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SunVolume 7, Number 15 | May 21, 2015

LOOK INSIDE:

PAGE 4Franklin

PAGE 6Putts

PAGE 9Cool

Carbondale’s weekly community connector

By Lynn BurtonSopris Sun Staff Reporter

rift boats and inflatable rafts slipeasily into Roaring Fork Rivercurrents just below the Highway

133 bridge during spring and summermonths, and into the fall. It’s an often-idyl-lic scene, with the Roaring Fork’s GoldMedal fishing waters silently pushing thewatercraft down stream then out of view.

Out of view of other boaters, that is.

Other boaters who have been stackedup, waiting and snarling to themselves, be-cause some river users (mostly profession-als) are more adept at getting their boats offtheir trailers and into the water than others.

How crazy can it become on the three-boat launching ramp? Veteran fishing guideTony Fotopulos (aka Gil Finn) told The So-pris Sun that on one of the busiest days ofthe summer last year, a guy with an inflat-able raft had the entire launch blocked ashe leisurely got everything together and

prepared to push his boat into the river,oblivious to other boats that were startingto pull up.

Time is money for professional guides.“It can get heated out there,” Fotopulossaid. “Us fishing guides are working stiffs.”

A handful of “working stiff” fishingguides started organizing themselves latelast year into what has become the newRoaring Fork Fishing Guide Alliance.Today, the alliance has grown to about 60members from Aspen to Eagle. Working

with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, theirfirst order of business was to put up signsand post information at the Carbondaleboat launch with the goal of getting boatsinto the water within five minutes of whenthey first pull into the launch area.

“We’re trying to make it faster, more en-joyable, and get everyone on the same page,”Fotopulos explained.

The Carbondale boat launch, which isaccessed off Highway 82 near the scenic

Fishing guide association nets better boat launch

D

Golfers from around the state converged on River Valley Ranch for the girl’s Class 4A state championships on Monday and Tuesday. Carbondale freshman Lauren Murphy,who plays for Glenwood Springs, recorded a seventh place finish with a 79-80 and 159 total. Defending champion Jennifer Kupcho, of Jefferson Academy, defended her titlewith a two-shot total of 139. Photo by Jane Bachrach

Tee time

BOAT LAUNCH page 7

Where were they?Dear Editor:

Where have certain members of the Car-bondale Board of Trustees been buried thesepast X months? Not at our local library! Oh,gosh — now the thought of a fireplace at theCarbondale Library has raised the council’sinterest on a subject much discussed andlauded at a meeting held more than monthsago and, the following week, covered by TheSopris Sun in its Sept. 4, 2014 edition. Yet, atthe April 14, 2015 trustees’ meeting, at leastone of the elected officials claimed that she

was “a little alarmed” at the prospect of thegas fireplace project going forward “withoutpublic input from the people in this commu-nity.” Nothing could be further from the doc-umented truth.

This paper covered the enthusiastic rec-ommendation of what I estimated to beabout 50 library attendees begging for a fire-place addition. The round of planned librarystrategic-planning meetings was announcedin various media outlets.

At our Carbondale meeting, we were splitinto working groups to develop ideas. Then,

we reported out on our recommendations.Every one of the teams of library lovers

begged for a fireplace. I doubt we were envi-sioning the library staff chopping down treesto fuel the fireplace, but I could be mistaken.And, it would seem that the specter of the gas-drilling industry trumps our hope and wishfor a cozy fireplace at our library.

Full disclosure: I enjoy hiking in theThompson Divide area. I also enjoy my gas-powered fireplace, central heating and kitchenstove, as well as my propane-fueled grill at myown house. I guess that I can be just as hypo-critical as certain Carbondale trustees.

Amy BarrCarbondale

Culture Club kudosDear Editor:

It has been a little over two years since Ibegan hosting the Carbondale Culture Clubat Third Street Center’s Calaway Room. Withthe support of Jody Ensign and the approvalof Third Street Center Board of Directors, wewere given permission to give a home to abeautiful Kawai Grand piano for local per-formers and pianists to enjoy playing. Withthe generous support of many donors, pre-senters and performers donating their timeand revenue from performances, the pianoloan is paid and we have a healthy mainte-nance budget, which was my goal.

What evolved from that vision was alunchtime venue where the local non-profitscould come hang out and listen to musicwhile eating their lunch. Perhaps this was in-spired from my experience when I worked forthe National Center for Atmospheric Re-search (NCAR) in Boulder in the summer of1968 as I listened and relaxed to Baroquemusic being played during my lunch hour.With the intention of drawing our commu-nity together through creating an atmosphereof education, entertainment and enlighten-ment in a weekly “Chautauqua-like” setting,presenters and musicians have come to sharetheir passion delighting audiences of all ages.

The final Culture Club I will host is onMay 27. So I wish to thank the significant

people that have helped me along the way.Colin Laird, Director of Third Street Centerhas given his support as well as the board ofdirectors who have given their blessing to thisevent. Vid Weatherwax, and John and KellyField, served as guest hosts. The Sopris Sunand KDNK for their publicity support. Most

Carbondale CommentaryThe views and opinions expressed on the Commentary page do not necessarily reflect those of The Sopris Sun. The Sopris Sun invites all members of the community to submit letters to theeditor or guest columns. For more information, e-mail editor Lynn Burton at [email protected], or call 510-3003.

To inform, inspire and build community.

Donations accepted online or bymail. For information call 510-3003

Editor: Lynn Burton • [email protected]

Advertising:Bob Albright • [email protected]: John Colson

Photographer: Jane BachrachGraphic Designer: Terri Ritchie

CURRENT BOARD [email protected] Dills, President

Denise Barkhurst, Vice PresidentDebbie Bruell, Secretary

Colin Laird • Sue Gray • Craig FulmerCliff Colia • Diana AlcantaraHonorary Board Members

David L. Johnson • Laura McCormickJeannie Perry • Trina Ortega • Frank Zlogar

Founding Board MembersAllyn Harvey • Becky Young • Colin LairdBarbara New • Elizabeth PhillipsPeggy DeVilbiss • Russ Criswell

Sopris Sun, LLC • P.O. Box 399520 S. Third Street #36Carbondale, CO 81623

970-510-3003www.soprissun.com

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LettersThe Sopris Sun welcomes your letters, limited to no more than 400 words. Letters exceeding that length may be edited or returned for revisions. Include your name and residence(for publication) and a contact email and phone number. Submit letters via email to [email protected] or via snail mail to P.O. Box 399, Carbondale, CO 81623. The deadline tosubmit letters to the editor is noon on Monday.

Growth, climate change and the Roaring Fork Valley

Carbondaleresidents

bring theirown Sun tosome pretty

far-flungplaces, but

Laura Loebmay have

topped thelist duringher recentjourney to

the ruins of a 13th

century castle in

Samovor,Croatia.

Courtesyphoto

2 • THE SOPRIS SUN • www.SoprisSun.com • May 21-27, 2015

By Patrick HunterDo you have children between the ages of

seven and 10 whose elementary schoolsmight be exposed to air pollu-tion from automobile ex-haust? If you do, you shouldbe worried. The journal PLOS recently pub-lished the research article “Association be-tween Traffic-Related Air Pollution inSchools and Cognitive Development in Pri-mary School Children.” In Barcelona, Spain,researchers found that the cognitive devel-opment was permanently impaired by asmuch as 13 percent. There were also associ-ated problems with child behavior. Traffic

pollution is greatest during the time childrenare in school.

I was recently on a hill a little aboveHighway 82 at around 8 a.m. Iwas surprised to see a thick bluetinged cloud rising above the

highway. A couple of years ago I was stand-ing on the lower part of Buttermilk Ski Areawith a ski school client. A jet took off and ina moment we were both immersed in an in-visible but very strong smelling cloud of ex-haust gases. Generally, the amount of trafficon the valley highway and adjacent streetsseems to be constantly increasing. Numer-ous traffic-increasing projects are under

construction or contemplated along the fulllength of the valley.

As a parent, it may be hard to discern thatyour children are becoming slower, but doyou really want to take that chance?

Idyllic?The Roaring Fork and Crystal River val-

leys give the appearance of idyllic surround-ings. But like the old parable of the frog in thepot and the rising water temperature, the in-cremental changes can be hard to see or feel.

On national television news, a study ofpollen increases in New York revealed a dou-bling of the amount as well the lengthening of

the season. The incidence of allergic reactionsand allergy driven asthma are on the rise. A hor-ticulturist friend suggested that this new superpollen production is an emergency responsefrom the trees that sense a threat and are tryingto increase reproduction. The plants are reactingto the increasing average temperature.

This increase in temperature is having sig-nificant effects in our region. Millions of acresof western forests have had their trees deci-mated by the pine beetle. Forest experts arecertain the outbreak is a result of warmingtemperatures. Because these forests were“sinks” for carbon, their loss exacerbates the

CLIMATE CHANGE page 15

OPINION

LETTERS page 8

By John ColsonSopris Sun Correspondent

Holy Cross Energy, the regional utility co-operative that supplies about a third of Car-bondale's customers, will not be installingcontroversial “smart meters” on local homeswithin the next six to eight months, follow-ing an informal meeting with the town’sBoard of Trustees on Tuesday night.

The delay, though, is not due to any re-quests from the town, but instead is a conse-quence of the utility's protracted installationschedule across the breadth and width of itsservice area.

At the meeting Tuesday — a work session,which meant no formal action could be takenby the trustees until a regular meeting — thetrustees heard from three representatives ofHoly Cross, one man from Xcel Energy, andseveral members of the public about thepending installation of what the utility refersto as an “Enhanced Metering System.”

Holy Cross Chief Operating OfficerRichard Brinkley told the trustees that theEMS devices are not actually “smart meters,”which are a specific and more high-tech typeof metering equipment.

Brinkley said the Holy Cross meters dotransmit data to hubs located nearby, whichthen relay that data on to receiving equip-ment at Holy Cross headquarters.

But the strength of those transmissions,according to Brinkley and others at the meet-ing, sent from the meters, goes out at a verylow power, lower than the transmissionsfrom cell phones, in-home WiFi hubs orother devices.

Trustee John Hoffmann maintained that,based on data provided by the utility, WiFiradiation is 67 times stronger, and a cellphone puts out radiation that is “twelvethousand times greater, almost continuously,”than the radiation from the Holy Cross me-ters.

“It’s not very much energy,” he said of theproposed system. “I’m not sure if there’s any-thing to be afraid of.”

Still, citizens concerned about exposure tothe electromagnetic (EM) radiation comingfrom the meters have inundated Town Hallwith reference materials about the issue, in-cluding reports of several health problemsthat some say are caused by that exposure.

And some of those concerned citizens

were at the meeting to ask the trustees to acton their behalf.

Carbondale resident Cedar Rose reportedthat, when asleep, people are much more sus-ceptible to ill effects from EM radiation, andargued that the industry's contention that thelow level of this particular radiation do notadequately address the issue of cumulativeexposure from the vast array of electronicdevices that are saturating the air with radi-ation of different types.

But one of the individuals who spoke atthe trustees meeting, electrical engineer PatKiernan of Carbondale, said he did not be-lieve the meters proposed by Holy Crosspose that much of a danger.

