Monday September 21, 2009

The annual Ruggerfest competitions in Aspen over the weekend saw the hotels, lodges and restaurants doing a pretty brisk business.
The Gentlemen of Aspen won the event –beating the Denver Barbarians —that’s the fourth time in the last four years that the Aspen team has come out on top.
Fall colors could peak as early as next weekend—say forecasters—-even though the first official day of autumn is tomorrow.
Operators of the seven thousand square foot Aspen Art Museum are not giving up in the quest to find a bigger space.  A ballot question in May asked the voters to authorize the sale of public property at Rio Grand Place, on which an environmentally sensitive museum by Japanese Architect Shiguro Ban would have been built; but the proposal was shot down.
Museum curator Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson says the board members have been considering various alternative sites for a new museum.
The money is there.  The museum has nearly 30 million dollars to spend…but several other locations: including on East Hyman at the site of the Wienerstube Restaurant, have not met the museum’s criteria. 
It may end up, says Zuckerman Jacobson that the current site across from Rio Grand Park, and bordering the Roaring Fork River, may have to be considered for expansion.