Resident fears drilling is contaminating creek — again

by David Frey, Aspen Daily News Correspondent

A woman who lives south of Silt says she believes gas drilling is causing chemicals to seep into a nearby creek, resulting in a problem similar to one four years ago that led to the biggest fine the state had ever handed to an energy company.

The Environmental Protection Agency has started an investigation, said Lisa Bracken, but she said state regulators aren’t listening and she’s had trouble getting through to county commissioners, too.

Some wait all night for B’game units

by Curtis Wackerle, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

The line began forming Sunday night for the first come, first served leasing of this winter’s supply of Burlingame seasonal housing units.

By lunchtime Monday, 98 out of 100 units at the housing project near Buttermilk were spoken for, as area employers and housing-hungry residents lined up, as if for tickets to a rock concert. Monday was the first day that Burlingame leases were made available to the public and the second time in two years that those leases were scooped up in one day. The remaining two units are reserved for tenants that might require handicapped access.

Redstone shooter guilty on three counts

by Andrew Travers, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

A 27-year-old Redstone man pleaded guilty Monday to lesser charges stemming from a late-night drunken shooting spree through his neighborhood in June.

Nathaniel Taylor was convicted of three crimes: possessing a firearm while under the influence of alcohol, reckless endangerment and drunken driving. All three are misdemeanors. A felony menacing charge against him was dropped in his plea agreement.

S’mass Rodeo Place employee housing to get $1.3M subsidy

by Catherine Lutz, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

SNOWMASS VILLAGE — Snowmass Village Town Council agreed to $1.3 million in additional subsidies for the eight single-family homes and four townhomes left to be built in the first phase of the Rodeo Place employee housing project.

The 4-0 vote (with one council member absent) on Monday culminates several months of intense discussions after it was discovered that the cost of the project was rising by about 37 percent over what was originally anticipated. There are 15 homes in the first phase; earlier this summer the council agreed to pay $91,500 of the additional costs for the first three homes that are nearing completion. There is no cost estimate yet for the nine to 11 lots anticipated in the second phase.

Newspaper gaffe gets developer into ‘legal’ trouble

by David Frey, Aspen Daily News Correspondent

GLENWOOD SPRINGS — It’s the Post Independent’s fault.

A packed house turned out for Monday’s Garfield County commissioners meeting as the board prepared to consider the controversial Hunt Ranch development on Missouri Heights. Residents went away disappointed, though, not because they didn’t like what the commissioners decided but because they weren’t allowed to decide anything at all.

Schwartz urges oil and gas board to consider health

by Judith Kohler
DENVER — Some Coloradans are calling on regulators to make public health a priority as the state considers an overhaul of oil and gas rules amid a natural gas boom.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission was set to meet Tuesday to start considering proposals that would give more weight to environmental, wildlife and health issues.

Memorial service announced

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
Patti Seifert’s memorial service will be held at the top of Aspen Mountain at 10:30 a.m. (gondola begins running at 10 a.m.) on Saturday, Aug. 23. Please bring a blanket to sit on. Tax-deductible donations in Patti’s memory may be sent to Patti Seifert Memorial Fund c/o A.E.F. p.o. box 2200, Aspen CO 81612

Aspen's recyclability

by Elise Foley, Mountain Business Journal Writer

Most casual Aspen restaurants and coffee shops offer bins for patrons to recycle their trash, according to an Aspen Daily News survey of local businesses.

Of the four that do not offer bins for customers, three recycle bottles and cans behind the counter. And of the 12 establishments surveyed, only one, Starbucks Coffee, does not recycle cans and bottles at all.

After 20 years, valley locals still turning trash to treasure

by Damien Williamson, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
For Ray Meeks and Christine Lester, it all started with a '62 Ford pickup truck and a bunch of clothes and furniture strewn across a yard on the side of Highway 82 near El Jebel.

The year was 1988 and the duo wanted to find a way to supplement their income - at the time Lester was working in retail and Meeks was selling art for a local photography gallery. So the two decided to host a yard sale. It was a novel idea at the time in the valley, and they were easily able to solicit enough clothes and furniture to make their first joint valley venture a roaring success. Now, 20 years later, both Meeks and Lester each own their own consignment shops.

Is tourism tanking?

