Pedro Rivera, aka Da Walrus, will return to host 5 Point's family-friendly, bilingual program on Sunday. This year's films emphasize people telling their own stories in the ways they’d like for them to be shared. Courtesy photos
MYKI JONES
Arts Correspondent
The 18th annual 5 Point Film Flagship Festival is underway, featuring ticketed and free events that offer something for everyone to enjoy. This festival is dedicated to showcasing stories of adventure and discovery. Audiences can expect to feel inspired by the diverse and exhilarating stories shared from throughout the world.
While 5 Point officially kicks off April 24 with a welcome reception that is free and open to the public, on Wednesday, April 23, four former and current female Olympic athletes and professional Nordic ski racers will speak on a panel called “Making the Jump: A Conversation on Gender Equity in Nordic Sports.” This conversation will be held in collaboration with the Mount Sopris Nordic
Council at 689 Main Street.
These stories serve as a reminder that resilience and strength don’t always come from struggle — they can also be built through laughter, fun and adventure,
- Charlie Turnbull, 5 Point director of programming
Annika Malacinski, who is featured in the short documentary “Annika: Where She Lands” by Mike Schwartz which will screen on Friday night, will be one of the panelists.
“I think events like this are important to the Roaring Fork Valley because we all live here for a reason,”
5 Point Interim Executive
Director Aisha Weinhold told The Sopris Sun. “This valley is not easy to exist in, and there's something that pulls us in and keeps us here.”
She continued, “For many of us, it is the access to recreation being a part of this really incredible community. I think it’s so special to have an event celebrating the vibrancy of our community that invites people in from the entire Valley to have a collective experience around sports or adventures or stories that are very core to the reason why we are in the Valley in the first place.”
Attendees can anticipate high-spirited and free community gatherings through the Sopris Sessions with live music continued on page 10
Sheep Wars
CONTENT WARNING: this article contains descriptions of violence and animal cruelty.
In an article in the Steamboat Pilot on March 1, 1929, “Stock Owners Waged War for Northwest Colorado Range,” E.V. Haughey wrote:
“In the early 1870s, the northwestern part of Colorado and that part of Wyoming lying along the north boundary was noted for its superb grazing on open ranges. Cattle were trailed from Texas and other southern states … and turned on this range. Then sheep commenced to come … and it developed that sheep and cattle did not do well on the same range together, and the sheepmen and cattlemen quarreled over who had the right on the range.
“In 1922 a man by the name of Durnell had a small band of sheep in western Moffat County. He was warned that the sheep would not be tolerated, and unless he moved them there would be trouble … he answered that he would kill anyone that molested his sheep. One morning he was found dead, being killed by someone unknown. Also quite a number of the sheep were killed.”
The incident was resolved without violence, but other sheepmen weren’t so lucky.
Bair’s story:
“The winter of 1920-21, there were several Greek and Basque sheepmen coming into the country. A Greek sheepman … was roped and beaten over the head until the blood soaked through his hat. Another Basque was shot and killed.
OPINION
“In some respects, one couldn't blame the cattlemen. The old tales about the sheep leaving a smell that would cause the cows to quit the range, and the sheep eating the grass two or three inches below the ground, had been handed down from father to son for several generations, until many of them believed it.”
Between the 1870s and 1920s, at least 54 men were killed and tens of thousands of sheep were slaughtered, in what came to be called the Sheep Wars. As a sheepman in the early part of the 20th century, Elmer Bair experienced firsthand the violent opposition by Western Slope cattlemen. Bair’s autobiography, “Elmer Bair’s Story, 1899 to 1987,” reads like a Larry McMurtry novel. He describes an incident that occurred while he and his partner were wintering their sheep in the Utah desert:
HISTORIOGRAPHY
By Sue Gray
“A group of cattlemen were trying to control the Book Cliff Mesa country from Cisco to Green River, Utah. This covered the country we wintered in … They stayed at a rock cabin in a canyon between Crescent Canyon and Horse Canyon. When the herder was away from camp, the cowmen … piled all the equipment such as saddles and etcetera in the tent, soaked it with kerosene and set it on fire. When they were doing their dirty work they always wore black mufflers over their faces. They were known to catch a lone herder out by himself, rope him, tie him up … and beat him almost to death.
“I heard George let out a yell. Putting the spurs to the mule, I headed for camp as fast as I could. I arrived just in time. The masked men were rounding a cedar knoll in front of the camp. I turned my mule sideways, slid off with my rifle and sat where I could see under the mule’s belly with a bead drawn on the man that had the reputation of being the most trigger happy.
“George came out of camp with the gun in one hand and a box of cartridges in the other. George told the men, now if you want those sheep moved you try to move them! It had taken the wind out of [their] sails … when they saw me there, since they thought George was alone. They told us, ‘We'll go down a half mile and mark a line with some cedar boughs and if you and the sheep are not around there by tomorrow morning, we'll be back and drag you around. Then they headed back the way they had come.”
LETTERS
CORRECTION: The names of the flutist and pianist in last week’s article, “Sip and savor with Carbondale P.E.O. to benefit local women,” were swapped. Jennifer Gary is the flutist, and Karen Tafejian the pianist.
Re: Sexual assault
This is in response to Jeanne Souldern’s letter last week: “Sexual Assault.” I totally agree with her opinions and questions. Three weeks ago, someone tried to get in my front door after dark. Since the assault on Nov. 2, 2024, I have locked my storm door and deadbolted my front door. I called Carbondale police. Two nights later, the intruder banged on my front door after dark again. I called the police once more. I, too, live on the Carbondale bike path.
Has the DNA evidence collected from the Nov. 2 assault been processed? We need to be informed through the media or police department what has been done to apprehend the rapist so hopefully we can all rest a bit easier.
In truth, sheep don’t interfere with cattle or degrade the grazing area. Conflicts such as sheepdogs chasing cattle away from watering holes, combined with a hefty amount of prejudice, fueled the Sheep Wars.
But the problems weren’t limited to the winter range.
Bair’s story:
[In 1919, ] “The word was out that Maine, Bair and Dunston had purchased the Allen Ranch between Glenwood Springs and Gypsum. The Cattlemen's associations in Eagle Valley and Cattle Creek were up in arms. The men [Maine, Bair and Dunston] received several threatening letters from the Cattlemen's Association.
“One letter… signed by 33 cattlemen, said they would meet the sheep at the stockyards in Dotsero and if the sheepmen didn't turn back they would shoot the first sheep and men that went out through the fence.”
By the 1920s, the horrendous toll on men and sheep prompted action from the government.
The Glenwood Post, Feb. 7, 1924:
“Federal warrants for the arrest of 12 Garfield County cattlemen, some of them wealthy and men of prominence, were issued Friday … following investigation of the sheep and cattle war that has been waged on the Western Slope.”
In 1934, the passage of the Taylor Grazing Act, introduced by Edward T. Taylor, a Congressman from Glenwood Springs, empowered the Department of the Interior to regulate grazing districts on public lands by granting permits to ranchers. In 1946, the Taylor Grazing Service and the General Land Office were merged as the Bureau of Land Management.
Elmer Bair’s sheep business thrived well into the 1940s. Bair’s success allowed him to purchase property on Cottonwood Pass and in Marble, as well as a home at 116 South 8th Street in Carbondale, where he lived until his death in 2002 at the age of 104.
“Elmer Bair’s Story, 1899 to 1987,” is available at the Carbondale Library and the Carbondale Historical Society’s Lending Library.
I have lived in the same home in beautiful Carbondale for 46 years. I can’t imagine living anywhere else now. I’m aware that times have changed, but let’s keep in mind that we should take care of each other’s safety.
Sam Hayes Carbondale
Re: Library report
Thank you Megan Webber for writing an article, April 9, about the library board meeting. It is good to know the American flags were used by members of the audience. They were supplied by Protect Our GarCo Libraries, a non-partisan group working to keep our libraries free of censorship.
The end of the article put a light on Myrna Fletchall, the Rifle trustee, bullying Adrian Rippy-Sheehy. This has been going on for the better part of a year. In early spring, Fletchall’s emails were subject to a Colorado Open Records Request, which provided proof that Fletchall received the documents, spreadsheets, etcetera she keeps demanding. Why
does she continue to bully Adrian? Myrna, please stop.
The photo gave me a chuckle. The Carbondale trustee, who chronically shows up late, is seen shuffling through her bag during the meeting. Not surprised one little bit.
The integrity of our library system is part of the American culture. We can ProtectGarCoLibraries.org
Susan Use Glenwood Springs
Carbondale proud
In the 10 years I’ve lived here, I’ve been proud of Carbondale many times. Never more so than last week.
On Friday, there was the Mountain Perspectives presentation at The Arts Campus at Willits presented by The Sopris Sun, moderated by Aspen Public Radio and featuring political analyst Ken Rudin who had some dire predictions about the future of our country in the near term. It may have
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ASPEN VALLEY
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Garden days
Bee Friendly Carbondale invites you to help prepare pollinator gardens at the Thompson House, 301 Lewies Lane, on Saturday, April 26 and May 3, from 10am to 2pm. Snacks, refreshments and tools will be provided; volunteers are asked to bring gloves.
Paint recycling
In alignment with Earth Day, PaintCare — a nonprofit that operates Colorado’s paint stewardship program — announced that 841,412 gallons of leftover paint were collected from Coloradans in 2024, an increase from the year prior. This program is funded by a small fee applied to all new paint sales and the recycled paint is processed into latex-based products and fuel. Find a drop-off location near you at www.paintcare.org/states/colorado
Spring clean-up
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Hilary Porterfield
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Carbondale’s spring clean-up and recycling event will take place May 10 from 8am to 2pm. Carbondale residents will receive discounts and fee waivers to recycle some items. Metal, wood, mattresses, tires, appliances and electronic and hazardous waste will all be accepted (excluding ammunition/explosives/fireworks, radioactive waste, flares, biohazardous waste and fire extinguishers). Seasonal yard waste can be dropped off May 3 and every other Saturday through September. Prescription drugs will be received by the Carbondale Police Department on April 26 from 10am to 2pm.
Outdoor equity funding
Colorado Parks and Wildlife is accepting applications for its Outdoor Equity Grant program, aimed to increase access to outdoor recreation activities for underserved Colorado youth and families. Organizations helping to instill a sense of wonder, excitement and responsibility for the environment in local youth can apply for up to $100,000 per project. This program was created in 2021 through the state legislature and is funded through the Colorado Lottery. Applications are due by June 2 and grants will be distributed March 31, 2026. Learn more and register for a April 30 webinar by visiting cpw.state.co.us/outdoor-equity-grant-program
Snowmass upgrades
With the skiing season concluded, Aspen Snowmass prepares to break ground on nearly $80 million in on-mountain improvements at Snowmass, including two new high-speed chairlifts, complete reconstruction of the Ullrhof restaurant and upgraded snowmaking infrastructure. Forest health and safety projects are also planned on all four Aspen ski mountains to improve wildlife habitats and reduce wildfire risks while improving terrain for recreation.
Homelessness
According to the Common Sense Institute, a non-partisan research organization, the state’s population of unhoused people grew by 90% since 2020 — the fourth-highest growth rate in the nation. Homelessness in the Denver metro area reached a record high of 9,977 unhoused individuals in 2024. The report suggests that “housing first” policies are not proving effective, whereas a “work-first” model in El Paso County (Colorado Springs) resulted in a drop in homelessness.
CORE funding
Atlantic Aviation, the company that recently secured a 30-year lease agreement as the fixed-base operator at Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, has committed a $300,000 challenge grant to support the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) with climate action initiatives in the Roaring Fork Valley. For every $2 CORE raises by the end of 2025, its 30th anniversary year, Atlantic Aviation will give $1 up to $300,000. In the Roaring Fork Valley, the transportation sector accounts for nearly 35% of regional greenhouse gas emissions, with aviation contributing more than 30% of all transportation emissions, a press release elaborated.
Teachable Moments has done an annual Earth Week Trail Clean-Up since 2020. “We started gathering as Young Community Stewards (neighborhood kids) and turned into a group of early childhood kiddos (Teachable Moments),” educator Traci Turner explained. “We have the luxury of walking on the Rio Grande Trail every day during school. We always hope to leave it cleaner than we find it.” Each April, Turner’s class does a big push to clean their stretch of the trail, from 27th Street to Rosebud Cemetery in Glenwood Springs. “I hope everyone has time to get out and clean up some trash,” Turner added. “Happy Earth Week!” Courtesy photo
Dwindling snowpack
A Roaring Fork Conservancy snowpack and river report from April 17 revealed that warm, dry and windy conditions are worsening drought conditions in our watershed. Snowpack fell to 68% of normal for this time of year, a 20% decrease from the week prior. Meanwhile, local rivers were flowing up to 165% of normal.
