Estes Valley Voice Podcast

Story by Patti Brown If you see a kid dressed up as one of the Mario Bros. running around on Friday afternoon, you’re probalby in the right place. If you see an adult dressed up like a cartoon racecar driver and nostalgically remembering their childhood, you’re absolutely in the right place. Kelly and Andrew Kessler, owners of Estes Park’s historic Ride-A-Kart, have stepped up the local go-kart ga...

Story by Barb Boyer Buck In a packed five-hour meeting that began at 7 p.m. on June 10 and adjourned five and a half hours later on June 11 at 12:30 a.m., the Estes Park Town Board voted five to two remove Belle Morris from the Transportation Advisory Board. “I think it has grown into something it was never intended to be,” said Mayor Gary Hall at the Town Board meeting on June 10. He was speaking...

Story by Suzy Blackhurst Maintaining hope, continuing political action from cross-partisan constituents, and persistent small victories in Congress are among the most important strategies that will lead to political change in the nation’s capital, U.S. House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat, told a packed audience at the Allenspark Fire Station Community Room Wednesday af...

March 11, 1947 – May 19, 2025 Kent H. Smith was a sixth-generation sign-maker who grew up in his father’s sign shop and took over production when his father passed away.  His search for a career led him to further fields. In high school, he trained for technical theater, primarily stage lighting, toured with Premiere Dance Arts, and lit shows at Denver Auditorium Theater and Red Rocks for national...

Story by Suzy Blackhurst Just before the three-day Memorial Day weekend – the traditional vacation season kickoff – optimism was the order of the day at the May 22 Visit Estes Park board meeting. “We’re cautiously optimistic,” said interim CEO Mike Zumbaugh, reflecting on the forecasting reports presented by Rachel Ward Oppermann, VEP’s marketing director. Zumbaugh pointed to Opperman’s report on...

by Mayor Gary Hall Eyesight is a treasure for those blessed to ​have it. It’s a wondrous thing to see the incredible variety of shades of green in the Rocky Mountain springtime. The other kind of vision is in our minds. ​Businesses write vision statements that describe the future state toward which they aspire. Many individuals imagine the future, and some use those ideas to propose or create inve...

Story by Patti Brown The five new board members of the Estes Valley Fire Protection District were sworn in Wednesday morning during a private ceremony that was not announced to the public or to the district’s members. The Estes Valley Voice learned of the swearing in just after the ceremony and was able to get to the fire station and take a photo of the new board, who had gathered in the conferenc...

Story by Elisabeth Sherwin and Patti Brown Sarah Hills, a private practitioner, and MeeMee Lahman, a clinician at Salud Family Health, discuss the mental health issues they see in their practices If you break your leg, you go to a doctor. But what if your problem is emotional, not physical? Hopefully, you will seek treatment for that issue, too. Asking for help with emotional problems can be hard...

Story by Elisabeth Sherwin Not many people know that Danny St. John, a fixture in Allenspark for more than 70 years, grew up in Southern California. Don’t hold that against him.  He and his family came to Colorado during the summers until he was old enough to move here.  “I’ve been coming here on and off since I was 1 year old,” he said.  He and his family came to Colorado during the summers until...

Story by Patti Brown In the largest real estate deal in the Estes Valley since Lord Dunraven acquired more than 7,000 acres in 1874 and then sold the land in 1908 to F. O. Stanley for $80,000, the Stanley Hotel was sold today for $400 million. The new owner is the Stanley Partnership for Art Culture and Education, LLC – which will be known as SPACE – a public-private partnership with the Colorado...

Book Review by Elisabeth Sherwin I am not a very good linguist. Foreign languages do not come easily to me. However, I always wanted to be bilingual. I spent my junior year of college  in Madrid, Spain. At the end of the year, I could speak and read Spanish pretty well but I still had problems understanding people speaking to me. Near the end of my stay, I got on the bus I always took to school. I...

Story by Barb Boyer Buck The construction of a performing arts center that supporters would like to build at Stanley Park will cost an estimated $25 million. To proceed, 70%—or $17 million—needs to be raised. The problem is that the area being considered for the facility is currently used for overflow parking for large events such as the Rooftop Rodeo and the Longs Peak Scottish-Irish Highland Fes...

Story by Patti Brown As the Town’s summer visitor season kicks off this month, retailers are beginning to see tariffs on invoices for imported merchandise they will put on their shelves to sell. More than 40 business and community members attended a panel discussion on dealing with tariffs and understanding the uncertain economic landscape Monday afternoon at the Estes Park Holiday Inn, hosted by...

