{"id":2444552,"date":"2019-05-23T20:24:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T02:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/i-couldnt-just-stand-by\/"},"modified":"2019-05-23T20:24:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T02:24:00","slug":"i-couldnt-just-stand-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/i-couldnt-just-stand-by\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I couldn\u2019t just stand by\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

When Rifle resident Justin Hughes heard that seven small Glenwood Springs businesses might be removed from their downtown location to make room for a new bank, the U.S. Army veteran began a petition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Glenwood and all it has to offer, from the small shops to the dining. The downtown is amazing, and I want to keep it that way,\u201d Hughes said of his Change.org petition titled, \u201cStop ANB Bank From Destroying Our Downtown and Displacing Valuable Local Businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The petition quickly took off.<\/p>\n

Last year, ANB Bank purchased the building at 910 Grand Ave. that consumes about three-quarters of the street block and was built in 1917, according to Garfield County Assessor records.<\/p>\n

The financial institution, which has 32 locations \u2014 including one in Glenwood Springs \u2014 plans to demolish the World War I-era building in early 2020, after the current tenants\u2019 leases expire.<\/p>\n

The small businesses that must vacate as a result include KC\u2019s Wing House & Sports Bar, Tesseract Comics & Games, Jewels & Gems, Bellini\u2019s Fashion, CPA Services Pro, Inc., Glenwood Spa N Nails and Glenwood Escape Room.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first heard what was happening, I couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d Hughes, who completed a tour during the Iraq War, explained. \u201cA town that prides itself on its small businesses was going to allow seven of them to be shut down because a bank wants to build a new office. \u2026 I couldn\u2019t just stand by.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Hughes, within 24 hours of creating the petition he noticed that it had already received 1,000 signatures. After 48 hours, roughly 2,000 citizens had given it their John Hancock.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe response is amazing and gives me hope,\u201d Hughes said of the support that poured in for the affected businesses. \u201cTo be clear, I am not against progress or new construction. But, there are more than enough places that would be more appropriate than smack dab in downtown; the main tourist hub where people come to shop and eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the city of Glenwood Springs is somewhat limited in what it can and can\u2019t consider and decide on with regards to the building application.<\/p>\n

According to a Wednesday news release, the Glenwood Springs Planning and Zoning Commission will consider the application at 6 p.m. June 25 at City Hall, 101 Eighth St.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commission will review the application in regards to the city\u2019s development standards only,\u201d the release stated. \u201cTherefore, the appropriateness of the use of the property for a financial institution will not be considered in the Planning and Zoning Commission\u2019s decision making.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citizens may also weigh in during the public comment portion of City Council meetings that, unless otherwise noted, occur on the first and third Thursday of each month.<\/p>\n

The next regularly scheduled City Council meeting takes place starting at 6:15 p.m. June 6.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll it takes is one person to stand up for what they believe in. That one act will inspire another and then another,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what happened here, and it\u2019s really just inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

The community support was particularly inspiring to Deb Burkholder, who has owned Bellini\u2019s Fashion for the past decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just speaks volumes,\u201d Burkholder said of the outpouring of local support she had received. \u201cThe people that I have been talking to, their first reaction is they\u2019re in shock. Their second reaction is, \u2018Why do they need another bank on the town\u2019s main street?\u2019 And, their third reaction is, \u2018What can we do to help you?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement released Thursday afternoon, ANB Bank said it intends for the new building to enhance the downtown area.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a member of the Glenwood Springs community for 29 years, ANB is working to enhance the downtown core through our significant investment in a new, attractive, energy-efficient building that will be additive to the unique character of Glenwood Springs,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter relocating our branch to the new location, ANB employees, our customers, and office users on the second floor will now all be downtown, further supporting the many downtown Glenwood shops and restaurants.\u201d<\/p>\n

mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Rifle resident Justin Hughes heard that seven small Glenwood Springs businesses might be removed from their downtown location to make room for a new bank, the U.S. Army veteran began a petition. \u201cI love Glenwood and all it has to offer, from the small shops to the dining. The downtown is amazing, and I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2444552","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 18:17:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2444552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2444552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2444552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2444552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}