News

• Telluride Gets Parking Pushback
• 2025 Music on the Mesa Lineup Announced

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Telluride Gets Parking Pushback

The Town of Telluride is facing backlash over its pilot parking program.

“Council has prioritized parking improvements, which in 2024 they commissioned the parking study,” said Hayden Brodowsky, Telluride assistant town manager.

Last week, Brodowsky provided Town Council an update on changes to the town’s parking program.

“We’ve expanded the meter areas. We’ve updated parking rates. We introduced the free 30-minute option, and since early February we’ve had about 350 uses of that program, so it’s actually getting quite a bit of use,” he said.

As part of the pilot program, the town also made parking along the first two blocks of Colorado Avenue diagonal — a change that some community members oppose.

During public comment, nearly a dozen residents spoke out against both the metered parking and the diagonal layout.

Erik Dalton said he felt the town didn’t communicate effectively about the pilot program.

“I feel like it just changed overnight, and I feel we became the parking lot for the Town of Telluride,” Dalton said. “I wish we were included in this conversation earlier and in a better way, so it could be more constructive.”

Wendy Wilbert raised concerns about safety.

“I ride my bikes six months out of the year, it’s human powered, it’s not an e-bike,” she said. “I’ve always liked that little center section to get out of the way of traffic and let cars go by. That’s not happening anymore, I’m riding right down the middle of the street. The kids are riding their e-bikes — are flying through this town. They’re going to be riding alongside those diagonal park spaces, and someone is going to back up into them. I don’t care how slow you go. There’s going to be numerous accidents in this town.”

Sarah Nyman said she’s worried about how the new parking setup affects the town’s aesthetic.

“Now, when you meander down Colorado Avenue you see this whole line of diagonal parking and pretty soon, as the season kicks up, it’s going to be pretty full of cars, and I believe that that changes the entire dynamic and character of the main thoroughfare of our town,” she said.

Rosie Cusack objected to the impact of vehicle lights at night.

“The light impact in emission, into a historic residential home, in the night, is outrageous. It’s trippy. It’s like a Pretty Lights show, but not as good,” she said. “It causes: sleep disruption, increased stress and anxiety, impacts on mental health.”

As part of the pilot program, the town plans to review data in July and finalize the program — with any necessary changes — in October.

Town Council members said they hear the community’s concerns and take them seriously but want to collect more data before implementing adjustments.

“I would love to have some data to inform why we do things,” said Councilmember Elena Levin. “To just blindly start to make changes, when there’s already a little guesswork in what’s already happened — I would hate to follow guesswork with guesswork.”

Mayor Teddy Errico said the town is open to revising the program.

“If we make something and miss the mark, we will change it,” he said. “We are not here to have the perception of one-sidedness, or stonewalling, or anything like that. We’re not perfect. If we come across a circumstance when a decision was made, even if it’s implemented, I don’t think anyone on our council is afraid of admitting to an error and making a change.”

The Town of Telluride will continue collecting data and discussing the parking program throughout the summer and fall. Those who would like to provide feedback on the diagonal parking on Colorado Avenue can do so at bit.ly/totparkingpilot.

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2025 Music on the Mesa Lineup Announced

Hear that? Described as “If Bill Monroe and Emmylou Harris road-tripped to Burning Man and then moved to the mountains to ski, you would have Pixie and the Partygrass Boys,” the genre-bending band is the first artist announced for the 2025 Music on the Mesa Two Concert Series.

Organizer Daiva Chesonis, a Norwood local, said she’s excited to welcome the band back for a June 15 show at the Pig Palace.

“They are a five-piece band — two of them are ladies,” Chesonis said. “They all originated as ski bums playing house parties in Salt Lake City in Cottonwood Canyon, and they’ve kind of evolved into a touring band. They’ve been on the road extensively since 2018 when their debut EP came out, called Utah Made. They kind of do the festival circuit — High Sierra Music Festival, JamGrass, they’ve been to Rocky Dell Fest. And they’ve also supported lots of musical greats like Billy Strings, the Infamous Stringdusters, Grace Potter, Brothers Comatose, Lake Street Dive. They’re cutting their teeth, and I consider them — basically the first concert is sassy, fiddle, storming youngsters.”

Music on the Mesa began as an idea in 2019 and came to life last year, Chesonis said. The free concert series is rooted in community.

“I call them picnic concerts,” she said. “Like last year, for these Sunday afternoons, the gates open at 4:30 p.m. There’s food and vendors in the Pig Palace, there’s a robust kids zone — cornhole alley, yard games, cash bar. The music starts at 7, so that’s kind of like two and a half hours of leisurely pre-show picnicking, catching up with old friends, making new ones.

“Last year I just loved looking around the venue and — oh my gosh — there are career ranchers shooting the breeze with career ski patrollers. We’ve got farmers dancing with SMART bus drivers. We have grandpas and face-painted grandkids sharing blankets. One of the best compliments I heard from a lot of Telluride folk was, ‘This feels like Bluegrass Year 7.’”

The event is entirely free, thanks to support from local sponsors. Chesonis produces the concerts alongside Rob Miller of Pickin’ Productions, who helps with artist booking. But there’s more than just music at the Pig Palace, Chesonis said.

“The vendors — it’s all local offerings, from in-the-moment henna art and handmade jewelry to tallow-based health products made right there on Wright’s Mesa,” she said. “Even houseplants — and those will be offered by the 4-H kids. So you might come home with a succulent or something — you never know.”

As for the second show in the series, Chesonis said things are going to get funky on Aug. 10.

“We kind of get funky in August — it’s a little bit more down-homey, rootsy,” she said. “We kick up the dust in June, but I think in August this is going to be our pattern — we get funky.”

The August concert will feature Electro Lust, a five-piece band with one female vocalist and deep ties to Asheville, North Carolina’s Grammy-winning music scene.

“All these band members have been in other bands like Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band, Fritz, Empire Strikes Brass, and the Marcus King Band,” Chesonis said. “So they’ve got a lot of experience on their own and they’ve come together as this group. They kind of take us from a Miami nightclub to a Brazilian beach to the vibrant chaos of Cuban streets — all the while auditioning an eclectic hip-hop mixtape, which pretty much makes all ages just get up and dance and get funky.”

Music on the Mesa’s first concert is June 15, featuring Pixie and the Partygrass Boys. The second show is set for Aug. 10 with Electro Lust. Both take place at the Pig Palace in Norwood and are free and open to the public.

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Benny Manibog and Ellery Akers Featured at Bardic Trails Poetry Night

The Talking Gourds Poetry Club invites the public to another Bardic Trails night of poetry on Tuesday, May 6, featuring poets Benny Manibog and Ellery Akers.

Akers is the author of four poetry collections, including Swerve: Environmentalism, Feminism, and Resistance, which was recognized with BookAuthority’s Award for Best Environmentalism Books of All Time. She has received 14 writing awards, including the Poetry International Prize and Sierra magazine’s Nature Writing Award.

Her work has been featured on National Public Radio and has appeared in publications including The New York Times, American Poetry Review, and Poetry.

The event will be held virtually and begins at 7 p.m. Interested participants can register at tellurideinstitute.org/western-slope-calendar.

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White House Budget Proposal Includes Cuts to Public Lands and Fire Services

The White House has released its proposed federal budget “wish list,” asking Congress to approve billions of dollars in cuts to a wide range of federal programs.

As Rocky Mountain Community Radio’s Caroline Llanes reports, the proposed reductions include funding for agencies that oversee public lands, national parks, firefighting services, and Indigenous affairs.

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