Carbondale town planner resigns
Aspen, CO Colorado
CARBONDALE – The town of Carbondale’s top planner has resigned after five and a half years on the job.
Doug Dotson had been Carbondale’s community development director since 2005, overseeing a number of projects including the town’s Economic Roadmap Group, as well as the public review process for several large development proposals in more recent years.
“I feel that it is time for me to pursue other opportunities, and I am looking forward to new challenges,” Dotson wrote in a July 29 letter to Town Manager Tom Baker announcing his decision, effective immediately.
“… I believe that we have made a number of positive contributions to this community,” Dotson continued in his letter. “Among others, these include the best possible location for the community recreation center, the streetscape improvements in downtown, better development approvals …”
Dotson’s resignation also came as the town building department, which he oversaw, had come under fire by the Town Council for non-collection of more than $80,000 in building use taxes over the past four years.
Assistant town planner Janet Buck has been appointed interim community development director in the meantime.
The Carbondale Board of Trustees is expected to decide Tuesday whether to forward a question to the November election asking town voters to renew a 1.5 mill levy for public improvements.
The special property tax assessment was first approved in 1999 to pay for a variety of capital projects around town, in particular the downtown “streetscape” project. It is due to expire at the end of this year.
At a special board meeting beginning at 6:30 p.m., trustees will consider a draft ordinance to forward the question to voters. The proposed question will ask whether to extend the tax an additional 10 years, until 2020.
Tuesday’s meeting will take place at Town Hall, 511 Colorado Ave. Final approval of the ballot language would still need to come at the board’s Aug. 24 meeting.
Willoughby: Men on strike
The screenwriters’ strike, approaching five months at the time of this writing, crippled the industry and LA and was reported on frequently. The 1894 Western Federation of Miners’ strike in Cripple Creek was covered nationally and was especially of interest in Aspen because many Cripple Creek miners had previously lived in Aspen.
