in time where the technology is available to ensure engagement from people is productive, on topic and kind,” Shapiro said.
Users can earn badges for insightful, informative, constructive, funny, passionate and nice comments and thus climb in the leaderboards. However, identities are kept anonymous. Instead of certain personalities becoming identifiable on the site, users are randomly assigned an alias (like “melon monkey,” “sienna squid” or “magenta mole,” for example) that changes with each new discussion topic. This way, conversations are more focused on ideas and less on ego.
“The goal is to encourage meaningful engagement between people who might have opposing views,” Shapiro explained. By removing the associations of identities, users may find themselves both agreeing and disagreeing with the same person without even knowing it.
“As many people remember, avatars were something people used in the early days of the internet,” Shapiro said. “You could name yourself, hide behind your avatar and speak freely.” This inevitably led to vitriol and hate, as people hid behind anonymity. With artificial intelligence, however, that problem can be avoided. “Now with the combination of AI moderation and human
review, we can take advantage of the benefits of avatars, giving people a pathway to speaking honestly, while ensuring those opinions are productive and meaningful.” The system will track users across conversations, giving those with the most merit higher trust and clout scores, which influences which opinions are seen first.
“I read The Sopris Sun cover to cover every week, and there’s always things I want to talk to other people about, or to know what other people are thinking about, and there isn’t a great way to do that right now,” Kallassy said. She hopes others will jump on this opportunity to try a new approach.
Rather than a peer-to-peer platform, where users create posts, Mountain Perspectives invites organizations to propose topics of conversation for users to engage with. The Sopris Sun is an early partner, but the aspiration is to have other nonprofits and news providers using the site, each with their own page. These organizations can then review an engagement report for insight into which of their topics are receiving the most attention. So far, 11 local organizations have expressed interest in joining the site.
To log in, you need a Facebook, Microsoft or Google account. Until a feature is developed for notifications, emails will be sent weekly to users letting them know about others’ engagement with their ideas and new topics that align with their interests. Shapiro’s team is also working on translation features to have engagements that transcend language barriers. That way, someone may comment in Spanish on a topic and an English-speaker would be able to read that and respond and vice-versa.
As a product in development, the more engagement Mountain Perspectives receives, the better it will become. Shapiro welcomes feedback through a link found under the “See How It Works” tab and invites organizations to join for free if located in the Roaring Fork Valley by requesting to be
Aspen Camp manifests connection, inside and out
KATE PHILLIPS Sopris Sun Correspondent
Aglow with new possibilities and adventures, Aspen Camp is open and ready to reintroduce itself to the Roaring Fork Valley community. After a nearly five year hiatus, the nonprofit had an impressive first year back, welcoming over 450 participants across 18 programs and events. Executive Director Max Wilding was hired in October 2024, and expressed his eagerness to continue expanding programming and turning the page to Aspen Camp next chapter.
“This year was a huge increase prior to when we closed our doors [in 2020]. I am looking forward to 2026. I think we are going to double our numbers,” Wilding shared with The Sopris Sun. “We are starting our light again.”
Founded in 1967, Aspen Camp is the world’s only year-round camp for the Deaf community. Through extensive, experiential, educational, outdoor and recreational programming, the nonprofit serves youth and adults from across the nation who identify as Deaf, hard of hearing, Deaf-blind and so forth. This past year, programming included multiweek, long-weekend and day camps that focused on job skills training, adult and women retreats, American Sign Language immersion and family retreats open to deaf children and children of deaf adults. Through these programs, attendees can safely recreate outdoors, connect with others and learn more about themselves remote from the challenges deaf folks often experience in daily life.
Wilding, who previously worked at Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, elaborated that in rural communities, like the Roaring Fork Valley, there may only be one person who is deaf or using sign language in an entire school or workplace. At Aspen Camp, a sense of respite is established for individuals as they are surrounded by others who deeply understand unique needs and experiences.
“This camp provides space for anyone who wants to develop their identity or their language,” said Wilding. “Whether going to the grocery store, post office or a restaurant we
experience some form of oppression or language barrier daily. We need that space where we can be fully ourselves.”
Situated on over 15 acres of pristine riparian environment along Snowmass
Creek, programming involves the natural landscape, including snowshoe excursions, low ropes course navigation, swimming, hiking and more. In this setting, participants break free from the routine, build confidence and self-esteem, cultivate intentional community and learn new skills to share with family and friends back home.
“You learn so much more beyond the walls,” said Wilding.
“This place provides that outdoor adventure and education experience where you can find yourself in a different way besides school and home … We can see their emotional and mental health change when they are outside. It is amazing to see that.”
Wilding emphasized that Aspen Camp is a place where the hearing and Deaf communities can grow and learn together. Thus far, Aspen Camp has enjoyed successful partnerships with the Farm Collaborative, the Town of Snowmass and Roaring Fork Leadership. The camp will also host upcoming retreats during Aspen Gay Ski and Snowboard Week and the X-Games, complete with lift tickets, meals, transportation and full accessibility so attendees can enjoy the competitions and gatherings. Furthermore, the nonprofit’s recent Starlit Soiree Gala at TACAW was a tremendous success, as Wilding noted new connections and interest from attendees.
“We want the community, as a whole, involved. We want to host their company
At Aspen Camp of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, attendees develop their identities, enjoy nature and connect with family and friends in a pristine riparian landscape that emphasizes outdoor education and recreation. Courtesy photos continued on page 17
Your voice matters.
CALENDAR
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13
SENIOR RESOURCES
Sopris Lodge sponsors a free resource fair for seniors at the Carbondale Fire Station (300 Meadowood Drive) from 11am to 1pm with experts in hospice, home care, health, fitness, lifestyle and more, plus complimentary blood pressure checks.
GLENWOOD GARDEN CLUB
The Glenwood Springs Garden Club meets at U.S. Bank (1901 Grand Avenue) at 1pm. A speaker from the Eagle County Conservation District will present on xeriscaping.
NONFICTION BOOK CLUB
The Carbondale Library invites patrons to discuss a book of their choice around the theme of communication from 2 to 3:30pm.
BANNED BOOK CLUB
The Banned Book Club dives into “Mad Honey” by Jodi Picoult at the Basalt Library from 4 to 5pm.
WILLITS OPEN HOUSE
The Town of Basalt hosts a public open house, gathering community feedback and fielding questions regarding the proposed Willits Housing and Community Space on Lewis Lane, from 5 to 7pm at The Hoffman Hotel. A survey is also available at letstalk.basalt.net
FAMILY STEM NIGHT
The Aspen Science Center hosts “Family STEM Night” at Basalt Elementary School from 5:30 to 7pm. Register at www.tinyurl.com/FamilySTEMASC
MUSIC AT THE LIBRARY
Award-winning, New England-based ensemble Trio Ondata performs at the Basalt Library from 5:30 to 6:45pm.
‘UNCHARITABLE’
TACAW presents “Uncharitable,” a film about the power of philanthropy, at 6:30pm followed by a panel discussion. RSVP for free at www.tacaw.org
‘PRESSURE DROP’
Teton Gravity Research presents “Pressure Drop” at the Crystal Theatre at 7pm.