I-70 delays
Beginning April 28, motorists can anticipate delays on I-70 at Vail Pass as a project aimed to improve safety and traffic flow resumes. In May, there will be daily eastbound and westbound single-lane closures from Mile Point 185 to 190. In June, rock-scaling activities will require traffic holds Monday through Thursday from 9:30am to 2:30pm. Later in the summer, traffic holds will occur one or two days a week while helicopters lift avalanche mitigation materials into place. To sign up for text alert notifications, visit COtrip.org or text “vailpass” (one word) to 21000.
State transit
The Colorado Department of Transportation is taking a fresh look at the state’s transportation investment priorities and building a plan to help deliver on those priorities for the next 10 years. There will be a series of telephone town halls to gather public input. Residents of Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin counties are encouraged to join a call on Tuesday, June 3 from 6:30 to 7:30pm. To sign up, visit: www.bit.ly/CDOTinput
They say it’s your birthday!
Folks celebrating another trip around the sun this week include: Enrique Abarca, Dick Gibson, Robin Scher and Holly Tullar (April 24); Julio Maciel, Tom McDonald, Hope Sontag and Stephen Shapiro (April 25); Gayle Embrey and Susan Jordan (April 26); Donni Cochran, Sandy Ekier, Rachel Gillespie, Wewer Keohane, Sloan Shoemaker and April Spaulding (April 27); Wes Boyd, Julie DeVilbiss and Julia Morton (April 28); Enzo Bonzi, Diana Sirko and Luis Yllanes (April 29); Thomas Cochran, Alexandra Jerkunica and Gretchen Stock-Bell (April 30).
High school seniors get a jump on EMS, firefighting careers through concurrent CMC classes
JOHN STROUD Sopris Sun Correspondent
Roaring Fork High School
senior Hank Cerrone admits he’s not a big fan of high school, but an opportunity offered by his school, the Carbondale Fire Department and Colorado Mountain College (CMC), may very well secure a future career for him.
“I’m the kind of person who likes to really jump onto things,” said Cerrone, who’s looking to enlist in the U.S. Army as a medic after he graduates next month.
CMC’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and firefighter training courses are offered in partnership with local fire districts and the Roaring Fork School District to be taken by high school seniors concurrently with their regular classes.
“Having the chance to learn about what this field looks like has really opened my eyes to a possible career path,” Cerrone said.
While he’d prefer to hone his skills in the military, rather than following the volunteer training path toward a full-time position if he were to stay in the Roaring Fork Valley, he said he does hope to one day bring his emergency medical skills back home.
Jennifer Taylor is the training captain for the Carbondale and Rural Fire Protection District, and one of the course instructors along with Morgan Huffnus, lead EMS instructor for CMC’s Carbondale and Aspen campuses.
She also got her start in emergency services as a high schooler.
“I was going to be a teacher, but then I got sucked into volunteering for the local ambulance and fire department because I thought it would be good for scholarships,” Taylor said.
“And then I just never left.
“So, I understand where these kids are coming from,” she added.
“And it's such a great career path, if this is what they choose to do.”
Taylor notes that first responder agencies across the country are short-handed, as a lot of older, experienced people are retiring and there are not enough younger recruits.
“It's becoming a national crisis for how we're going to get these boots filled,” she said.
To begin addressing that concern locally, three years ago CMC, the school district and Carbondale Fire came together to start the concurrent enrollment program for local high school students.
For the first two years, basic fire
and emergency medical responder (EMR) courses introduced students to the first responder world.
This year, the more expansive Introduction to Emergency Services was added, which covers a variety of related career opportunities, including law enforcement and emergency dispatch. Older students who have already turned 18 can also take the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) class.
Huffnus said the program has grown in recent years, especially as more class options were added.
“It’s fun to get them started on this path a little bit early, so that when they graduate high school, they can go test and maybe jump right into an IV [intravenous] class, and they're very hireable after that,” Huffnus said.
Roaring Fork seniors Emerson Kennedy and Morgan Fink both plan to expand upon what they’ve learned through the CMC program as they go on to college.
Kennedy took a pair of wildland firefighting courses last summer, and enrolled in the EMT course with an eye toward studying fire science at the University of Montana.
Because he’s a type one diabetic, he wasn’t sure if he could go into the
emergency services field.
“Working with my instructors in these classes, it taught me that I can be in the EMS field and do some of these cool things that we’ve learned about,” he said.
Fink said she took the EMT course at the suggestion of a friend, and it didn’t take long for her to realize that it wasn’t just fun, it could also be a career path for her.
“I'll be going to Fort Lewis College in Durango next year, and I'm hoping to get on with their volunteer fire department,” she said.
“The more time I spend with it, the more passionate I become about it. I'm really grateful for this opportunity, and to not be limited by my age.”
Department during the fall semester.
“I've been interested in being a firefighter since I was three years old,” he said. “I plan on going to Colorado Mesa for a two-year fire science program, with hopes of coming back here to the Valley to work.”
Taylor wishes she’d had the same opportunity when she was still in high school.
“To be able to create a path for these young people to enter our career field is huge for us as a community, and for fire and emergency medical services as a whole,” she said.
Kalin Loeffler is a senior at Glenwood Springs High School who interned with the Glenwood Springs Fire
Colorado Mountain College Emergency Services concurrent course program high school students, from left, Hank Cerrone, Emerson Kennedy, Morgan Fink and Kalin Loeffler, pictured in front of the antique fire truck at the Carbondale Fire Station. Photo by John Stroud
Carbondale Fire invites you to April 29 wildfire preparedness meeting
JAMES STEINDLER
Contributing Editor
On Tuesday, April 29, the Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District (Carbondale Fire) will host a wildfire preparedness meeting at the station, 301 Meadowood Drive. There will be real-time Spanish interpretation available during the meeting.
Pablo Herr, the assistant fire chief at Carbondale Fire, has been with the agency for 15 years and volunteered with the Aspen Fire Department for 12 years before that.
Carbondale Fire hosts wildfire preparedness meetings each year ahead of “what we consider wildfire season,” said Herr, “which once was pretty distinctive here in the state of Colorado.” These days, he added, wildfires can occur year round.
The 2021 Marshall Fire in Boulder County, for instance, ignited on Dec. 30 and resulted in the evacuation of about 35,000 people and two deaths.
“We want to address your concerns about what you can do to be ready and protect your home, your family and your community,” Herr told The Sopris Sun. “We don’t know when the wildfire will happen, but we want you to be ready.”
He said that there are steps people can take to make sure they “get in front of this stuff,” just in case. Hopefully, it doesn't come down to it, but for people who aren’t prepared their personal response won’t be nearly as measured.
Herr said the April 29 meeting is a great opportunity to meet the people who are looking out for the community when it comes to emergency preparedness and response. Carbondale Fire Chief Rob Goodwin along with representatives from federal land agencies and local law enforcement are expected.
Attendees will also learn about evacuation plans, and a representative from The Red Cross, which is tasked with organizing emergency shelters, will also be present.
Once the snow starts to melt, larger-scale fire preparedness efforts get underway, such as prescribed burns. That’s when the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and local departments, like Carbondale Fire, coordinate burning certain areas to create breaks should a wildfire spread there.
“We understand that we are really at nature’s whim; we can only remove the fuel,” said Herr. “We can’t control the weather. We can’t control the topography.”
Local fire departments will send someone to your home to conduct a wildfire assessment to determine whether it is up to snuff. “And the cost is free,” added Herr. People can visit the Roaring Fork Wildfire Collaborative’s website (www.rfvwildfire.org) to sign up for an assessment; alternatively, they can call their local fire department.
Speaking to the equitable access of the event, Herr said that the department wants “to be very involved with our Latino population as well as Age-Friendly Carbondale. They’re very important to us.” Age-Friendly Carbondale is a local advocacy group that aims to create access for people of all ages and abilities.
Each person has their own unique situation and should have a plan that coincides with their needs. At this event, Carbondale Fire and other emergency responders can fill people in on the best approaches for folks under varying circumstances.
It’s better to have things in line in case of an emergency than to be unprepared and panicked. In the heat of the moment people who do not have a plan often forget to gather
what matters and may grab superfluous items instead. Herr gave an example of a person who had been evacuated twice, the first time having run out of their home with a roll of stamps and the second time bringing their passport — neither being very useful under the circumstances. Having a prepared go-bag will prevent such a scenario.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency recommends that each person be prepared with 72 hours worth of essential supplies — including food and water.
People can submit questions prior to the meeting online at www.bit.ly/WPM425 There will also be a Q&A session at the end of the meeting, which is scheduled from 5:30 to 6:30pm.
Sopris Lodge residents Carol Crum and Beverly Fox show off their new emergency kits following an emergency preparedness presentation on April 15. Claudia Kirby of the American Red Cross and Pablo Herr of Carbondale Fire
New Castle Library sowing seeds for beautiful communities
ANNALISE GRUETER
Sopris Sun Correspondent
Like many libraries, the New Castle Branch Library loans more than just books. In 2024, in honor of Earth Day, it launched a new community resource: a seed library. Patrons can take up to five seed packets per month using their library card. That means interested gardeners can potentially plant very diverse gardens over the spring and summer.
The program is supported by community members, who can donate seeds with relevant information. Donations must include the name, variety, area of origin and date harvested (within the past two years). Planting and care instructions are also appreciated, to help patrons who are newer to gardening.
The program was highly popular last year, so much so that at the beginning of this month, it sprang for a second year. Branch Manager Ana Gaytan shared more about the program with The Sopris Sun.
“Last year we had wild flowers and vegetables,” she said. But the program was so successful that “this year we have wildflowers, vegetables and herbs.” The 2024 program debut saw 86 participants from Glenwood Springs, New Castle, Silt and Rifle take out over 200 seed packets. Gaytan hopes to see those numbers double this year.
The program was empowering for those who partook. “People were excited to have an opportunity to grow vegetables or wildflowers,” Gaytan explained, sharing several anecdotes. “A patron said she was able to try to grow vegetables that she thought would not grow but since the seeds were free, [she took] the opportunity.” Another patron had never planted a vegetable garden before because buying seeds was too expensive. Thanks to the seed library, “she was able to grow zucchini, cucumber and radishes,” Gaytan said. “We had a family who told us how they grew their own
pumpkin that they later decorated for Halloween.”
Last year, to start the program, New Castle Branch Library partnered with Growing Empowerment to host a seed distribution and a transplanting workshop. Per Gaytan, it was a well-attended program. The library is unable to host that workshop this year due to construction, but hopes to partner with Growing Empowerment again next year. However, Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers is hosting a free Pollinator Garden Installation Training the afternoon and evening of Thursday, May 29. Registration is required.
Gaytan and library staff hope that the seed library helps to strengthen the community and relieve grocery budgets. “The seed library is a valuable resource for the residents of Garfield County,” she emphasized. “The economy might not allow people that have the opportunity to buy seeds and grow their own food.”
The theme of this program is "Neighbors Helping Neighbors,” Gaytan added. The hope is that participating patrons collect seeds at the end of the growing season to donate for the following year. “People can share what they grow with others, or by collecting seeds and donating them to the seed library,” she said, encouraging the sharing of vegetable yields especially. When participants share and donate seeds, “we can keep the program going and growing.”
For those starting a garden for the first time, the library can help patrons access visual and audio resources on how to establish planters or set up a section of a yard. The Glenwood Springs Landfill in South Canyon sells compost, topsoil and wood chips. Many home improvement, hardware and garden stores sell bagged soils, which can be more convenient for smaller gardens. Prices for a 1-cubicfoot bag of topsoil run between $2 and $10.
While the El Jebel-based Growing Empowerment won’t be hosting a workshop at the New Castle Branch Library
in the coming months, founder Kim Doyle Wille hosts frequent trainings across the region. She plans to release information about May workshops on the group’s Facebook page soon.
For more information on the New Castle library’s seed sharing program, you can visit and speak with a librarian, or call 970-984-2346.
Think assisted living in Aspen is expensive? Well, think again!
The best care, the best value at the top of the Roaring Fork Valley. The Whitcomb Terrace community is truly an extension of everything that makes Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley such a warm, welcoming place to live — beautiful views included!
• Virtually all-inclusive pricing
• Tenured staff with exceptional staff-to-resident ratios
• Robust schedule of physical fitness and social programming
• Furry friends welcome
Discover how a little assistance can preserve your independence!
