Top five most-read stories last week
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
Stories in this list received the most page views on aspentimes.com from July 21-28.
1. New non-stop flight coming to Aspen in December
American Airlines will be running a new, nonstop flight to Aspen this coming winter.
Starting in mid-December and running through early April, people will be able to fly the longest nonstop flight into Aspen from Charlotte, North Carolina. The flight opens up a new connection in the southeastern United States, enabling new “city pairs” to cities with airports that have typically had to fly into another airport before connecting to a final destination.
“Lots of connecting markets up and down the entire east coast don’t have a one stop option to get to Aspen,” said Bill Tomcich, managing partner at Air Planners Inc. and consultant with Fly Aspen Snowmass. “Through their Charlotte hub and their regional affiliates, there are now dozens of unique one stop connections from places like Charlottesville, Virginia, Lynchburg … The list goes on.”
-Colin Suszynski
2. Pitkin County takes step towards rezoning 85% of county to protect against land sales
Pitkin County is poised to rezone more than 500,000 acres of public lands in the county to prevent development in the event of land sales. Public lands make up about 85% of the county.
The rezoning was approved on first reading at the July 23 Pitkin County Board of County Commissioners regular session in a 4-0 vote.
The BOCC was driven to take action on this in response to efforts earlier this year to include provisions to sell vast swathes of federal lands in the “Big Beautiful Bill” that was passed July 4.
-Colin Suszunski
The Copper Creek wolf pack was tied to another calf death in Pitkin County in mid-July, marking the seventh depredation incident tied to the group this year. The area’s ranchers, however, believe the pack is responsible for losses now well into the double digits.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff confirmed the calf’s death as a wolf depredation on July 18, citing strong evidence that wolves were involved, according to a video of the investigation captured by Chris Collins, who owns McCabe Ranch in Old Snowmass. He shared footage with The Aspen Times.
The calf — which was owned by Brad Day, a lessee on the ranch — was found by a Parks and Wildlife range rider around 30 feet from the Hay Park Trail in the Capitol Creek area, Collins said. In the video, the Parks and Wildlife staff member identifies that one of the calf’s ligaments was bitten through, likely by a wolf, and appeared to have died from an infection related to that wound. Other injuries, he added, indicated that other animals had scavenged from the carcass.
-Ali Longwell
4. Aspen decision on re-evaluation kickstarts joint process with Pitkin County
Aspen City Council’s July 7 decision to re-evaluate the 1996 “preferred alternative” to the entrance to Aspen triggered the process for both Pitkin County and the city of Aspen to put in a formal request for the re-evaluation by the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Federal Highways Administration.
Pitkin County, on May 28, had endorsed a re-evaluation of the preferred alternative. However, no forward progress had been made following that decision because the city of Aspen and Pitkin County both share responsibility for executing any potential changes to the entrance to Aspen.
“Basically, the city of Aspen and Pitkin county have the same involvement,” said Brian Pettet, director of Public Works at Pitkin County. “Pitkin County signed a Record of Decision with CDOT and FHWA, as did Aspen. The contents of the memoirs are a little different, but basically we, the county, and the city are involved with the Record of Decision in the same way.
-Colin Suszynski
5. Shepard Fairey returns to Aspen to gift new permanent mural
World-famous street artist Shepard Fairey returned to Aspen on July 21 to create a new mural for the community — a permanent work he painted from July 22 to July 25.
“Aspen is a really beautiful place, and I did my show there in 2018,” Fairey said.
Fairey’s return will include a trifecta of the mural, an exhibit, and a celebration, similar to 2018. Globally known as the creator of the iconic Obama “Hope” poster, Fairey is a conscientious artist who champions art accessibility for all economic levels.
-Jennika Ingram
Pitkin County takes step towards rezoning 85% of county to protect against land sales
The BOCC was driven to take action on this in response to efforts earlier this year to include provisions to sell vast swathes of federal lands in the “Big Beautiful Bill” that was passed July 4.