5 POINT IN ASPEN
Celebrate the opening of a new Arc’teryx store in Aspen with a 5 Point film showing at the Isis Theatre at 7pm. All proceeds benefit Mountain Rescue Aspen.
‘RUMORS’
Aspen Community Theatre presents “Rumors” this weekend at the Wheeler Opera House, at 7pm tonight, tomorrow and Saturday, and at 2pm on Sunday. Next weekend, the show will travel to the Ute Theater in Rifle, at 7pm on Friday and Saturday, and 2pm on Sunday.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14
FEEDING GIANTS
KNIT NIGHT
Novice and expert knitters and crocheters join forces to create covers for the bollards on Midland Avenue, on behalf of the Basalt Public Arts Commission, at The Art Base from 6 to 8pm. Details at www.tinyurl.com/BPACknitnight
BINGO AT 502
The 502 Diner on Highway 133 hosts Bingo night every Friday at 6:30pm.
SOUND JOURNEY
Dr. Zachary and Krista Cashin guide a sound journey in the True Nature Kiva from 6:30 to 8pm. Register at www.truenaturehealingarts.com
CRYSTAL THEATRE ALLIANCE
“Bugonia” screens at the Crystal Theatre tonight and tomorrow at 7pm and Sunday (captioned) at 5pm.
IN PROGRESS
Catch DanceAspen in action, choreographing an upcoming performance at TACAW at 7pm. Tickets at www.tacaw.org
STEVE’S GUITARS
Singer-songwriter Mac Benning drops in on Steve’s Guitars for a show at 8pm. Tickets at www.stevesguitars.net
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15
‘COLLAGE AS EXPLORATION’
Annie Bell leads “Paper Journeys: Collage as Exploration,” a workshop at The Art Base, from 10am to noon. Register at www.theartbase.org
SEWING WORKSHOP
Learn the essentials of sewing and making alterations with a sewing machine at the Redstone Inn from 11am to 1pm. Register at www.tinyurl.com/ RedstoneSewing
NATIVE STORIES & POWWOW
The Basalt Library hosts a Native American storytelling and powwow event, presented by 1st Tribal, from 4 to 6:30pm.
BINGO FOR LEGACY DANCE
The Glenwood Springs Elks Lodge hosts a Bingo night benefiting Legacy Dance Company at 5:30pm.
CONTRA DANCE
Contra dance season is back at the Carbondale Community School. This month’s dance features live music from Hard Pressed, a Paonia band. Join the lesson at 7pm, dancing continues from 7:30 to 9:30pm. Aspiring callers can sign up for a workshop from 4 to 5pm by emailing roaringforkcontradance@gmail.com
5 POINT IN RIFLE
Join 5 Point Film Festival for a free, bilingual evening of adventure films at the Ute Theater in Rifle starting at 7pm. Find tickets at www.5pointfilm.org/tour
NORTH FACE FILM
The North Face presents “First Descents,” two films about mountain adventure, at TACAW at 7:30pm. Tickets at www.tacaw.org
The Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park hosts Feeding Giants for a concert from 4:30 to 7:30pm.
DECK THE WALLS
Carbondale Arts’ Deck the Walls Holiday Market kicks off today from 5 to 7pm for Carbondale Arts members. Beginning tomorrow the market is open to the public from 10am to 5pm through Dec. 24.
HOLIDAY INVITATIONAL
The Carbondale Clay Center hosts an opening reception for its annual Holiday Invitational, featuring handmade holiday gifts by local and national artists, from 6 to 8pm.
VOICES RADIO HOUR
VOICES Radio Hour airs LGBTQ+ community members’ coming-out stories on KDNK Community Access Radio at 6pm.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16
‘PRINCIPLES & PERSPECTIVES’
Golden Sha presents “Playing with Principles and Perspectives” at A Spiritual Center, room 31 of the Third Street Center, from 10 to 11:30am.
CACAO
Nicole Lindstrom guides a cacao ritual at True Nature from 11:30am to 1:30pm. Register at www.truenaturehealingarts.com
PAINT DAY
Jazz Aspen Snowmass invites all ages to help paint a mural designed by Miriam Singer and Chris Erickson at the Third Street Center from 11am to 12:30pm and 1:30 to 3pm. Learn more
at www.jazzaspensnowmass.org/ jas-community-paint-day
RESTORATIVE YOGA
In light of the season change, The Yoga Collective in Glenwood Springs hosts a restorative yoga session from 6 to 8pm. Register at www.yogaglenwood.com
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17
GOLDEN LIGHT MEDITATION
Lisa McKenzie guides a meditation session, “focusing on connecting with the soothing energy of Golden Light to support emotional healing,” from 6:30 to 8pm in the Board Room at the Third Street Center. Details at www.tcfhf.org
‘THE BEAUTY WAY’
Diné Elder Lupita McClanahan shares powerful and personal stories of carrying on her people’s traditions at the Crystal Theatre at 7pm. Tickets and details at www.tinyurl.com/TheBeautyWay
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18
SPEED NETWORKING
The Glenwood Chamber Resort hosts a “speed networking” event for local professionals to connect at the Hotel Colorado from 8:30 to 10am. Register at www.tinyurl.com/SpeedNetworkingGWS
RFOV TOOL MAINTENANCE
Folks are invited to help Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers give their tools some love from 1 to 5pm at its office at the Third Street Center. Sign up at www.rfov.org
VISITING ARTIST LECTURE
Anderson Ranch visiting artist Roberto Lugo, a ceramicist who “calls attention to intergenerational experiences of racial injustice while celebrating African American and Latino culture,” speaks at the ranch from 4:30 to 5:30pm. Register at www.andersonranch.org
CONCENTRIC RECOVERY
A multi-dimensional recovery community for people struggling with various forms of addiction — from drugs to screentime — convenes at True Nature from 5:30 to 6:45pm. Register at www.truenaturehealingarts.com
ROARING FORK DRAWING CLUB
The Roaring Fork Drawing Club sketches and socializes at Alpenglow Books in Glenwood Springs at 6:30pm.
VIDEO TRIVIA
Teams of up to four test their television and film knowledge at the Crystal Theatre from 7 to 9pm. Register a team at www.tinyurl.com/CrystalTrivia
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19
TEEN WRITING CLUB
Creative Writing Club for Teens members exchange ideas and encourage one another at the Basalt Library from 3:45 to 4:45pm. Register at www.basaltlibrary.org
‘SMALL WONDERS’
The Aspen Chapel Gallery hosts an opening reception for its 18th annual “Small Wonders” exhibit, featuring works no larger than 12” by 12”, from 4 to 7pm.
CHAMBER COLAB
The Carbondale and Basalt chambers host a combined Business After Hours event at Eagle Crest Nursery from 5 to 7pm. Register at www.tinyurl.com/ BasaltCarbondale
PAPERWHITE DESIGN
Design paperwhite centerpieces at the Botany Houseplant Shop in the company of others from 5:30 to 7pm. Materials provided. Register at www.botanyhouseplantshop.com
BOOK TALK: ASPEN IDEA
This month’s Book Talk at the Basalt Library features Paul Anderson and his book, “Dr. Schweitzer at the Birth of the Aspen Idea,” from 5:30 to 6:30pm.
