News in Brief

A Carbondale woman was arrested at the Cooper Street Pier in Aspen on Saturday night, after allegedly tossing a glass at a bartender who was lecturing her about bringing in a drink she bought somewhere else.

Debra Pandoli, 48, allegedly was spotted entering the bar with three other women, carrying drinks they had purchased elsewhere.

According to APD Officer Linda Consuegra, Pandoli said she and her friends had been at the Wheeler Opera House and Bentley’s bar before coming to Cooper Street.

When the bartender at Cooper Street told Pandoli it was against the law to bring drinks into the bar that had not been purchased there, Consuegra said, she started arguing. And as her friends started trying to pull her away, to leave the bar, Pandoli allegedly grabbed a glass and threw it at the bartender.

She was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and taken to the Pitkin County Jail, but was released on her own recognizance.

A Basalt woman was arrested in Aspen on Saturday evening when an Aspen police officer spotted her driving on Mill Street and recalled that her driving license had been revoked.

Karen Kincaid, 43, was arrested at about 6:15 p.m. and charged with driving under revocation, and possession of cocaine, after officers allegedly found “two eight-balls” in her possession, according to Aspen Police Officer Linda Consuegra. An eight-ball, in street parlance, is one-eighth of an ounce of cocaine.

According to Consuegra, Kincaid was taken to the Pitkin County Jail and held on $15,000 bond, $5,000 for the cocaine charge and $10,000 for the driving-while-revoked charge.

She remained in jail on Sunday afternoon, and was scheduled to appear before a judge this week, Consuegra said.

Galaxy Energy of Denver, a longtime producer of coal-bed methane in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, is about to make an entrance on the natural gas stage in the Piceance Basin.

Galaxy announced Thursday it has acquired more than 5,000 acres of the Biscuit Ranch about two miles northeast of Rifle, at a cost of $14.5 million.

Galaxy’s plan is to drill a minimum of 10 wells by the summer of 2006, said Cecil Gritez, chief operating officer of Galaxy.

“It could be more than that,” Gritez said.

Drilling is set to begin in November.

Although Galaxy’s focus in Wyoming has been coal-bed methane, it will be drilling in a tight sand formation in Garfield County, similar to the large fields Williams and EnCana operate, Gritez said.

“We’ve looked at lots of well logs in the area, and there certainly are some substantial coal intervals there,” but for the near future the company will concentrate on the more traditional resources, he said.

The company’s holdings are also closer to the Grand Hogback than the larger fields, where gas lenses are known to pinch out.

“Obviously all of us here … have those concerns … and until you get those bores drilled you’re in the projection business,” Gritez said.

He added that Galaxy also co-owns some natural gas leases in the area of the Biscuit Ranch with Antero Resources.

With Garfield County scoring the highest number of well permits in the state this year, there is a continuing difficulty in finding drilling companies to do the work.

“We do have a drilling contract with one of the largest contractors in the Rocky Mountains,” Gritez said.

Galaxy also has operations in Montana, Germany and Romania.