“We don’t really understand the effects ofelectromagnetic radiation on our physicalhealth,” said Kiernan.

Generally, he said, “cell phone exposureis much worse” than any EM radiation thatwould come from the meters

“It’s good to avoid it when you can,”Kiernan said of the accumulated amount ofEM radiation. “And there are people who arereally sensitive. But, in the scheme of things,I don’t see this as really significant.”

After listening to more than two hours oftestimony, Trustee Allyn Harvey suggestedsomewhat testily that Holy Cross should putthe installation plan on hold for six monthsto give citizens a chance to meet with the util-ity's board of directors and learn more aboutthe proposed system.

But Holy Cross assistant operations su-pervisor Josh Snoddy said that, as the instal-lation program currently is planned,Carbondale meters would not be changedout for about eight months anyway.

As the meeting ended, Mayor StaceyBernot urged concerned citizens to go toHoly Cross board meetings and voice theiropinions and gather information.

She said it may not be an issue that thetown should get involved in, as Carbondaleis not a utility and lacks any authority overutility operations beyond signing regularfranchise agreements for utility service tolocal citizens.

She also directed staff to provide HolyCross with a list of any questions, or requestsfor information, that the trustees might comeup with, which would be made available tolocal residents.

Holy Cross Energy delays “smart meter” installation

By John ColsonSopris Sun Correspondent

If all goes according to plan, the contro-versy over use of the old Garfield CountyRoad 106 as it passes through the ColoradoRocky Mountain School (CRMS) will soonbe a thing of the past.

But that outcome depends on the deliber-ations of a working group set up by theGarfield County Board of County Commis-sioners, at a meeting on May 18 at whichrepresentatives of the school, neighboringparts of the county and county staffers gaveanother round of testimony about an issuethat goes back more than 35 years.

“I think there’s a lot of common groundbetween the two parties,” said CommissionerMike Samson at the meeting, after the schoolmade the first conciliatory gesture in acced-ing to a proposal that the right-of-way be-

come a marked, designated trail for pedestri-ans, bicyclists and equestrians.

That had been the primary goal of neigh-bors concerned that the school was hopingto shut down public use of the right-of-wayby making changes at the northern andsouthern end of its path through the campus,changes that have included construction of acinder-block “monument” in the middle ofthe right-of-way, which is to form the core ofa river-rock pillar and sign, similar to pillarsfurther inside the campus property that havemarked the school’s entry for years.

Another change came at the northern endof the campus, where the right-of-way onceled to a historic bridge over the Roaring ForkRiver and a junction with Highway 82.

At that northern campus boundary, whatonce was a road had become a narrow, gravelpath leading into the campus, hemmed in by

a school-built berm on one side and a collec-tion of large, cylindrical hay bales on theother side.

Now that the school has agreed to formaldesignation of the trail, under the commis-sioners’ direction, it is up to the working groupto work out the details and present a proposalto the BOCC at a meeting on June 15.

“They need to hammer this out, and com-promise on certain points,” Samson said ofthe work facing the group

The CR106 right-of-way, which oncewas a main route for traffic between Glen-wood Springs and Carbondale, was closedto vehicular traffic in 1979 at the request ofthe CRMS.

HistoryThe school headmaster, Jeff Leahy, said

during an interview on May 18 that the

1979 re-designation of the road was neededbecause vehicles were speeding through cam-pus and causing an unsafe environment forstudents and faculty.

The county ripped up the asphalt surfaceof the road, the school for some time allowedthe underlying strip of land to return to thepasture it once had been, back when it wasthe working Bar Fork Ranch before beinghanded over to CRMS founders John andAnn Holden in the early 1950s.

But in more recent times, Leahy said,“We’ve been doing a lot of things with theright-of-way, including building a new “dri-veway” leading to the western edge of thecampus along the Crystal River; the place-ment of a small equipment shed for theschool’s soccer teams; construction of a bermat the north end of the old roadway and re-

CR106 access issue looks to be heading for a compromise

The Carbondale Soccer Club boys U12 team won the Grand Mesa Invitational Tournament inGrand Junction over the weekend. In going 4-0, they outscored their opponents 18-6. Left to right:Noah Ericsson-Walters, Bodi Dallas, Talon Carballeira, Rulbe Alvarado, Diego Lopez, George Garcia,Noah Wheeles, Alvin Garcia, Gustavo Amador, Alec Nykirk, Isaac Arellanes, Mattias Ericsson-Walters, Kevin Duarte, Milton Huerta and Daniel Carreno. Coaches, left to right: Jaciel Carreno,Daniel Armenta, Mia Ericsson and Fernando Fuentes. Courtesy photo

Playing under the banner of Ram gold and blue, the Carbondale Soc-cer Club girls U12 team was composed of players from Carbondale,Glenwood Springs, Basalt and Aspen for the Grand Mesa InvitationalTournament. The girls kept pace with the boys, bringing home theirown gold. Courtesy photo

THE SOPRIS SUN, Carbondale’s weekly community connector • May 21-27, 2015 • 3

CR106 page 5


Town Briefs Oven getting shade; pool opensSopris Sun Staff Report

Town Manager Jay Harrington, in a memo tothe town Board of Trustees and staff, reported thatarchitectural plans and sketches of a planned shadeshelter for the Community Bread Oven at BonnieFischer Park, adjacent to the Third Street Center, arebeing reviewed by the town, the staff at Third StreetCenter and the Carbondale & Rural Fire Protec-tion District. The next step in the evolution of theshelter will be to obtain engineering drawings, andthe shelter is to be built later this summer.

In a similar development, Harrington reported,work is underway to issue bid specifications for an-other roof structure, this one over a set of bleachersat the Gus Darien Riding Arena on County Road100 (Catherine Store Road) east of town. Thebleacher roof is to be constructed in the fall.

Harrington reported that one individual, Parks& Recreation Commission member Rob Comey,has volunteered to serve on a weed-managementcommittee that the town is putting together to comeup with a town-wide weed management plan.

The same commission also has recommendedthat native Carbondale resident Camy Britt be ap-pointed to serve as an alternate member of theParks & Recreation Commission.

Town staff continues to work on opening theJohn Fleet Municipal Pool on May 23. Harringtonreported that all of the mechanical equipment at thepool is operational, and that the first class of life-guard training was conducted last week. In addi-tion, Harrington informed the trustees that students

from the Carbondale Community School will beusing the pool for their physical-education triathlontraining class this week.

At North Face Bike Park, 73 competitors tookpart in last weekend’s Kids’ Bike Rodeo &Bikeathalon bike safety event, according to Har-rington’s memo. In addition, last weekend thetown held its first Bonedale Bike Jam event at thebike park.

Gateway RV Park and Campground opened lastweek, with an occupancy rate of 20 percent (23spots out of 120 available sites).

Work continues along Highway 133, with in-termittent lane closures predicted as Colorado De-partment of Transportation workers move forwardwith resurfacing and other improvements to theroadway between Redstone and Carbondale.

In addition, Harrington wrote in his memo,workers also are moving ahead with irrigation andlandscaping efforts along the Highway 133 corridorthrough Carbondale.

Motorists are advised to look for traffic controlsigns and to watch for flaggers along the highway.

With all the recent rain, Harrington reported,the town’s parks crew “had had a tough time keep-ing up with mowing,” a situation that may be ag-gravated by the fact that Harrington also reported“difficulty” filling and maintaining seasonal per-sonnel positions.

He wrote that the town also is “having a toughtime finding a seasonal custodian to clean park bath-rooms and maintain trash and dog-waste stations.”

Cop ShopFrom May 7-14, Carbondale officers handled 240 calls for service. Duringthat period, officers investigated the following cases of note, according to asummary report provided by the police department:

THURSDay/FRIDay/MONDay/TUESDay, May 14-15 and May 18-19:At unknown times over the nights on those dates, unknown parties brokeinto a total of 14 vehicles; four on May 14-15 in the area of Dolores Way,and 10 on May 18-19 in the area around Wheel Circle and Village Road. Po-lice say nothing stolen in many of the vehicles, but items that were reportedmissing include credit cards, wallets containing approximately $600 in cash,and a “smart watch” valued at $600. All the vehicles were reportedly un-locked, and police reported that the keys were in several of them and werestolen along with the above-mentioned items. Police urged citizens to re-member to lock their vehicles when they are left on the streets, and to notleave the keys in them.

•••

FRIDay, May 8: at 11:40 a.m. officers were contacted by a local woman re-garding complaints by another local woman about pre-school kids in theCrown Drive neighborhood trespassing on the street. The woman who con-tacted the police informed them that she, too, lived in Crown Drive, and “hasgiven express permission for the pre-school to utilize Crown Drive.”

FRIDay, May 8: at 1:10 p.m. police investigated a “drug incident” at aschool involving “imitation controlled substances.” One unnamed juvenilewas arrested.

SaTURDay, May 9: at 12:30 a.m. police took a report of a stolen purse ata downtown restaurant. The matter is under investigation.

SUNDay, May 10: at 12:29 a.m. police contacted the occupants of a vehi-cle parking at the cemetery on White Hill. The driver was ticketed for driv-ing with a suspended license, and a juvenile occupant was ticketed on acharge of being a minor in possession of drugs or alcohol. The car was towed.

TUESDay, May 12: A woman appeared at the police station to retrieve awallet that had been turned in on May 8, and told police that $80 in cash andtwo gold rings were missing from the wallet. She also said she had lost thewallet more than a month ago.

A tax hike to fund it?By John ColsonSopris Sun Correspondent

Ridership on the Carbondale Circulatorbus route, which delivers customers to theRoaring Fork Transportation Authority’s(RFTA) Park & Ride lot at the north end oftown, is greater than the ridership of most ofthe in-town bus routes in the city of Aspen, aRFTA planner said in a recent e-mail to TheSopris Sun.

Ridership on the circulator, also knownas the Carbondale Connector Route orCCR, reached 155,000 rides in 2014 and isprojected to climb to perhaps 175,000 thisyear, according to numbers provided lastweek by RFTA planner David Johnson.

And ridership on the route is expected tokeep growing, even if the CCR route staysas it is, essentially carrying passengers onlyfrom the center of town to the park and ride.

Carbondale officials, however, have forsome time been interested in expanding theCCR service to other parts of town than arecurrently being served. The trustees, alongwith town staff, have expressed the beliefthat offering bus service to areas on thesouthern and western sides of town will onlyimprove the CC’s role in reducing automo-bile traffic in Carbondale and in the RoaringFork Valley in general.

But as RFTA and the town negotiate onhow that expansion of service can be ac-commodated, the most troublesome aspectof the talks continues to be the question ofwhere the money would come from to payfor the expanded service.

At a RFTA board meeting on May 14,the RFTA board seemed disinclined to en-tirely foot the bill for an expansion of theservice, according to Carbondale MayorStacey Bernot, who is the town’s present li-

aison to RFTA.“It was kind of what I expected,” Bernot

told The Sopris Sun on Tuesday, noting thatCarbondale already has “a pretty sweetdeal” under which RFTA foots the entire billfor the CCR as it is today.