DOKTOR KABOOM
Doktor Kaboom presents “Under Pressure” at The Wheeler Opera House at 6pm. Tickets at www.wheeleroperahouse.com
5 POINT AT TACAW
5 Point Film screens some of its favorite winter adventure films at TACAW at 7pm. Tickets at www.tacaw.org
TRIVIA AT EL DORADO
Return to Dirt hosts trivia night every Wednesday at 7:30pm at El Dorado in Carbondale.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20
THIRD THURSDAY BOOK CLUB
The Third Thursday Book Club discusses “James” by Everett Percival at the Carbondale Library from 2 to 3:30pm.
INTRO TO SOURDOUGH
Learn the basics of bread making, and then take home a sourdough starter, at Rock Bottom Ranch from 5:30 to 7:30pm. Register at www.aspennature.org
‘ORNADA’
Sunlight Mountain Resort screens the world premiere of Armada Ski’s “ORNADA” at its shop on 9th Street in Glenwood Springs at 5:30pm. Tickets at www.tinyurl.com/ORNADA The film screens again at the Wheeler Opera House tomorrow 7pm. Tickets at www.wheeleroperahouse.com
ONGOING EVENTS
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
The Meeting Place in Carbondale (981 Cowen Drive) offers “Hole in the Donut AA,” Monday through Saturday at 6:45am, plus “Daily Reprieve” at noon on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Find a full schedule at www.meetingplacecarbondale.org
ROARING FORK ZEN
A new Zen meditation community based in Carbondale gathers at True Nature to sit from 8 to 9am on Mondays weekly.
TAI CHI
Community tai chi sessions are hosted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 to 10am at the Third Street Center. Newcomers are welcome. For details, email jhof@rof.net
MOMMY MEET-UP
The Glenwood Springs Library hosts a “mommy meet-up” on Mondays from 11am to 12:30pm for mothers and their babies ages 0 to 3. There will be play items provided for the little ones and coffee and conversation for the moms.
PARKINSON’S EXERCISES
An exercise class for people living with Parkinson’s Disease, MS or any other neuromuscular conditions is offered at the Glenwood Springs Library every Monday from 1 to 2pm. For more details, email dnovak@parkinsonrockies.org or call 866-718-2996.
IN STITCHES
The In Stitches Knitting Club meets at the Carbondale Library every Monday at 1:30pm.
BOARD GAMES
Kids (5 and up) play board games in the Treehouse Room at the Basalt Library Mondays at 4pm. Snacks provided.
RAGING GRANNIES
All are welcome to join the Raging Grannies, singing for a healthy planet and a kind world, on Wednesdays at the Two Rivers Unitarian Universalists office at the Third Street Center from 4:30 to 5:45pm.
CRYSTAL RIVER AIKIKAI
Crystal River Aikikai offers aikido classes for kids from 4:45 to 5:45pm and teens and adults from 6 to 7pm on Mondays at 13 Moons Ranch, south of Carbondale.
ENGLISH IN ACTION
Volunteer English tutors and developing learners meet for informal conversational practice at the Carbondale Library every Monday at 6:30pm. Interested in becoming a tutor? Email angela@englishinaction.org or call 970-963-9200.
AFRICAN DANCE
Dance to live drumming by the Carbondale Rhythm Collective at the Glenwood Springs Library on Mondays from 6:30 to 8pm.
BABY STORYTIME
The Carbondale Library hosts baby storytime at 11:30am on Tuesdays.
RAISING A READER
Basalt Library hosts an hour of storytime, activities and snacks Tuesdays at 10:30am.
PILATES
Coredination offers weekly pilates mat classes for all levels at The Launchpad in Carbondale. Tuesdays from noon to 1pm intermediate/advanced students are welcome. Beginners are encouraged to attend on Thursdays from 8 to 9am. For more info, call 970-379-2187.
The aurora borealis made a rare appearance over Carbondale and the Roaring Fork Valley Tuesday evening, Nov. 11, due to intense geomagnetic storms that pushed the visibility further south. Photo by Tucker Farris
Pink to Black returns even bigger and better
MYKI JONES
Arts Correspondent
On Nov. 22, the immersive live experience Pink to Black, a collaborative project between Thunder River Theatre Company (TRTC) and El Dorado, returns and is sure to get the audience moving to the sounds of electronic music, with Heady Hooligan opening for Magic Beans on TRTC’s black box stage.
On down the line, Pink to Black audiences can anticipate the ambient sound of Chilean-American rock group Kiltro on Jan. 16, and local-act Dank Cilantro opening for the genre-fluid indie group Houseplant on March 21, wrapping this run up.
branding and marketing,” said Arnold. “Hopefully, we create a brand and a name that resonates with people, [and] they’re going to show up every year, no matter who is booking. Even if they don’t know the band or even if they don’t like that genre of music, they’ll trust what Pink to Black means.”
It’s been a fun marriage between us hardcore music fans and the theater side of it. We rely on each team to bring their A game.
Sanguily piggybacked on this sentiment, sharing how the team was able to get their ducks in a row with the last run and is hoping to keep things casual through what she described as a “fun marriage” between herself and El Dorado and TRTC crews.
- Aly Sanguily
With this second season, members of the Pink to Black team, including El Dorado owner Mike Arnold, TRTC’s Artistic Director Missy Moore and Pink to Black booking agent Aly Sanguily, plan to take what they learned from the first run and to put the pedal to the metal.
“We have our stuff figured out. We don’t have to redo all the
“It’s been a fun marriage between us hardcore music fans and the theater side of it. We rely on each team to bring their A game,” she said. “I thought all three shows [last season] were incredible. Yes, we wish that we had more people there, but the people that came were like, ‘Oh, cool. I’m going to keep coming if you guys keep doing this.’”
In addition to elevating
the experience for audiences, Moore said she and the team remain dedicated to providing the same inviting experience for the talented performers. Moreover, she hopes this partnership will enhance the space during the winter months between the theater’s own productions.
“TRTC, yes, is a theater company, but a venue that is in the heart of a creative district,” said Moore. ”The more that we continue to uplift, uplift and amplify creative voices — be it in a music realm or a theatrical realm or whatever — there is no ceiling … If there is, we’re going
to shatter it.”
Moore and TRTC Technical Designer Taylor Barr, who was responsible for the plethora of bicycles at the Pink Fuzz show back in January, shared how the process of designing these shows starts with learning the band’s vibe to help with the aesthetic and the ambiance.
Barr shared that he has more time to explore this creative process this time around, which he expressed with a lot of excitement.
“The process includes me listening through the bands and their discographies as much as I
can before they arrive in town,” Barr said. “I’m lucky enough that this time, we have an entire week to put it together before anyone’s even in the space, whereas last year the most time I had was three days. I’m really looking forward to having more time and wherewithal to put up something cool and bigger.”
