Eagle County’s open space program is asking for continued support this election. The program is funded through 2025; ballot measure 1A asks voters to extend the property tax through 2040.

Welcome to the beginning of another week in the Roaring Fork Valley! This is Week in the Arts, a curated list of upcoming exhibitions and events.

On Tuesday, the Board of Trustees discussed where the town stands, financially speaking, and where it’s headed. In 2019, t he town doesn’t expect any increase in marijuana sales and excise taxes, but does anticipate slight increases in sales and property tax revenue.

When you walk into a room full of people you don’t know, you may pull out your phone and avoid eye contact. If you’re at a contra dance, you might as well smile, because the odds are good that you’ll have do-see-doed with most of the room by the night’s end. Contra is a traditional community dance. It's social, done with both big groups and partners. Its modern followers in the Roaring Fork Valley see it as an antidote for an increasingly isolated world.

Voters this November will decide whether or not to give private property owners in Colorado power they don’t have currently have.

Pitkin County has committed to using science to protect wildlife and habitat on the 5,000 acres of open space property it owns, and last week, the Open Space and Trails Board recommended spending more than $200,000 studying area wildlife.

Up high in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, there’s an abandoned metal snow fence — well, there used to be. A diverse group of volunteers joined a team of mules and horses to haul tons of rebar out of the backcountry last month. Pack strings are one of the few ways to get heavy work done in protected wilderness areas, but their future is uncertain.

Snowmass resident Renee Linnell’s new memoir, "The Burn Zone," explores why a worldly, well-educated person would join a cult.

The Aspen Fire Protection District is asking voters to approve an increase in property taxes that would fund firefighter housing, capital improvements and more.

Ben Marcus is the author of five books of fiction: The Age of Wire and String, Notable American Women, The Flame Alphabet, Leaving the Sea , and Notes from the Fog . He is the editor of The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories and New American Stories. Since 2000 he has taught on the faculty at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: http://apple.co/1HCVfjA