Call or email Maggie Gerardi to schedule a tour. 970.544.1530 mgerardi@aspenhospital.org
Late April to early June are excellent times to start vegetable and wildflower gardens. Bare soil in late May can become plentiful lettuce and vegetables in a matter of weeks. Photo by Annalise Grueter
Investigation into Carbondale sexual assault remains ongoing
On Nov. 2, 2024, and in the following days, the community of Carbondale experienced collective shock after an elderly woman was attacked in her own home. Concerns in Carbondale and neighboring communities began as online chatter before an official announcement from the Carbondale Police Department (CPD) was made, which prompted further community response. This was followed by a quickly-scheduled community meeting at the Old Thompson Barn on Nov. 4, where nearly 300 people attended physically and another 500 via Zoom, for CPD to update residents and ask for help locating a suspect.
MYKI JONES Sopris Sun Correspondent
the investigation remains active and ongoing. “Unfortunately, there is precedent locally and nationally for sex assault cases unsolved, especially when there is limited information.”
Wilson admitted. “I can’t say [what factors are inhibiting this case] due to it being under investigation and a confidential case per statute.” Even when no longer under investigation, sex assault cases remain confidential under the Colorado Open Records Act.
Our
commitment is to protect victims, uphold justice and support healing.
The crime occurred near the Rio Grande Trail, 8th Street, Painted Lady Lane and Wheel Circle. During the community meeting and in an email press release sent as the meeting began, CPD requested Ring Doorbell and other home security footage, as well as reports of anything out of the ordinary, between 5 and 8pm on Nov. 2. No further information has been made public, and no arrests have been made.
- Chief Kirk Wilson
“In some cases, we are able to provide information if an arrest is made,” Wilson stated.
Forensic DNA samples collected from crime scenes can be compared with profiles in state and national systems. “At this time, the evidence collected can only be cross-checked with sideby-side comparison,” Wilson explained. “That may change depending on CBI’s laboratory findings.”
2. Consider using a buddy system or notifying friends or family when you’re out to remain connected, especially if returning home late or walking alone
3. Choose well-lit, populated paths whenever possible
4. Always lock doors and windows at home and in your vehicle
According to Police Chief Kirk Wilson,
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is aiding this investigation and has been involved since the beginning, processing DNA evidence collected immediately after the attack. According to Wilson, officers collected a “tremendous amount of physical evidence.” CBI is testing to determine if the DNA matches a profile in the CBI database. “The evidence submitted to the CBI is taking longer than expected,” Wilson said. “CBI Forensic Services handles a multitude of evidence for the entire state.”
The alleged assailant was described as a male in his 30s wearing a black hooded sweatshirt. At the time, he was not considered a present and ongoing threat to the community at large. This description, coupled with a general lack of information, has left many worrying and wondering for the past six months. While there is nothing new to share at this time, CPD still doesn’t consider the suspect an active threat. Wilson assured that CPD remains on alert and ready to continue the investigation based on any new information that may come forward.
He encourages the community to follow safety tips outlined in the press release regarding the crime:
1. Be aware of one’s surroundings, especially when alone or in unfamiliar areas
5. Report suspicious activity to the police.
According to Wilson, the survivor of the attack continues to be supported by her friends, family, community members and victim advocates. If and when additional information can be made public, CPD will release a formal statement.
“We want victims and survivors of any kind of criminal act to know that they are not alone, that they will be treated with compassion and dignity and that their cases will be handled with care and professionalism,” Wilson concluded. “Our commitment is to protect victims, uphold justice and support healing.”
If you have any information or evidence that could aid in this investigation, please contact CPD at 970-963-2662.
May 2 | 4-9pm
In the Heart of the Carbondale Creative District
May First Friday features extended hours and special events plus street activities and games.
Family Block Party
Chacos Park, 4th St Plaza | 4-8pm
Local food, music by youth, and activities for kids of all ages!
Youth Entrepreneurial Zone
Patio at 55 N 4th Street | 5-8pm
Youth entrepreneurs sell custom hats, stickers, snow cones, and more!
A Mama’s Garden Collaborative Installation
The Launchpad Garden | 4-8pm
An interactive floral installation celebrating Mother's Day. Free!
Gallery Craftivation & Scavenger Hunt
Carbondale Arts | 5-7pm
subject/matr/mother, will be on display with a special craftivation and scavenger hunt with gallery sponsor, The Crow & Key.
Carbondale Rotary Club’s Fireball Drop Village Smithy | 5pm
*Main Street is closed to thru traffic from Weant Blvd to Snowmass Ave. New this year: 2nd and 3rd Streets will remain open for cross traffic.
“subject/matr/mother” — Carbondale Arts pays tribute to motherhood
RALEIGH BURLEIGH
Sopris Sun Editor
As described in the pamphlet which accompanies an exhibit currently on display at The Launchpad, “matr” is the Latin root for “material,” “matter” and “maternity.” In essence, it means “mother,” suggesting all that is material (exists) has its basis in some mother.
This exhibit, aptly titled “subject/matr/mother,” was curated by Shawna Miller and includes works by seven artist-mothers on themes of embodiment and maternal subjectivity. “That is, the lived experience within her body as she mothers,” Miller stated. “The idea that a mother has a self to consider — thinking, feeling, fully fleshed and integrated — is vaguely transgressive in patriarchal societies, a prejudice that has always existed in the art world, but one that artist-mothers continually disrupt.”
Miller herself has three pieces in the show: two oil paintings in one room and a third illuminated by a projector in the other. In collaboration with LUCIA, a multimedia artist from Denver, “Held” makes use of sensors and audio speakers, so when the viewer steps closer, a glowing orb pulsates larger across the canvas, accompanied by a resonant frequency designed to increase oxytocin and reduce stress hormones.
“The artists’ voices blur the lines between self and other —whether that’s human, plant, animal or elemental,” Miller explained. “Their narratives and intentions bleed into a natural mystery that takes us into and beyond ourselves.”
Stepping inside the gallery, visitors are immediately greeted by a life-sized black wolf wearing a dental grill that spells “mother.” This and other whimsical creatures were created by Darla Jackson, a sculptor living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Large silk flowers colored with natural dyes grown in artist Courtney Dudley’s gardens adorn the walls. She is based in Kingston, New York and said her practice includes “research in earthly archaic processes that underscore the brevity of current power and social structures.”
Mya Cluff, another sculptor from another state — Belgrade,
Montana — had her firstborn daughter while studying fine arts which inspired a focus in her work on the psychological, political and interpersonal ramifications of motherhood. Oil painter Maria Teicher, a resident of West Chester, Pennsylvania,
delves in the intricacies of botanical beauty with dew-splashed petals, and a single intimate portrait titled “Emergence.”
Erin Morrison is a resident of Basalt who provided two large pieces for the show. Both make use of cast gypsum and “are reflections on the clinical aspects of reproduction versus the erotic aspects of sex,” she wrote. “These reliefs of embedded canvas and gypsum depict both our efforts in suppressing and supporting conception.”
Morrison struggled with a sense of rejection by her peers when she first became a mother while living as an artist in Los Angeles. No longer able to attend the late-night parties and indulge the corresponding lifestyle, she was made to reevaluate friendships and find a new community. “You go through this huge change as a human being to support this whole other human being,” she described. “I never stopped becoming an artist but the pacing of my work — the opportunities to show my work — changed.”
“Motherhood changes you on a cellular level,” Miller told The Sopris Sun. “And it also changes your sense of time. You realize that time is short. So anything you have to do or say has to be now.” She added, “You lose some of your inhibition and you gain a greater confidence.” A major motivation for the show was to discuss how not to exclude artist-mothers. Inevitably, given the political climate, it has also taken on an edge, advocating for bodily autonomy, and also a heaviness as many in the country stand to lose access to reproductive healthcare.
“I hope [this show] gets the work in front of new eyes, and I hope that some of those pieces find new homes. I encourage everyone to take a look at the price list because there are some things that are really accessible and can be purchased, even for a first-time collector,” Miller said.
“I love the idea of more female artists, especially younger female artists, coming to the show,” added Morrison.
The Crow and Key and Aspen Power are appreciated for making the exhibit possible, and White River Books has partnered to offer a small library of books to match the theme, available to peruse and purchase.
“subject/matr/mother” will remain on display through May 15. On Friday, May 2, all the artists will join a virtual panel open to the public at 10am. For details, visit www. carbondalearts.com/exhibitions/subject-matr-mother
Erin Morrison is one of seven artist-mothers with work on display at The Launchpad. “Interceptor,” behind her, incorporates copper wire threading in a cast gypsum canvas representing an IUD. Photo by Will Sardinsky
Roaring Fork girls soccer picks up a pair of wins to keep pace in league
JOHN STROUD
Sopris Sun Correspondent
The Roaring Fork High School girls soccer team picked up a big league win over Basalt ahead of the weekend, and defeated Coal Ridge at home on Tuesday, April 22, to improve their league standings.
All of the Rams goals in the 3-0 shutout win over Coal Ridge came in the second half — two from sophomore Riley Bevington and one from senior Erica Crownhart. Assists came from sophomore Olivia Rullett and freshman Helena McCracken.
A 5-0 win on April 17 at Basalt saw three goals by senior Emma Charters and two by sophomore Kennedy Arnold.
Senior Carley Crownhart had two assists, with one each by senior Maddie Anderson and junior Maya Lindbloom.
The Rams dropped a Saturday, April 19 match at 5A Mullen, 3-0.
The Tuesday win improved the Rams’ record to 5-3-3 overall and 3-1-1 in the 2A/3A Western Slope League. Roaring Fork is at home against Aspen this Thursday (6pm).
Baseball
The Roaring Fork baseball team dropped a home game against Cedaredge on Tuesday, April 22, 10-6. The Rams struck first, scoring a run in the bottom of the first, before giving up six runs in the top of the second.
Down 8-2 going into the seventh inning, the Rams gave up another two runs but added four of their own to come up short in the comeback attempt.
In earlier action, on April 16 and 19, the Rams split back-to-back games with Basalt, losing 5-4 at Basalt, then winning at home, 4-1.
Roaring Fork moves to 4-11 overall, and holds at 1-5 in the 3A Western Slope League. The Rams host a double header this Saturday against Gunnison (11am and 1pm game times).
Girls lacrosse
The cooperative Roaring Fork girls lacrosse team earned a big win at home against Aspen on Saturday, April 19, 12-11, and followed that up with a 13-7 win on the road at Fruita Monument on Tuesday evening.
Against Aspen, junior Jordyn Miller collected nine points (combination goals and assists), eight of them goals. Senior Hailey Wolfe had three points, and senior Josie McKinley and freshman Eva Feinsinger had two each. Senior Ella Gunning had 15 saves in goal.
At Fruita, points leaders were McKinley (seven), Wolfe and Miller (five each), and senior Ana Aguilar (one).
The Rams are now 9-2 overall and 5-2 in the 4A Mountain East behind Battle
Mountain and Steamboat Springs. Next up, the Rams are at Aspen again at 6pm Thursday, April 24.
Track and Field
At the Coal Ridge Invitational on Friday, April 18, several Roaring Fork athletes finished in the top eight of their events to score team points for the Rams.
Among the boys, sophomore Quentin Galbraith took seventh in the boys 400-meter dash with a personal-record (PR) time of 55.68 seconds.
For the girls, senior Isabella Moon placed fourth in the 1600-meter run (PR 5:33.31), and was seventh in the 800 meters (2:37.29); junior Caroline Cole, seventh in the 1600 (PR 5:47.44); junior Nikki Tardif, seventh in the 300-meter hurdles (PR 52.02 seconds); sophomore Miley Stuart, sixth
3200 meters (PR 14:18.29); freshman Kinley Richmond, fifth 3200 meters (PR 13:35.73); and the 4x800 relay team of Isla Friel, Kinley Richmond, Sophia Warner and Morgan Fink was fourth (11:38.65).
Girls tennis
Roaring Fork junior Elleree Richmond was named Player of the Match on Saturday, April 19, against Cedaredge, as the cooperative Basalt girls tennis team fell 4-3 to the Bruins.
Richmond and her No. 1 doubles partner, freshman Adriana Walker, defeated the Cedaredge pair 7-6 (8-6), 6-3.
Also winning their matches were the Longhorns No. 2 singles player, senior Emma Garrigus (6-3, 6-4), and No. 3 singles junior Karen Gonzalez-Machuca (6-3, 6-0).
continued on page 15
Ram Emma Charter lines up a boot during the game against the Basalt Longhorns on April 17.
