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Volume 4, Number 5 | March 15, 2012
Trustees OK new library By Lynn Burton Sopris Sun Staff Writer
T
he Carbondale Board of Trustees voted 6-0 to approve a site-specific development application for a new library at Third Street and Sopris Avenue on Tuesday night. The Garfield County Library District’s application on file at town hall calls for a 13,000-square-foot, one-story building with prominent views of Mount Sopris. The town of Carbondale has agreed to pay no more than $500,000 for site improvements, plus 50 percent of the cost to pave a parking lot, according to a staff memo. The site is on the old tennis courts at Bridges High School (formerly Carbondale Middle School). Town Hall was packed for the public hearing on the application but only a handful of people spoke. One of the main concerns among a Carbondale Internet Google group in recent weeks is the line of five mature spruce trees along the site’s southern border that must be cut down. One specific tree, at the southeast corner of the site and larger than the rest, drew particular comment from some audience members. After the meeting, Carbondale Mayor Stacey Bernot told The Sopris Sun the district hired an arborist to inspect the tree and to make recommendations on whether it could be saved. The towering spruce is less than 40 feet from the corner of the building site and construction is expected to damage its roots. “It would be fairly costly (to save the tree) and there’s no guarantee it would survive,” Bernot said. Some Google groupers have also expressed concern the new building will not come equipped with solar panels on the roof, like the ones on the Carbondale Recreation Center and Third Street Center. Bernot said the library district told the town it can’t afford solar panels at this time, but it’s likely the roof will be constructed to be “solar ready” if funding for solar panels in available in the future. She said there’s “no requirement” in the town’s zoning code to mandate solar panels. She also noted the development application moved quickly through the town’s review process, as the town has less input on “site specific” zoning applications than it does on a planned unit development (PUD) such as the recently defeated Village at Crystal River. The Carbondale library is the final one in the Garfield County Library District system to win approval. The Glenwood Springs City Council approved a new facility for that town earlier this month.The district broke ground for a new library in Silt on March 9.
Rochelle Norwood was the cat’s meow at last weekend’s Green is the New Black Fashion Show at the Carbondale Recreation Center. Both nights sold out. Tanya Black won in the Haute Couture category while Jenna Bradford won in Ready to Wear. Both creations are on display at Collage Creative Collections. For more fashion show pics, please turn to pages 8-9. Photo by Jane Bachrach
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