That deal, Bernot explained, goes back tothe formation of the transit authority abouta decade ago, when it was agreed that be-cause Carbondale is more than a mile offHighway 82 the bus agency would sendbuses into town rather than force town res-idents to find their way to bus stops alongthe highway.

When RFTA introduced its new Ve-lociRFTA Bus Rapid Transit system, with itsfocus on park and ride lots, it was agreedthat the CCR route would replace the old,big-bus service in the center of town, at noadditional cost to Carbondale taxpayers.

The bus agency gets about $770,000 ayear from a dedicated 1-cent sales tax thatwent into effect when formation of the au-thority was approved by voters from NewCastle to Aspen.

Johnson, in his email to the Sun, wrotethat RFTA spends about $600,000 everyyear operating the CCR, in addition to thecosts of running buses to the park and ride.

All told, Johnson wrote, “RFTA believesthe value of the regional transit services thatCarbondale receives, in addition to the Car-bondale Circulator service, exceeds the valueof Carbondale’s 1% sales tax contributionto RFTA.”

The RFTA board concurred with John-son’s assessment at its most recent meeting,Bernot said, concluding that if Carbondalewants to expand its in-town bus service, itwill have to come up with funding to do so.

Currently, the CCR runs every 15 minutes,seven days a week, from 5 a.m. to 9:15 p.m.,servicing stops along Main Street and Col-orado Avenue before heading out to the park

and ride, which is adjacent to the intersectionof Highway 133 and Village Road.

At the March 28 meeting of the Carbon-dale Board of Trustees, two RFTA represen-tatives showed the trustees a proposal thatwould send buses through neighborhoods atthe south end of town every 30 minutes, ata cost of approximately $450,000 per yearin operating expenses, more or less, depend-ing on whether service would be offeredseven days a week throughout the year oronly in the summer and winter months.

In a presentation to the trustees, RFTArepresentatives Johnson and assistant plan-ner Jason White offered RFTA’s “preferredalternative” for providing bus service to theneighborhoods at the southern and south-western end of town (River Valley Ranch,Hendrick Ranch, Crystal Village), as well asto Roaring Fork High School and Carbon-dale Middle School, while retaining the ex-isting CCR route to the center of town.

Labeled the “VelociFeeder” system in theRFTA presentation, the expanded servicewould run every 30 minutes and wouldserve eight additional stops along its route.

To cut down on costs, the VelociFeederwould not provide service to the north sideof town, along Eighth Street and CowenDrive and in the neighborhoods adjacent toVillage Road, under the preferred alterna-tive plan.

The existing CCR route, however, wouldbe retained and would continue to befunded under RFTA’s operational budget.

At the trustees meeting, RFTA assistantplanner Jason White, told the trustees, “Idon’t think anyone in town denies that thatwould be a good idea,” meaning expandingbus service to areas not being served now.

The main issue, said Town Manager JayHarrington, is how to pay for the expansion,which in addition to the operational costscould put the town on the hook for the pur-

chase of small shuttle buses and the con-struction of bus stops.

Trustee Pam Zentmyer asked about mod-ifying the existing CCR schedule so that,every half hour, buses would take in the Ve-lociFeeder stops as well as the in-town stops.

But Johnson told her that RFTA believesthe existing CCR schedule must be retained,regardless of any expansion of service.

Trustee Katrina Byars, lining up withZentmyer, pressed White and Johnson aboutsomehow altering the existing service, de-claring, “To me, right now, the access (to busservice) isn’t equitable.”

She wondered why the CCR must beheld to a 15-minute frequency, when reduc-ing that frequency might make it possible toextend service to other parts of town.

“The seniors really feel left out,” she said,referring to residents of the Crystal Mead-ows senior housing complex off HendrickDrive, who have been agitating for bus serv-ice for years.

The mayor, following last week’s RFTAboard meeting, said there appears to besome agreement on the board that the CCRservice could be altered somehow in a waythat is not too expensive for either the townor RFTA, although exactly how that couldhappen remains a matter for future debate.

One idea, Bernot said, is to shift the routeof the CCR to the south, perhaps eliminat-ing stops along Colorado Avenue but addingstops at Crystal Meadows and perhaps someof the schools in the southern part of town,as well as the Third Street Center.

Another, she said, might be to put a bal-lot question to local voters for a special taxto fund the expanded in-town bus service,although the town’s board of trustees hasbacked away from that idea in the past.

She said town staff members will be work-ing with RFTA planners to come up with al-ternative proposals in the coming weeks.

In-town, circulator bus a hard sell with RFTA


aligning the entryway to the southern endof the campus; and permitting school yardsto encroach on the right-of-way.

None of that seemed to bother thecounty, however, as the subject of encroach-ment was not a main theme at the March18 meeting.

Instead, the theme was the commission-ers’ continuing drive to find some way thatthe school and the public could use theright-of-way in a manner satisfactory to all,despite the school’s continuing expression ofconcern about school security.

That concern remains a key underlyingaspect of the controversy, for Leahy, at least.

It is the school’s position that the roadshould not be open to public travel becauseof concerns about student safety and cam-pus security, although some of the school’scritics have expressed doubt about whetherthat is a valid reason to limit public access toa rural road right-of-way that is more thana century old.

IncidentsDuring a walk along the old right-of-

way, Leahy recounted several incidents

that have solidified that concern over theyears, starting with a series of thefts sev-eral years ago from what once was the“New Boys Dorm” adjacent to CountyRoad 108 as it approaches the bridge overthe Crystal River near the school.

Leahy explained that the thefts oc-curred during several of the school’s bi-weekly “formal dinners” in the Bar ForkCafeteria, times when the faculty andstudent body would gather for anevening meal.

“Anybody who knew our patternsknew that everybody, the entire school,would be in there every other Wednesdaynight,” and could break in without worry-ing much about getting caught.

Which someone did more than once, hesaid, carrying off computers, mainly,crimes that he said was duly reported tolaw enforcement but were not solved.

Other, more recent incidents includedone a short time ago this year, when a mo-torcyclist drove along the path into thecampus from the north, along the oldright-of-way, and proceeded through theschool grounds and onto the present rem-nant of CR106/108 that takes vehicles ei-

ther to Carbondale or to the west upThompson Creek or toward Aspen Glenand Glenwood Springs.

In addition, Leahy said, a golf cart ofsome sort recently drove up the trail fromDolores Way, stopping a short distance in-side the campus boundary, which Leahysaid was another case of motorized tres-pass on school grounds.

And in years past, he said, school offi-cials often would find “a random carparked alongside this road (the right-of-way) at night,” occupied by non-CRMSteenagers doing the things teenagers do.

One basic fear of school officials, hecontinued, is that “within the right-of-way,if I am an estranged parent, I can stand onthis right-of-way and impede my child’smovement across the right-of-way, goingto another part of the campus.”

He quickly added, “That’s not some-thing that’s happened to us. It’s an issuethat we would say, ‘is that a possibility?Yes,’” and is a large part of why the schoolsought to have the road vacated as a pub-lic right-of-way in the past.

“None of us can predict something likeColumbine,” Leahy went on, conceding

that bringing up the 1999 mass shootingsat Columbine High School in Littleton,Colorado is an “easy, cheap issue” in ar-guing for greater security at CRMS.

But, he stressed, “We’re not that con-cerned about our neighbors, people thatwe know, whether they’re a family bikingthrough or whomever.”

The goal, he said, is “to have control, ifwe felt like somebody would be inappro-priate (come onto the campus), at least tobe able to say to somebody, hey, we’d re-spectfully like you to leave.”

Asked when the concern about securitygot its start, he said, “I don’t know wherethe genesis of that is. I couldn’t tell youwhere that all began.”

But he said, “I think we’re all thinkingthe same way,” meaning the faculty, ad-ministration and students.

Regardless of such issues, however,the school and its neighbors have nowbeen charged with coming up with acompromise solution that creates a ded-icated, clearly marked trail, possiblypaved, that will carry the public from oneend of the campus to the other for theforeseeable future.

CR106 om page 3

Scuttlebutt Send your scuttlebutt to [email protected].

Town of Carbondale

Board & Commission Vacancies

The deadline to apply is June 3, 2015

Applications and descriptions of all Town Boards & Commissions can be found at www.carbondalegov.org

The following vacancies are available:

Board/Commission: Open Positions:

Planning & Zoning Commission

1 Alternate Member*

Environmental Board 4 Members Public Arts Commission

6 Members

Board of Adjustment & Appeals

5 Members

Tree Board 2 Members Historic Preservation Commission

2 Members

Bikes, Pedestrian & Trails Commission

3 Members

*Applicants must live within Town limits

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND CELEBRATIONPutting Contest

11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Saturday - Monday Putt your way to a free beer/softdrink and other prizes.Not a golfer? Not a problem! If you can walk, you can putt!

Holiday Happy Hour4 to 6 p.m. Saturday - MondayHalf-price drinks and appetizers

Ironbridge Grill Holiday HoursJoin us for lunch, dinner, or cocktails!

SaturdayLunch - 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.Dinner - 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Sunday & MondayLunch - 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

970.945.4300www.ironbridgeclub.com


art aRound Towners announcedThe Carbondale Public Arts Commis-

sion recently announced the artists chosenfor its 2015 Art aRound Town exhibitionand the local sculptors are Joe Burleighand Mark Cesark of Carbondale. CPACchose a total of 14 sculptors from aroundthe U.S. for the exhibit, which will beplaced around town for the next year. Thisyear, Colorado Stone Quarries donated 10marble pedestals for the sculptures; trans-portation was donated by Girardi’s HeavyHaul. The new sculptures will be unveiledduring a public walking tour with the artistsstarting at 5:30 p.m. on June 4. On a relatednote, the James Surls sculpture “Sewing theFuture” (in the new roundabout) will bededicated at 5 p.m. on June 5, with a recep-tion following at the Launchpad.

Vote for People’s ChoiceThe entries in the Mountain Fair poster

contest are displayed in the CarbondaleBranch Library until June 1 and folks can casttheir votes for the People’s Choice award.Mountain Fair organizers recently an-nounced that Chris Ford’s design was chosenby judges for this year’s T-shirt and poster.

Hoop newsThe Carbondale seventh and eighth

grade All Star basketball teams won threeout of four games at the Vail Shootout lastweekend. After dropping a one-point gameto Glenwood, the seventh graders re-

bounded with an over-time win against VailValley 32-29. The eighth grade boys startedthe day with a 42-19 win over Vail Valley.Led by Oscar Mirandas’s five three-point-ers, plus five more from the rest of the team,the eighth graders then beat Eagle 52-15.

JaS recognizes student musiciansJazz Aspen Snowmass recently an-

nounced the JAS 2015 Outstanding Studentawards from the recent Band Battle. LyleLuckett was named from Roaring ForkHigh School and Joe Salinas from Carbon-dale Middle School. Other winners were:Margo Wagner, Grace Abraham and RosieRushing (Aspen), Daniel Barnes and EmilyNorthrup (Basalt), and Sofia Gamba andBryce Risner (Glenwood Springs). BestGarage Band honors went to The Brink;Best Singer/Songwriters went to JacobFowler and Hoyt Benson. The 2015 JASMusic Instructor award went to BasaltMiddle School/Basalt High School Band Di-rector Nick Lenio.