To purchase tickets for upcoming Pink to Black experiences, including the first gig, featuring opener Heady Hooligan and headliner Magic Beans, on Nov. 22 at 8pm, visit www.thunderrivertheatre.com
The Magic Beans band consists of (left to right): Kirk Larson on drums, Scott Hachey on guitar and vocals, Casey Russel on keys and vocals, Chris Duffy on bass and vocals. Courtesy photo
Friends join Mac Benning at Steve’s on Nov. 14
MYKI JONES Arts Correspondent
On Nov. 14, Mac Benning, a renowned bluegrass banjoist, singer and songwriter in the Valley, will be joined on stage at Steve’s Guitars by another six musicians, including: his fiancée, Abbie Cheney, who will be sharing her vocal talents, upright bassist Jonathan Ballou, drummer Chad Patrick, saxophone and clarinet player Chance Davis, electric guitarist William Brown and mandolin player Paul Holsinger.
“I told my dad I was thinking about playing the banjo. The next time I visited him in Atlanta, he had one. It was a tenor banjo,” Benning told The Sopris Sun. “I found that I really liked playing with other people. Bluegrass jams tend to be a little gatekeepy, but that is not the case I found here in the Valley.”
Benning has been a part of the bluegrass scene, “in a serious manner,” for the past decade. Though, he has been playing since the age of 19.
He incorporates jazz, country, modern and traditional bluegrass and progressive strings, often conjuring sounds that evoke visuals one might expect when thinking of old Western films. A perfect example of this can be found on his most recent album, “Richmond Ridge,” which just dropped on Sept. 19.
Often, in bluegrass jams, musicians are categorized by skill level, ranging from beginner to intermediate to advanced players. Benning said that hearing feedback from longtime musicians, who often told him he was doing it wrong, challenged and even inspired him.
experience. The trio still plays together every Wednesday.
When discussing the upcoming performance at Steve’s, Benning said he really appreciates the local venue as a place to share his music and to experience the joy of creating art with friends, especially as their respective musical careers blossom.
Steve’s has a really intimate vibe. I think you really get a sense of community there. Especially if you’re local.
- Mac Benning
“Steve’s has a really intimate vibe. I think you really get a sense of community there. Especially if you’re local. You’re going to see people you know, and know well, at Steve’s,” he said. “I think that’s great. I think it’s good to have venues like Steve’s here in the Valley, whereas TACAW and Belly-Up are a pretty big jump for local musicians that are not necessarily on the professional touring circuit.”
He, likewise, spoke highly of his bandmates.
“That is a lot of what drove me initially to start taking it seriously, and then start getting into different genres like jazz or other alternative genres,” Benning said.
After he departed from a previous local band, The Red Hill Rollers, he began jamming with Brown and Holsinger. With no prior knowledge of writing charts or reading jazz music, Benning learned a great deal about the genre on the fly and developed connections with other musicians in the Valley through this
“I’m excited to have such a powerhouse band behind me and on stage with me. I’m mostly excited to hear them play my songs, and just to listen to them play is going to be fun.”
Fans of Benning can also expect new music from him in the near future, as he hopes to work on an album or a series of singles throughout the winter.
To keep up with Mac Benning, visit www.macbenning.com For tickets to the show at Steve’s on Nov. 14 at 8pm, visit www.stevesguitars.net
Mac Benning, courtesy photo
LETTERS
Keep Crystal Crystal
I’m writing to inform our community about proposed developments in the historic town of Crystal. As many know, Crystal — home to the iconic Crystal Mill — is one of the most beloved and frequently visited sites in our region. Its beauty, remoteness and history make it a treasure that deserves careful protection.
A few years ago, the 700-acre property surrounding Crystal was purchased by new owners. They have since announced plans to develop a private resort community on the site of the old mining town.
The developers are seeking a land use change from Gunnison County. Their application includes building four “guest” structures in the town of Crystal, along with a 5,000-square-foot storage structure to house more than a million dollars’ worth of heavy equipment. Future phases of development include installing a private ski area on Bear Mountain, completion of a hot spring spa, a restaurant for guests only and construction of additional high-end homes.
This project has already encountered challenges, including a cease-and-desist order from Gunnison County for building roads without proper permits — a violation that resulted in a $12,000 fine.
The purpose of this letter is to urge our community to voice opposition to this development. The Gunnison County Planning Commission will be holding a public hearing on the land use application Nov. 20 at 9am, and now is the time to speak up.
Please take a moment to submit written comments to Gunnison County and share your concerns. Please send your comments to: planning@gunnisoncounty. org The deadline to receive written public comments is November 19 at 5pm.
To attend the meeting via ZOOM and hear public comments go to the online meetings tab at www.gunnisoncounty.org/144/ Community-and-Economic-Development
The Gunnison County Land Use Development guidelines require that proposed developments be compatible with community character. This proposed exclusive resort for the wealthy is certainly not.
Please consider mentioning tangible issues such as avalanche risk, wildfire danger and the strain that such a development could place on this fragile and precious environment. The town of Crystal is one of the last untouched spaces in the Crystal River Valley — an irreplaceable piece of our shared heritage. Let’s ensure that it remains protected for future generations.
Rob Anderson Crystal & Glenwood Springs
Re: Cattle Creek
I’m not sure what to conclude about the proposal to create a new development at Cattle Creek on land that is now sometimes elk habitat. As far as I can tell, anywhere nearby that might be appropriate for human housing is at least occasionally used as wildlife “housing.”
I’m not sure of the total impact on traffic. It would probably increase at Cattle Creek but might decrease through Glenwood and on to I-70. My roof was redone last year and some of the roofers commuted daily from Grand Junction. Will roofers be able to afford units?
Remember the arguments about saving the tree that was habitat for eagles in Aspen Glen? Then the male was clobbered by one
of the 30,000 daily cars while he tried to pluck some roadkill off Highway 82.
In the Netherlands last week, the reactionary right was booted from government by a center-left coalition that campaigned promising to build ten new towns to alleviate their housing shortage. Recently, I stopped in Buena Vista at some dense, but very pleasant, new neighborhoods that probably displaced some critters. A conservationist friend said, “Sure, build the Cattle Creek development, but a hundred floors tall with only a one-acre footprint.” Lower impact, but not likely.
Supposedly, Aspen’s resident population dropped in the last few years, but its workforce doesn’t seem to be decreasing. Optimally, a few thousand units should be built above Snowmass Canyon for them. Good luck on that. Fantasies aren’t solutions, but I sometimes imagine a group of burly gents wrapped in bandoliers, warming themselves behind burning barrels at the bottom of a winding driveway to some hotel-sized, usually vacant, faux-cowboy compound that they’ve commandeered for ten families. “Commuting? We’re tired of stinking commuting!”
Fred Porter Carbondale
GarCo term limits
This election is done. We have 364 days till the next one. Our representatives up for election will spend the next year raising money to defend their seats. Because of their already public presence, their name recognition and entrenchment pretty much guarantees their reelection. In Garfield County, the currently serving commissioners have been there for decades.
Commissioner Perry Will was recently elected, but had name recognition because of his earlier service as state representative and senator. He was elected into the position vacated by someone serving for decades. At a recent commissioner meeting, Commissioner Mike Samson defended the commissioners taking over the entirety of county library board positions under the argument that the current system (which appoints trustees for five years and reappoints them for another five years, unless there has been a significant problem with their service) does not allow frequent enough turnover in the board membership. Chairman Tom Jankovsky commented that the board’s process of recruiting and recommending people to serve is “kind of incestuous.” Do these arguments sound familiar? If the library would benefit from more frequent turnover of its board members, wouldn’t the county benefit from more frequent turnover of ITS members?