Photo by Isaac Sterling
from local acts such as DJ Pinto on Friday, Sweet Jessup and The Dirty Buckets on Saturday and The Charities, who will perform the Saturday night afterparty. Folks can also partake in the 5 Point Obstacle Course for the chance to win a plethora of prizes from the festivals sponsors, the Wild Side Sauna and cold plunge, Hamilton’s Mushroom Elixir Bar, Bom Dia Brazilian Wine Tastings, The Gear Giveaway and the Sunday Ice Cream Social made possible by Sundae in Willits. As Weinhold stated, 5 Point will always provide free programming, but
also encourages those who have not bought their tickets yet to reserve their seats to film screenings throughout the weekend.
“I understand it's a big investment to come to any kind of event, whether it's a film festival or a music show, and what I can guarantee is that the experience will be worth it.” She stated, “5 Point is so good about feeling into who we are and why we do what we do and then extending that to the audience for a unifying experience. I think anyone who hasn't gotten a ticket and wants to experience that should buy a ticket.”
In addition to the evening film programs, there will be one
daytime Changemakers program, two feature matinees, a program specifically for high school students and a free, bilingual, family film program on Sunday. All the selections are curated with a throughline of joy and how joy can be a powerful force for change in all walks of life. This includes the world premiere of “The Book of George,” two Colorado premieres with “The Solace of Sisterhood” and “Row of Life” and showings of “Champions of the Golden Valley” and “NISEI,” all featuring stories of people of color in extreme sports.
“The world is obviously a really complicated and unpredictable
place right now, but these stories serve as a reminder that resilience and strength don’t always come from struggle — they can also be built through laughter, fun and adventure,” stated Charlie Turnbull, director of programming, in a press release.
His sentiments were shared by Weinhold, who maintains 5 Point is committed to showcasing diverse and inclusive programming. She said there is a profound impact from people being able to tell their own stories of their own adventures in the way they’d like for them to be shared, and that goes for everyone.
“I think that's a skill everyone
should have,” Weinhold expressed. “Being able to tell the story of their own adventure — it's our own lives, and we deserve to share that with people how we would like. Having control over our own narratives is paramount.” She continued, “[We’re dedicated] to not only telling the best stories, but telling those that are true and core to our state, our community, our nation, our globe — and that includes people from all walks of life, and we will always be dedicated to uplifting those stories.”
For more information on dates, tickets and programming visit www.5pointfilm.org
We are delighted to offer you, our community, the opportunity to take advantage of low-cost blood tests
Online aspenhospital.org/health-fair, or by phone 1.800.217.5866 Monday–Friday, 9 am–4 pm
June 6 & 7 ASPEN
Aspen Valley Hospital Campus Hosted at Aspen Ambulance 0403 Castle Creek Road
June 8 EL JEBEL Eagle
By appointment only 8-11:30 am
Lab Tests Offered
• HealthScreen w/CBC – $79
Includes CBC, CMP, Ferritin, Iron Panel, Lipid Panel, TSH and Uric Acid (Fasting Required)
• hsCardio CRP – $42
• Hemoglobin A1C & EAG – $44
• PSA, Total – $47
• Vitamin D – $54
• T3, Free – $32
• T4, Free – $32
• CBC (Complete Blood Count) – $32
As in years past, 5 Point Film Festival promises to deliver the best in adventure and community, all guided by five founding principles: commitment, respect, humility, purpose, balance. Courtesy photos
TRTC invites audiences to learn from the past
MYKI JONES
Arts Correspondent
On May 2, Thunder River Theatre Company (TRTC) will premiere its final mainstage production of the 2024-2025 season: Melanie Marnich’s “These Shining Lives.” The play is based on a true story of four women who worked for the Radium Dial Company in Illinois in the 1920s, and subsequently faced dire challenges due to radium poisoning. This play details their journey of seeking justice, keeping hope alive and showing the nation how workers — particularly working women — are not expendable.
“One thing I thought Melanie Marnich did so brilliantly was capture the series of unfortunate events surrounding the radium poisoning,” Missy Moore, the show’s director, told The Sopris Sun. “But she never wrote these women to be victims, and the fact they fought until their dying day is why I was drawn to the story.”
Moore, also the artistic director at TRTC, has tried to highlight a female-centric production each season. While this story includes various male characters, portrayed by Jack Trembath (Tom Donohue) and Gerald DeLisser (Rufus Reed) and other local actors, the story remains centered on the lives of the main characters who are all women.
“I'm amazed at how so many people are not aware this actually happened,” Moore said of the relevant history of the production. “Theater has a responsibility to not only highlight the human experience and condition, but it can be a tool
that educates and highlights moments in history, too.”
The four main actors in the production include: Emily Henley (Catherine Donohue), Sophia Higbie (Frances O’Connell), Sonya Meyer (Charlotte Purcell) and Julia Whalen (Pearl Payne).
“It's quite a timeless piece. Although set in a specific time [concerning] a specific company, I believe that things like this carry on to today in different ways,” said Higbie. “Telling the story may shed light on current events and what's going on in different places.”
“The show is able to go in depth with
a subject that could just be sad, [yet] comedy is also present in this,” Higbie continued. “Life is not black and white, and it's a beautiful piece in that way.”
The cast agreed that what drew them to this production was the poetic nature of the play and the indomitable fight the central characters hold.
“I feel like I have a tiramisu layered cake of challenges in this show, which are intimidating but offer an invigorating challenge,” explained Henley. “Being able to tell a historical piece that is incredibly poignant today, and incredibly feminist, and being the vessel of sharing that piece
of history is incredibly powerful.”
DeLisser explained how audiences may recognize similarities between the events of the 1920s and those of the 2020s. He added that a story like this is important to tell, as it adds a layer of humanity to historical figures.
“I think for those who haven't heard the story before it's an interesting and entertaining way to consume [it],” stated DeLisser. “It’s humanizing and brings to life these people that really existed and what they had to go through.”
Another addition to this production is its assistant director, Travis Dean Wilson — a regular TRTC actor who is actively expanding his theatrical roles, on and off stage. He shared how working on this production has been impactful as he navigates alongside Moore to properly tell the stories of these women.
“It hearkens back to that saying [that] we need to remember, honor and showcase history, otherwise we are doomed to repeat it,” said Wilson.
IN A NUTSHELL:
What: “These Shining Lives”
Where: Thunder River Theatre Company
When: May 2 to 18, Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays at 2pm
Tickets: www.thunderrivertheatre.com
VOICES: Keeping the arts alive on many fronts
MYKI JONES
Arts Correspondent
The VOICES nonprofit continues to evolve while offering a variety of diverse programs with events and workshops happening on the mainstage, in the community and at local schools. Part of the change includes staff turnover and the expansion of several programs within Garfield County schools.
“There are lots of really exciting things with a new team, new energy, and we are really in line with what VOICES wants to be doing, which is offering platforms of amplifying voices through the arts to the communities,” Executive Director MinTze Wu told The Sopris Sun. “They really need those opportunities.”
Some of these changes include Amy Moore joining as director of operations and development, Jennifer Hughes as project director for the VOICES Radio Hour program, Harris Jackson as director of the ever-growing music residency and Gabriela Mejia as project director of the Hero’s Journaling Project which has expanded into Garfield County School District 16 and Re-2.
“Last year is when we started to see this urgency to offer [the Hero’s Journaling] program to the Colorado River Valley, and we're very fortunate to also have funding in place for that,” Wu stated. “We feel like with VOICES growing its community base, from Basalt to Glenwood Springs in the first eight years, it is really time for us to expand further.”
She continued, “It did take some time for us to get our internal infrastructure ready for that leap and bound, but it is in
action and it absolutely feels like the right thing to do. Especially in the communities further downvalley, you’ll find that art education access inequality is even more pronounced. We're fortunate to be giving something we've had a history of offering and knowing how impactful it is.”
The music residency programming stepped in to fill gaps left by a lack of funding for music education in schools across the region. What began as a drumming workshop has evolved into a program offering opportunities for learning song writing, collaboration and, very recently, self-expression through guitar playing. The most recent residency took place at Carbondale Community School and wrapped on March 18.
“We thought it was such a wonderful opportunity to meet the youth and their needs where they are. We happily facilitated that with Harris Jackson, who is a local guitarist, but more than that, he is such a wonderful pedagogue,” Wu recounted. “A lot of the kids were picking up the guitar for the first time, at a time when many of our participants were having trouble focusing or wanting to communicate. Guitar gave them an opportunity to make that initial shift. Some really moving stories came out of that.”
Future events for VOICES include the Sage VOICES Project, wherein five storytellers between the ages of 12-16 help to bring to life the stories of five elder storytellers between the ages of 75-88. Directed by Tom Cochran and titled “The Rhythm of Reflection,” this production is currently in the rehearsal process. More details will soon be announced.
Discussing the importance of youth having access to the arts, Wu explained that the arts provide tools of creativity, communication and processing emotions. During a person’s formative years, access to these tools can have wonderful benefits, helping youth to find their voices as well as a sense of community and belonging. Additionally, Wu assured that VOICES and their programming will remain safe spaces for the community.
“During the drumming residency, a big part of it is to remove the language barrier, because we communicate with the rhythm,” she stated. “VOICES is making its programming available in every corner. Everywhere you turn, there is going to be a space where you can share your story and where your stories can be heard. We are a group of artists, so we know how art can move and shift people. We want to continue making it available.”
Additional VOICES programming includes ARTery Tiny Stage performances during June and July First Friday festivities in Carbondale. For more information, to donate or purchase event tickets, visit voicesrfv.org
Sophia Higbie, Emily Henley and Julia Whalen (left to right) during a recent rehearsal for "These Shining Lives." Courtesy photo
The ensemble of “The Rhythm of Reflection,” a Sage VOICES Project, includes youth and elders from our community. Courtesy photo
CALENDAR
THURSDAY, APRIL 24
5 POINT
The 18th annual 5 Point Film Festival kicks off with a reception at the Carbondale Rec Center at 5pm. Catch nightly film programs at 7pm this weekend. For the full schedule and tickets, visit www.5pointfilm.org
returns to the Rifle Middle School from 11am to 2pm, providing parents and children with entertainment and information on keepings kids safe, along with free food, giveaways, music and more.
BACKBONE POV
JAZZ DAY
The Glenwood Springs Center for the Arts celebrates International Jazz Day at the Glenwood Vaudeville Revue with The Smooth Players and Dave Poulsen with Element Jazz. The fun begins at 5:30pm. Tickets at www.gvrshow.com
HOUSING SOLUTIONS
The City of Glenwood Springs hosts “Opening the Toolbox: A Housing Solutions Symposium” from 5:30 to 7:30pm at the Glenwood Springs Library. This community-focused event will showcase housing programs and help individuals navigate the crunch with real solutions.
IMMIGRATION CONVERSATION
KDNK broadcasts a special regional conversation on immigration, produced by Rocky Mountain Community Radio, from 6 to 7pm. This live call-in show will explore how federal immigration laws intersect with state and local policies. Call 1-800-737-3030 to share your thoughts and questions.
SPANISH BOOK CLUB
Nuestro Rincón Literario, a Spanish book club hosted at the Basalt Library, discusses “Entre Dos Aguas” by Cristina Henríquez from 6 to 7pm.
ORCHID 101
Botany Houseplant Shop teaches all about replanting and caring for orchids from 6 to 7:30pm. To sign up, visit www.botanyhouseplantshop.com
LEE ASHER
Animal rescuer Lee Asher shares the highs and lows of his journey to create one of the largest animal sanctuaries in the U.S. at the Wheeler Opera House from 6:30 to 8pm. Tickets at www.aspenshowtix.com
BOOKS IN BARS
Join local librarians at La Raza to discuss “Erasure” by Percival Everett at 7pm. Small appetizers will be provided and copies of the book are available at the Carbondale Library.
CRYSTAL THEATRE
“The Ballad of Wallis Island” shows at the Crystal Theatre at 7pm tonight, tomorrow, Saturday and next Thursday. Sunday’s show is at 5pm. All showings after tonight will be captioned.
EL DORADO
El Dorado hosts an opening night party for 5 Point beginning at 10pm.
FRIDAY, APRIL 25
WATERSHED CLEANUP
Roaring Fork Conservancy organizes a watershed cleanup today through April 29, including a kick-off party this evening from 4 to 6pm. Learn more at www.roaringfork.org
FREE YOGA
The public is invited to learn from industry leaders on the forefront of adventure filmmaking from Backbone Media at 1:30pm at Bodegón.
LIBRARY PARTY
The Basalt Library hosts a party for library lovers and first-time visitors alike from 6 to 8pm. All are welcome.