The heat is onThe Colorado State Patrol (CSP) and

other agencies around the state are steppingup enforcement for the Memorial Dayweekend, according to a press release. Theenforcement period will begin at 8 p.m. onMay 22 and continue through 3 a.m. onMay 26. “CSP troopers will have zero tol-erance for drivers under the influence of anysubstance that may affect their ability to op-

erate a motor vehicle in a safe manner,” thepress release said. “Troopers will also be onthe lookout for any other traffic infractionsthat could lead to serious injury or death toinclude speeding, inattentive to driving, dis-tracted driving, and unsafe lane changes.”

News from art GoodtimesThis is a little far afield for The Sopris

Sun poetry desk but what the heck. ArtGoodtimes reports that Rosemerry Wah-tola Trommer of Placerville was named theWestern Slope Poet Laureate during Talk-ing Gourds poetry performances at the sec-ond annual Telluride Literary Arts Festivalon May 16.

FS info center movesThe Forest Service’s West Hallam visi-

tor center is moving to the Aspen High-lands ticket office as of May 26, accordingto a press release. The relocation is due to“budget challenges.” On a related note, theForest Conservancy is looking for volun-teers to help staff the center. For details,call 963-8071.

They say it’s your birthdayFolks celebrating their birthday this

week include: Charlie Chacos (May 22); TaiJacober (May 23); Patti Hall and Tom Mer-cer (May 24); Charlie Cook (May 25); SueHopper (May 26); and Richard Glasier(May 27). Belated birthday greetings go outto Bartlett (May 15).

Aspen Valley Hospital recently namedCarbondale resident Marcella Knable as itsNurse of the Year. Her many nominationsnoted that she always goes the extra milefor patients and colleagues, is genuinely in-vested in patient care and “exemplifies” thenursing profession in every way. “This is ahumbling award and a reflection of theamazing team effort within the hospital,”Knable said. “I am so honored to call thisvalley home and so lucky to call this hos-pital our own.” Courtesy photo

Sopris Sun Staff Report

After a local and national search, RoaringFork Schools named Matthew Koenigsknechtas the new principal for Crystal River Ele-mentary School and Peter Mueller as thenew principal for Basalt High School, ac-cording to a press release.

Koenigsknecht is currently working as aRitchie principal intern at Harrington Ele-mentary School, which is part of DenverPublic Schools. The Ritchie intern is matchedfor one year with a mentor principal that hasbeen selected because of their high level ofproficiency in developing and empoweringindividuals to grow as leaders, allowingKoenigsknecht to earn his principal licensurethrough the graduate program at Universityof Denver.

“Matthew is already familiar with theRoaring Fork Valley. Prior to HarringtonElementary, he spent last summer as the as-sistant program manager for Summer Ad-vantage USA at Basalt Elementary School,”said Superintendent Diana Sirko. “As a re-sult of his time last summer in Basalt he isexcited to take advantage of the many out-door opportunities our valley offers.”

Koenigsknecht (aka “Mr. K”) has spentsix years in the classroom as a language arts

teacher in the Denver Public Schools, work-ing with more than 50 percent English lan-guage learners and 88 percent who receivefree or reduced lunches.

He earned his undergraduate degreefrom Washington University in St. Louis

and is a candidate for a master’s in educa-tional leadership and policy studies fromUniversity of Denver with an expectedcompletion date in June 2016.

Mueller is currently the project direc-tor at The Nature Conservancy where he

is leading the Conservancy’s effort to re-store, protect and enhance the DoloresRiver. Prior to the Nature Conservancy, hewas the middle and a high school princi-pal at the Telluride R-1 School Districtfrom 2004-2007. He was also director atthe Rocky Mountain Academy in Ever-green, Colorado, a K-8 school, where hewas responsible for hiring, evaluating andguiding instruction for 22 full and part-time teachers.

“Peter is also very familiar with theRoaring Fork Valley, having spent almost10 years as a teacher at Colorado RockyMountain School and five years as the di-rector of CRMS’s outdoor program,”Sirko said.

Mueller graduated in 2001 from theHarvard graduate school of education andearned his undergraduate degree in gov-ernment from Colby College in 1987.

“I am really excited to be working withboth Peter and Matt,” said RE-1 Chief Ac-ademic Officer Rob Stein. I have knownboth of these educators for at least a fewyears, and had the opportunity to see themwork. It has been a pleasure getting toknow them through this search and selec-tion process.


�� Early Deadline for

In observance of Memorial Day on Monday, May 28,

the ad reservation deadline for the

Thursday, May 31 issue is 12p.m. Friday, May 25.

In observance of Memorial Dayon Monday, May 25

the ad reservation deadlinefor the

Thursday, May 28 issue is5 p.m. Friday, May 22.

overlook, has become more and more con-gested in recent years, and it’s not uncom-mon for users to pull into the area and find20-30 boaters scattered here and there, wait-ing to get the crafts into the water. “… peo-ple parked in some pretty stupid places,”Fotopulos observed.

Fotopulos and a few other guides had toldColorado Parks and Wildlife officials aboutthe problems at the Carbondale boat launchduring various roundtable discussions butwere told if they really wanted to get some-thing done they should form an associationwith other like-minded guides. “They (CPW)said we’d get more recognition.”

The guides began organizing themselvesand through the winter started working withthe CPW’s John Groves to layout the area.The guides also pitched in money for profes-sionally designed and manufactured signsthat meet CPW specifications. The upshot isthat a boat launch user who hasn’t pulled histrailer down the dirt road that leads to thearea this year should be pleasantly surprised.

Leading into the area, parallel to the riverfor about 150 feet, “Staging area” signs areposted that direct users into three slots. Fromthe staging area, boaters pull their trailers tothe clearly marked “launch area,” which isabout 20-30 yards north of the actual launchramp. Assuming the driver can back histrailer that far in a fairly straight line, thelaunch can handle up to three boats at a time.

Roaring Fork Fishing Guide Alliancemembers worked with Groves on a recentThursday and set the signs. Casey Concretedonated the concrete for the posts.

As for future projects, Fotopulos said theassociation hopes to educate the public inriver etiquette (For example: it’s the boater’sresponsibility to maneuver around a wadingangler when the boater approaches, not theother way around). He said the associationalso plans to upgrade the West Bank boatlaunch near Iron Bridge.

For more info on the Roaring Fork Fish-ing Guide Alliance, check out their Face-book page.

Boat launch om page 1

Before the Roaring Fork Fishing Guide Alliance, it was every boater for himself at thelaunch below the Highway 133 bridge. Now, thanks to signs the alliance posted, thegoal is to get boaters on their way downriver within five minutes of arrival. Photo byLynn Burton

District names new Crystal River Elementary, Basalt High School principals

Matthew Koenigsknecht is the new princi-pal at Crystal River Elementary School. Heis currently working as a Ritchie principalintern at Harrington Elementary School,which is part of Denver Public Schools.Courtesy photo

Peter Mueller is the new principal atBasalt High School. He is currently proj-ect director at The Nature Conservancy,where he is leading an effort to restore,protect and enhance the Dolores River.Courtesy photo


ART Riannah Weaver, Debbie Bruell

TOWN OF CARBONDALE Jeff Jackel, Larry Ballinger and crew,

Sandy Joyner and Cathy Derby

ENVIRONMENTAL BOARD Julia Farwell, Jeff Lauckhart, Matt Gwost,

Jason White, Richard (Scott) Mills, Chris

Ellis, Patrick Hunter

VOLUNTEERS Steve Weaver, Sam Schroyer, Crystal & Paul Holsinger, Rick Blauvelt, Jim Vickroy, Matt Adeletti, Phi Filerman, Olivia Pevec, Karen Hess, Darrell MacAulay, Barb Jackson, Annie Worley, Colleen Goodrich,

Tom Brunner, Adrian Fielder, Carol Klein, Jenn Lauckhart, VG Gorman, Richard Vottero, and everyone who

showed up on Dandelion Day and pitched in to help. SPECIAL THANKS TO John “Doc Dandelion” Philip

STAGE MASTER OF CEREMONY: Ben Ludlow STAGE HELP: Lucas Turner, Marty Rynearson DANDY SONGWRITERS/PERFORMERS: Steve Skinner, Jimmy Byrne, Sydney Picard, Dan Rosenthal, Sue Kre-

biel, Eaden Shantay, David Starbear, Patrick Fagan, Mike Waters, Tim Brogdon, Olivia Pevec, Alejandra Rico,

Anakeesta Ironwood, and support musicians including Asha Ironwood, Pam Rosenthal, Paul Holsinger

BANDS: Dragonfly Song Circle, Louie Girardot and the Dandy Lions,

SOL Theater, Saddle the Unicorn, Wooden Nickel

Thank you To everyone who helped make the

17th annual Dandelion Days a huge success and a whole lot of FUN!

From the Dandelion Day PLANNING

COMMITTEE Stacy Stein, Sue Gray, Can-

dace Goodwin, Alyssa Re-

indel, Robin Van Norman

ASSOCIATED EVENTS Stephanie Syson, Kathy and Bob Ezra, David Teitler, Katrina Blair, True Nature Healing Arts, Carbondale Acupuncture Center, Soozie Lindbloom,

Ngoma African Dance Troupe, Katrina Byars, Will Evans, Linda Criswell, Chrissy Manes, Grace

Stahlschmidt, Jimmy Dula, Adrian Fielder, Jason Evitt, Casey Piscura, Cody Skurupey

Indoor Garden & Brew Supply, Hadley Hentschel & Roaring Fork High School Ag Bio

SPONSORS RFTA

Co Mtn College

Alpine Bank

RA Nelson

KDNK

Insight Construction

EverGreen Events

RF Beer Company

The Sopris Sun

CORE

Ragged Mountain

Sports

New Jammies

Brite Ideas

ACE Hardware

Premier Party Rent-

als

Community Oven

Sunsense

Basalt Thrift

CCAH

of all I wish to acknowledge all the presen-ters and musicians, too numerous to list indi-vidually, that gave their time and energy toenhance and inspire the vibrant quality of ourunique community.

The wealth of talent and wisdom in ourcommunity goes without saying. We areblessed in so many ways and I am deeplygrateful for providing this networking oppor-tunity. I hope the seeds planted in this venuewill continue to grow and blossom and bearfruit that feeds everyone for years to come.

Please join us for a unique communityhealing experience with John Norton onMay 27 with his Sound Healing Therapy.

With loving gratitude,Lisa Dancing-LightCarbondale

Jazz thanksDear Editor:

We would like to thank Mr. Gray and JazzAspen Snowmass for all the help and supportthey have given us with music while we havebeen at Carbondale Middle School. We havebeen very fortunate to have Chris Bank andMark Johnson, as well as all the other JazzAspen musicians who come to our school andwork intensively with us. Jazz Aspen also sentour eighth grade jazz band to the University ofNorthern Colorado Jazz Festival this pastApril for an amazing experience. We want tothank everyone who has made this possible.

Band and working with great musicianshas made middle school a much more excit-ing experience. Our end of the year band con-

cert is Wednesday, May 27 at 7 p.m. at Car-bondale Middle School. Please come!

