{"id":2450166,"date":"2019-10-21T22:24:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T04:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-getting-to-the-nitty-gritty-in-downtown-alleys\/"},"modified":"2019-10-21T22:24:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-22T04:24:00","slug":"aspen-getting-to-the-nitty-gritty-in-downtown-alleys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-getting-to-the-nitty-gritty-in-downtown-alleys\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen getting to the nitty gritty in downtown alleys"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A propane heater, a microwave and a storage unit are just a few items that have been illegally dumped in a downtown Aspen alley. The city is going through all of the alleys on Thursday to dispose of the discarded items.<\/strong>
Carolyn Sackariason\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Aspen\u2019s alleys<\/a> are a blight that the city can no longer stand, so the government is taking it upon itself Thursday to throw dumpster loads of abandoned items away as a courtesy to local businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had complaints about the alleys forever,\u201d Mitch Osur, the city\u2019s director of parking and downtown services, said Monday.<\/p>\n

He walked the alleys with City Manager Sara Ott a couple of months ago to assess the situation, after Mayor Torre, who lives downtown and sees the trash accumulate, brought up the issue.<\/p>\n

Alleys in the 16-block area from Monarch to Original and Durant to Main streets will get a flushing of discarded debris from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a one-time deal,\u201d Osur said, adding that the city is spending about $3,000 on the effort.<\/p>\n

After things are removed, the streets department will clean and sweep the alleys Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n

City officials spent two days last week placing \u201cdispose of\u201d stickers on items such as furniture, propane heaters, doors and water heaters to let businesses know they are about to get tossed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feedback from businesses has been positive,\u201d Osur said.<\/p>\n

City staffers from several departments, as well as business representatives, will have access to four, 30-yard dumpsters that will be stationed throughout the downtown. They will then be emptied at the landfill.<\/p>\n

The streets department will collect scrap metal, which is not accepted in roll-off dumpsters. There will be a pile at Galena Street and Cooper Avenue near the fire pit area for businesses, restaurants and downtown residents to drop scrap metal.<\/p>\n

Osur estimated that half of what\u2019s in the downtown alleys is scrap metal.<\/p>\n

The city will be removing pallets abandoned in the alleys on a regular basis until the issue can be managed better, Osur said.<\/p>\n

He said 80 pallets already have been removed but they keep appearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are like bunnies,\u201d he said, \u201cthey multiply.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hazardous materials including chemicals, vehicle batteries, paints, oils, fluorescent lights and propane tanks won\u2019t be accepted Thursday.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s ordinance prohibiting the storage of items in alleys is not currently enforced, but once everything is cleaned up, it will be.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can get the alleyways clean, then I will be going to retailers and explain the ordinance,\u201d Osur said. \u201cWe are looking to work together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s streets department also will be hyper-focused on removing snow in the alleys as soon as it accumulates to prevent ice build up.<\/p>\n

Osur said he envisions that maybe five years from now, some alleys are activated<\/a> with retail and restaurant spaces and designated pedestrian and bicycle thoroughfares.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can make them an active place,\u201d he said, adding that there is a long way to go before downtown alleys are ready for that. \u201cLet\u2019s start with baby steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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

A propane heater, a microwave and a storage unit are just a few items that have been illegally dumped in a downtown Aspen alley. The city is going through all of the alleys on Thursday to dispose of the discarded items.Carolyn Sackariason\/The Aspen Times Aspen\u2019s alleys are a blight that the city can no longer […]<\/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":["post-2450166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 12:27:29","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\/2450166","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=2450166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}