OBITUARY — Kimberly Louise (Clapp) Harris

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
Kimberly Louise (Clapp) Harris died peacefully in her sleep on March 10.

She was born March 1, 1958, at the Aspen Miner’s Hospital and had just celebrated her 50th birthday. Kimberly attended school in Aspen and, having spent most of her life in the valley, was well known for her vibrant personality and unique, cheerful smile. As a lift attendant in Snowmass, she was known as “Dancin’ Hanson” and at Rubey Park as the information clerk with the perpetual smile. The thing that made her happiest was spending time with her family and friends.

Paid parking coming to a neighborhood near you

by Curtis Wackerle, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

A proposal to expand paid parking for more than two hours, attempting to end the “two-hour shuffle” in Aspen, received unanimous support from Aspen City Council at a work session Monday.

The parking program should be in place when the new bus lanes between Buttermilk and the roundabout open next winter. The council also wants to start a pilot program to test out the concept of congestion pricing, which automatically charges drivers different rates based on when and where they drive.

Ski visits back on track

by Troy Hooper, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Officials could extend season as soon as today 

Visits to Colorado’s ski resorts snowballed in the second quarter, totaling more than 5.54 million, putting the industry back on track and within 1 percent of last year’s record-setting pace.

The second quarter of the 2007-08 season, which began Jan. 1 and ended Feb. 29, saw a 6.7 percent increase in skier visits compared to the same period last year, according to statistics that Colorado Ski Country USA, the trade organization for 26 of the state’s ski resorts, released Monday.

North Forty attacker going to prison

by Andrew Travers, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

A man convicted of two crimes related to a melee in the North Forty neighborhood will serve two-and-a-half years in prison.

Kevin A. Gibson was handed a 30-month sentence for criminal trespass, nine months in county jail for third-degree assault and one year in prison for cocaine possession on Monday. All three terms will run concurrently.

Music school plan moves forward with conditions

by Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

The Pitkin County commissioners indicated Monday they will approve the redevelopment of the Aspen Music Festival and School campus if the organization commits to creating new affordable housing and meets myriad other conditions.

The county board also agreed that the school could tear down two mid-1960s buildings on its campus designed by the late Aspen architect Fritz Benedict, despite the recommendation of the county’s historic preservation officer to save the buildings.

Castle Creek area could see development boom

by Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
The lower Castle Creek Road area in Aspen is likely to be a busy place over the next five to 10 years.

OBITUARY — Carolyn Louise Herz

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Carolyn Louise Herz, of Glenwood Springs, died on March 9, 2008. She was 66.

Carolyn was born in Chahlis, Wash., grew up in San Bernadino, Calif., and graduated from LaVerne College in LaVerne, Calif., with a degree in education.

News shocker: Opposites attract!

by Steve Skinner, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Ladies! Please step away from the tanning booth, put on that sunscreen and look coy under a sun hat. The latest research reveals that guys are attracted to pale women. Researchers at the University of Toronto have been studying what attracts us to each other. What they found is that lighter ladies (regardless of race) were preferred by men. Women are the opposite. They are drawn to dark-skinned dudes.

These “skinstincts” are beyond our control. It all started in the savage days of our ancestors. Men’s attraction to blondes goes back to the caveman days. Anthropologist Peter Frost said: “When an individual is faced with potential mates of equal value, it will tend to select the one that stands out from the crowd.” So when blondes arrived on the scene, they really stood out.

Some questions of judgment for Barack Obama

by Richard Cohen, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Some questions: Why did Barack Obama take so long to “reject outright” the harshly critical statements about America made by his minister, Jeremiah Wright, not to mention the praise the same minister lavished on Louis Farrakhan just last November?

How is it possible that Obama did not know about these remarks when he is a member of Wright’s congregation and so close to the man that he likens him to “an old uncle”?

Back off on Pan & Fork plan

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Editor:

Whoa … Let’s hold on a minute. Basalt Town Council has mailed a notice of an election (not mailed until early March) to be held on April 1, 2008, (April Fool’s Day) for the purpose of gaining voter approval to purchase the Pan & Fork property along the Roaring Fork River. The election would grant the town the right to issue $5 million in bonds with a repayment cost of another $2.6 million (quite a sum for a park). Town Council has also written a “guest opinion” for the editorial pages (dated March 17) in which they have stated that they intend to use a portion of the property for a “riverfront park” and that the remaining portion (1.8 acres) will be developed for some use (they do not say what) with a private developer. They make the claim that the joint development parcel will pretty much repay the town for its costs in this endeavor (they just don’t say how). Now they bring up the question of relocating the existing residents and infer that some future housing associated with future developments will serve to house these families (again, pretty vague and with no real time frames or specific locations for the affordable housing). Finally, they claim that the owner is willing to sell the property at a price “$1.3 million below its appraised value” (how is it that up and down the valley property owners are selling their real estate at enormous profit, while in Basalt we have a seller out to dispose of this site at a bargain basement price?).

Separate Highway 82 from Grand Avenue

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Editor:

It is time for Ralph Trapani and Dan Richardson to come down to earth from La-La Land. There is nothing wrong with having a transit system or building more energy-efficient homes. But to think the present traffic problem on Grand Avenue is going away is delusional. Trapani states the transit system has eased the traffic problem. If it has (which I doubt) that is offset by increased traffic volumes.

Thumbs down on ZG Master Plan

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Editor:

It is no small wonder why the ZG Master Plan for the massive government development proposal for the entire southern portion of Rio Grande Park to Main Street and Mill Street to Obermeyer Place, touted by county master planner Ben Gagnon and former city planner Stan Clausen, received an 80 percent thumbs up last Wednesday. The attendance of this meeting was 80 percent government employees from the city to the county; employees and staff from the art museum, library, and ACRA; and committee members who worked on this future master plan.

A beacon has left us

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Editor:

For the old-timers who knew D.R.C. Brown socially and through the Aspen Skiing Co., this is a moment of recollection and reflection about a man of profound humility and decency. He personified the rugged simplicity of old Aspen and after serving in World War II, he devoted his energies to the town he loved.

With gratitude and affection

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Editor:

The Brown family was most influential in setting the course of Aspen’s history. D.R.C. Brown Sr. and D.R.C. Brown Jr. (Darcy) were giants of their times.