Carbondale Middle SchoolEighth grade band

Magic happensDear Editor:

Magic happens and it happened at theColorado Opera’s performance of “Romeoand Juliet” at the Third Street Center. Fromthe free youth workshop co-hosted by SOLTheater and CCAH to the performance andreception, the magic reigned. The CarbondaleCouncil on Arts and Humanities, and operachairwoman Sondra Reiff, would like tothank the magic makers who worked so hardto make this evening a success.

Much gratitude to Linda Criswell, LeanneEustis, Lee Beck, Carol Klein and Jane Hartfor the planning and preparation of the opera.Of course it takes patrons and we had a stel-lar group this year including Linda and RussCriswell, Sue Edelstein and Bill Spence, LeannEustis, Connie Calaway, Cheryl and RogerBaumgarner, Judy Welch, Sondra Reiff, Janeand Dick Hart, and Lee Beck and John Stick-ney for helping to bring this art form to Car-bondale. It couldn’t have happened withoutour merry band of creatives like Deb Colley,Laura Stover, Shawn Tonozzi and Brian Col-ley, as well as the talented Jennifer Michaudof SOL Theater and the great staff at theThird Street Center. Of course we could notdo it without the help of many wonderfulvolunteers and the incredible audience. It wasa thrill to see so many ages come out and get

a taste of beautiful music and theater. Nextyear Opera Colorado will be performing“Carmen.” We hope to see you there!

Sondra ReiffAmy KimberlyCarbondale

More on smart metersDear Editor:

Concerning the May 15 Sopris Sun articleabout smart meters, a debt of gratitude isowed to Gary Duncan for raising awarenesson wireless radiation toxicity associated withsmart meters in the Roaring Fork Valley andentire Tabeguache Plateau. Duncan, the 20-year executive director of Smart Shelter Net-work, an electro hypersensitive refugee, andinternational biophysics researcher in envi-ronmental allergenics was our expert Q&Apanelist at the “Take Back Your Power” doc-umentary screening on May 7 at the CrystalTheatre. Duncan also contributed expert ad-vice on the smart meter issue at the towncouncil meeting on May 12.

Sincere thanks to Gary for traveling herefrom his off-grid, microhabitat in Moab,Utah and your devotion to this serious topic.

Betsy BloutRedstone

From the RebekahsDear Editor:

Bike Week dramatizes our intentions as acommunity to attend to our use of resources. Sohow are we doing in other respects? For example,recycling, or for a modern term – re-purposing?

If we look at the excellent consignmentshops in our midst we are doing well. TheNear New is unique because it is not a con-signment shop. It’s entire proceeds after ex-penses and taxes provide help to numerouscommunity groups and efforts.

Members of the local Rebekah Lodge, asmall, hard-working group whose creed isthe Golden Rule, enlist volunteers to sort anddisplay items that can be re-purposed. TheRebekahs are an international organization.

Some donations go to shelters for ani-mals. Rags are bagged for painters. Handi-cap equipment is stored and rented to thosein need. Items for which there is no room arepicked up for distribution. All of the work isdone by volunteers.

The Rebekahs have led the way in this ef-fort since 1973. Next door to the building onThird and Main is Friendship Park, providedby the Rebekahs who added benches inmemory of past Rebekahs.

Take pride in this effort, Carbonondalians,by not “donating” TVs, old fax machines,printers, mattresses or other undesirableitems. Please try to leave your donations dur-ing business hours – 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.– weekdays except Wednesdays, or call 963-0430 for more information.

Please, no potty chairs, baby tubs or bot-tles, sippy cups or water bottles. Respectthe volunteers.

Thank you, public, for all your dona-tions and purchases.

The volunteersThe Near New Store

Letters continued om page 2

We’re Growing!

963.1731 THE SOPRIS SUN, Carbondale’s weekly community connector • May 21-27, 2015 • 9

(Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of articles aboutMary Lilly).By David TroxelSopris Sun Correspondent

I recently asked Mary Lilly to tell me about the first timeshe ever laid eyes on Carbondale, and was rewarded with the“look” that anyone who knows her would have recognized:eyebrows slightly raised over bright grey-green eyes, soft butquizzical grin, and a gentle tip of her head, all clearly sug-gesting that I was asking the wrong question altogether.

“Really?” she replied with some amusement. “But that’sin the middle of the story! I’d better start at the beginning. Westarted out in California in 1936, and were interested in ski-ing in the mountains … .”

And off we went. For the next 90 minutes, Mary guidedme through much of the 99 years of a remarkable life thatwas woven through with strands of history, not only of Car-bondale and the Crystal River valley, but of a nation passingthrough some of the most significant cultural events of the20th century.

As she relates it, Mary Lilly’s journey to Carbondale beganin Pasadena, California, following her marriage in 1936 toJohn Lilly, then an undergraduate at the California Institute ofTechnology. She was an aspiring artist, and he was taking hisfirst steps toward world renown as one of his generation’sleading research scientists. Their first son was born in 1937,and following John’s graduation a year later the Lillys leapedacross the continent, landing in Hanover, New Hampshire,where John became a medical student at Dartmouth.

New EnglandIt was in the mountains of New England that Mary and

John became avid alpine skiers, and began to feel the pull ofthe slopes of the West. That calling, however, would waitwhile another son was born, and the growing Lilly family mi-grated to Philadelphia so John could transfer to the University

of Pennsylvania to finish his medical degree. In 1942, as theSecond World War intensified, Dr. and Mrs. Lilly finally tooka break and headed back west for some downhill fun.

“But we didn’t make it to the Roaring Fork Valley thattime,” says Mary. “We rented a cabin at the top of Route 70(now Interstate 70), skied to the bottom of the pass, and hada friend pick us up in a car to go back up. We did that for sev-eral days. It was wonderful!” From there, they might havecontinued on to Aspen, but the plan for this trip took them in-stead over Berthoud Pass and on to Alta, Utah, where John’sDartmouth skiing buddy (and soon-to-be Aspen skiing pio-neer) Dick Durrance was developing a ski area. Carbondalewould have to wait.

Back in Philadelphia, the Lilly family settled into the real-ities of life during wartime. Mary became a Red Cross nurseand worked on her undergraduate art degree, while Dr. Lillyconducted research into high-altitude flying at the university.“And of course it was wartime,” Mary recalls, “so everythingwas secret and everything was rationed. There wasn’t any but-ter, and you were allowed very little gasoline. There were

coupons for everything, coupons for meat, coupons for auto-mobile tires and all kinds of things.”

To relieve the pressures of urban life during the war, theLillys moved out to the suburbs, to Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.While living there, John and Mary tried to replace the sailingthey had enjoyed on the waterways further to the east withboating on nearby Brandywine Creek, but soon discovered thattheir four-person, rubberized kayak was too large for the smallriver. So they folded it up and packed it into their station wagon,along with sons Johnny, 14, and Charlie, 10, and headed westin search of a more suitable spot to launch their craft. Earliertrips through Colorado had suggested just the place.

“The Colorado River was the only big river that we knewabout that went someplace, and so we camped with junglehammocks at a little place on the river called No Name. Wewent on into Carbondale, looking for some other people withkayaks to go on the Nursery Rapids with us.” There they en-countered D.R.C. “Darcy” Brown (long-time Aspen Ski Co.president and brother of Ruth “Ditty” Brown Perry, anotherCarbondale grande dame and close friend to Mary), who di-rected them up the Crystal River to Janeway Campground.“He told us there was another couple there from the east, andthey had two boys, and he thought we’d enjoy meeting them.They were in the area looking for some property to start aschool, like the Putney School in Vermont, where they hadbeen working.”

So the Lilly family started up the nine miles of gravel roadto Avalanche Creek in search of the family that Darcy Brownhad thought they might like to meet. There, camping along theCrystal River, John and Mary Lilly met John and AnneHolden. It was 1951, and an important era in Carbondalehistory was about to begin.

Next installment: Colorado Rocky Mountain School isfounded, the Lilly family goes through hard times, andMary comes to Nettle Creek.

Mary Lilly: Memoirs of a Carbondale grande dame

3rd Thursdays @ Third Street is a new monthly

series highlighting community artists,

music, ideas & interests.

3rd Thursdays

May 21 @ 7pm

CommunityYogain the Gym at the Third Street CenterSee the 3rd Thursday Schedule @ www.thirdstreetcenter.net/events/3rdthursdays/

Mary and John Lilly (center) at their wedding inPasadena, California in 1936. Courtesy photo


Carbondale Chamber Quarterly LuncheonWednesday, May 2711:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.The Gathering Center at The Orchard110 Snowmass Drive, CarbondaleCost: $20 in advance, $30 day of the event

Luncheon Presentation Topic:

Advocating for Trust and Ethics- Today and with Tomorrow’s Workforce: Both online (social media and Internet commerce) and offline.

CARBONDALE CHAMBER520 S. Third Street,

Suite 3P.O. Box 1645

Carbondale, CO 81623P: (970) 963-1890F: (970) 963-4719

[email protected]

Lunch Provided By:

The Carbondale Chamber and Oni Butterfly, BusinessRelations Director of the Better Business Bureau ServingNorthern Colorado and Wyoming, would like to invite ALL Roaring Fork ValleyChamber members and their guests to our next Quarterly Lunch. Join us onWednesday, May 27 to hear Carrie Rossman, Director of the Better BusinessBureau’s Institute for Marketplace Trust, serving Northern Colorado and Wyomingpresent on safeguarding customer information, internet safety, building trust andinstilling ethnics, and more.

THIS EVENT IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Lunch will be provided by Village Smithy

For more information and to register, contact the Carbondale Chamberat (970) 963-1890 or [email protected]

SAVE THE DATE

Photo by Marlene Collins

Learn the basic skills of Fly Fishing!

A Fund Raiser for Casting for Recovery

Beginners to Intermediate

Saturday, May 23 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Dallenbach Ranch in Basalt

Ladies Fly Fishing Clinic

To join us Contact: Paula Fothergill

970-379-2102 or 970-230-9300 or Scott @ Taylor Creek Fly Shop

303-884-4305

$100 Minimum Donation (tax deductible)

All proceeds benefit Casting for Recovery and to establish a Western Slop Retreat in Western Colorado

A 501c3 educational non-profit to benefit Women breast cancer survivors.

Community Calendar To list your event, email information to [email protected]. Deadline is noon on Monday. Events takeplace in Carbondale unless noted. For up-to-the-minute valley-wide event listings, check out the CommunityCalendar online at soprissun.com. View events online at soprissun.com/calendar.

THURSDAY May 21CHIEFS CHaT • Carbondale Police ChiefGene Schilling and Fire Chief Ron Leachmeet the public over cups of coffee at theVillage Smithy the third Thursday of themonth. Get there from 8 to 9 a.m.

PaDDLING FILM FEST • The RoaringFork Conservancy and Shaboomee Stand UpPaddleboarding present the Reel PaddlingFilm Festival from 6 to 9 p.m. at the ThirdStreet Center. Tickets are $18 at the door.

OPEN HOUSE • The Community Pre-school in Woody Creek (formerly the EarlyChildhood Center) hosts an art party andopen house from 4 to 6 p.m. at the WoodyCreek Community Center. The preschoolserves kids from toddler through pre-kindergarten.