I maintain it is high time to legislate for term limits for all elected county positions. These jobs should not be in perpetuity or until the serving member decides to retire. The electorate deserves more diverse representation and leadership. We’ve had excellent people challenging existing commissioners, but they, and others in the Republican party, cannot fairly compete in the current rigged environment. Free “advertising” through media coverage of current county business, through appearances at county events,and through familial economic relations with local and national business does not make a level playing field. We need new leadership in Garfield County.
Susan Rhea Carbondale
continued on page 22
and it sits on somebody’s desk until they can get to it.”
With another project he’s got in town, Larkin is managing expectations with the client. “Carbondale this year feels like it’s significantly more difficult than it’s ever been,” he said.
The Building Department’s webpage alerts applicants of extended permit time estimates for various project types — including up to 16 weeks for new residential and commercial buildings and eight weeks for remodels — after an application is deemed complete, which can take weeks or months on its own. In April, the same notifications were present as the Building Department was “working on code adoption,” but with estimates shorter by two to four weeks.
The Town underwent its building code update this year, meant to align the code with standard efficiency goals and neighboring jurisdictions. SAFEbuilt, the community development service the Town uses to streamline permit review, is not able to review “green aspects” of code, Hyland said, which has added to the backup since the rewrite.
“I’ve been, upon my arrival, asking for patience as we’re trying to bring the new position on, bring new software on,” Hyland said. “We really do want to be seen as a resource, as a partner. It’s tough, because at the end of the day, we are tasked with the health and safety of buildings.”
According to Town data, the Building Department issued 297 permits in 2025 as of October; 396 permits in 2024; 343 permits in 2023; and 362 permits in 2022.
The financial impact of delays is palpable for those on the other side of the applications.
White received a demolition permit for Main Line Social on March 3. He said crews got to work immediately, preparing it for the next phase. However, a new commercial permit was not issued until Oct. 15, according to Town records.
Only recently, White got a permit for a vent hood that the Town required him to replace in the Sprazzo’s kitchen, after submitting an application for it on Sept. 15. The total investment in the equipment was $215,000, by White’s calculation, with the new hood itself, engineering, design consultation and more. Now, they can install the hood — the final roadblock to opening.
The delays also impacted staff recruitment, White said. With initial projections for Sprazzo to be open in August, presuming the preexisting building would fall
ASPEN CAMP
from page 11
retreats and workshops,” said Wilding. “We want the hearing community to know that they can be allies. They can support us by thinking better of us, learning more about Deaf culture, referring individuals from the Deaf community to us, fundraising and getting the word out.”
As part of its reintroduction, Aspen Camp rolled out a five-year plan to strategically weave the communities together and sustainably update the facilities and surrounding landscape. In partnership with the Basalt-based Design Workshop, the renovations will be guided by DeafSpace principles to allow for more inclusion and accessibility. Renovations
under an abbreviated review, permit delays forced him to push start dates back for new employees.
“We had reached out to really high quality candidates, many of whom are Carbondale residents,” he said. “We had to rescind a lot of offers and opportunities from our neighbors who need this money and want these good jobs. And instead, we’re like, ‘Sorry, it’s going to be October,’ and then it’s like, ‘No, November,’ and now we’re looking at December.”
Over at Townline, the four-month delay on the electricity source change meant the framing inspection was four months delayed, Larkin said. They had hoped to open this past summer, but now they’re aiming for the end of 2025. That impacts not only his clients, but his own business in managing schedules and taking on projects.
These financial impacts lead to value engineering decisions, like downgrading elevator plans for Main Line Social. White said he’s still committed to purchasing share platters, plates and bowls from Carbondale Clay Center artists in support of the community.
In an extreme example, one Carbondale entrepreneur, who asked not to be named in this story, said that delays with the Building Department contributed to their moving on from their business dream.
Hyland stressed that his door, email and phoneline is open to anyone who has questions or concerns about the permit timelines. He added that he does not tolerate any insinuation of retribution toward an applicant for negative feedback.
“I think adding that new position will get us out of some backlog and get us to a new equilibrium that we can deliver services to the community with the speed that feels right for everybody,” he said. “We need to do some remodeling [at Town Hall to accommodate more office space], but I think this experience shows that when that workload starts to pile up, you have to figure out how to get the resources to get that additional body in here.”
Hyland said he expects the new plans examiner to hit the ground running and immediately get to work processing permits. And the new software is a dual-facing permit review system — meaning both applicants Town staff will be able to track progress online with digital plan review, inspections and reporting.
The Town also intends to host a Building Department open house or another kind of dialogue to answer questions, give updated timeline estimates and form relationships in the community. The date on that is yet to be determined.
are currently underway for the septic tank, drinking water filtration system and the Annex building. Future plans include updated trails, improved parking and access for firetrucks and buses, a commercial kitchen in the Main Lodge, updated cabins and new seasonal staff housing.
“We’ve had great, positive feedback and I can’t wait to get more people out to the camp,” Wilding concluded. “The biggest thing I am excited about is connection. We’re here and we’re excited to see this happen.”
To find out about donating, volunteering, upcoming programs or hosting a company or school visit, head over to www.aspencamp.org BUILDING from page 4
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Your Local Family Dental Office
Election reflections (among other musings)
On the first Monday of November –Election Day eve – my father would have turned 100. Election Day frequently fell on his birthday over his almost 87 years. He took voting very seriously, as did my mother (who would have been 99 in August), and they instilled in my sister and me a deep respect for the sanctity of an institution so threat-
Springs, along with the thousands of us other folks dubbed “terrorists” by the MAGA minions — even if I had to push her in a hospital gurney.
GUEST OPINION
By Ken Pletcher
II but also were shaped as youths or young adults by the Great Depression. My father saw action in Europe in 1945, in the last months of the war, and remained in Germany with the occupation army. During that time, he visited the infamous and horrific Dachau concentration camp near Munich not long after it was liberated by the Allies. I don’t know what condition the camp was in when he was there, and he never really talked much about what he saw. But I know that it made a lasting impression on a pretty innocent 19-year-old
He returned home, married my mother, and the two moved to the University of Mississippi, where he got a pharmacy degree on the GI Bill. There they witnessed firsthand the Southern Jim Crow era at its height, and their eyes were opened to the evils and injustices one group of human beings can impose
Thinking about them and the rest of their Greatest Generation cohorts, I have to wonder what those others would have made of what Trump and his enablers have been doing this year. I’m sure a good number of them (one of my uncles included) voted for him in 2016. But would have they again — especially given his two impeachments, multiple felony convictions and close association with Jeffrey Epstein?
I like to think that those would have been tipping points, and if nothing else they would be as appalled as my parents at the actions of this current administration. I have to believe that most of them would recognize the parallels between the fascism they fought against 80-plus years ago and the authoritarianism this administration seems hell-bent on imposing on us. How could even my folks’ most conservative childhood friends not compare the federal immigration agents currently terrorizing residents in their suburban Chicago hometown to Nazi storm troopers?
