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Three Basalt council Candidates appear ready to skate into office

Scott Condon
Aspen Times Staff Writer

Two incumbents and a fresh candidate for the Basalt Town Council will apparently skate into office without facing election challenges.

Only three candidates have emerged for the three seats in the April election, according to town clerk Pam Schilling. Incumbents Anne Freedman and Tracy Bennett submitted petitions required to run, as did board newcomer Tiffany Gildred. Incumbent Dave Reed decided not to run.

Candidate petitions had to be submitted to the clerk’s office by Friday, March 1. Schilling said there is a process to allow write-in candidates to participate in the April 2 election, so it’s not certain yet that the races will be uncontested.



Tuesday, March 12, is the deadline for write-in candidates to file an affidavit of intent to run. If no one emerges as a write-in, the Town Council could cancel the election and save the time and expense of holding a meaningless election. The cancellation decision must be made Friday, March 15, according to Schilling.

Basalt’s May 21 election for a Home Rule Charter Commission did lure enough candidates to make it contested. There are 11 candidates for nine positions, according to Schilling.




The candidates are Laurie Dows, Leroy Duroux, Anne Freedman, Peter Frey, Tiffany Gildred, Larry Gottlieb, Robert Kreis, Frank McSwain, Dick Merritt, Jim Paussa and Robert Rugile.

Town voters will be asked if formation of a “home rule” style of government should be pursued. If so, they must pick nine members for a commission to work on a draft charter.

The commission would have 120 days to work on the charter, a document which defines how the town government is designed and its powers. Town voters would then be asked to adopt the charter or remain a statutory government, with powers defined by the state government.