Mike Brown makes juggling look easy. It isn’t. Juggling, at its core, is a paradox. It is both chaos and control, effort and ease, movement and stillness. For thousands of years, humans have tossed objects into the air — not just for entertainment but as a form of meditation, mastery, and expression. The art of juggling sits at the crossroads of art and science, and of physics and philosophy, where gravity becomes both adversary and ally and where balance is achieved not by stillness, but by motion.

Check out our picks for A&E: this weekend, Oct. 17-19, in Estes Park, including tarot reading, live music, Skate Fest, and visual art.

Local officials, citizens, and business owners are voicing strong concerns about two citizen-initiated ordinances on the November ballot, citing risks to community cohesion,governance, and housing. The Estes Valley Board of REALTORS® Board of Directors voted to oppose both initiatives on the November ballot. Ballot Issue 300 The Rezoning/PUD Initiative requires written approval from propertyowners and two-thirds of neighbors within 500 feet of any rezoning or Planned Unit…

Power Outage Preparedness Estes Park’s Power and Communications staff will host a one-hour presentation on Tuesday, Oct. 21, at 6:30 p.m. in the Hondius Room at the Estes Valley Library on how to prepare for a power outage. Sudden power outages and disasters can occur without warning. While Estes Power and Communications responds immediately to power outages, they can be frustrating and troublesome for customers, especially if they last for an extended period.

Stephanie Claire Sinnott, an inspirational and cherished individual, passed away on Sept. 28, 2025, at the age of 81. Born on Sept. 15, 1944, in Monterey, California, to Phillip and Barbara (Glen) Moseley, Stephanie led a life full of devotion and love. Stephanie obtained a business degree from Monterey Peninsula College. She was a dedicated bookkeeper and a loving mother, roles that she fulfilled with the utmost devotion and care.

Many people dream of standing at the summit of Longs Peak, but 69-year-old Estes Park resident Ingrid Drouin set her sights 5,000 feet higher, aiming to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, instead, at 19,341 feet high. This petite Estes resident started the nine-day hike to The Roof of Africa, the highest peak on the continent, just eight months after her second knee replacement surgery last November.

Visit Estes Park’s top leadership could look considerably different beginning in January. If approved by both the Town Board Trustees and the Larimer County Commissioners, a new Board of Directors with a membership dominated by elected officials will be seated in January, pending approval within the next two months. To assist in guiding their decisions would be a newly established advisory committee.

Change is happening all around us. Our country is changing. Our climate is changing. Estes is changing. When we moved here 13 years ago, 3 fans and some open windows kept our workspace cool all summer. We gave away our air conditioners. Now, we have twice as many, larger and taller fans. As hard as I try to avoid it, next year may very well mean replacing the air conditioning.

Flu and COVID-19 season is here — running from October to May in the Northern Hemisphere — and Estes Park is already feeling the impact. Estes Valley Voice editor Patti Brown tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks ago after covering a large public event. "I thought at first this was a robust head cold, but after learning that several people who attended the event had COVID, I took a home test.

Adjusting to lower funding levels due to the loss of some property tax income has not been too difficult for some publicly funded districts. Property taxes received by governmental entities are expected to be lower in the coming years because two non-taxing entities purchased three primary lodging properties in 2024 and 2025, which removed them from the property tax rolls. Financial officers for the area’s special districts are currently presenting 2026 budgets for public review.

A mood of emotional pain was palpable in the conference room on Monday afternoon as the Estes Valley Fire Protection District Board gaveled into session for a meeting that lasted. More than two dozen full-time and volunteer firefighters, along with several community members, gathered to learn what the next steps forward would be for the district, which experienced the resignation of four members within a week.

Three full weekends of holiday festivities, which will kick off in just five weeks, will include one new three-day event. Sleigh the Games, planned for the Estes Park Events Complex Dec. 12 to 14, will feature activities for the entire family, including a holiday obstacle course, human curling, a log throw, a wood chopping contest, and indoor snow tubing, along with live entertainment and seasonal eats.

Town Hall with Rep. Lesley Smith State Rep. Lesley Smith will be in Estes Park for a Town Hall on Oct. 25 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Hondius Room at the Estes Valley Voice Library. Smith was elected in November 2024 to represent Colorado’s House District 49, which includes parts of Boulder, Larimer, Gilpin, and Clear Creek counties. House District 49 includes the Estes Valley.

