SEPARATE TRIALS POSSIBLE IN PFISTER MURDER CASE
Aspen—Attorneys for the three people facing first degree murder charges in the death of lifelong Aspen resident Nancy Pfister may ask the judge for two separate trials. Though the charge would be the same, attorneys say the circumstances and the roles played by Katherine Carpenter and husband and wife William and Nancy Styler may warrant separate trials. Carpenter was Pfister’s assistant and a bank employee and the Styler’s rented Pfister’s home while she was in Australia. It was Carpenter who found Pfister’s body in an upstairs closet of the West Buttermilk home on February 26th. Judge Gail Nichols scheduled a preliminary hearing for the week of June 9th.
GARCO COMMISSIONER CONCERNED ABOUT ENERGY LEASES
Glenwood Springs—Garfield County Commissioner Tom Jankovsky is concerned about the Bureau of Land Management reconsidering some previously approved oil and gas leases. Jankovsky fears some of the wells are actively producing and generating income and could be in jeopardy. Jankovsky says it seems lately like western Garfield County is ‘under siege’ from the federal government with regard to many issues including energy development and overreaching environmental protection.
SUPERFUND MINING POLLUTION CLEANUP IN DOUBT
SILVERTON(AP) – San Juan County Commissioners are concerned after scientists and officials from the Environmental Protection Agency proposed Superfund designation for parts of Silverton polluted by mining operations.
Federal regional administrator Martin Hestmark warned that without Superfund designation, there would be no money for long-term cleanup efforts.The designation would also allow the EPA to further study the Upper Animas mine basin.
Residents in Silverton are balancing the federal funding that would be available through federal Superfund designation to clean toxic water pollution from old mines with the economic hit the community would take from being branded a Superfund site.
