GARCO COMMISSIONERS APPROVE WASTE TRANSFER STATION
Glenwood Springs–After some 8 hours of public testimony and acrimony, the controversial waste transfer station on Catherine Store Road was unanimously approved the Garfield County Board of Commissioners. The board’s approval of the Mountain Roll Offs Incorporated project outside of Carbondale came with at least two dozen conditions to maintain safety and keep noise,
truck traffic and environmental hazards to a minimum. Dozens of concerned citizens addressed the board before the vote. Some disgruntled people may join together in a class action lawsuit to stop or at least delay the project.
WATER WOES PROMPT ACTION IN COLORADO RIVER REGION
LAS VEGAS (AP) – Rising demand and falling supply have water managers in the arid West projecting that the Colorado River won’t be able to meet the demands over the next 50 years of a population of 40 million people and growing. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday issued what he termed “a call to action” along with a three-year study of the river, its flows and its ability to meet the future needs of city-dwellers, Native Americans, businesses, ranchers and farmers in seven Western states. The study found the population in the West could double, while today’s drought-stricken Colorado River is expected to only recover about 85 percent of its historic flows.
The report dismisses some proposals, such as towing icebergs from Alaska, as impractical. But Salazar says there is “no one solution” to the challenge.
WALDO CANYON FIRE LEADS TO TOUGHER RULES
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) – Fire codes could be getting stricter in the Colorado Springs neighborhood devastated by last summer’s Waldo Canyon Fire. Colorado Springs’ city council has given preliminary approval to fire code changes to make homes more fire resistant in the foothills. The Colorado Springs Fire Department says the changes will make homes in the Mountain Shadows neighborhood more fire resistant if they’re rebuilt. The Fire Department proposed the changes after the Waldo Canyon blaze destroyed 346 homes. Fire Marshal Brett Lacey has said that hundreds of homes might still be standing had the tougher fire codes been in place. The fire code changes would apply only to rebuilds and new construction on vacant lots, not to existing structures.
POPPIN’ THE CORK ON AJAX MOUNTAIN
ASPEN (AP) – A traveling champagne bar that debuted on Aspen Mountain last season is back after county officials signed off on renewing the pop-up bubbly bar. Pitkin County commissioners have cleared Aspen Skiing Co. to revive the mobile champagne bar. Skico is using an “optional premises” provision of its liquor license for the champagne bar.
The champagne bar consists of tables set up at sunny spots on the mountain. Skico plans to set up the bar again for spring skiing, starting on Presidents Day weekend, but it did uncork the bar for opening day this winter, given the unseasonably high temperatures. The bar operated on weekends last season, selling small, snow-chilled flutes of Veuve Clicquot for $15 each.