SATURDAY, APRIL 26
RIVER CLEANUP
The City of Glenwood Springs hosts a springtime river cleanup from 8 to 11am at Two Rivers Park. Learn more at www.gwsco.info/RiverCleanup
5 POINT 5K
Independence Run & Hike sponsors the annual 5 Point 5K departing from the store at 8am. Register online at www.bit.ly/5point5k2025
HIGHWAY CLEANUP
The Rotary Club hosts a Highway 82 cleanup from the entrance of Carbondale to the entrance of Aspen Glen from 9am to 2pm. For more details, call 970-948-1369. Lunch will be provided!
STRUT FOR MUTTS
Journey Home Animal Care Center hosts a dog-friendly 5K race beginning at 9am at Deerfield Park in Rifle. To sign up, visit www.bit.ly/riflemuttstrut
GARDEN DAY
Bee Friendly Carbondale invites you to help prep pollinator gardens at the Thompson House, 301 Lewies Lane, from 10am to 2pm. Snacks, refreshments and tools will be provided; volunteers are asked to bring gloves.
DRUG DROP-OFF
The Carbondale Police Department will take prescription drugs to responsibly dispose of from 10am to 2pm.
EARTH WEEK EXCHANGE
The CIty of Aspen hosts its second annual Earth Week exchange and swap event, taking place from 11am to 2pm at the Aspen Fire Department. Attendees are invited to donate items and take items home for free, and complimentary food and drinks will be provided. Donated items should be in good condition and no larger than a table lamp.
JEDIDIAH JENKINS
Author Jedidiah Jenkins speaks at True Nature at 1pm about his time writing a new book in Marble and the power of unplugging. This event is free and open to the public.
DÍA DEL NIÑO
Garfield County Libraries celebrate Día del Niño with presentations, stories, music, entertainment and more — all online from 2 to 4:30pm. Tune in at www.gcpld.org
DIRTY BUCKETS
As part of 5 Point Film Festival, Eliza Demarest leads a free yoga and sound healing session at True Nature, welcoming all levels from 8 to 9am. Reserve your spot at www.5pointfilm.org
CHANGING PLANET
Catch a free conversation between filmmakers at True Nature exploring “Stories for a Changing Planet” at 11am. This event is free and open to the public.
CHILD SAFETY FAIR
The Garfield County Child Safety Fair
The public is invited to celebrate 5 Point with a free concert by Sweet Jessup and the Dirty Buckets at the Rec Center at 4:30pm — plus, an adventure obstacle course with 5 Point sponsors and food trucks.
NOCHE DE LOTERĹA
The Buddy Program hosts a free, family-friendly Noche de Lotería event at the Glenwood Springs Community Center at 6pm, complete with a taco bar, light refreshments and prizes.
ONGOING EVENTS
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
The Meeting Place in Carbondale (981 Cowen Drive) offers “Hole in the Donut AA,” Monday through Saturday at 6:45am, plus “Daily Reprieve” at noon on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Find a full schedule at www.meetingplacecarbondale.org
MOMMY MEET-UP
The Glenwood Springs Library hosts a “mommy meet-up” on Mondays from 11am to 12:30pm for mothers and their babies ages 0-3. There will be play items provided for the little ones and coffee and conversation for the moms.
ENGLISH IN ACTION
Volunteer English tutors and developing learners meet for informal conversational practice at the Carbondale Library every Monday at 6:30pm. Interested in becoming a tutor? Email angela@englishinaction.org or call 970-963-9200.
MONDAY MEDITATION
BARN DANCE
Kate’s Ranch (5459 East Sopris Creek Road, Old Snowmass) hosts line dancing from 6 to 6:30pm, a partner dancing lesson from 6:30 to 7pm and open dancing from 7 to 10pm. For more details, email billypat4@gmail.com
STEVE’S GUITARS
Catch Jeff Cramer and David Burchfield performing at Steve’s Guitars at 8pm. Tickets at www.stevesguitars.net
AFTERPARTY
El Dorado hosts the official 5 Point afterparty with live music by The Charities at Thunder River Theatre at 10pm. Tickets at www.5pointfilm.org
SUNDAY, APRIL 27
CO-CREATING DREAMS
A Spiritual Center (Room 31 at the Third Street Center) presents shamanic healer and spiritual mentor Meghan Gilroy leading “an empowering journey to manifest ease and real progress in your life” from 10 to 11:30am.
FAMILY-FRIENDLY FILMS
The 5 Point weekend concludes with a family-friendly film program at the Rec Center at 11am, followed by an ice cream social at 12:30pm.
STORYTELLING
Storytellers of all forms and listeners convene at the Basalt Library to share works, outline new tales and support one another today and the last Sunday of May from 3:30 to 5pm.
BREATHWORK
True Nature invites the community to a free breathwork opportunity offered in partnership with Pathfinders and facilitated by Allison Alexander from 6 to 7:30pm. RSVP at www.truenaturehealingarts.com
LAUNCHPAD SOUNDS
Community members gather for a sound bath at the Launchpad from 6:30 to 7:30pm. Bring a yoga mat, water bottle and whatever else needed to be comfortable. Register by calling 720-394-8671.
YOGA & BEATS
Brittany Geis leads a 90-minute yoga class at Kula on Main incorporating a full-body myofascial release and deep lofi beats from 7 to 8:30pm. Register at www.kulayogaonmain.com
MONDAY, APRIL 28
GOLDEN MEDITATION
Lisa McKenzie guides “Golden Light Meditation” when participants experience the healing power of light to calm
emotional distress and restore inner peace at The Meeting Place in Carbondale from 5 to 6pm.
TUESDAY, APRIL 29
IECC
Garfield Clean Energy presents “2021 IECC and the State Model Electric-Ready and Solar-Ready Code” at the Glenwood Springs Library from 8am to noon.
FROSTBITE FRIGHTS
The Basalt Library invites all ages to a viewing of a slightly frightening film, “Coraline,” rated PG, from 4:30 to 6:30pm.
WILDFIRE PREP
The Carbondale Fire Department hosts a community meeting focused on wildfire preparedness and prevention, followed by a Q&A session, from 5:30 to 7pm. To send a question in advance, visit www.bit.ly/WPM425
‘COUNTED OUT’
The Aspen School District presents “Counted Out,” a documentary about the power of math in our society, economy and democracy, at the Aspen School District Theater (located in the elementary school) from 5:30 to 8pm. RSVP for free at www.bit.ly/ASDfilm
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30
JAS STUDENT SHOWCASE
Jazz Aspen Snowmass celebrates International Jazz Day with a student talent showcase at TACAW at 5pm. RSVP for free at www.tacaw.org
HABIT TRACKER
Learn to use digital habit trackers to weed out bad habits and maintain good ones at the Basalt Library from 5 to 6pm. More info at www.basaltlibrary.org/events-calendar
THURSDAY, MAY 1
VALLEY VIEW
Valley View invites the community to attend a virtual town hall from noon to 1pm. During the call, Valley View leaders will talk about recent work and investments as well as a new Community Health Needs Assessment. Participants are invited to ask questions and share perspectives. To register, visit VVH.org/TownHall
PORTFOLIO NIGHT
Colorado Mountain College students of photography, digital media, graphic design and integrated media show off their work at the Spring Valley Campus from 4:30 to 7pm.
Roaring Fork Insight guides a weekly meditation group meeting at the Third Street Center (Room 31) from 7 to 8:30pm. A Wednesday session takes place at St. Peters of the Valley in Basalt from 11:30 to 1pm with a Zoom option.
PILATES
Coredination offers weekly pilates mat classes for all levels at The Launchpad in Carbondale. Tuesdays from noon to 1pm intermediate/advanced students are welcome. Beginners are encouraged to attend on THursdays from 8 to 9am. For more info, call 970-379-2187.
BIKE PROJECT
The Carbondale Bike Project Shop helps
people repair their bicycles on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2 to 6pm and Sundays from noon to 6pm on the east side of Third Street Center.
SENIOR LUNCH
Every Wednesday at noon, Garfield County Senior Programs provides a nutritious meal for seniors at The Orchard. To reserve a place at the table, call 970-665-0041.
NONVIOLENT COMMUNICATION
Talia Starwood is offering Nonviolent Communication in Action on the last Wednesday of each month from 6:30 to 8pm. To RSVP, text 970-309-1120. Donations will be gratefully accepted.
GERI-FIT
The Carbondale Library hosts an olderadult fitness class every Thursday from 12:15 to 1:15pm. Call 970-625-5282 ext. 3084 to register.
TEEN LIBRARY COUNCIL
The Teen Library Council convenes every first Thursday at the Basalt Library at 4pm.
GROUP RUN
Independence Run & Hike leads a weekly group run on Thursdays departing from the store’s location, next to the Carbondale City Market, at 6:30pm.
COFFEE WITH THE MAYOR
Carbondale Mayor Ben Bohmfalk posts up at Bonfire every Friday from 8 to 9am, and everyone is welcome to stop by to chat.
NATURE JOURNALING
Anyone interested in creatively documenting nature is invited to a Nature Journaling workshop at the Carbondale Library every first Friday from 1 to 2:30pm.
Community Education Classes in
SPANISH - BEGINNING LEVEL II Mon/Wed, 5-7pm, 5/19-6/18
SLOW FLOW YOGA
Wednesdays, 9-10am, 5/21-6/18
SEWING - KNOW YOUR FABRICS Thursdays, 6-8pm, 5/22-6/19
INTRO TO PERMACULTURE DESIGN Wednesday, 6-8pm, 6/18
GEOLOGY OF COLORADO, RF AND CRYSTAL VALLEYS Thursday, 6-9pm, 6/19
EAT YOUR WEEDSLEAVES AND SHOOTS Saturday, 1-3pm, 6/21
KIDS’ CLASSES
STEAL THE SPOTLIGHT AGES 12-18
Learn to block, sing, dance and act a character from a musical. Fridays, 2-3:30pm, 5/30-8/8
BEGINNING SKETCHING AGES 10-17
Loose sketch simple characters starting with the basics. Mondays, 10-11am, 6/9-6/30
SKETCHING AND DRAWING LEVEL II
Draw forms, pets and humans to learn proportions, & perspective. Mondays, 10-11am, 7/14-8/4
More info and to Register...
Inspire Cycling, a socially-focused women’s cycling collective, hosts its 2025 season kick-off party at Basalt Bike & Ski (571 Highway 133, Carbondale) with raffle prizes, discounts, swag bags and more. To register, visit www.inspirecycling.org
Courtesy photo
Earth Day meeting posits drought resiliency planning
RALEIGH BURLEIGH
Sopris Sun Editor
All trustees were present for the regular meeting on April 22, Earth Day, which began with a proclamation declaring May 3, 2025 as Carbondale’s Arbor Day. The proclamation included many beautiful statements about the role of trees.
The consent agenda was approved including meeting minutes, seasonal deck licenses for Allegria and Bodegón, Dandelion Day permits, an intergovernmental agreement for mosquito control in Garfield County, an application from Michelle Cook to join the Public Arts Commission and accounts payable. Trustee Ross Kribbs had a pair of questions regarding accounts payable: the first regarding $30,000 earmarked for Carbondale Arts — “worth every penny,” he noted — which Town Manager Lauren Gister explained is $15,000 for organizing First Fridays and $15,000 for economic development via the Creative District. The second inquiry related to the new pool, a topic addressed in detail later on.
No members of the public attended with general comments. During trustee reports, Colin Laird
BASALT REPORT
said that residents of the Mountain Valley Mobile Home Park met at the Third Street Center on April 18 with Thistle ROC, a statewide organization helping mobile home parks transition from private ownership to resident-owned communities. Carbondale has two units of employee housing at Mountain View, a park just outside town limits which went on the
market last month.
An offer has been made on both this and the Aspen-Basalt mobile home park, Laird informed, lowering the ask from $18 million to $15.5 million for Mountain Valley and reinitiating a 120-day window for residents to come up with their own offer.
Trustee Christina Montemayor asked about the difference
BPD seeks to match population growth
WILL BUZZERD
Sopris Sun Correspondent
This week’s Town Council meeting opened with a status update from the Basalt Police Department (BPD) provided by Chief Greg Knott. He presented on some of the staffing and space strains the small department has been facing as the Basalt community continues to expand. Currently, BPD operates with 14 staff members. Two patrol officer positions remain vacant, and the department’s only investigator is retiring in May. Despite positive relationships with its community, Chief Knott stated his department is experiencing challenges with hiring new staff to fill the gaps.
According to Chief Knott, the high cost of living in Basalt is the greatest challenge. Presently, staff members travel from as far as Silt and Rifle to serve the Basalt community. In addition, Chief Knott claimed there is a general declining interest in law enforcement careers — not just in Basalt, but nationwide — due to concerns over personal safety and public scrutiny. Larger agencies, both public and private, also pull away potential recruits with offers of better pay, more benefits and more opportunities to specialize.