Whatever their views were before those experiences, they returned to the Midwest with enlightened opinions on racial and gender equality and social justice — which only intensified over time. This was not easy for them, and for the rest of their lives they were at ideological odds with many friends and family members on these issues. To their credit, though, they managed to maintain close connections even with those with whom they had the strongest disagreements and still advocate strongly and ceaselessly (especially my mother) for the DEI causes so intensely under attack by the current administration.
Both have been gone for more than a decade; I still miss them terribly. But part of me is also relieved that they didn’t have to witness these past 10 years, and especially the last 10 months. As much as I regret that my mother, a lifelong Cub fan, missed celebrating their 2016 World Series win, I honestly don’t know how she could have survived election night a week later, so intense would have been her horror and dismay at the outcome.
I do know that, were she still alive, she would have been marching in last month’s No Kings rally in Glenwood
The question is: How many of us, who have the power to effect change, also see this? If the results of this month’s off-year election are any indication, maybe enough of us are. Across the country, anti-Trump candidates convincingly won gubernatorial, mayoral and other contests, and California voters overwhelmingly passed a congressional redistricting proposition.
Here in the Valley, school board candidates Tammy Nimmo and Kathryn Kuhlenberg won by wide margins over their politically conservative opponents, the latter having been backed by significant outside campaign contributions. In addition, several tax initiatives easily passed, which will generate additional revenue for early child care, schools and fire protection.
It’s too early to tell how this election’s outcome will affect next year’s midterms, but for those of you wondering about health care, food accessibility or the high cost of living, perhaps a recent incident at the White House can serve as an indicator of the administration’s response — this during the longest federal government shutdown ever. A man in a group visiting the Oval Office suddenly collapsed with a medical emergency. All there bent down to help him; all except one. In a photo, Donald Trump is seen standing behind his desk, turned away, a look of indifference, or possibly annoyance, on his face. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this pretty much says it all for me.
Should someone be managing your money?
The short answer is “yes.” The medium answer is “maybe not.” The long answer is “yes.”
You want someone in the practice of managing money managing your money. If that’s not you, hire someone excellent that makes you feel powerful and doesn’t talk to you like they went to Yale and you went to community college.
Until about two years ago, my short, medium, and long answers were “not in hell.” I’ve learned a lot about money in the last decade, so I felt very equipped to manage my own. And I follow many a pop-financial-expert who are doggedly against the idea of any finance bro managing anything for them. And this is of sound mind.
OPINION
Here’s the difference: Hedge funds are incredibly expensive funds that are designed to “hedge” against downturns in the market. Humans, hedge fund managers, are guessing what stocks and funds to combine to give you this hedge. They charge high fees and take a portion of your profit. Passive funds, on the other hand, simply track an index, like the S&P 500 (an index of about 500 of the country’s leading companies) and do what it does with very little management. An index fund will NEVER outperform the market because it follows the market. A hedge fund CAN beat the market, but very rarely does.
So if you can just take your savings and invest it in a low-fee index fund and do better than most actively managed funds, why would you need a financial manager/advisor?
Well... if you don’t want tax-efficiency, don’t want to
Do you know the story of Warren Buffett betting a million dollars that a simple, passively managed fund would outperform a managed hedge fund over 10 years? Did you know that he won that bet? The very simple moral of the story is: Warren Buffett saw the power of cheap index funds that track the market versus paying high fees for someone to “pick stocks” for your portfolio. Hiring a stock picker is essentially gambling, but fancier and accepted by your grandparents.
MONEY JUICE
By Megan Janssen
maximize your profits while minimizing your risk, don’t have kids or don’t care to fund anything for them, don’t have an inheritance, don’t want help with buying versus renting, loans, credit, healthcare, Social Security, long-term care, Medicare, interpreting your paycheck and benefits or managing the high level of risk associated with putting all your eggs in the basket of one U.S. index fund, then... you don’t! Opening an account at Vanguard, putting some money in it and buying an index fund is very simple. Otherwise, yes, you need a financial advisor or planner.
What is a financial manager? Someone who has your best
financial interest in mind. We’re known as fiduciaries. We will tell you to do something in your best financial interest even if it loses us money. We look at the whole banana. Not just what stocks and bonds you’re invested in, but also what kind of health insurance you have, whether you want to retire in Dubai in 25 years, if you want to pay for college, what tax implications follow certain events, if you should have a trust for property, if you should invest in a little crypto, when you’ll likely be a millionaire/billionaire, how your savings rate will change if you’re expecting a large inheritance, why you would want to go with a Roth vs. a traditional IRA or vice versa. We also help you navigate life decisions, celebrate your victories and cry when your kids graduate. (Important note: if you have a financial advisor and they are not doing these things, it’s urgently time to break up.)
I continue to come back to this word:, practice. I don’t practice medicine, so I go to a doctor. I don’t practice piloting so I buy a ticket on a commercial flight. I don’t practice teaching sixth grade (woo-hoo!) so
I leave it to the professionals. What do you practice and what do you want to practice? If you absolutely nerd out on all this stuff and LOVE learning about the new One, Big Beautiful Bill Act and how it will change your tax burden, go for it! Rock on! If not, find a pro. So many people turn into DIY-ers when it comes to money and taxes. And this is a waste of precious life units. Hire someone to save you money and go do the things you love to practice.
In a 2017 interview with CNBC, Buffett said: “You don’t need to be an expert in order to achieve satisfactory investment returns. But if you are not, you must recognize your limitations and follow a course that is both intelligent and disciplined. Keep things simple and don’t swing for the fences.”
Megan Janssen is the founder of Money Juice (www.money-juice.com) and a financial advisor with Forum Financial Management, LP. The ideas and language written here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Forum. This column is never written by AI.
From a turn-of-the-century hospital for silver miners to a Network of Care that spans Primary Care to Surgical Specialists, we have been proud to serve the Roaring Fork Valley for more than 100 years. It’s our commitment to making extraordinary, wholeperson healthcare accessible—season after season, generation after generation. For you. For life.
BIANCA GODINA
A RAY OF EL SOL: Embellishing the world
Job Daniel Figueroa Zamarripa is from Chihuahua, Mexico, and has been living in the Valley for four years. He currently works as a photographer, tattoo artist and muralist. Job has been immersed in art since a young age, beginning his artistic journey in middle school. His love for art started with music and the visual arts, such as painting, sculpture, printmaking and photography. That passion led him to explore various disciplines, from becoming certified and specializing in barista work and latte art, to recently venturing into the conservation and reproduction of amphibians and reptiles.
What led you to photography?
During college, I had the fortune of being taught by Professor Edgar Torres, who taught me everything about analog photography, from camera work to the darkroom development process.
In Cuauhtemoc, Chihuahua, I had the opportunity to work with several professional photography studios. A fun fact is that I also worked for Productora INC Studios in Mexico City, where I collaborated on filming, production and post-production (editing) of music videos for artists such as Río Roma, Lucerito, Mijares, Emmanuel and others.
What led you to art?
I have hyperactivity issues, and it’s hard for me to not be doing something. For me, creating comes naturally, while many people find art difficult, I can put down a brush and pick it up again with ease. I know I’m not perfect, but I do everything with care and dedication. To me, art is, above all, vision.
