In Brief: Cabin burns up the Fryingpan; summer enrichment; Aspen School District audit finds some room for improvement
Cabin burns down along Fryingpan; occupant missing
Fire apparatus couldn’t get close enough to a burning cabin early Sunday morning to do anything and the structure is a total loss, authorities reported.
Roaring Fork Fire Rescue Chief Scott Thompson told the Aspen Daily News that the occupant was not accounted for, and his vehicle was parked outside the cabin.
According to Roaring Fork Fire Rescue Authority:
The department was dispatched at 6:42 a.m. to a a cabin reportedly fully engulfed in flames at 7104 Frying Pan Road, about seven miles from Basalt. Apparatus and personnel responded immediately and were on the scene within 20 minutes.
The remote location off of Frying Pan Road resulted in the fire apparatus not being able to access the cabin. Due to these circumstances, the cabin continued to burn and no fire suppression activities took place. No adjacent structures or vegetation were threatened.
The first arriving unit reported the cabin was fully involved and the majority of the cabin had already collapsed. Multiple apparatus and personnel from RFFRA responded with three engines, two command vehicles, a water tender, and an ambulance. Mutual aid resources from Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District also responded.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by Eagle County Sheriff’s Office and Roaring Fork Fire Rescue Authority. The cabin was a total loss.
Roaring Fork elementaries offer summer enrichment
Registration for the free Summer Advantage program is currently available for kindergarten through fifth grade students in Basalt, Carbondale, and Glenwood Springs, offered Monday through Friday, June 19-July 21 from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Basalt Elementary School, Crystal River Elementary School, and Glenwood Springs Elementary School.
Daily free bus transportation will be provided by the Roaring Fork Schools.
The program is available to all elementary-aged children who live in the Roaring Fork Schools’ boundaries (13 schools). The program is sponsored by Summit54 and Roaring Fork Schools.
The enrichment programs include classes such as art, music, dance, video game programming, and environmental studies. Scholars have the same two enrichment classes on Mondays and Wednesdays and two other enrichment classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Student registration is currently available on-line at secure.infosnap.com/family/gosnap.aspx?action=36329&culture=en (English) and secure.infosnap.com/family/gosnap.aspx?action=36329&culture=es (Spanish). Registration is also available via phone: 1-866-924-7226 (*9 for Spanish).
Applications for teachers and teacher assistants are also available on-line at http://www.Summeradvantage.org.
Auditors find room for improvement in Aspen School District finances
Overall, the auditors found no material weaknesses in the Aspen School District’s financial statements, while noting areas for improvement, the school district reported.
The Board of Education received the results of an annual independent auditor’s report March 22.
The audit covered financial records for Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2022, and was conducted by
CliftonLarsonAllen LLP’s Broomfield, Colorado office.
Among the areas for improvement:
- The district needs to prepare bank reconciliations monthly.
- The district’s finance department needs to review its policies and procedures and adhere to segregated duties within the finance department.
The audit also highlighted the need for the district to scrutinize expenditures in facilities,
transportation, and technology to ensure they don’t outpace revenues, said Dave Sholes, interim
chief financial officer. The district’s fund balance dipped in FY22 for a second year.
“We believe with stronger financial controls in place, we can rein in expenditures,” he said.
“We are heading in the right direction.”
The district was without a CFO for seven months until he stepped in as interim CFO, said
Superintendent Dave Baugh.
“He (Sholes) has begun the process of reconciling bank statements from last year and also is in
the midst of preparing a sound budget proposal for the 2023-24 school year,” Baugh said.
Local 14 year old writes young adult novels
Nyala Honey has done more in her 14 years on this earth than many people accomplish in decades. The 14-year-old Basalt resident has published two young adult novels, which she’ll talk about and read from at Explore Booksellers at 2 p.m. on June 8.
