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The Aspen Times Weekly
Skiers line up around the block to load the Silver Queen Gondola to ski Aspen Mountain after a fresh 14 inch snowfall on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. (Kelsey Brunner/The Aspen Times)
It’s a winter like no other, with the lifts spinning and skiers skiing through a global pandemic.
Playing out against a backdrop of spiking Aspen area infections, school and restaurant closures, rolling quarantines, global economic crises, the insurrection in Washington, a real estate boom here and an upside-down year on Earth, one of the few things that’s the same as ever is clicking into our skis and breezing down a slope.
John Stroud/Post Independent file photo
When the new, larger City Market in Carbondale opened in late August, there was speculation it would eat into Basalt’s sales tax revenues, but early returns indicate grocery stores in both towns continue to flourish.
For the four full months since the Carbondale’s 62,000-square-foot City Market opened, Basalt has experienced growing rather than stagnating retail food sales. Cumulative sales tax collections from retail food sales for those four months were $890,544 up $44,194, or 5%, from the same period in 2019.
Sales tax reports don’t identify taxes paid by individual businesses, so information isn’t available on sales by the El Jebel City Market or Whole Foods.
Many homeowners in the Roaring Fork Valley portion of Eagle County will receive a pleasant surprise when they open their tax bill this week.
The mill levies for several taxing districts decreased slightly in 2020 from 2019. That will create a modest decrease in overall tax bills for many homeowners.
A check of property tax bills for homes in six neighborhoods of the midvalley by The Aspen Times showed tax bills for 2020 dropping by as much as $731.52 for a house in Riverside Drive in Basalt to $35.32 for a house in Blue Lake subdivision in the El Jebel area.
In a tough time when some people are facing reduced hours at work because of the coronavirus pandemic, the fact that property tax bills are flat is welcomed relief.
It isn’t far-fetched to say some Aspen environmentalists cried tears of joy when Joseph Biden replaced Donald Trump as president on Tuesday.
The staff at Aspen Center for Environmental Studies couldn’t watch the ceremony together because of the pandemic, but they shared a sentiment.
“The mood was elation,” ACES President and CEO Chris Lane said. “We all watched the inauguration and cried.”
A photographer takes a picture of the namesake geologic feature in the Bears Ears National Monument in December 2017. Aspen-based Ecoflight helped with the process that got the monument designated. Now it will help get it restored.