News

Welcome to the beginning of another week in the Roaring Fork Valley! This is Week in the Arts, a curated list of upcoming exhibitions and events.

Eagle County’s open space program is asking for continued support this election. The program is funded through 2025; ballot measure 1A asks voters to extend the property tax through 2040.

Transportation is a challenge in a community that's 40 miles long. Aspen businesses rely on workers commuting and, with only one road in and out of town, it can lead to problems. In the next 20 years, the valley’s population is expected to grow, which means more traffic. This fall, the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA) hopes voters will invest in their bus system.

When you walk into a room full of people you don’t know, you may pull out your phone and avoid eye contact. If you’re at a contra dance, you might as well smile, because the odds are good that you’ll have do-see-doed with most of the room by the night’s end. Contra is a traditional community dance. It's social, done with both big groups and partners. Its modern followers in the Roaring Fork Valley see it as an antidote for an increasingly isolated world.

On Tuesday, the Board of Trustees discussed where the town stands, financially speaking, and where it’s headed. In 2019, the town doesn’t expect any increase in marijuana sales and excise taxes, but does anticipate slight increases in sales and property tax revenue.

Voters this November will decide whether or not to give private property owners in Colorado power they don’t have currently have.

Pitkin County has committed to using science to protect wildlife and habitat on the 5,000 acres of open space property it owns, and last week, the Open Space and Trails Board recommended spending more than $200,000 studying area wildlife.

Snowmass resident Renee Linnell’s new memoir, "The Burn Zone," explores why a worldly, well-educated person would join a cult.

Up high in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, there’s an abandoned metal snow fence — well, there used to be. A diverse group of volunteers joined a team of mules and horses to haul tons of rebar out of the backcountry last month. Pack strings are one of the few ways to get heavy work done in protected wilderness areas, but their future is uncertain.

Ben Marcus is the author of five books of fiction: The Age of Wire and String, Notable American Women, The Flame Alphabet, Leaving the Sea, and Notes from the Fog. He is the editor of The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories and New American Stories. Since 2000 he has taught on the faculty at Columbia University’s School of the Arts.

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Welcome to the beginning of another week in the Roaring Fork Valley! This is Week in the Arts, a curated list of upcoming exhibitions and events.

Hundreds of thousands of people visited Hanging Lake last year, and the U.S. Forest Service says too much traffic has caused damage to the sensitive ecosystem. On Friday, the agency released its final decision to require hikers to get permits to visit the popular spot.

This week...We look at the adventurous life of a valley local who died in a bike accident over the weekend and examine ongoing calls for leadership change at the Aspen School District. Also, your blue books are here. What are voters weighing as they mark their ballots this fall?

Aspen is celebrating Indigenous People’s Day by hosting Shining Mountain Film Festival. This two-day event highlights films by and about Native Americans, including "Neither Wolf Nor Dog."

Larry Forman lives in Battlement Mesa; sometimes, outside his house, he smells sulphur.

“[It’s] like rotten cabbage or something like that. It kind of reminds you of a wet dog, but it’s not exactly like a wet dog,” he said.

Host Zoe Rom brings you the week's news from the Roaring Fork Valley.

Individual snowflakes are the tiny building blocks of Aspen’s winter sports industry. Jeremy Swanson, a photographer for Aspen Snowmass, has documented how vulnerable they are to warm, dry temperatures. Swanson spent the last two winters taking close-up shots of individual snowflakes. He says his photos capture the toll last year’s warm, dry weather took on the snowflakes that did fall.

Astronomer and educator Dr. Jeffrey Bennett believes we can find consensus on one of the most divisive issues of our time. In a presentation Thursday, he aims to break down political barriers surrounding climate change.