Due to the size of the department, Chief Knott stated there are times when only one police officer is on the clock. “We rely heavily on our mutual aid with Pitkin County and Eagle County … but it does become a little bit of a strain on the officers,” he noted.
In addition, the department has seen a 21% increase in calls for service in the past five years. Chief Knott ascribed this to increased complexity in the nature of crime, naming computer crimes and AI scams, as well as increased traffic through Basalt year-by-year.
Chief Knott also stated that law enforcement is more often tasked with responsibilities outside its traditional role. “We look at mental health, we look at civil situations… We’re the ones that are out on the street, and so they call law enforcement,” he said. “It might not be [within] our ability to fix it, but they’re calling us, and we have to respond.”
The department is experiencing space limitations as well. Currently, BPD shares an office complex on Elk Run Drive with multiple businesses. The evidence locker is at maximum capacity, and space is running out for equipment storage. The current office has no interview
room, conference room or private meeting room.
The department’s lack of secure holding spaces for juvenile and adult detainees means that, in the event of an arrest, officers need to transport the person being held directly from the scene of arrest all the way to Eagle. According to Chief Knott, an officer would ideally be able to return to the local station first and securely hold the detainee while paperwork is completed before what can be more than an hour-long drive to the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office.
A site concept plan has been drafted for new facilities along Highway 82 and Original Road on two Town-owned parcels. BPD would share this building with Public Works, which has been experiencing similar space constraints. However, contracts have yet to be signed, and over $18 million will be necessary to construct this hypothetical facility.
To meet some community needs now, BPD is starting a new program this week with the Pitkin Area Co-Responder Team (PACT) to deliver more services addressing mental health. Ordinarily, BPD coordinates with Aspen Hope Center to address mental health emergencies as they
this year — instead of a spring and separate fall event for general and hazardous waste, all be combined on May 10.
Trustee Chris Hassig, sporting a fresh blue KDNK cap, thanked all for participating in the community radio station’s spring membership drive. “Fellow trustees, it’s never too late to become a member,” he remarked coyly. (Hassig is an employee of KDNK.) He also gave a brief Dandelion Day preview and acknowledged Earth Day, stating: “It’s always good to stop and think about being stewards of our landscapes.”
between the Town’s spring clean-up day (May 10) and yard waste drop-off. Public Works Director Kevin Schorzman jumped to the podium and explained the yard waste drop-off service, free for Carbondale residents, will continue every other Saturday through September, whereas the May 10 event encompasses all but organic waste. New
Gister’s updates included thanking Town Clerk Patrick Thibault for organizing a successful board and commissions open house which yielded several applications to fill vacancies. On the staffing side of things, she announced Greg Hansen, the recently hired finance director, is leaving that position next week. “He will be missed,” she said. Meanwhile, Robin Jacober was hired to replace Margaret Donnelly as the Rec Center director.
The first official item of the meeting was a lease renewal for a right-of-way at Lines Plaza, on West Main Street across from the
continued on page 15
In
occur, but PACT will help provide outreach and follow-up services related to these incidents.
As the community grows, BPD needs more officers and administrative staff. Outreach and community trust will be paramount, both for effective policing now and to bolster the
recruitment of new officers. Until then, BPD continues to seek input for how it can improve its services. “We need help from the community,” concluded Chief Knott. “We need help from Council and staff to help us understand what we could be doing and how we could be doing it better."
other news, Town Council also approved the Willits Lane Connectivity and Town Wayfinding Plan during their April 22 meeting. The new plan will improve signage and trail connections along Willits Lane to encourage car-free travel up and down Basalt in hopes of reducing the Town's total carbon emissions. Courtesy photo
Riverfront Park, south of Crystal Bridge Drive, is now open with new signage explaining the ecological restoration underway and providing other informative riparian tidbits. Photo by Raleigh Burleigh
Carbondale Marketplace residential development. This agreement has existed since 1996, Schorzman stated, and expired in 2018. The new terms increase rent by $100 to $1,400 per year and extend the lease for 30 years. As noted by Mayor Ben Bohmfalk, the Town can terminate the lease at any time. It passed unanimously.
Next, trustees met a new employee with Wember, Carbondale’s owner’s rep for the new aquatics center, for another construction update. Tammy Tucker presented a draft report for feedback to lend more consistency to future updates. She also fielded questions, particularly around an apparent $900,000 increase in the project budget. As explained by Bohmfalk, the trustees understood the project to be fully funded through a voter-approved bond and transfers from the general fund and Recreation Sales and Use Fund reserves. The $2.5 million fundraising goal offsets those transfers. The document provided by Wember, however, has fundraising in addition to the transfers.
Gister recollected that the $2.5 million fundraising goal included all add alternates, which the board approved, as well as making up the gap with other funds. “It would be great if we could organize better so that’s clear,” Laird stated. “We’re really supportive, but because of all the changes, we’re confused.”
Trustee Jess Robison emphasized her discomfort with draining the project’s contingency. The contingency has been applied to all unexpected costs, including new considerations like security lights and cameras. Tucker insisted that while a contingency fund remains important, risk
is decreased at this stage of the project. Her colleague, Joe Farstad, assured the trustees that construction materials have been purchased and contracts are in place, so the tariffs and other external factors are not a major concern.
Lastly, regenerative strategies consultant Gwen Garcelon and Environmental Board Chair Hannah-Hunt Wander presented an early draft of a 2025 update to the Vulnerability Consequences, and Adaptation Planning Scenarios (VCAPS) assessment from 2018. As explained by Garcelon, the 2018 study came out of a year of severe drought with a major wildfire near Basalt. “People started to get a wake-up call,” she described. The report looked at strategies to mitigate the impacts of a growing population and more frequent drought conditions.
Garcelon pointed out that some of the VCAPS recommendations are being met, with turf conversion programs and a regional wildfire collaboration underway. She suggested looking at beneficial water uses that increase resiliency, like backyard gardens, as well as the curtailing of irrigation at certain public parks. Along with the VCAPS update, Garcelon was interested in providing public education. Beyond decarbonization, she named, there needs to be a focus on the health of ecosystems “because it's the soils and plant life and service of wildlife that affect our water cycle so significantly.”
It was recommended by Wander that Garcelon further refine her notes to present for public feedback in May ahead of finalizing a VCAPS update for trustees to approve.
The next regular meeting will fall on May 13.
RAMS REPORT
Boys lacrosse
The cooperative Glenwood Springs team, which includes several players from Roaring Fork, is now at 6-5 overall, 1-4 in the 4A Western League, after a 13-7 win at Windsor on Tuesday, April 22.
Points came from junior Kekoa Kim (six), junior James Genung and senior Sawyer Harrington (four each), juniors Kiko Pena and Ossie Hilgeford (two each), and senior Oliver Shrader (one).
The Demons suffered a 10-2 loss at Steamboat Springs on April 16, and are set to host Vail Mountain on April 29 (4pm) at Stubler Memorial Field.
SEVERAL RAMS INCLUDED IN ALL-LEAGUE BASKETBALL SELECTIONS
The 3A Western Slope League All-Conference selections for basketball were announced soon after the season was over, and several Roaring Fork High School student-athletes made the list.
For the boys, Conference Player of the Year was Rams junior Kiko Pena, and Jason Kreiling was named Coach of the Year.
First team honors went to junior Lucas Carballeira, and honorable mention was given to junior Ethan Wilson.
Pena was the Rams team leader in rebounds, averaging 12.9 caroms per game, while also averaging 10.7 points per game (ppg), second behind Carballeira’s 16.2 ppg. Wilson was third at 7.8 ppg, and Carballeira averaged 2.7 assists per game to lead the team in that category.
Kreiling, in his fourth year as the Rams head coach, guided the team to an undefeated league season at 12-0 and the team’s first league championship in 12 years. Roaring Fork went 18-7 overall on the season, bowing out in the second round of the 3A state playoffs.
For the Roaring Fork girls, senior Carley Crownhart, junior Nikki Tardif and sophomore Riley Bevington were all bestowed with first team All-Conference honors. Senior Erica Crownhart received honorable mention.
Carley Crownhart was the team leader in scoring with 16.6 ppg, with Bevington contributing 16.5 ppg and Tardif 10.9 ppg. Tardif was the team leader in rebounds, with 8.4 per game, while Bevington averaged 8.3. Erica Crownhart was the team leader in assists with 3.5 per game.
The Lady Rams finished at 22-3 overall, taking second in the 3A WSL at 12-2 and also bowing out in the second round of the state playoffs.
House Bill 25-1178 foundered in Colorado Capitol, student seclusion remains legal
ANNALISE GRUETER
Sopris Sun Correspondent
Over the past two months, Colorado legislators entertained a bill to end student seclusion in schools. On Feb. 10, Colorado Springs representative Dr. Regina English introduced bill 25-1178 to the Colorado House, aiming to ban seclusion as a behavioral mitigation tactic. English introduced a similar bill in 2024, which was suspended when it became clear it would not gain approval. HB 25-1178 was discussed in the legislature from late March through mid-April.
Seclusion has been a controversial form of behavior management in schools. Some, like English, cite its association with long-term emotional trauma and inequitable application to disabled or otherwise marginalized students. Other educators source the tactic as a last resort that is sometimes necessary in cases where students are being extremely disruptive, as their schools may not have the resources to manage a class and de-escalate behavior with a particularly problematic student.
The provisions laid out in HB 25-1178
latter have been strengthened in recent years; documentation and accountability around disciplinary seclusion incidents has increased over the past few decades. The bill did outline “lawful emer gency actions” per a press release, with thorough requirements for documentation and reporting.
In English’s press release last month, it was asserted that “seclusion, the practice of isolating students in confined spaces, has been shown to cause severe emotional trauma and reinforce the school-to-prison pipeline, disproportionately affecting students with disabilities and marginalized communities.” Based on that, the bill intended to protect students from potential trauma from isolation, encourage more de-escalation techniques and other
a harmful and outdated practice that has no place in our schools. By passing HB 25-1178, we are sending a clear message that student mental health and well-being come first, and we are fostering an environment where every child has the opportunity to thrive. We ended the physical abuse of corporal punishment, it is time to end the mental abuse.”
Courtesy graphic
Last week, other legislators rejected HB 25-1178 in a 2-11 vote, saying that while misuse of seclusion must be addressed, it is a complicated method that remains preferable to physical restraint in extreme behavioral cases. There was bipartisan opposition to the bill, with lawmakers citing a variety of extreme cases where other disciplinary tactics are impractical. One representative shared an anecdote about an elementary school student having a violent tabletop tantrum. Another, Rep. Jacque Phillips, works as an attorney representing students with disabilities, and listed a variety of anti-social, sexual or violent behaviors for which seclusion can preserve dignity for the
"Seclusion is a harmful and outdated practice that has no place in our
schools," -Rep. Regina English
student acting out.
Parents who supported English’s bill testified with stories about the process of seclusion being intimidating and frightening. They described their children as being traumatized by being shut into seclusion rooms for indefinite amounts of time.
Given that HB 25-1178 failed in the State House, Roaring Fork Valley schools declined to comment on the bill or seclusion practices. A representative for the Roaring Fork School District said, “Since it isn't moving forward toward approval, we aren't monitoring it any longer.” The Aspen School District indicated interest in providing comments prior to the bill stalling.
The bill remains available for constituents to read on the Colorado Legislature website. Additional information about the bill can be found on the Fast Democracy tracking site. Readers who wish to weigh in on future legislation around educational discipline can submit comments to state assembly members. Garfield County is represented by State Senator Mark Catlin, District 5, and State Representative Elizabeth Velasco, District 57.
Environmental and social advocates converge for Earth Justice Dinner
JAMES STEINDLER
Contributing Editor
The evening of Thursday, April 17, a group of folks came together at the Third Street Center for Roaring Fork Methodist Churches’ third event in its Justice Dinner series, this time discussing Earth Justice. After some White House Pizza and socializing, organizer John Stroud introduced the discussion and the panel.
He read an excerpt that explained how John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, included social justice in his preachings, and entwined a Native American proverb: “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”
The Earth Justice panel included: Delia Malone, wildlife chair of the Colorado Sierra Club; Hannah Berman with Aspen One’s Sustainability Team; Alan Muñoz Valenciano with Voces Unidas de las Montañas; and Sharon Morris, the chair of New Castle’s Climate and Environment Commission.
During introductions, Berman pointed out that the Aspen ski resorts have lost a month of winter since 1980, and that climate projections anticipate the area’s soil moisture levels
will be the same as “folks [experienced] during the Dust Bowl.” While this would certainly affect skiing, she said that the concern is about people’s homes that will be impacted by natural disasters and drought.