Talk about the difference between craftsmanship and art.
Craftsmanship has great merit, but it can be repeated. Art, on the other hand, is that
element you create with intention and purpose, something that evolves and leaves an impact. The work of art is to beautify, to make people pause for a moment and experience an emotional impact. That’s what we artists strive to achieve.
Which artists have inspired you?
My greatest inspiration is Charles Chaplin. I’m amazed by how he could do so much with so little. Simplicity deeply inspires me, because simplicity is hard work, the only person you truly need to surpass is yourself.
What emotions do you release creating art?
Percussion saved my adolescence. As someone who was very anxious, with attention
deficit disorder and hyperactivity, creating rhythms based on my breathing became a way to release energy. I always end up sweating, it’s a neural, sensory process — a real release. I’m very grateful to my parents for their patience, they understood that music helped me.
What thought has shaped your art?
“The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding,” from the book “The Kybalion.”
That phrase resonates deeply with me and has been a pillar in understanding many artistic processes. When you truly want to learn, you need to be silent; sometimes we talk so much that we don’t allow ourselves to absorb knowledge.
My family has always said that “the world belongs to the bold,” so I invite everyone to take a moment and breathe slowly in front of an art piece. Let’s give it more everyday value, analyze it from a different perspective. To my fellow artists, I say, let’s keep moving forward, put our hearts into what we do, and continue embellishing the world with our work.
Job shared that “we are vibration,” and recommended that, especially for children, we listen to music tuned to 432 Hz, which is the frequency of nature and birds. Normally, songs are tuned to 440 Hz, but 432 Hz helps us reach a calmer, more peaceful state.
He is currently working on sketches for two new murals in the Valley. He’s also expanding his local photography portfolio, offering professional sessions for individuals, events and pet portraits. Although he recently closed his tattoo studio, he plans to continue offering his tattooing services.
To learn more about his work as an artist, muralist, photographer and tattoo artist, you can follow him on Instagram at @jobfigueroazamarripa, on Facebook as “Job D. Figueroa” or contact him at 970-200-7730.
Follow Leonardo Occhipinti’s “Nuevo Mundo” in Sol del Valle every week in Spanish.
Job Daniel Figueroa Zamarripa has lived in the Valley for four years and works as a photographer, tattoo artist and muralist. Courtesy photo
Share your works in progress with readers by emailing illustrations, creative writings and poetry to fiction@soprissun.com
Comparte tus proyectos creativos aún en proceso con nuestros lectores. Puedes enviarnos un correo electrónico con tus ilustraciones, creaciones literarias y poesía a fiction@soprissun.com
The ride: Mountain biking as an analogy for relationships
By Rachel Leigh Cohen Basalt
Shop around until you find the right bike for you. First, ask yourself: What kind of rider am I?
&& Where do I hope this adventure might take me?
Study the frame & its making: the core materials, the design, the small seductive details. Notice its playfulness & poise; tirelessly score the reports, listen to your trusted sources, & aim for an upgrade from what you rode before. Remember: every bike has a body, but the good ones have a courageous heart & a vibrant soul. Take a few beauties for a spin, & let them reveal their values to you before you give them your full commitment. Then, go with your gut for the gold. Take time to learn its mechanics: what it can do for you, & what you must learn to do for it. That’s how the ride stays smooth, how two begin to move as one.
When you’re flying through the trails of unpredictability, you’ll know how to lean into each other. Before choosing a path,
study the terrain; the rocks, the roots, the steep surprises. Ask yourself how the needs & skills of you, the rider, & bike will meet the demands of the day.
Check the weather: conditions shift everything. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, & never, ever leave home without your well-greased toolkit.
You never know when a little tweak or necessary repair might save the whole day.
When you’re out there, keep your eyes forward but always remember where you’ve been. The old paths teach you how to navigate the new ones.
Don’t tense up; that only makes it shakier.
Trust the training.
Trust the choices you’ve made.
If you fall — & you will fall — tend to your body first, then to your bike. Clean the dirt with tenderness.
Rest. Reflect. Breathe.
Let the bike rest, too.
Out of sight, but not out of heart.
While your wounds heal, meditate on what occurred, aiming to never let that happen again.
Engage in alternative treasured activities & allow yourself to recall joy.
When strength returns & you feel renewed with awareness, start slow.
Ride one of your beloved familiar trails.
Remember why you chose each other. then… kiss, && make up.
(alternative ending:)
When strength returns & your heart feels light again, Start slow.
Find a new trail — maybe even a new ride. Remember what you’ve learned about balance & joy. Then, smile && begin again.
ARTIST NOTE: I wrote this after a mountain bike crash that left me concussed & in total stillness — a lesson in patience & healing. Revisiting it to edit for publication years later, while navigating heartbreak & new beginnings, revealed that the trails we ride, both literal & emotional, are never truly separate. Love, like riding, keeps asking us to rise again, softer & wiser each time.
CARE. PRIMARY REGION’S LARGEST NETWORK OF
With board-certified pediatricians, internists and family medicine physicians on our team, primary care at Valley View is here to care for your needs, regardless of your age or circumstances. We are proud to have multiple offices and locations in Carbondale, Eagle, Glenwood Springs, Silt and Willits, providing multigenerational primary care across the region.
Open minded soul that I am, I’ve changed my mind about solutions to the current affordable housing crisis. Previously, I thought we were going to have to build thousands of low-cost units to house the people who work in this valley.
Now, I look around and see lots of buildings. The problem is, the inhabitants take up way too much square footage in those houses. I live in an 800-square-foot auxiliary dwelling unit. There’s plenty of room for two people here. A family of four could fit into a unit twice this size. A 10,000-square-foot mansion could accommodate six such families. I’m a typical Westerner who appreciates his wide-open spaces, but there’s nothing
Utah Senator, and public lands enemy, Mike Lee thinks the government ought to sell 1.2 million acres of federal lands to developers for affordable housing. That’s ridiculous! Utah is no different than Colorado. Look around. Do you want these vast and magnificent landscapes cluttered
Our little slice of heaven here in the Roaring Fork Valley is in jeopardy of being sullied. The Spring Valley PUD, with its 577 units, and the Cattle Creek project, possibly as many as a thousand units, some affordable some not, are on hold, but there’s money to be made in these developments and city folk want to live in God’s
Let’s take advantage of the private property we’ve already developed and increase your income at the same time. In communist societies, the government would require you to divvy up your bounty with
the less fortunate and share your dwelling. Americans don’t need state influence to achieve the common good.
Fred Malo Jr. Carbondale
My biggest fear
For a moment let’s set aside the gutting of the EPA, denying climate change, eliminating incentives for clean energy, using the Department of Justice to pursue an enemies list, the mass firing of public employees who provide critical services — like the Forest Service, FEMA and the weather service — threatening to defund universities who defy adopting racist policies, setting tariffs to punish other countries economically, deporting people to foreign prisons without due process, sending the military to patrol cities that happen to have liberal governments as well as denying congressional appropriated funding for any number or reasons.