HEaRT TaLK • Aspen Valley Hospitalcontinues its Heart Smart lecture series atnoon with Dr. Gordon Gerson talking aboutexercise and the myths associated with ex-treme exercise and health. Info: 544-1389.

ROTaRy • The Mt. Sopris Rotary meets atMi Casita at noon every Thursday.

FRIDAY May 22MOVIES • The Crystal Theatre presents“The Water Diviner” (R) at 7:30 p.m.May 22-28; “Ex Machina” (R) at 5:15 p.m.May 23-24 and “While We’re Young” (R)at 5:15 p.m. May 25.

LIVE MUSIC • Steve’s Guitars in the oldpart of the Dinkel Building presents livemusic every Friday night. Info: 963-3304.

LIVE MUSIC • The Beatles tribute bandDoctor Robert kicks of the Glenwood Cav-erns Adventure Park’s Music on the Moun-tain series at 6 p.m. Starting at 4 p.m., tramrides are free in exchange for a canned fooddonation for LIFT-UP.

LIVE MUSIC • Riversrestaurant in Glen-wood Springspresents Sol Pa-trol (originalColorado alt.rock) from 9p.m. to mid-night. No cover.Coming up May29, Leonard Curry Trio.Coming up on Fridays in June: Dry Hol-low, Leonard Curry Trio, Valle Musico,Nanogram. Info: 928-8813.

SKaTEBOaRDING • Carbondale Recre-ation Department continues a four-week ses-sion of skateboard lessons with ChrisJohnson today and on May 29. The lessonsare for beginners (4:30 to 5:30 p.m.) and in-termediates (5:30 to 6:30 p.m.) from 5-12years old. The fee is $60. Info: 510-1290 orcarbondalerec.com.

SATURDAY May 23COOKOUT • Sweet Leaf Pioneer, at 1101Village Road (next to Gianinetti Park), holdsa 21-and-over cookout. Info: 963-8420.

SUNDAY May 24BIRD COUNT • The Audubon Society’sSpring Bird Count from El Jebel to GlenwoodSprings takes place. This is for residents with

a bird feeder or active nest who are willing tolet someone come count the various specieswho visit. To register your home, e-mail Maryat [email protected].

MONDAY May 25MEMORIaL Day CEREMONy • American

Legion Post 100 holds a Memorial Day cer-emony at the White Hill ceme-

tery at 10 a.m., followedby a ceremony at theEighth Street cemetery.

TUESDAY May 26

PaINTING NIGHT •CCAH hosts another Art &

Wine Break, this one featuringacrylic painting, from 6 to 8:30

p.m. in Suite 15 of the Third Street Center.CCAH provides the teacher (Lisa Singer)plus wine and snacks. Reserve your spot atcarbondalearts.com.

WEDNESDAY May 27COMMUNITy RIGHTS DISCUSSION •Cliff Willmeng of the Colorado CommunityRights Network speaks at the Third StreetCenter from 6 to 8 p.m. The title of Will-meng’s presentation is “Bringing DemocracyBack to Our Communities” and it touches oncorporate power, the 2016 CommunityRights Amendment and more. Admission isfree. Willmeng will also discuss bringingDemocracy School to Carbondale, accordingto a press release.

CHaMBER LUNCHEON • The Carbondale

Chamber of Commerce presents the BetterBusiness Bureau’s Carrie Rossman at the Or-chard at 11:30 a.m. She will talk about trustand ethics online and offline. The public is in-vited. Info: 963-1890.

BaSaLT LIBRaRy • Aspen Words presentsyoung-adult author Jandy Nelson for a talkand book signing from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. atthe Basalt Regional Library. Her book “I’llGive You the Sun” won the 2015 Printz Awardfor Excellence in youth adult literature. AspenWords will be giving away copies of the bookas part of its Catch & Release program. Comeearly, as books are limited. Info: 925-3122 ext.5 or Aspenwords.org.

SENIOR MaTTERS • The Senior MattersBook Club discusses “The Guernsey Literaryand Potato Peel Society” by Annie Barrows at4 p.m. All newcomers are welcome.

CULTURE CLUB • The Carbondale CultureClub presents John Norton “Sound HealingTherapy” at noon in the Third Street Center.

ROTaRy • The Rotary Club of Carbondalepresents Peter Wallison (former White Housecounsel and author of “Hidden in Plain Sight”)at the Carbondale Fire Station at 6:50 a.m.On June 3 it’s Carbondale Mayor StaceyBernot. Info: rotarycarbondale.org.

MINDFULNESS • Way of CompassionDharma Center in the Third Street Center hostsa meditation and Dharma teachings with John(Chophel) Bruna on Wednesdays from 5:30 to7 p.m. Info: 510-0583 or wocompassion.org.

BIRDING • The Roaring Fork Conser-vancy’s annual birding outing at the Maroon

CALENDAR page 11

POSTPONED


lli Whcn* Lu By:eddiov Be Pr By:

Carbondale Nature Park

Edible Landscape Planting DaySaturday May 23 from 9am-1pm

Help create Carbondale’s First Public Edible Landscape!Bring the whole family including the dogs!

Be a part of planting and mulching your new edible landscape around the solar array.

This landscape is a sustainable food source for the community and by the community!

Merrill Avenue and Fourth Street-Carbondale – Meet at the Solar Panels

The first ten people to show up will receive a $10 gift certificate from Eagle Crest NurseryGift cards to Bonfire Coffee will be given away as a thank you to the community.

To learn more call David Coon – Town of Carbondale Arborist at 970-510-1331or send an email to Jim Coddington at [email protected]

Community Calendar continued from page 10

Further OutTHURSDAY May 28IMMUNIZaTION CLINIC • GarfieldCounty Public Health offers immunizationclinics at the Carbondale Family ResourceCenter (400 Sopris Ave.) the second andfourth Thursday of the month. To schedule anappointment, call 945-6614, ext. 2030.

MOUNTaIN TO VaLLEy • The annualMountain to Valley Half Marathon and FAST4-Miler Races set out from Glenwood Parkin Glenwood Springs, with buses leaving at 7a.m. To register or for more information, goto mountaintovalley.com.

MONEy • Spiritual coach Dana Stovernpresents “Money is Energy: The Five MoneyMediumship Tools to Inspire Your MoneyPower” at 7 p.m. at the Third Street Center.Admission is $25.

SATURDAY June 20BIKE TOUR • Registration is under way atactive.com for the first Ride for the Child. The100-mile, 100K and 50K tour of the RoaringFork Valley is a benefit for Court AppointedSpecial Advocates for the Ninth Judicial Dis-trict (CASA). Sponsors include Aloha Moun-tain Cyclery, Alpine Bank and First Bank.

Save the DateSATURDAY June 20ROTaRy HaPPENING • The theme of thisyear’s Rotary Club of Carbondale Happeningis “Viva Mexico.” The night will be filled witha celebration of music, culture and cuisinefrom Mexico. There’ll also be a silent auction.Doors open at 4:30 p.m. and tickets are $125.To snap one up, e-mail Steve Skinner [email protected] or call him at 963-0139. Itall takes place at the Orchard (110 SnowmassDrive). Info: carbondalerotary.com.

SATURDAY June 27CaJUN CLay NIGHT • Music will be sup-plied by Electric Lemon, gumbo by AndreasFischbacher and bowls by Carbondale ClayCenter students and teachers at Cajun Claynight starting at 6 p.m. There’ll also be a silentauction, libations, crazy costume contest, kidsfair and the CCC’s famous gator cake. Info:carbondaleclay.org.

Creek wetlands in Aspen takes place from 7to 8:30 a.m. It’s free but registration is re-quired at roaringfork.org. Info: 927-1290.

FRIDAY May 29IPHONE PHOTOGRaPHy • Sue Drinkergives a workshop in iPhone photography

from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Launchpad. Thesession will begin with some basic pointerson how to compose a great photograph withexamples of each technique. Popular ma-nipulation applications will also be dis-cussed and demonstrated. Info: 963-1680 orcarbondalearts.com.

OngoingMayOR’S COFFEE HOUR • Chat with Car-bondale Mayor Stacey Bernot on Tuesdaysfrom 7 to 8 a.m. at the Village Smithy.

CCaH SHOW • The photography show“Walk with Me” continues at the Launchpad.The show features photographs created bywomen who are or have been participants inthe Valley Resettlement Project. The images in-clude a narrative from the photographers andis an opportunity to get to know your neigh-bors in a positive and open atmosphere. Info:963-1680 and carbondalearts.com.

MEDICaL CONSULTaTIONS • GregFeinsinger, M.D., a retired, board-certified fam-ily physician now working on a volunteer basis,will discuss health fair results or other medicalconcerns at the Third Street Center. For an ap-pointment, call 379-5718.

BRIDGE • The Carbondale Bridge Club meetsat the Senior Matters room in the Third StreetCenter Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. You musthave a partner and the fee is $3 per person.Info: 963-0425.

CaRBONDaLE LIBRaRy • The Carbon-dale Branch Library holds Family Story Timeevery Wednesday at 10:30 a.m., andTablab/Wii Gaming at 4 p.m. on Thursdays.

PaTHFINDERS • The grief and loss sup-port group Pathfinders meets at Core Heal-ing Arts 1101 Village Road, Suite 2D) from6 to 7:30 p.m. on the first and third Mondayof the month. Pathfinders is a non-profit,psychosocial support program for peopledealing with chronic illness, disability, be-reavement. Info: pathfindersforcancer.org or

319-6854 or 925-1226.

MINDFULNESS GROUP • The Mindful LifeProgram hosts a weekly meditation and mind-fulness group on Mondays from 7:30 to 8:15p.m. in Suite 28 at the Third Street Center. Allare welcome. Info: 970-633-0163 or mindful-lifeprogram.org.

MINDFULNESS MEDITaTION • Discus-sions about mindfulness meditation and Bud-dhist philosophy take place from 9 to 10:30a.m. on Sundays at Carbondale CommunitySchool. All are welcome and mats/cushions areavailable. Info: 970-618-1032.

MEDITaTION • Silent meditation is held atthe Launchpad from 6:45 to 7:30 a.m. onMondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Pleasebring your own cushion or chair. Info: medita-tioncarbondale.weebly.com.

SOUL DaNCE • Core Healing Arts presentsSoul Dance at the Launchpad on Sundays from4 to 5:30 p.m. Dance experience is not neces-sary and drop-ins are welcome. The cost is $15per session. Info: 319-6854.

LIVE MUSIC • Dan Rosenthal hosts open micnights from 8 to 10 p.m. every Wednesday atRivers restaurant in Glenwood Springs.

TWO-STEP TUESDay • Foot stompin’ funcontinues at the Third Street Center RoundRoom from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. The cost is $8 perperson/$14 per couple. Info: meetup.com/RFV-Dance/events/219969549.

JaZZ JaM • The Hotel Colorado in Glen-wood Springs continues Jazz Jam Mondaysfrom 7 to 9:30 p.m. All abilities are welcome.Info: Hunter Damm at 319-7853.

Next to City Market in El Jebel, 400 E Valley Rd. Ste I/J 963.1700 Open M-F 9-6:30pm | Sat/Sun 10-5pm

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RAW, DRY, CANNED & TREATS

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On Wednesday mornings, after a Tuesday night Council meeting, visit in an informal setting with Basalt MayorJacque Whitsitt for coffee and a chat at Saxy’s Coffee Shop, 104 Midland Avenue.