“We are a multi-issue organization,” said Valenciano of Voces Unidas, a Latino advocacy group, “but I will say that environmental justice … is an underlying factor for a lot of the work we’re doing — especially when it comes to policy.”
How are your goals being impacted by federal policy changes?
Morris said that, luckily, the Town of New Castle has some autonomy when it comes to environmental policy, but conceded that some federal grants may become unavailable. “We’ve decided already that we’re going to do this work,” she assured, “whether we get support from the federal government or not.”
Valenciano pointed to policy concerning workers’ exposure to extreme temperatures. “We’re going to continue to see those impacts of climate change on workers every single day,” he said, “[and] deregulation at the federal level is not going to
contribute positively.”
The White River National Forest is the most visited National Forest in the country, enticing 11 million visitors annually, said Berman. She added that cuts drastically affect the maintenance of public lands, and that it will be incumbent on the state, nonprofits, municipalities and other community organizations to “make sure that we’re not going to love these public lands to death.”
Malone stated that efforts to delist wildlife, such as wolves, as endangered species would affect the overall ecosystem. Without a natural predator, ungulates, such as deer and moose (the latter which is not native to Colorado), overgraze vegetation that otherwise stores carbon “to prevent over warming.”
How do we protect more vulnerable populations?
Valenciano said that oil and gas companies aren’t going to drill near affluent suburbs, but will next to an apartment complex or mobile home park where low-income and marginalized community members reside. “We’re going to see those effects not only just through climate change, but on health,” he said. “We’ll see an increase of children
having respiratory issues.”
“I live in Rifle,” he continued. “I can tell you that the air smells different up here in Carbondale … noticeably.” Valenciano said that it comes down to making policies to prevent such inequity.
Berman brought up a push for polluter pay legislation in Colorado, and that like policy has been passed in Vermont. “It’s a pretty simple idea. Any kindergartener in this country can tell you that if you make a mess you clean it up.”
Big oil should pay for its share for its pollution, she said.
How does climate change exacerbate environmental injustices?
Climate migration is something that hasn’t been discussed
enough, Valenciano stated. People often leave their home countries due to natural disasters or droughts and come to the U.S. “where they’re still looking for that American dream, as all of our ancestors were.” He added that anti-immigration rhetoric misses the point about what causes migrations — including climate change.
Malone tied in wildlife migration. “It’s not only people who are attempting to escape the heat and extreme drought in the [south],” she said. “But we have this little barrier, called ‘the wall.’” She said that jaguars, for instance, once were present in Arizona and New Mexico, and are trying to move back into suitable northern
The Earth Justice panel included: (left to right) Sharon Morris, the chair of New Castle’s Climate and Environment Commission; Alan Muñoz Valenciano, regional manager with Voces Unidas de las Montañas; Hannah Berman with Aspen One’s Sustainability Team; and Delia Malone, wildlife chair for the Colorado Sierra Club. Photo by James Steindler
An eye to the past, an eye to the future
There was a moment when I discovered something truly magnificent — when a great light struck me, when something new, different and special opened up for me. I may have been still in grammar school when my friend Julius took me on a hike above his neighborhood. We passed a small pond on the edge of the golf course where he waded to recover golf balls then sell them to the golfers. Cool, spare change, no big deal. We then hiked higher up the mountain and deeper into the woods. All of a sudden it appeared. Sparkling in the sun through the pines was a huge lake, like James Fenimore Cooper’s “Glimmerglass” from “The Deerslayer.” I felt exhilarated and something wild, something without boundaries, opened up before me.
This lake lay at the base of the cliffy peak — 1,202 feet elevation! — on the ridge above my hometown. The entire montane expanse has been in the conservation of the Commonwealth now for over a century. That lake, now a small lake to me, was where my sense of the wild and my passion for the natural world opened. It became my retreat, my recreation and chapel, all in one.
Did you have a seminal event? A week at your grandfather’s farm, a raft trip down a river, a starry campfire with the Girl Scouts, sleeping in a snow cave with buddies? An event when a door opened and a part of you, previously undiscovered, burst forth?
This place became to me what many
of us referred to in the 1960s as “my Walden Pond.” Walden Pond refers to Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden, Life in the Woods.” Thoreau wrote a series of essays when he retreated to a tiny cabin on that lake for two years to live with nature without distraction. His writings critiqued the social mores of the 1850s and lauded a more simplistic, minimalist and self-sufficient lifestyle. To idealistic and impressionable children of the post-war boom, traumatized by life in the shadow of the bomb and the voracious proliferation of shopping malls in a disappearing natural landscape, Walden Pond represented an “escape to reality.”
OPINION
CVEPA VIEWS
By John Armstrong
found pertinence in the Vietnam War and Civil Rights era. Thoreau’s argument that individuals prioritize their conscience over unjust laws and wars was as potent one hundred years later in the 1960s as it was one hundred years earlier with our country’s fight for independence.
Don’t be naive, for civil disobedience is not proprietary! Die hard people on the left and right, both rife with their beliefs and patriotism, tout their ideals. Perhaps the key word in Thoreau’s interpretation of this act is non-violence.
everyone. There is a breaking point at which sustainability is no longer.
I paraphrase a pearl of wisdom told to me by one of my elders and mentors in the Upper Crystal Valley half a century ago: “You can only poop in your nest so long until you are nesting in your poop.” So simple, but so succinct. This was central to the Thompson Divide movement in defying drilling in our headwaters. Wild animals know not to dwell or foul at their water source.
Hand in hand with the Walden Pond series was Thoreau’s essay on “Civil Disobedience” written in 1849 when he was jailed for non-violent tax protest and delinquency as he railed against slavery and the Mexican-American War. Non-violent civil disobedience
But what about environmental obedience? Is there not a code of ethics and behavior that man should follow out of respect for the earthly domain that (thus far) has sustained us? Respect, if for no other reason than to protect the basics of water, food and air that are requisite to life. Adherence to best practices must support the ecosystem which maintains the health and well being of
In my lifetime there were certain things that seemed to be universally accepted and trusted. Decisions of the justices of the highest courts in the land and science have been the rudder of policy that shapes political direction in our country. In this latest “reign,” the former is openly compromised, the later is vehemently refuted. Both of these influences now seem to be administration tools to manipulate an agenda bent on amassing ultimate power, dismantling departments and agencies developed to protect the common good is a coup d’etat.
The next four years stand to be the greatest threat to our democratic republic in the last 250 years. Paul Wellstone verbalized what sentient beings already knew: “We all do better when we all do better!”
To learn more about and to support The Crystal Valley Environmental Protection Association, visit cvepa.org or follow us on facebook.
Natalia Snider is a certified dream practitioner living in Carbondale. She works with people's dreams and imaginations to facilitate self-healing. Every month, she will analyze someone’s dream in The Sopris Sun. Anyone can submit a dream for personal analysis or inclusion in this column by visiting: www.dreamhealings.com
Just be and we are free OPINION
DREAM WELL
By Natalia Snider
Dream
I find myself standing on a cliff overlooking a large bay under the full moon. I’m surrounded by large boulders of black tourmaline on the ground beneath my feet. I can smell the moist earth and the salty sea. I can feel the breeze brush against my cheeks and through my tangled hair. I feel moonshine on my skin. I hear the sea breeze through trees that I cannot see, shifting the brush on the ledge in front of me with every gust across the bay. I’m not cold, I’m not warm. I’m not doing, I’m not thinking. I just am. In this moment, I’m safe sitting among the nature shielding me from the chaos, as a child. I’m just being, surrounded by these towering stones that have been here for millennia. The brush doesn’t know my name or where I’m from and it doesn’t matter. The moon looking down is not suggesting anything, not giving me bits of profound wisdom, just standing with me in a moment in space. I’m just being.
Interpretation
Thank you for sharing such a beautiful dream and letting us experience this with you. The message is clear in this dream as I know you felt: to just be. So, we don’t need to interpret this dream as much as find the reason why you had this dream and then how to use it. This is a powerful dream and a dream worth honoring with your use of it.
In all of the serenity in this dream there is a quick moment where we find the why, when you speak of chaos. When we have dreams that feel like a vacation from our daily anxieties, they are given to us because we are asking for them. If you aren’t allowing yourself the time to experience
peace but crying out for it, it will come when the egoic body has relinquished control. It will come in your dreams. This is because the only one who is stopping us from experiencing exactly what we ask for is the egoic self — the one attached to our life's story. The one who believes in the definitions we use to build our future from our past.
All that to say, our subconscious or higher self wants so badly to give us exactly what we want when we want it but is often blocked. However, you may have experienced this feeling of “being” many times previously in your dream state, maybe even every day you asked for peace, but did not remember it. This time you remembered it and that was no coincidence. You remembered this specific dream because it gave you instructions to create this feeling of “being” in your waking life. Thus, giving you the ability to give yourself peace whenever you desire it.
Dreams are meant for so much more than just fond memories. They are meant to be used like tools to help guide us, to grow, to evolve and to connect our waking self to our subconscious self, to our higher self, to the collective consciousness — to connect to all that is.
In each dream there are always hints on how to use it properly. This dream laid out a map through your senses for you to root into the present moment and find this state of just “being.” Following the dream’s guidance step by step exactly as you experienced it in the dream is the key here. Try this first in a calm environment. Begin with your sight; notice your surroundings. What colors do you see? What does the light look like? Then, what do you smell? Notice next the feeling on your face and through your hair. Can you feel the light on your skin? Then open your ears. What do you hear all around you? Now, go inward.
The dream suggests here to drop all needs. Drop the need to be comfortable; drop the need to be doing and thinking. Remind yourself you are safe. Remind yourself of your eternal nature and continue to drop every single need. Finally, drop the need to define yourself and just be.
This dream was sent to me so synchronously after receiving a message from my own dream of a conversation I had with my higher self: “If all we have to do is to just exist, then what do we have to do? It's impossible to not exist. So, just be. What are we stressing about? Just be. There isn’t anything to stress about if all we have to do is just exist. We’re free. We are free.”
Wildfire doesn’t wait and neither should you
Join us to learn how you can prepare for wildfire season and protect your home, family, and community
Spanish Translation Will Be Provided
edition is available every Friday afternoon on
and at businesses from Rifle to Aspen
SANA launches new bilingual website
SANA, the Safe and Abundant Nutrition Alliance, is a coalition formed by the counties of Eagle, Pitkin, and Garfield. These counties identified food insecurity as an urgent problem in the Valley and decided to act together. That’s how they called upon various local associations and began developing the prototype of what is now SANA, an initiative that grounded its roots in 2017.
In 2020, the project took a fundamental step by implementing direct surveys with the population.
“We conducted more than 300 surveys and identified the main food and comprehensive health issues,” said Judith Alvarez, a general practitioner licensed in Mexico with more than two decades of experience. She has been SANA’s executive director since 2020.
With a six-year track record focused on improving food access and nutrition of the Valley, SANA has strengthened its work thanks to joint efforts with organizations such as the Colorado Health Foundation, Rocky Mountain Health Foundation, Colorado Blueprint to End Hunger and Western Colorado Community Foundation. They have managed to establish themselves as a highly reliable organization. “Our mission is to ensure that all families in our community have access to nutritious foods, fostering a healthier and more prosperous community,” it’s stated on SANA’s website.
Since Feb. 18, 2020, the organization has had a Facebook page under the name “Safe and Abundant Nutrition Alliance – SANA” which became one of its first bilingual communication channels. Recently, SANA took another step toward digital inclusion by launching the Spanish version of its website. It is available at sanaco.org, and can be accessed easily by selecting the “Español” option in the
upper or lower right corner of the homepage.
The website, with the slogan “We listen, we connect, we feed,” is a new effort by SANA to reach the Spanish-speaking community. On it, users can find contact information, details about programs, strategies, the coalition’s history, the board of directors and more.
For SANA, good nutrition is the first step toward comprehensive health, closely linked to both physical and mental well-being. The coalition has been expanding, betting on raising awareness and using digital
resources, such as its website and virtual courses via Zoom.
Alvarez said, “The importance is to make known the work we do in the community.
To reach more people through these technological resources in order to share the benefits that exist in SANA and thus become visible to people who do not have social media.”
Among the many benefits that SANA offers, the free distribution of healthy, fresh and “culturally relevant” foods stands out. Its distribution centers operate on Tuesdays and Saturdays in collaboration with other
organizations such as Food Bank of the Rockies and Lift-Up:
• El Jebel: 11am to 12pm at Food Bank of the Rockies (218 E Valley Rd).