My biggest fear is the next election cycle. Have you noticed the pieces are being put into place: the gerrymandering in a non-cycle year, the attempt to eliminate mail in ballots, the use of ICE to intimidate minorities who will be fearful of voting in person, calling peaceful protestors Antifa and declaring them internal terrorists. This is all a precursor to calling the election fraudulent, and, when the public becomes outraged, invoking the Insurrection Act, arresting protestors, declaring martial law and further consolidating power. Didn’t Trump say that our next election may be the last one we will ever need to hold?
Eric Doud Carbondale
The Sopris Sun welcomes local letters to the editor. Shorter letters stand a better chance of being printed. Letters exclusive to The Sopris Sun (not appearing in other papers) are particularly welcome. Please, no smearing, cite your facts and include your name and place of residence or association. Letters are due to news@soprissun.com by noon on the Monday before we go to print.
PUBLIC LANDS
from page 7
officer engaged with more than 3,800 people this summer and fall on public lands in Pitkin County.
Braudis emphasized that citizen-level engagement is needed given reduced agency capacity. “Small actions make a big difference when agencies are stretched thin,” she said.
“Be the eyes and ears on the ground. Report trail damage, illegal activity or safety concerns. Reduced staffing means fewer people to notice problems. Your report might be the only one land managers receive.”
Gorman voiced concerns about longterm damage to scientific work and ecosystem management. “Critical scientific research, data and monitoring — on wildfire, forest health, invasive species,
water supplies, soil health, wildlife and more — has been disrupted,” he said. “This is concerning because we know this is part of a longer-term goal of the current administration which has been pushing to sell off public lands while gutting agency staff and funding and the policies meant to protect lands for future generations.”
He also stated that Wilderness Workshop is grateful for federal employees despite the circumstances. “We appreciate our local Forest Service and [Bureau of Land Management] staff and all they do for our public lands. We recognize the strain that’s being put on these folks from the government shutdown, the indiscriminate firings and the gutting of agency resources.” He added, “Next time you see a federal worker, be sure to tell them ‘thank you.’”
MOUNTAIN PERSPECTIVE
from page 10
listed under “View Contributing Organizations.” He hopes this concept can grow out of Carbondale and become a feature in other communities throughout the country.
“If I were to have an outcome where our community had a new platform to engage meaningfully with each other, it feels like my career would be complete,” Shapiro said. “It would be an incredible moment in my life to provide such a thing.”
Want to engage in the conversation? Join here: mountainperspectives.soprissun.com
The Art Base celebrated a big milestone on Nov. 10: acquiring the deed to the Three Bears building in downtown Basalt. After quietly launching its “Our Home, Our HeART” campaign earlier this year, the local art nonprofit raised enough to secure the funding to secure The Art Base as a permanent home for artistic expression and education in the Valley.
“Every dollar that once went toward the mortgage can now go directly back into The Art Base’s mission: fostering creative expression in the visual arts, for all ages and abilities, through education and exhibitions,” read a press release.
LEGAL NOTICE
PUBLIC NOTICE OF PETITION OF NAME CHANGE
Notice is hereby given that Maria Juventina Flores filed with the Garfield County Court on Oct. 22, 2025, Case #25C136, to legally change her name to Maria Juventina Membreno de Flores.
Published in The Sopris Sun November 13, 2025.
Before heading across the street to pay off the mortgage, youngsters helped decorate a large check that was deposited at Alpine Bank.
Photo by Holly Gresset
Executive Director Annie Henninger hands a suitably artsy check through a teller window at Alpine Bank to Branch Manager Jenny Sauer. Photo by Bob Rugile
Board members and staff gathered outside of Alpine Bank for a photo to commemorate the occasion. Photo by Bob Rugile
Roarin g Fork
Yout h Activi ti e s
The Sopris Sun is excited to introduce programs that let kids try new activities, build skills, and connect with their community in fun and meaningful ways.
COLORADO MOUNTAIN COLLEGE
Sketching and Drawing Level II
Age 10-17
Students with some experience loose sketching will continue to advance their skills by sketching and drawing di erent forms, including pets and humans to introduce anatomical proportions, and landscapes to introduce perspective.
Wednesdays, 3-4pm, 10/15-11/5
Christmas Cookie Decorating
Ages 8+
Get creative and decorate your own special Christmas cookies while learning pro techniques from the Pastry Chef Lab. Cookies and decorating supplies provided. Instructor is bilingual. Parent participation is welcome with your younger students. Wednesday, 3-5pm, 12/3
CALL FOR MORE INFO CALL 970.963.2172
690 Colorado Ave, Carbondale
• TAEKWONDO AND KOREAN MARTIAL ARTS
Start date: January 1, 2023 - End date: December 31, 2025
Time: 6 - 7pm • Location: CRCC East Gym
Martial Arts classes for children & adults. Improve your balance, strength, coordination, and flexibility. Integrate body, mind, and spirit using the Taekwondo tenets: Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverance, Self-Control and Indomitable Spirit. Sahn Taekwondo classes are taught by Nationally and Internationally certified instructors: Master Instructor Cedar Rose Guelberth, 4th Dan, & Grand Master Richard Hodder, 9th Dan. Six-month pre-registration discounts available. Ages: 7 years & up (6 year olds are considered on an individual basis and if joining with an adult or older sibling)
Cost: $90/month; $73/month (2nd member of family); $53/month (3rd and more family members)
For more information call Ms. Cedar Rose (970) 948-8774
THANKSGIVING SPECIAL
Looking for fun during Thanksgiving break?
Join us for a 3 day camp that will get kids moving!
Monday: Dodgeball and Indoor Soccer
Tuesday: Climbing Wall and Capture the Flag
Wednesday: Basketball and Kickball Campers will meet at the rec center at 2pm. Pick up will be at 4pm
Dates: Monday, November 24 - Wednesday, November 26
Times: 2-4pm • Cost: $65 • Ages: 8-12
GARFIELD COUNTY LIBRARIES
Children of all ages can explore, play, and learn through a wide variety of our engaging programs o ered each week.
From storytimes that spark a lifelong love of reading—whether for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, or the whole family—to active sessions like “Get the Wiggles Out” and “Shake Your Sillies Out,” there’s something for every energy level. Creative minds can dive into hands-on fun with “Spark” and “STEM Exploration” events, while bilingual and sensory-friendly programs ensure every child feels welcome and included.Across all six library branches—Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, New Castle, Silt, Rifle, and Parachute—families will find opportunities to connect, learn, and grow together. Whether you’re looking to introduce your little one to their first storytime, inspire curiosity with science and art, or enjoy enriching cultural experiences, the libraries are here to help your child’s imagination soar.
FOR MORE INFO: www.gcpld.org
CARBONDALE CROSSFIT
Get Your Kids Moving at Carbondale CrossFit
Carbondale CrossFit is excited to o er a special promotion for our Kids classes. Designed for children aged 5–12, our CrossFit Kids program introduces young athletes to the fundamentals of movement, basic gymnastics, safety etiquette, mobility, and flexibility—all while having fun with their friends. Classes are held on Mondays and Fridays at 4:00 PM, providing a great opportunity for kids to stay active and healthy. To make it easier for families, we o er a $20 drop-in rate or a 10-class punch pass for $145.
INFO AND REGISTRATION: carbondalecrossfitco.com or CALL: 561-972-1240