This is a great opportunity to share your thoughts,make comments and catch up on what’s happening in Basalt. All issues and topics welcome.

The next Coffee with the Mayor is:

Wednesday, at 8 a.m.

Coffee with theMayor

970-927-4384144 Midland Avenue, Basalt, Colorado 81621

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Polis Foundation recognizes BMS teacherSopris Sun Staff Report

Basalt Middle School teacher MaryBright recently received the Jared PolisFoundation’s 2015 Teacher Recognitionaward. Bright, a seventh grade science andliteracy teacher, was one of 10 teachers inthe state of Colorado to receive the award,according to a press release. The awardhonors a teacher’s dedication, hard workand passion for the profession. They must

be nominated to be eligible.“Mary stays on the cutting edge of ed-

ucational reform,” said principal Voss. “Sheimplements new ideas and she does it right.Her classroom is a highly reflective spacewhere kids learn to be students. While shehas awesome growth scores, students get somuch more out of her class, and she doesan excellent job of walking the line betweencharacter and academic learning. She’s an

amazing teacher.”Voss said he nominated Bright for a va-

riety of reasons, including her commitmentto all types of learners, her effective teachingmethods, her work to improve the schoolcommunity, and her leadership and profes-sional expertise among peers.

Every year since 2002, the Jared PolisFoundation has honored 10 Colorado pub-lic school teachers during May’s National

Teacher Appreciation Month. The missionof the foundation is to help support teach-ers, increase access to technology andstrengthen communities. This year the foun-dation received nearly 60 nominations fromacross the state. In addition to state-widerecognition, a winning teacher receives a$1,000 discretionary prize, a $1,000 grantto improve a teacher’s classroom and/orschool, and a tablet of the teacher’s choice.

Artists needed to create Pencil Garden in BasaltSopris Sun Staff Report

Cash prizes of $1,500, $1,000, $500 and$250 are being offered for an art installationin downtown Basalt called the Pencil Garden.

“Artists, creators, designers and dreamersof all ages and abilities are invited to inter-pret what the pencil, the humblest of all artsupplies, means to them,” said a press release.“There are no restrictions; pencils of allshapes, sizes, and materials are encouraged.”

The Wyly Art Center and town of Basalt

are partnering together to create the PencilGarden, which will be located in the eastend of Lions Park.

The Pencil Garden is one component ofa town-wide arts and cultural transforma-tion plan developed by The Wyly Art Cen-ter and town of Basalt. The plan is designedto spark cultural engagement, civic and so-cial vitality, and economic revitalization.“Basalt’s arts and cultural assets are vital toour downtown’s redevelopment,” said Mike

Scanlon, Basalt town manager. “The pres-ence of community art, like The Wyly ArtCenter’s Pencil Garden, will increase atten-tion and foot traffic downtown by attract-ing visitors and increasing the length of timeand money they spend in Basalt.”

Jay Magidson, the president of the WylyBoard of Directors, said “The Art Center isconstantly working to enrich our commu-nity through the expansion of art and artseducation. Creating inspiring public spaces

like the Pencil Garden will provide oppor-tunities for visitors to relate, connect, pause,think, and grow.”

Artists are invited to submit an applica-tion by June 15 with the final work due byJuly 15. The sculpture garden will be un-veiled on Aug. 8 during the Wyly’s “PencilUs In” gala.

For more information, contact NickAceto at 720-317-5797 or e-mail [email protected], or go to wylyarts.org/events.



Grand Spring Fling WeekendMay 23 and 24

Come in and celebrate your love of gardening with us.It’s Memorial Day weekend and it’s time for everyone in the valley to get out and plant something!

STORE HOURS � Open Memorial Day �Mon.-Sat. 8AM-6PM | Sun. 10AM-5PM

IT WILL BE THE PLACE TO BE.

• Prize Drawings• Refreshments• Specials

• Garden Inspiration• Unique Plants• Great Atmosphere

• Fun• Flowers• and More!

Eagle Crest Nursery400 Gillespie Drive, El Jebel, Colorado 81623

970-963-1173EagleCrestNursery.com

LADIES’ NIGHT TONIGHT (MAY 21) 5:30-7PM. FUN, FRIENDS, SPECIALS AND WINE! WOMEN ONLY

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The Valley’s Highest Grade Cannabis

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165 Southside Drive | Basalt In Basalt’s Southside: Turn off of Highway 82, then

right past Big O Tires, Roots RX is 1/2 block on left.

Store hours: Mon.-Sat. 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Last call 6:45 p.m.

970.539.WEED

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Visit our Eagle Vail Location For All Your Rec. Needs and visit Holistic Health Care for your Medical needs!

Community Briefs Please submit your community briefs to [email protected] by noon on Monday.

Help plant town’s edible gardenIndividuals, families and even family dogs

are invited to help plant the town’s edible gar-den at the Carbondale Nature Park (aka De-laney dog park) from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. onMay 23. The first 10 planters to register re-ceive a $10 gift certificate from Eagle CrestNursery; gift cards from Bonfire will also begiven away. Peppino’s pizza will providelunch. For details, call 510-1331.

River float opportunityThe Roaring Fork Conservancy’s North

Star float on the Roaring Fork River takesplace from 5 to 8 p.m. on June 4 and June 17.The free, two-mile guided float drifts throughsome of the most important wildlife habitatin the Aspen area. During the float, staff willgive a history of the North Star Open Space,point out wildlife and discuss recent restora-tion activities. Note: the float is dependentupon river flows and may be cancelled due toextremely high or low flows. An inflatablekayak, paddle and PFD will be provided, ac-cording to a press release. Personal water-crafts are not allowed. Space is limited to 16participants for each float. To register, go toroaringfork.org/events. Meet at the Wild-wood put-in east of Aspen. Info: 927-1290.

CMC draft budget available The 2015-16 draft budget for Colorado

Mountain College is available for viewing atany CMC location, or by going to the col-lege’s website. To download the document, go

to www.coloradomtn.edu, then choose thepull-down menu for “About.” Click on“Board of Trustees,” and then “Budget &Audit.” The budget can also be accessed di-rectly at http://coloradomtn.edu/about-cmc/board_of_trustees/budget_audit/.

The college’s board of trustees is sched-uled to vote on the proposed $59.5 millionbudget at its June 18 meeting at the Col-orado Mountain College campus in SpringValley, according to a press release.

Drop ’em some coinFolks who’d like to make a tax-de-

ductible donation to the upcoming SummerMusic Series in Sopris Park can send a checkto Carbondale Town Hall, 511 ColoradoAve., Carbondale, CO 81623. Make itpayable to the Town of Carbondale. Noteon the memo part of the check “SummerMusic Series” or “SMS.” The town will senda letter of acknowledgment. The series runsthe second Sunday of the month from Junethrough August.

Hoop newsThe Basketball Summer of Dreams 10,000

Shots shooting clinic takes place from 6 to7:30 p.m. on June 8-10 at Carbondale MiddleSchool. It’s for boys in grades 6-8 and the costis $5. There’ll be contests and prizes. There’llbe open gym from 10 a.m. to noon on Tues-days and Thursdays with an emphasis onshooting and ball handling in June and July.The cost is $1 per day. Competitive play is of-fered from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays starting

on June 16. For details, call Joe Markham at963-1109 or e-mail [email protected].

Library notesHeading out of May and into June, the

Carbondale Branch Library has all kinds ofevents planned, including a Harry Pottermovie marathon starting on June 3, Gaming& Lunch starting on June 4, the Starletts at6:30 p.m. on June 4, Movie Matinee & Lunchstarting on June 8, robots starting on June 11and more. For details, go to gcpld.org.

Emergency 911 callsHere are the Carbondale Fire District’s

911 calls for the week of May 10-16:• Medical emergencies (12);• Trauma emergencies (5);• Fire alarm responses (2);• Motor vehicle accident (1);• Citizen assist (1);• Medical alarm response/

malfunction (1);• Gas alarm response (1);• Smoke alarm response (1).

Roaring Fork senior Jose Lopez (in gold, earlier in the season) took second place in the110-meter hurdles at last weekend’s Class 3A state championship track meet at Jef-ferson County Stadium. Lopez also tied for third in high jump with a leap of six feet.Roaring Fork’s Lyle Luckett placed 12th in the 1600-meter run; Emma Cooley placed13th in high jump. Photo by Roark Roney

SunScribe!Support your Carbondale community connector

Because you live, work or play here, you’re already a “member” of �e Sopris Sun community.

SunScribe online at www.soprissun.com

As a non-profit community service, we can only thrive and grow with your support.


Hot-button issues of standardized testing and opting out(Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-partseries on standardized testing in schools).

By Debbie BruellSopris Sun Correspondent

Across the nation, resistance to “high-stakes,” standardized testing in public schoolsis growing.

Increasing numbers of students and par-ents are boycotting the tests, or “opting out.”

Several districts in Colorado saw signifi-cant percentages of students opting out thisyear. District officials in Boulder estimatedthat 47 percent of high schoolers and 14 per-cent of middle schoolers did not participatein the first round of testing this spring.

The state of Colorado has been grapplingwith the question of whether to penalize dis-tricts with high percentages of students optingout. Federal law requires a minimum of 95percent participation rates statewide, withpenalties for lower participation rates (in-cluding a loss of up to $346 million of Title 1federal funding for Colorado). However, optout advocates say this threat is an empty one.According to research by the National Centerfor Fair and Open Testing (fairtest.org) “... noschool or district anywhere in the country hasever been penalized for failing to test enough(95%) of its students.”

On the last day of Colorado’s recent leg-islative session, a testing-related bill was fi-nally passed and is expected to be signed bythe governor. This bill, HB 15-1323, guaran-tees parents the right to opt students out oftests, guarantees that students won’t sufferany consequences for opting out, specifiesthat districts cannot discourage studentsfrom taking tests, and reduces state-man-dated testing by about 26 percent.

In our own little corner of the world inCarbondale, one can find passionate argu-ments on all sides of these issues of stan-dardized testing and opting out of testing.

State-mandated testingThe state has mandated a variety of tests

that must be administered in all publicschools, including charter schools. (Carbon-dale charter schools include Ross MontessoriSchool and Carbondale Community School).

The most time-consuming and contro-versial of the state-mandated tests are thePARCC and CMAS tests. The PARCC (Part-nership for Assessment of Readiness for Col-lege and Careers) tests English and mathskills. This school year, every student in

grades three through 11 was required tospend a total of 9.75 to 11 hours (dependingon the grade level) on PARCC testingthroughout the year. HB-1323 eliminatesPARCC testing in grades 10 and 11.

For the 2014-15 school year, students ingrade five, eight and 12 were required to betested in science by the CMAS (ColoradoMeasures of Academic Success) for a total offour hours spread across multiple days; stu-dents in grades four, seven and 12 were re-quired to do four hours of social studiestesting by the CMAS. HB-1323 eliminates allrequired CMAS testing for 12th graders,adding one science and one social studiesCMAS test during high school.

