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

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