The top 5 most-read stories: Threatening call puts schools into lockdown; All candidates agree downtown core is a mess
We’ve rounded up the top five most-read stories on Aspentimes.com from last week.
1.) Threatening call puts schools into lockdown
Not even 24 hours after a campus-wide lockdown drill, Aspen School District was put into a real lockdown Wednesday morning when a threatening phone call was made to the Pitkin County Regional Emergency Dispatch Center, authorities said.
“We do believe, based on the information that we received, that this event here in Pitkin County was likely a prank,” Pitkin County Undersheriff Alex Burchetta said in a media briefing Wednesday afternoon. “Operationally, we treated it here as a real event until proven otherwise. This required us to methodically go through all of the schools to ensure there were no threats and to ensure all students and staff were safe.”
The call came in at 8:25 a.m. from someone claiming to be “walking into the school to shoot all of the kids,” Burchetta said.
— Audrey Ryan
2.) On the Fly: Could you only fish one fly all year? As long as you have the variations
Many anglers would argue that you could catch a fish on any trout stream in the world with Frank Sawyer’s pheasant tail nymph. Frank was a river keeper on the Hampshire Avon and created this fly we still rely upon today, 65 years later. I would agree this is a universal and year-round fly, although you’d have to fish a few different sizes and variations. It’s hard to say that one fly could rule them all, but this one could — as long as there is some leeway in sizes and styles.
For the Fryingpan, we special order hundreds of dozens every season tied small, especially skinny, and devoid of flash and beads. For local freestones like the Roaring Fork, Crystal, and Colorado rivers, we tend to use larger ones which can employ beads, some flash, and even rubber legs, cul de canard or soft hackles added in. Generally, the bigger the river, the less choosy the fish tend to be. Slimmer, smaller flies are best for low-flow times of year, and larger, flashier flies can be relied upon during runoff.
We fish small and “quiet” pheasant tail nymphs in sizes 20 and 22 on the Fryingpan River to imitate the multitudes of blue-winged olives that hatch in spring and fall. This may irk some local guides, but you can also fish the unweighted pheasant tail on the surface like a dry fly! The secret is out now, I guess.
— Scott Spooner for Writers on the Range
3.) All candidates agree: Downtown Aspen is a mess
In a city that thrives on high-end boutiques, posh eateries, chic bars and lacks workers, affordable housing, and locals-friendly businesses in the core, how do the candidates for the Aspen City Council and mayor feel about downtown’s current construction status and is there an answer?
— Julie Bielenberg
4.) Seven contenders in running for Aspen airport’s future FBO
Pitkin County announced Tuesday the identities of seven applicants seeking to fill the coveted opening for a fixed-based operator (FBO) to oversee future general aviation operations at the airport.
Submitting requests for proposals include Atlantic Aviation, which has been FBO at Aspen-Pitkin County Airport since June 2006. The other six contenders are Miami-based Fontainebleau Aviation; Basel, Switzerland-based Jet Aviation; Modern Aviation of Englewood, Colorado; Odyssey Aviation of Kissimmee, Florida; Signature Flight Support of Orlando, Florida; and California-headquartered Sonoma Aviation.
Atlantic Aviation’s contract expires Sept. 30. According to the county’s announcement, an 11-member review committee tasked with selecting future FBO will take their initial look at the proposals Friday. The RFPs will be scored on certain criteria; an operator could be selected by this summer and start as soon as Oct. 1, the county said. Nine of the the review committee’s members will vote on the new FBO, the county said.
— Staff Report
5.) What Ann Korologos leaves behind
In downtown Basalt, the Ann Korologos Gallery carries on the legacy of its groundbreaking founder. The gallery is one of many fingerprints Ann left in the Roaring Fork Valley, though her work touched many corners of the world.
Ann was a philanthropist, a leader, a public servant and an art enthusiast who made U.S history and helped expand the arts scene in the Roaring Fork Valley.
On Jan. 30, she passed away in a hospital in Salt Lake City from complications of bacterial meningitis, according to a statement from the Ann Korologos Gallery. She was 81.
— Kristen Mohammadi
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