Old Snowmass Working to Become Dark Sky

Old Snowmass is working to become the valley’s first Dark Sky community, the Aspen Times reported. The Snowmass Creek Capitol Caucus, a nonprofit neighborhood organization, is working with Dark Sky International, an organization that assists communities, towns, and cities around the globe to tackle the problem of light pollution and offer solutions on how to bring it down. As part of the process, Pitkin County released an updated version of the lighting code to the public on their website, which has been in the works for four years. The county based the new codes on best practices and are in line with what other communities are doing on the Western Slope that is working.

Lottery Preference Given to Locals

The Snowmass Village Town Council unanimously approved an ordinance that will give locals an advantage in the town’s lottery system for deed-restricted housing, the Aspen Times reported. The ordinance, which council members have discussed at length for months, will give locals a leg up in the lottery for the town’s stock of about 200 ownership units. It defines locals as people who have lived in Snowmass for at least eight years prior to graduating high school with an absence of no more than six years post-graduation.

The Town Council originally proposed allowing only graduates of Aspen High School to be considered under the local lottery preference. But after receiving input from residents who said children may go to other high schools for specific reasons like certain special education programs, council members agreed to add Basalt High School, Roaring Fork High School and the day program at Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale to the ordinance

Snowmass Approves Affordable Housing Purchase

The Snowmass Village Town Council unanimously approved the purchase of residential property next to the Snowmass Center to use the land for workforce housing, the Aspen Daily News reported.

The vote did not finalize the purchase. The town and the current property owner must complete due diligence processes and other final steps before the sale is closed. The property comprises 2.9 acres of vacant land with current approvals for 110,000 square feet of residential floor area. The town hopes to use the property for workforce housing, according to a town memo. The purchase price for the property is $12.5 million.

Wildfire Detection Camera Added to Midvalley

A ninth wildfire detection camera system will be added in the Roaring Fork Valley in early June on Crown Mountain in the midvalley, the Aspen Daily News reported. The latest installation will be funded by the Roaring Fork Valley Wildfire Collaborative with financial support from the Roaring Fork Fire Rescue Authority and a private donor. The total price was $40,000, with half covered by the private donor.

Cameras already are in place near Aspen at Red Mountain, Ajax Mountain and Williams Mountain, near Snowmass Village at Jack Rabbit Ridge, on Red Table Mountain in the Upper Fryingpan Valley, near Carbondale and Redstone on Elephant Mountain and near Glenwood Springs on Lookout Mountain and Sunlight Mountain. The Aspen Fire Department purchased the first detection system by a company called Pano AI in Colorado in 2022. There are now 43 Pano stations throughout the state and another 21 stations are scheduled to be installed this summer.

Basalt Says ‘No’ to Midland Foes

Basalt town government’s major public works project to transform Midland Avenue received a huge vote of confidence from voters in May, the Aspen Daily News reported. A citizens’ initiative to pare down the project’s budget and preserve angled parking in the downtown core failed with 335 votes in favor and 809 against. A “no” vote in this case was support for the undertaking, formally known as the Midland Avenue Streetscape Project.

Project foes forced the election by collecting 365 signatures of town voters on a petition, but the campaign failed to generate additional support. The 70% to 30% in favor of the project mirrored a November 2021 vote that gave the initial support to the project. That election allowed the town to extend bonding authority and a property tax to pay for the Midland Avenue project, affordable housing and “green initiatives.”

Basalt Welcome New Council Members

Two newcomers to Basalt government and one familiar face won handily in the race for three council seats, the Aspen Daily News reported. Hannah Berman received the most votes with 460 while Angele Dupre-Butchart tallied 435. They sought public office for the first time.

Former mayor and councilman Rick Stevens will return to office after collecting 360 votes.

Candidates Kaja Rumney and Chris Mullen made unsuccessful bids for the three at-large seats. Rumney had 321 votes and Mullen had 195. Current Councilman David Knight was unopposed for mayor. He received 523 votes. Knight is finishing a four-year term on the council.

New Preschool to Open at Stott’s Mill

A new preschool will open in Basalt this fall under the Blue Lake Preschool umbrella and provide options for families seeking infant care, the Aspen Daily News reported. Blue Lake Preschool at Stott’s Mill will be licensed for 50 children, with the majority of the spaces for infants and toddlers under 2½ years old. The other spaces will be for preschoolers 2½ to up to 6 years old.

BuildersFirst Opens in Carbondale

Builders FirstSource quietly opened its new lumberyard facility in Carbondale last August, the Sopris Sun reported. Located just north of the City Market shopping complex on Highway 133, it was the culmination of a years-long process leading to the consolidation of the company’s three operations in the Roaring Fork Valley (Aspen, Willits and Glenwood Springs) at the Carbondale location. The Aspen yard is closed, and the Willits showroom was recreated in Carbondale; the Glenwood location remains for storage.

Capitol Peak Outfitters Changes Ownership

Capitol Peak Outfitters changed ownership from the Howe family to Ted Benge, the Sopris Sun reported. The outdoor experience company provides trail rides with its 25-head stable of horses, guided overnight pack trips and hunting excursions in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.

Benge is a valley local. His partner, Aisha Weinhold, owns Ragged Mountain Sports.Ragged Mountain Sports already has a partnership with The Painted Pig and Weinhold hopes to extend that to Capitol Peak Outfitters, though nothing yet is formal. She and Benge are also friends with local coffee company owners and would like to eventually partner with them to incorporate artisanal coffee into activities with the outfitter.

Thompson Divide Protected After Two Decades

Nearly 20 years of work by conservationists, ranchers and outdoor enthusiasts to prevent oil and gas drilling in the Thompson Divide area west of Carbondale bore fruit when the Biden administration withdrew 221,898 acres from potential leasing, the Aspen Daily News reported.

Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland signed Public Land Order 7939 that removed a vast swath of public land in Pitkin, Garfield and Gunnison counties from mining, mineral and geothermal leasing for a 20-year period. The order affects lands stretching from south of Sunlight Mountain Resort to the Mt. Emmons area outside of Crested Butte. The withdrawal includes 67,040 acres of the White River National Forest in Pitkin County and another 11,432 acres in Garfield County.