In addition, the state required the fol-lowing testing for the 2014-15 school year:an assessment to monitor the language de-velopment of English Language Learners;the Colorado ACT to evaluate college readi-ness of all 11th graders; and an assessmentto monitor students’ literacy developmentin kindergarten through third grade. Forthis last assessment, Re-1 schools are usingthe DIBBELS assessment: teachers sit downindividually with each child for 15-minutesessions to evaluate each child’s readingabilities. The new bill reduces the literacydevelopment assessment from five or sixhours per year to two or two and a halfhours per year. It also adds the ACT Aspiretest for 10th graders (a college and work-force readiness exam).

Pros and consRoaring Fork School District Superin-

tendent Diana Sirko told The Sopris Sun thatwhile she would like to see some reduction inthe amount of testing required, she sees greatvalue to nationally normed tests “becausethey give each district a benchmark to say,‘How do we compare with other studentsacross the state and across the nation?’”

And why is it important for schools tomake these comparisons? One of the pri-mary reasons cited by Chief Academic Offi-cer Rob Stein is to address the issue ofinequality in education: overall, the U.S. ed-ucation system is failing to meet the needs oflow income students.

As Stein told The Sopris Sun, “Our edu-cation system has institutionalized low per-formance for some subpopulations ofstudents, even though some schools are get-ting remarkably high results for those samesubpopulations. Without a standard meas-

uring stick, how will we know which schoolsare getting those remarkable results so thatwe can learn from them?”

Sirko referred to a recent local talk byeducator Ron Berger, who taught for 25years in a high poverty school in rural Mas-sachusetts. Berger noted that his students’test scores provided an independent meas-ure to validate his non-traditional approachto education, which otherwise might havebeen disregarded.

Sirko and Stein also point out that par-ents and students have a right to knowwhether schools are teaching them what theyneed to know. Stein told the Sun, “I feelhighly concerned when a school says, ‘We’redoing fine in how we are teaching those sub-jects (reading, writing, math),’ and the stan-dardized tests say, ‘Your kids aren’t learningvery much.’”

He points to the valuable informationthat Roaring Fork High School has gainedfrom the results of the ACT college entranceexam (which is also mandated as a state-wide assessment). While graduation rates atRFHS are high, ACT scores for some sub-groups of students are low. Stein explainedthat results from the ACT have helped theschool identify ways in which the school issetting the bar too low in terms of what is re-quired for a passing grade.

A second potential purpose of standard-ized testing is to monitor and provide insightinto individual student progress. Sirko toldThe Sun that schools need some standard-ized measures to make sure that kids are“staying on track” and receiving early inter-vention if they need it. As she stated, “Wedon’t want to wait until the ACT to find thatthey’re behind in their learning.” Sirko re-ferred to the large number of high schoolgraduates across the country that need totake remedial classes before they’re ready forcollege-level classes.

Sirko noted that teachers are constantlymonitoring students’ progress — usingeverything from informal, daily check-inswith each child to classroom quizzes — andthat these types of assessments can providemore robust and detailed information abouta child’s learning than a standardized test.However, she explained, it’s also importantto have an “external validator” as a way forteachers to confirm their sense of each stu-dent’s progress.

Stein said that for the tests to be useful interms of monitoring individual student

progress, there needs to be a quicker “turn-around time” for getting those results (rightnow it’s about six months) and “more de-tailed reporting that makes sense to teachers,students and parents.”

While the above purposes for standard-ized testing may seem reasonable to many ormost, others claim that in the U.S. educationsystem today, tests are being overused andmisused. Tests have not just been used toidentify ways to improve student learning,critics argue, they have been used to punishschools and teachers whose students get lowtest scores.

The “high stakes” that have been at-tached to low test scores include replacingschool staff, schools being taken over byprivate entities (to operate the schools aspublic schools), and, more recently, impactson teachers’ individual evaluations.

Critics argue that high-stakes testing isresponsible for a variety of problems withschools, including: a narrowing down ofthe curriculum in many schools to a boring“teach to the test” approach to learning; afocus on aspects of students’ education thatcan be easily measured by standardizedtesting and an undervaluing of thingswhich cannot be easily measured (such associal/emotional development, creativity,critical thinking and teamwork); a highlevel of anxiety among teachers and stu-dents around testing; private testing com-panies draining resources away fromschools; and tests being used to label neigh-borhood schools in poor, urban communi-ties of color as “failures” and to shut themdown without providing a positive alterna-tive for these students.

Sirko and Stein, as well as the two schoolboard members who live in Carbondale,Matt Hamilton and Karl Hanlon, all spokewith The Sun about problems and limita-tions they see with the current state-man-dated, standardized testing system. They allagreed that the state has mandated toomuch standardized testing, that test scorescan never give a complete picture of aschool program or a student’s learning, andthat connecting test scores with punitivesanctions is problematic. However, each ofthem also cited problems with using optingout as a way to make necessary changes inthe testing system.

The second part of this article will lookat some local perspectives on the issue ofopting out.

Laterals welcome to apply. Spanish speaking is a bonus.

Refer to www.carbondalegov.org for more information and application.

Deadline is June 1, 2015 by 5 p.m.

Town of Carbondale

Police Department is now accepting applications

for the position of

POLICE OFFICER I AND II

problem of increasing temperatures. Increasing temperatures are creating new weather patterns

in our mountains. Snowfall is taking place over a shorter timeperiod and the depths are decreasing. Unfortunately the “bas-soon” section of the symphony is starting too soon. The otherorchestra sections can’t change quickly enough to remain inharmony. In this valley, that could mean the blossoms comeon the trees before the pollinators have arrived to do their jobor a frost kills these early blossoms. Oddly, this summer, ourvalley is expected to have cool and rainy weather because

there is unusually warm water in an area of the Pacific Oceanthat generates the El Nino that sends us the moisture. Theocean has become warmer because it is absorbing much ofthe excess heat produced by greenhouse gases. The rate ofevaporation increases and warm air can hold more moisture.

The picture I am painting is a cautionary tale. The objectis to make us more aware of the kinds of changes that arehappening and that are increasing in impact. This awarenesscould affect the way we live our everyday lives and the choiceswe make. We should also be aware that the problems thatwere thought to be global, and to be some unknown numberof years in the future, are already here.

SurveyI have begun taking a survey of local folks. It consists of only

one question: what should be the maximum number of peoplein Carbondale; (that means ever)? The current population isgiven as 6,600. The average response so far is about 8,000, orroughly an increase of 20 percent. This could mean that ourtown fathers should be looking at a “budget” that each newdevelopment application would be tested against. This limit isfar less than the number used by CDOT and other state agen-cies that are projecting a doubling of our population.

Do we really want a doubling of the traffic on Highway82? Do we really want to try and live with the increasing pol-lution? Are we not going to do our part to control our localgreenhouse gas emissions that can only increase as popula-tion increases?

Here is one more factor to weigh in on the decisions. Ourvalley relies heavily on the ski business, which relies in turn onthe timely and sufficient annual snowfall. Snowfall appearsto be changing. Also, a recent article on the state’s ski businessidentifies some changes in business from changes in demo-graphics. It appears that “millennials” (the folks born in theearly 1980s to the early 2000s) are skiing at only about halfthe rate of the “boomers.” Plus, skiing is not getting anycheaper and Americans in general are making less income.

Taking this story as a whole, I for one am persuaded that avery prudent wait and see attitude should be taken with growth.I think we should be asking ourselves if the scenario above istrue, what should we be doing to prepare ourselves. We need towork toward a sustainable future that includes children with-out pollution-impaired brains or allergy induced breathing.

Patrick Hunter is a Colorado Mountain College sustainabil-ity studies student, the Outreach and Education member ofthe Carbondale Environmental Board, and a member of thelocal Citizens’ Climate Lobby. He lives outside Carbondale.

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$449,900www.garfieldhousing.com

618-0319 or 625-3589

OPEN HOUSE Sun., May 24, 3-5pm

WINDSHIELD REPAIR AUTO GLASS REPLACEMENT

DAVID ZAMANSKY

Owner Operated

CALL US NOW!

997700--996633--33889911

500 Buggy Circle, Carbondale, CO

A CRACKED WINDSHIELDis NOT SAFE for you

and your family

Grab and GoLocal Grass-fed

Beef Burgers

By the LocalsFor the Locals

Locally raised beef and produce

220 Main St, Carbondale | 970-963-1569fatbellyburgers.com | [email protected]

FATBELLYBURGERS

SaladsIce CreamN

EW

!

745 Buggy Circle in Carbondalewww.sunburstcarcare.com

970 963 8800970 963 8800

We Sell Tires!We Sell Tires!

970 963 8800970 963 8800

Legal NoticeORDINANCE NO. 5Series 2015

AN ORDINANCE OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEESOF THE TOWN OF CARBONDALE, COLORADOAPPROVING AN INSUBSTANTIAL AMENDMENTTO THE ZONE DISTRICT TEXT FOR THE CLEVE-LAND PLACE II PLANNED UNIT DEVELOPMENT.

NOTICE: This Ordinance was introduced, read, andadopted at a regular meeting of the Board ofTrustees of the Town of Carbondale, Colorado, onMay 12, 2015.

This Ordinance shall take effect thirty (30) days afterpublication of this notice. The full text of said Ordi-nance is available to the public at www.carbondale-gov.org or at the office of the Town Clerk, 511Colorado Avenue, Carbondale, Colorado, during nor-mal business hours.

THE TOWN OF CARBONDALE_________________________By: s/s Stacey Bernot, Mayor

ATTEST:__________________________s/s Cathy Derby, Town Clerk

Published in The Sopris Sun on May 21, 2015.

ORDINANCE NO. 6Series 2015

AN ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN OF CARBON-DALE, COLORADO, EXTENDING THE CAP ONRETAIL MARIJUANA STORES, PRODUCTS MAN-UFACTURING, CULTIVATION, AND TESTING FA-CILITIES UNTIL JULY 1, 2017.






ORDINANCE NO. 7Series 2015

AN ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN OF CARBON-DALE, COLORADO, APPROVING REVISIONS TOTITLES 5 AND 9 OF THE MUNICIPAL CODE OF THETOWN OF CARBONDALE REGARDING MEDICALAND RETAIL MARIJUANA LICENSING PROCE-DURES, PERSONAL POSSESSION, GROWING,PROCESSING, STORING, & DISPOSING OF MAR-IJUANA & MARIJUANA PLANTS.






303 Main St. • Carbondale • 963-3940 • OPEN 7 DAYS

SPEND $50,GET $5 OFFSPEND $100,

GET $10 OFF

NOW ACCEPTING SPRINGCLOTHING AND ACCESSORIES

GRANDOPENING

FREEMEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND COOKOUT

963U4208420 Open Mon. - Sat.

10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

1101 Village Rd., Carbondale, CO 81623 (Next to Gianinetti Park)

MUST BE 21+

SWEET LEAF PIONEER

MAY23

Memorial Day weekend

joints for $4.20

Give-a-ways!with purchase

while supplies last

1/8ths starting at $20

Check out our Dab-Lab

“Carbondale just got a little sweeter”

SWEET LEAF PIONEER

RAFFLEfor a $4.20 OZwith purchase

15 05 21 new

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