At its Sept. 10, 2025, meeting, the Estes Park Housing Authority Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to oppose ballot issues 300 and 301 (proposed ordinances 11-25 and 11-26), because these two deeply-flawed initiatives inhibit the community’s ability to deal with an ever-present housing shortage for our low- to middle-income, workforce citizens, and for those seeking to relocate to Estes Park when a new development requiring different zoning criteria is proposed.

Like a New York minute, Thursday evening’s meeting of the Estes Park Health Board of Directors was almost not a meeting. That’s because 15 minutes after calling the meeting to order, all agenda items had been covered, and the meeting was adjourned. Although not on the agenda, Cory Workman, chair of the EPH Board, explained that the transfer of EPH to UCHealth operations has been delayed from Nov.

Greetings, Estes Park. For this Mental Health Minute, it seems fitting to acknowledge that World Mental Health Day is observed on October 10. I love that we have grown in our awareness of the need to support those facing mental health challenges to the point of having an actual day of dedication. Unlike Father’s Day or Valentine’s Day, however, I don’t recall seeing a card section dedicated to World Mental Health Day at the store.

New School Board Member In response to the Oct. 1 letter regarding a new Estes Park School Board member, there are some corrections that need to be made. There was an allegation that a person named in that letter called for or mentioned recalling that Board Member. The ONLY mention she made was she hoped to hear from him on his goals since interviews were not conducted (he had been the only candidate).

On Saturday, Oct. 4, Stephen Carl Fry, known to his friends and family as Steve, passed away. Steve was born on April 13, 1948, in Long Beach, California, to Carl and Carrie (Hale) Fry. The family soon moved to Alton, Kansas, where his father joined a family farm. Steve loved the farm and, although he lived in many other places, he never lost his Kansas roots.

John Duran III of Estes Park passed away from a traffic collision on Highway 34 on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025. He was born on Jan. 2, 1963, in Denver to John Duran Jr. and Delores Quintana Esselburn and stepfather of 41 years Scott Esselburn, whom he really loved and looked up to and was a great role model to him.

Three members of the Estes Valley Fire Protection District have resigned in the past week. In addition to the resignation of Paul Capo as chief of the EVFPD, on Friday, Oct. 3, the profile of Erika Goetz, who has served as chief of staff, has been removed from the District’s website. One other employee, Jason Dillingham, who was hired in May as the Division Chief of Operations and Training, has reportedly removed his personal belongings from the Dannels Fire Station, his photo has been removed from his biography on the District’s website, and his official last day with the District is in two weeks.

Check out the EVV picks for A&E: this weekend, Oct. 10-12, including a new movie at the Park Theatre, storytime at Macdonald's, and live music.

The Estes Valley Restorative Justice Program, led by Program Coordinator Megan Graper and Program Director Jay Shields, works to build and connect the community in Estes Park through its many programs, which emphasize conversation, respect, and understanding. “It’s really about bringing the community together to help solve solutions and ultimately making the community much more transparent, with higher communication, and ultimately safer," Shields said.

More than three dozen members of Team Rubicon, a veteran-led humanitarian organization, kicked off Fire Prevention Week in Estes last weekend, working for three days with the Estes Valley Fire Protection District’s wildfire mitigation crew to protect the town’s critical communication infrastructure. With chainsaws and muscle, the “greyshirts” — as they call themselves because of the color of their uniform t-shirts — spent three days clearing branches on trees and cleaning slash in and around the communications towers on top of Prospect Mountain.

The Park Hospital District Board has at least an extra month to map out its next steps after Estes Park Health is transferred to UCHealth ownership. That is because the acquisition, which was set for Nov. 1, has been delayed until at least Dec. 1. In addition, the Board’s September meeting, which had been postponed until tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 9, was cancelled according to both a social media post on Facebook and an email sent by EPH on Wednesday morning to the Estes Valley Voice, and then a short time later, EPH sent out a notice saying that the Thursday, Oct.

As Colorado continues to grapple with high rates of suicide and gun violence, Estes Valley Crisis Advocates remains a cornerstone of support for residents facing trauma, loss, and violence. Despite recent federal funding cuts, the organization is determined to maintain its 24/7 crisis response and advocacy services, even as staff face reduced hours and an increasing demand to meet community needs.