How to Place an Obituary

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After your loved one passes away, you have so many contractual details to deal with, like home, finances, burial and funeral arrangements, the last thing you want to think about is placing an obituary in your local paper, but doing so is very important. A published obituary can be used in many cases with insurance companies and creditors to help prove the official death of a loved one, as well as letting all of your neighbors, friends and loved ones know of the passing in an efficient manner.

Although this may seem like an insurmountable task, The Mountain-Ear can help. We have a simple form to help you get started. We can put it all together into a story format for you. The cost to place an obituary is $25. That includes a photo and 750 words. Need an extended obituary? No problem. We can do that too. We can help make the process as simple as possible, for you and your family. To get your forms, more information and to see examples of published obituaries, please email publisher@themountainear.com.

Restoration of historic Rollinsville landmark requires support




“Older than Colorado and more fun than Utah” Top, left; The legendary building began in 1868 as a toll stop, has been a barber shop, a grocery store, a boarding house, and began operating as a tavern in 1962. PHOTOS COURTESY OF JUDD KAUFMAN

“Older than Colorado and more fun than Utah”:  The legendary building began in 1868 as a toll stop, has been a barber shop, a grocery store, a boarding house, and began operating as a tavern in 1962. PHOTO COURTESY OF JUDD KAUFMAN

“We began digging deeper into our centenarian building as if a drunken Geraldo Rivera were at the helm. Unlike our favorite daytime host-personality, mining Al Capone’s vault, we found many things…”

This is an excerpt from the blog post The Grand Initial Overview – Frighteningly Overdue by Judd Kaufman, the first blog, posted in July 2022, chronicling Kaufman’s immense undertaking of restoring the historic Stage Stop in Rollinsville.

“In fact, we found exactly what any semi conscious person might expect: a spiral maze of plumbing straight out of Alice in Wonderland, a psychedelic rat’s nest of wiring complete with occasional char marks – let’s just call it a dizzying quagmire of ad hoc rigging and outright rubbish perpetrated over the course of a century. Obviously, we needed to revise our simple plan.”

Having been built in 1868 the Stage Stop’s history is as old as Rollinsville itself, and, as Kaufman puts it, “Older Than Colorado and More Fun Than Utah!”

The legendary building began as a toll stop for stagecoaches from the Butterfield Stage Coach Company, and throughout the 1920s it had been used as a barber shop, a grocery store, and a boarding house. It began operating as a tavern in 1962, and through its many iterations has always remained a necessary social hub in the Peak to Peak region.

The Stage Stop has endured much over the many decades, including a devastating wildfire in 1950 and, as Kaufman would discover and describe in his blog Ye Olde Stage Stop Bar, rash and heedless miscreants.

“Yes, our old bar survived largely intact for nearly 150 years before scoundrels decided to hack it to pieces. The once thoughtfully functional service side of the bar top was recklessly hacked up by some criminal, apparently hell bent on finding the cheapest and most destructive way to shove modern back bar equipment underneath it.”

“Almost somewhat innocently, the bar top was subsequently gouged by patrons who had spent perhaps a few moments too long sitting before it. And virtually every decorative feature of the original woodwork was removed, destroyed, discarded or covered. Shameful,” Kaufman’s blog reads.

“Despite the villainous treatment Ye Olde Stage Stop bar suffered at the hands of malefactors over the preceding two decades, we plan to throw reason and money to the wind and restore this legendary hunk of wood to some form of its former glory.”

Kaufman, who is also the owner of Gold Dirt Distillery in Rollinsville, where he creates and concocts his spirits, bought the Stage Stop several years ago with the plan to restore it back to its former glory. Kaufman envisions reopening as a classic restaurant serving burgers, milkshakes, and fries, with a tavern on the bottom floor and a music venue on the top floor, complete with a second floor patio so patrons can soak in all of the beautiful wilderness, and truly unique vibe, surrounding Rollinsville.

“For the last 100 years or so it’s been what it still will be once we’re done; a public gathering place, community center, music hall, event hall,” Kaufman said in an interview with The Mountain-Ear last year. “We’re just thrilled to get this building here all whipped into shape and working as a commercial area that serves the community in a way that the community seems to want and will enjoy.”