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
The city of Aspen's lodging tax revenues are 2.1 percent below budget through June of this year, according to data recently released by the city of Aspen. Revenues for April, May and June were especially grim - down 17.4 percent, 24.5 percent and 10.8 percent, respectively, from their budgeted projections. Lodges saw a 13.5 percent dip in revenues in June compared with last year's revenues for the same month.

But they say every dark cloud has a silver lining. And the lining around lodging tax revenues is this: Year-to-date (YTD) revenues are 9.7 percent above last year's revenues through June. Still, the margin between last year and this year is shrinking each month and that's before inflation. How this year's lodging tax revenues ultimately fare, however, remains to be seen with July, August and December factoring in heavily.

StockWatch

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
After two weeks of double-digit increases, the Dow Jones, the Nasdaq and the local stock index all saw significant declines. And, for the first time, the local stock index saw a greater overall decrease than either of the national indices followed by MBJ.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 2.05 percent, finishing at 11,478.09 by Monday's close, the Nasdaq fell 1.54 percent to 2,404.95, and the local stock index declined 3.64 percent, finishing at 515.78.

Pitfalls of Countrywide acquisition

by Rachel Beck, Mountain Business Journal Columnist
NEW YORK — Countrywide's acquisition by Bank of America Corp. was supposed to help keep the troubled mortgage lender from collapse. Things might not turn out exactly as planned.

The people who did the deal hoped that a strong bank would rescue a weak one. But the deal's structure may have only delayed the inevitable - Countrywide still could face bankruptcy or a federal takeover potentially involving taxpayer dollars.

Crops looking good on Western Slope

by Gary Harmon, The Daily Sentinel
FRUITA — There's that scene in "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" in which the rumpled, tweedy and nerdily bespectacled Indiana switches from pure adrenaline to academia.

Robert Hutchins' hat, as it were, is rattier than Indiana's.

Resort report: What's happening in other resort communities

Aspen Daily News Staff Report

Movers & Shakers

Aspen Daily News Staff Report
IECA WELCOMES WILLIAMS

Carbondale-based Carolyn Williams is a new member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association. Williams works for Colorado Educational Consulting, providing private counseling for students finding and applying for college.

Face time: Our weekly profile of a local business community member

Aspen Daily News Staff Report

Nash Evans
President, Bioss Renewable Fuel Source

Family: My sister, Liza, brother, Noble, and mother and father, Michaux and Bart. And my immense number of friends who I am so fortunate to have guide, provide love and in general reward my life on a daily basis.

Hometown/Childhood: I was born in Zachary, La. Moved to Houston and went to college at the University of Texas at Austin. I spend my summers in Aspen and Livingston, Mont.

Yep, I’m still wound up

by Steve Skinner, Aspen Daily News Columnist
As we pass the 12-year anniversary of this column, I reflect. Sometimes I wonder … what’s the motivation? What’s the point? Why? Why? Why? Are these the tired ramblings of a bitter worker bee stuck in a golden hive with the honey just out of reach? Yeah, sometimes, but not always. Sometimes there is beauty in the world and that’s worth noting.

I like hearing from people who read “Soiled.” Over the years some of you have let me know when I have hit a nerve, hit the nail on the head or chopped my own head off in glorious ignorance. When someone takes a second to contemplate what I said and then actually goes through the effort of commenting it feels good. I even appreciate hearing from people who loathe and hate what I write about. That’s good, too (of course, it hurts). Sometimes as a result of hearing someone’s feedback I have changed my perspective and occasionally even changed my mind. Or felt a fool. I try to stay open.

Debating NATO membership for Georgia, Ukraine

by Richard Cohen, Aspen Daily News Columnist
Last year, Brent Scowcroft described to the Council on Foreign Relations his “most difficult judgment call” as George H.W. Bush’s national security adviser. It entailed preparing Bush for an early morning press conference regarding an attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachev. Later on, Scowcroft was asked about the first Bush administration’s decision to look the other way as Saddam Hussein’s attack helicopters slaughtered Shiites in the south of Iraq. He seemed unmoved. It is not for nothing that he is called a “realist.”

Now I, too, would like to become a realist — if just for a day. I’d like to ask who among you are willing to fight to bring South Ossetia back into the Georgian fold? How about Abkhazia? These are the ethnic enclaves that Georgia claims and Russia — not to put too fine a point on it — supports. They are the immediate reasons for the recent war.

Overdeveloped sense of privilege

Aspen Daily News Staff Report, Aspen Daily News Columnist