By Rick Carroll, The Aspen Times
The tiny town of Marble is used to being woken up from its winter slumber by throngs of tourists in the late spring, but not this Memorial Day weekend.
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The community’s leaders are asking would-be visitors to respect both the state’s “safe at home” order requiring Coloradans to recreate with 10 miles of their residences, as well as Gunnison County’s public health order summary stating “although this order will allow Coloradans from other counties to visit Gunnison County to recreate starting on May 27, they will not be allowed to do so if the Colorado governor continues to impose restrictions on recreational travel.”
In other words, Marble — a 56-mile drive from Aspen by way of state highways 82 and 133 — will remain closed to people who live 10 miles or more outside of the town until public health orders move into the next phase as scheduled the last week of May.
“The town of Marble faces an onslaught of recreational visitors, ATV users, motorcyclists, hikers, Jeep tours — I can go on and on — and it overwhelms the community,” Ron Leach said Wednesday.
Leach is Marble’s town administrator and retired as chief of Carbondale and Rural Fire Protection District in 2018.
“The Town Council in Marble is very conservative in their approach to the COVID situation, and given the fact that we don’t have a law enforcement presence, all we can do is get the message out and ask for voluntary compliance,” he said, “and we would appreciate it if out-of-county visitors refrain from coming to Marble during the Gunnison County health orders.”