• Rifle: 10am to 11am at the parking lot of Garfield Human Services (195 14th St).
• Glenwood Springs: 1:30pm to 2:30pm at 120 Soccer Field Rd.
Additionally, SANA will offer free cooking, food preservation and nutrition classes, taught via Zoom on Fridays starting Oct. 3 at 6pm. To participate, prior registration is required by calling 970-989-3513.
With these programs, SANA not only provides food but also knowledge and tools to achieve complete nutrition. Through raw materials, theoretical content and culinary practice, the organization promotes true community integration.
Community is the central pillar of SANA, whether through volunteering in food distribution, logistical support at events or the training of emerging leaders. These individuals, through talks and direct experience, are called upon to continue and innovate this collective effort.
To learn more about the resources and programs offered by SANA, visit their official website: www.sanaco.org
DANIEL TORRES Sol del Valle
SANA volunteers distribute fresh and nutritious food to local families in the Valley. SANA recently launched a Spanish version for their website — sanaco.org — opening the opportunity for better bilingual communication. Courtesy photo
Share your works in progress with readers by emailing illustrations, creative writings and poetry to fiction@soprissun.com
Comparte tus proyectos creativos aún en proceso con nuestros lectores. Puedes enviarnos un correo electrónico con tus ilustraciones, creaciones literarias y poesía a fiction@soprissun.com
Communion
By Andrea Holland Fisher Creek
On a still winter bright day,
We catch our breath near the crest of a jagged granite ridge
A whisper of wings
Gently interrupts the silence around us
Gracefully, an eagle glides past
At eye level
Its pure white feathered head
Rhythmically rotates
Side to side
Searching for the slightest movement of prey below
I breathe in the moment.
No longer anchored to my skis on the mountain
I am buoyant in flight
Feeling the pillow of air
Beneath my long broad wings
Eyes focused on the rocky landscape below.
Time recedes
Then I exhale.
Back into my body
I glance over to my companion
His eyes tell me
He felt it, too.
MOTHER’S DAY IS RAPIDLY APP A ING
All local mothers who have welcomed a baby into their lives this past year are invited to have a portrait taken to run in The Sopris Sun’s May 8 edition.
Our professional photographer will be setting u p May 3 at the Third Street C en t er (in Carbondale) and May 4 at the Glenwood Springs Library with appointments from 9am to 1pm (all dates).
Please email raleigh@soprissun.com or call 970-510-3003 to coordinate. Can't make any of these dates? Reach out and we'll see what we can do.
LETTERS
been in Willits, but Carbondale was well represented. It was like old home night.
The following Wednesday, there was Mountain Action Indivisible’s follow-up meeting at the Third Street Center after the highly successful Hands Off rally in Glenwood Springs on April 5, which drew approximately 2,000 supporters. Gatherings in Aspen, Basalt, Glenwood Springs and Silt were connected by Zoom and reported how many were in attendance. Nobody came close to Carbondale’s 100 strong.
One of the follow ups was a sign-carrying, horn-honking protest at the roundabout at Highway 133 and Main Street on Saturday. There weren’t nearly as many as there were at the Glenwood Springs event, but attendees demonstrated just as much enthusiasm.
What good does all this do? We’re still stuck with Trump for the next four years, right? I’m recalling the anti-Vietnam War protests of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. They sent a message. Lyndon Johnson got the message and declined to run for reelection. Richard Nixon got the message and pulled our troops out.
Let’s face it, Carbondale is a predominately progressive town. Former Sopris Sun Editor Will Grandbois told me he was interested in adding a conservative columnist to balance Jeannie Perry, Geneviève Villamizar and Nicolette Toussaint. I pointed out Aspen is a very progressive city and who are the conservative columnists for their two newspapers? Mick Ireland? Roger Marolt? Steve Skinner?
A decidedly less political event was held at the Old Thompson Barn on Good Friday. It was MinTze Wu’s BenFeng Productions’ performance of Franz Joseph Haydn’s “The Seven Last Words of Christ” with local spiritual leaders elaborating on those seven words. MinTze is such a gift to this community! More than a world class violinist, she’s a magnificent storyteller and the consummate entertainer.
I’m an atheist who’s read the Bible cover to cover and, to a great extent, am guided by it, particularly the New Testament. Like the Quran, the Old Testament is too bloody for me. The seven last words are about forgiveness, faith, family, doubt, need, pain, finality and eternal life. I left the old barn inspired.
The town I grew up in, Munster, Indiana, was a very well-run town and I have very fond memories of it, but I was never so committed to it that I swore to die there. I do feel that way about Carbondale. Fred Malo Jr. Carbondale
Gardner for Holy Cross
It has been an honor and privilege to serve the member consumers of Holy Cross Energy as a member of its board of directors since 2012. I am seeking reelection to the board to continue the work that my fellow Board members, Holy Cross’ skilled and professional employees and I are engaged in to lead the responsible transition to a clean energy future.
Holy Cross is a not-for-profit, rural electric cooperative utility serving the Eagle, Colorado and Roaring Fork River valleys and is governed by an elected board of seven directors. Directors are democratically elected from and by the members. Holy Cross provides electricity to nearly 61,500 homes and businesses and generates nearly $144 million in annual revenues.
As an electric utility not motivated by profit, Holy Cross is successfully providing
electric rates in the lower third of all Colorado electric utilities, 99.9% service reliability and returning over $20 million in member equity to members in the last five years. In 2024, Holy Cross provided consumers a power supply that is 75% clean renewable energy and has provided 80% clean energy so far in 2025 on the way to 100% in 2030. I ask for your vote. I will continue to dedicate my experience, knowledge and understanding of Holy Cross’ member consumers and service territory for the benefit of the member consumers of Holy Cross Energy. I live in Basalt and am a lifelong resident of this region. For more information please see www.gardnerbradford.com and www.holycross.com/elections
Ballots for this election will be mailed to member consumers on May 7. Members may return their paper ballot or vote online on or before June 3.
Robert H. Gardner Basalt
Buddies & Lotería
Mark your calendars for a night of fun, culture and community! The Buddy Program invites everyone to join us for its annual Lotería Night on Saturday, April 26, from 6 to 8pm at the Glenwood Springs Community Center.
Lotería, a beloved Mexican game similar to bingo, is more than just a game — it’s a way to bring people together, celebrate tradition and create meaningful connections. Whether you’ve been playing for years or are excited to try it for the first time, everyone is welcome. In addition to an evening of friendly competition, we’ll have delicious traditional food and drinks, making this a true community celebration. Plus, there will be prizes, big and small, as well as special prizes for kids; so bring the whole family.
This is a fantastic opportunity to gather with friends and neighbors, share in cultural traditions and learn more about The Buddy Program, which has been empowering youth and working to build a supportive community in the Roaring Fork Valley for over 50 years.
We hope to see you there — come for the game, stay for the food and leave with great memories!
Dominic
Román The Buddy Program
Thank you, Beer Works
To Patrice Fuller and the staff at Carbondale Beer Works (CBW), thank you so much for letting me be the latest in a long line of nonprofit fundraisers! On April 16, I hosted Trivia Bingo at CBW in honor of organ, eye and tissue donation awareness, and raised almost $1,100! This fundraising is for my charity spot with the Chris Klug Foundation (CKF) for the Sydney Marathon on Aug. 31. Just 11 days before this race, my father will celebrate his 10th anniversary as a heart transplant recipient.
This fundraising event was a success due to the generosity and support of some special people. I would like to recognize Patrice for her unwavering commitment to community by offering local nonprofits the opportunity to highlight their work and raise funds at CBW through bingo fundraisers.
I’m so grateful to Juliana O’Clair with The Post Independent for sharing another of my fundraising missions, and helping advance the advocacy efforts of CKF locally.
I could not have done this without
PARTING SHOTS
LETTERS
my professional teammate: Anna Morgan-Palardy.
I’m thankful for the following businesses, organizations and people who donated prizes for the giveaway: Brion and Zack with Independence Run and Hike, Missy Moore with Thunder River Theatre Company, Jillene Rector and Megan Currier.
And to everyone who willingly and joyfully participated in this unique hybrid trivia-bingo, thank you for not just supporting the event by showing up and buying bingo cards, but for listening to me repeat organ, eye and tissue donation facts through five rounds of bingo — and being excited to learn something new.
One organ donor can save eight lives and heal 75 more through tissue donation, yet only 48% of Americans register. One blood donor can save three lives, but only 3% of Americans donate blood annually. One bone marrow or blood stem cell donor can cure a person’s blood cancer, but many do not know there is a separate registry for this with the National Marrow Donor Program. I encourage you to get curious,
from page 2
Dozens of protestors gathered at the Carbondale roundabout on April 19, rallying against the Trump administration. The demonstration was coordinated with Mountain Action Indivisible, a new volunteer-led group organizing people from Parachute to Aspen in favor of justice, equality and democracy.
On April 16, Mountain Action Indivisible held its official kick-off meeting with in-person gatherings in Silt, New Castle, Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, Basalt, Snowmass and Aspen, as well as online. All in all, some 400 people attended. After a 20-minute introduction to Indivisible (the national equivalent) and Mountain Action Indivisible (our regional chapter), each group discussed how they could contribute to the resistance movement.
Photos
by
Jane Bachrach
learn the facts and share your decision with your loved ones.
Jessi Rochel
Chris Klug Foundation
Earth Day
Tuesday, April 22 was the 55th anniversary of the celebration of Earth Day and the birth of our modern environmental movement. It inspired bipartisan support for planetary health. Trump, ham-fistedly wielding his black Sharpie, is commemorating this day and movement by eliminating those environmental regulations in support of big business interests which seek to profit from our lands.
I grew up near Buffalo, NY when Lake Erie was a toxic waste dump for the steel and chemical industries. Love Canal, in Niagara Falls, was the poster child for how to kill an entire low-income neighborhood. We knew when a storm was coming because the winds from the west would bring the chemical-laden air from Hooker Chemical wafting our way. Lakes in the Adirondacks were devoid of life thanks to
rain laden with acid deposition. That day in 1970 offered a glimmer of hope that we could, if we wanted, right some of these wrongs using the power of the federal government to create legislation that held polluters accountable and placed environmental quality ahead of profits.
In a series of bipartisan actions in 1970 and 1972 (during the Nixon administration), Congress created the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and passed the National Environmental Education Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. This legislation is a cornerstone of environmental protection and we have all reaped the benefits. By passing these laws and creating these agencies, Congress confirmed that the job of the government included protecting us and our planet from the rapacious greed of corporations intent on making profits at the expense of healthy ecosystems.
Fast forward to today. Trump has been systematically hollowing out the agencies created by Congress to protect our lands and all their inhabitants. He has rescinded parts of the Clean Air and Water Acts. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate change research programs are facing defunding. Trump’s actions will leave a legacy of environmental destruction that will haunt future generations.
It is time for Congress and all Americans to stand up and fight for what is right. Call your representatives and remind them that they should be speaking out on behalf of the planet and their constituents. Congress works for us. Environmental quality is a bipartisan issue that affects every living creature on the planet. Don’t let one man with a Sharpie set environmental protection back 55 years!
Susy Ellison Carbondale
EARTH JUSTICE
habitat but can’t get through.
from page 17
“We have all of these migrants — human migrants and wildlife migrants — that are subject to our impacts. Subject to what we have done to the planet,” she stated.
Closer to home, we’re seeing the impacts of less and less water each year, added Morris, which has pushed wildlife down from the high country. Due to this unavoidable circumstance, she said that communities need to learn to be good neighbors with local wildlife.
What can we do at the individual, local and state level?
Big picture, according to Berman, communities need to transition to electricity — including transportation — and make sure all of that energy comes from clean power sources. She added that she ran for Basalt Town Council, successfully, to try and push electrification and clean energy infrastructure policy in her home community.
Valenciano kept reiterating that policy change can be achieved by the collective power of the masses, which has the numbers to advocate for policy change.
Morris said that the individual can make a difference by properly recycling, planting native flora, etcetera. “We make choices every day that impact everything around us,” she stated. “And the more we’re alert to those things … makes us present [with] our connection with everything.”
“I’m going to agree with everybody,” concluded Malone. “Because policy is critical, personal responsibility is critical, looking at the big picture is critical. And I’m going to add volunteering and showing up.”
Morris added a plug that New Castle will celebrate Earth Day on Saturday, April 26, 11am to 2pm, at Burning Mountain Park.
The Center for Human Flourishing thanks Mateo Sandate (left) and his music students for performing during the Spring Into Wellness First Friday event at the Carbondale Rec Center, made possible with audio support from Bill Flanigan. Photo courtesy of Rita Marsh
