Editor:

When Emma Fields/Aspen Distillers was approved in 2021, they obtained a special use permit to distill alcohol on farmland. This came with many promises, resolutions and agreements.

To date, there have been many broken promises to neighbors and agreements yet to be fulfilled.

Today I will share what I learned at the Pitkin Board of County Commissioners meeting on October 23rd.

This meeting was only to present an orderly mitigation plan for their operations and equipment that inundated the working class residential neighborhood and historic Hoaglund Ranch Aspen-Pitkin County Housing and homes with noise, nuisance and distress.

This mitigation was ordered by the BOCC after nearly a year of complaints, meetings and suffering from homeowners.

This mitigation must be completed by December 1; must be tested with the results presented at their next annual review at the end of January 2025.

During this meeting, Aspen Distillers owner Matt Patel was asked if the three affordable workforce housing units that have been available and allowed to be occupied since June 2024 have been occupied. Matt replied that he moved into one because he had to spend so much time here lately.

This is worrying because they do not qualify to occupy any of these units. Matt lives and works in Ohio; he made these arrangements upon approval to have the three units available to local employees in need, not for his vacation purposes.

This is disrespectful, unfair and a mockery of our county values ​​and community.

Elizabeth McCracken

Basalt