Story by Patti Brown The Town of Estes Park Trustees and the Larimer County Commissioners met Tuesday for a two-hour joint session to address concerns raised by Town Trustee Kirby Hazelton about the Visit Estes Park Board of Directors. Hazelton was appointed in April 2024 to serve as the Estes Park Town Board liaison to the VEP board. In an April 1, 2025 letter addressed to the Larimer County Comm...

Story by Suzy Blackhurst Polls close at 7 p.m. this evening Today is election day in the Estes Valley. Electors can voice their opinions about the individuals they would like to see represent their interests on three special district boards of directors. These boards encompass areas inside the Town of Estes Park and in specific areas of Larimer and Boulder Counties. Five representatives will be ch...

Story by Patti Brown The Great Estes Park Duck Race takes flight Saturday, but the weekend fun kicks off with music and laughs tonight starting with Warburton’s Mountain Madness launch dance party and concert at the Stanely Concert Hall from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. The event features Burn The Ballroom, a high energy rock band, with actor and comedian Patrick Warburton who starred in Seinfeld, Rules of...

Story by Patti Brown After 20 years of owning the Snowy Peaks Winery in Estes Park, Candice and Erik Mohr sold the business to Rockscar Hospitality, a limited liability company registered in Florida and owned by Albert Schmurr, for $1.7 million in March. The winery hosted an open house Sunday afternoon to honor the Mohrs and to mark the transition. Over the past two decades, the winery has crafted...

Estes Valley Obituaries Alex Lloyd Gibson, known for his infectious laugh and calm, gentle demeanor, passed away peacefully at his home in Estes Park, Colo., on April 21, 2025, at the age of 72. Born on January 19, 1953, in Tecumseh, Mich., Alex spent his life embracing love, adventure, and family. He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Deborah. He was a part of the Estes Park Community for 46 ye...

Story by Patti Brown A grey wolf died in Rocky Mountain National Park this past week, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the National Park Service. The exact location of the death was not made public. The female wolf, identified as 2514-BC, was one of the 15 wolves translocated to Colorado from British Columbia in January. The wolf, which wore a satellite GPS collar, is the third wolf fr...

Story by Elisabeth Sherwin It’s not often that someone can say they’ve had two successful careers –  in opposite fields – in one lifetime. Linnea Tanner, 75, started off her career as a chemist. She earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Colorado, Bouder, and worked for many years as a regulator. “I was on the regulatory side,” she said in a recent inter...

Story by Barb Boyer Buck Visions of carousel horses, BBQ, and making chocolate bars swirled through Town Hall Tuesday night while John Cullen, doing business as JWC Elevations, LLC, was granted both the legal right to build an indoor carousel at the Stanley Chocolate Factory downtown and a liquor license. There was also a surprise announcement: Wes Moore, owner and chef of the popular WesTex BBQ f...

by Mayor Gary Hall Thanks to all of you who will vote in the three upcoming special district board elections on May 6. And thanks to those of you who choose to run for the different boards in town. Without abundant civic participation, Estes Park would not benefit from the breadth of opinion and depth of wisdom that is needed for good progress. We need you now for several other board and commissio...

March 10, 1940 – March 20, 2025 On March 20, 2025, Richard “Dick” Aaron Life, Captain, United States Navy, died peacefully while resting at age 85. He was with family during his final moments. He died naturally from a cardiac arrest.  Born on March 10, 1940, in Parkersburg, W.Va. to Richard Edward Life and Frances Marie Roush. He grew up in both Athens, Ohio and Parkersburg with his younger brothe...

Story by Suzy Blackhurst A brewing rift between Board members of Visit Estes Park, most of whom have worked together for several years, and Kirby Hazelton, who was appointed to the Board just a year ago this week, came to a head this past week. The most recent skirmish began on April 1 when Hazelton, an Estes Park Town Trustee and the Town Board’s liaison to the special marketing district, wrote t...

Story by Estes Valley Voice In a letter dated April 1, 2025 to Larimer County Commissioners, Estes Park Town Trustee Kirby Hazelton asked for a joint meeting between the commissioners and the town board to discuss operations of the Visit Estes Park Board of Directors. In her letter , made public in the meeting packet for the April 8 Estes Park Town Board meeting, Hazelton said the VEP Board had no...