News in Brief

ASPEN – Cyclists in this summer’s USA Pro Cycling Challenge will finish the stage that ends in Aspen on Main Street, outside the Pitkin County Courthouse.Aspen Mayor Mick Ireland described the route riders will take as they come into town on Highway 82, from Independence Pass, at Tuesday’s Aspen Chamber Resort Association board of directors meeting.The multi-stage ride hits Aspen on Aug. 24. After riding over Cottonwood and Independence passes en route from Gunnison, the riders will enter town from the east, traveling down Cooper Avenue to Galena Street, turning north at the Paradise Bakery corner. They’ll turn back toward the highway on Hopkins Avenue, round Original Curve and hit the finish line on Main Street in front of the courthouse, Ireland said.The route has been chosen to allow shots of riders with Aspen Mountain in the background, he said.”It’ll be a spectacular shot, though,” Ireland said.The chamber has set up a web link – http://www.aspenupcc.com – offering details about the Aspen leg of the race and other information. The race route and tips on how best to view the ride as a spectator will be posted there in the coming weeks, according to the ACRA.

ASPEN – A resolution urging immigration reform in Washington, D.C., will be back before the Aspen Chamber Resort Association board of directors next month.Warren Klug, a local hotelier and chairman of the board, urged board members to approve a resolution urging elected officials to take action on a “thoughtful, workable and employer-oriented solution,” but other members called for more specificity in the resolution.Kenny Smith, representing the retail sector on the board, said he didn’t think immigration reform was an appropriate issue for the Aspen chamber to address. David Perry of the Aspen Skiing Co. said, “I would prefer, if we’re going to take a stand as an ACRA board, that we are specific as to what we want to see happen.” Perry is senior vice president for the Skico and an ACRA board member.Klug called for action to secure the U.S. borders and provide undocumented workers already in the country with an avenue to legalizing their status.

SNOWMASS VILLAGE – The Denver Museum of Nature & Science has uncovered more than 546 Ice Age fossils from the dig site at Ziegler Reservoir near Snowmass Village, it reported in an update Tuesday. The finds include two mastodon skulls, five mastodon pelvises (two complete), four mastodon jaw bones, seven mastodon tusks, one bison jaw bone and one sloth jaw bone.”Each one is incredibly well preserved and will help us better understand the Ice Age at this high elevation,” said Kirk Johnson, leader of the museum’s excavation team, in a press release.The fossil excavation will continue through July 1; then construction of a dam begins.Starting June 6, local volunteers will begin spending week-long stints at the dig site. The local corps includes several Aspen teachers. In all, 15 area participants were chosen to work alongside scientists and the museum’s trained volunteers.