The article has a misleading headline of "Silverton Sold". The article only discusses a proposed sale of the Silverton line to the "Helen Thatcher White" foundation.
The article states that the D&RGW would seek abandonment of the line, at which point the foundation would step in and make the offer to purchase the line.
I believe that the D&RGW did file for abandonment, but the request was rejected, so the deal did not go through.
We obviously know that the D&RGW owned the line until it was sold in 1980, 20 years later.