Progress on the project was stunted due to, what Kaufman refers to as “the bastard pachyderm” in the room, COVID-19, and since regulations have lifted great strides have been made in restoring the foundational infrastructure of the old beast of a building.

Kaufman said in a recent interview with The Mountain-Ear, “65 to 70% of the structural physical work is done. The basement has been dug out, a new foundation poured, the schedule 40 steel beams are secured to their peers, and the I-beams are laid underneath the first floor.”

“The COVID thing hurt us financially. It wasn’t terrible but at the same time it’s a very capital-intensive business and the building is not yet making any money on that huge amount of capital.”

Despite much of the backbreaking labor getting done, Kaufman notes that the Stage Stop project was not immune from the evils of the two great enemies of humankind, time and money. Constant barriers of bureaucracy throughout the Gilpin County permitting process, as well as the ever-inflating cost of construction, has left the project in a vulnerable void.

“We had to hit the pause button and we’ve been just eeking forward with engineering work and talking to the permitting people. There’s been a lot of turnover in Gilpin County; they also turned over their third-party inspection service and also passed an entire new set of regulations during our process,” Kaufman said.

So far the Stage Stop project has had between $815,000 to $900,000 put into its remediation efforts to date. Kaufman and his contractors predict that the project requires another $500,000 to $700,000 to get the basic plan for the Stage Stop restaurant and tavern open and operational, following all safety compliance guidelines.

“It depends on Gilpin County more than anything and what exactly they’re going to insist on,” Kaufman said, referring to exactly what code guidelines that such a historic building will need to adhere to.

“When you’re considering a 150 year old historic building, code says that we need to meet the building code of when our building was built…well, there was no building code,” Kaufman laughs.

Though the Stage Stop project has made great progress in tackling the health and safety concerns of the building, including structural issues and fire suppression standards, there are still aspects of the restoration project that require more concrete direction from Gilpin County and the Historic Commission on how they are to be regulated.

“There’s electrical, we know we need plumbing and we know we need heat, and if the historic commission are going to designate our building that means we have to follow exterior guidelines to make sure the building looks a way that is conforming to whatever historical period they decide is significant for our building.”

“This process is well underway but it is not black and white,” Kaufman said.

As Kaufman continues to navigate through permitting issues, competing against a ticking clock where building materials get more expensive and the capital invested in the project gets whittled down with every passing minute, he turns to focus on reaching those in local Peak to Peak communities who may understand the vision for Stage Stop and for Rollinsville.

“We have raised somewhere in the neighborhood of 20% of our funding goal via equity sales, and that is really what we’re trying to do,” Kaufman said. “We’re trying to sell equity in the company to hopefully local residents who can afford to invest for the main purpose of improving the Stage Stop and being a catalyst for economic development in the Rollinsville area, and eventually making a little bit of money…that is the idea!”

“We’re trying to bring this iconic legend back. For somebody who has an interest in the Stage Stop and Rollinsville and likes our vision I believe it’s a decent investment, especially if you’re willing to hold it for 10 to 15 years.”

In addition to equity sales, Kaufman plans to release a limited edition Stage Stop supporter hoodie for those who care to donate to the project. More of Kaufman’s blogs with further updates on the project’s long and winding road will be posted soon, so keep an eye on https:// www.golddirtdistillery.com/blog.

Stage Stop is located on 60 Main Street in Rollinsville. For more information call 773-540-9800.

In this final excerpt from The Grand Initial Overview – Frighteningly Overdue, Kaufman, slightly punch-drunk from the scope of his undertaking slapping him in the face, encapsulates just how the community helps to drive the Stage Stop project forward, even through the most arduous and challenging of times.

“Luckily, during our hapless months of high-powered investigative demolition we actually learned a thing or two. Our small mountain community demonstrated their love for the Stage Stop. The locals shouted overwhelming support of our projects and the forward motion underway in Rollinsville. Through a ridiculous series of inexplicable delays, idiotic blunders, and the occasional genius maneuver we determined a functional direction and process for renovating this grand old lady – The Stage Stop.”