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When Timothy Hodsdon was a lithesome young man of 25 in 1994, he moved to Grand Lake from Alaska and fell “completely in awe of the sweeping landscapes of the Fraser Valley” and the “raw, untamed feeling of Grand County,” which he saw through the eyes of a budding artist who wouldn’t have dared call himself that back then.
Then he came out, met his first boyfriend and relocated to the train-station town of Fraser, which sits along U.S. 40 between Winter Park and Granby.
At the time Fraser was a rough-around-the-edges place whose claim to fame was being the Icebox of the Nation due to winter temperatures that would drop to 40 below zero.
But for Hodsdon, Fraser was where people could be their authentic selves, which for him meant unleashing his inner artist. With his new beau, he created a little literary mag called the “Specked Tater” and started brainstorming another, the “Snow Spanker,” with a naked skier centerfold in each issue, he said.
The Specked Tater lived for a while and the Snow Spanker never quite got off the ground (“I don’t know if I should even be telling you about it!” Hodsdon said). But Fraser’s vibe inspired him to start doing collision art – the smashing together of different disciplines – sculptures and paintings, supported by a community with “a deep connection to the place that didn’t apply any expectations on me,” he said.
“If you were going to live in Winter Park, you needed to be a skier, but in Fraser you just needed to be yourself,” he added. Proof of that was long before Pride festivals became the norm in small towns across Colorado, Fraser had a Pride parade. “’Just Fraser’ became a pretty cool thing to be, in my book,” he said.
But a few years ago, Fraser leaders started to think the town needed some branding to pump up the economy, and its artsiness surfaced as its identity.
The town has always supported artists like painter Elizabeth Kurtak whose gallery on East Eisenhower Drive has been open since 2003; watercolorist-ski guide-rafting outfitter Greg McFadden, who painted and held house readings at his place behind Doc Susie’s historic cabin on Byers Avenue; and Charles Clayton, whose family helped settle Fraser in the early 1900s and who wrote a book about Fraser filled with historical photos and his own snaps. Today a host of other artists live in Fraser.
In 2020, Steve Fitzgerald, a ceramics artist and businessman, was on the town’s public arts committee, which had promoted new and longstanding art events including the Fraser Mountain Mural Festival and Fraser Fire & Ice, both with great attendance.
But then-Mayor Philip Vandernail wanted to go bigger and late that year, he convinced the town to donate a choice piece of property next to the Fraser River to the arts committee to build an arts center.
“They came to me and said we’ve got this idea as part of helping to rebrand the city and create a real cultural enrichment for the citizens,” Fitzgerald said.
“I’d never really done anything like it as most of my life has been corporate life, but I said yes and we formed the 501(c)(3) Fraser Valley Arts with the help of the town and their lawyer. In 2021 we really got going with fundraising. We’ll close this year with at least $4 million. And we have a chance at $6 million if we get a Colorado Community Revitalization Tax Credit from the state, which we’re a finalist for.”
The planned 19,000-square-foot center has a build-out cost of between $8 million and $12 million, said Fraser Valley Arts Director Cassidi Peterson. It will sit along the Fraser River on the east side of U.S. 40 and anchor Fraser’s forthcoming river walk district, a few-blocks-long mixed-use zone tucked behind a couple of businesses and near a mural park that anchors the annual Fraser Mountain Mural Festival. An almost-life-size bronze statue of the writer Jack Kerouac, who passed through Fraser a few times on road trips like the one he wrote about in his cult novel “On the Road,” is already there.
Residents living in deed-restricted affordable housing currently under construction will be able to saunter over to the two- or three-story center that Peterson says will have a theater, a gallery, creator spaces, teaching spaces and a bar or cafe.
Most of the money Fraser Valley Arts has raised so far has come from private donations, said Fitzgerald. Their goal is to raise at least $6 million, and borrow the rest via a Colorado Education and Cultural Facilities Authority bond, Peterson said. “But one of the things I think is really cool is the town of Fraser, the town of Winter Park, the town of Granby, the county, the Winter Park-Fraser Chamber of Commerce, the Grand Foundation, all of the municipalities and big institutions in the valley have been significant financial supporters of this, because they see the benefit, which is twofold,” Fitzgerald said.
As an “economic magnet” drawing people to the river walk district, the center will have an estimated $2 million a year positive economic impact on the community “that is beyond what people are paying for tickets,” he added.
They already have funding from a Colorado Department of Local Affairs grant that’s paying for water, sewer, gas, electric and fiber optics in the neighborhood. And Amtrak has service from Union Station to Winter Park, so “we’ll be promoting ‘it’s July, it’s 95 degrees on the Front Range, come on up, go to a show and cool off this weekend,’” Fitzgerald said.
“But another thing I think is unique about our aspirations is we really envision this place as not just a fancy, pinky-out art center, but more of a community center. I want people in there 300 days a year. We want to collaborate with other not-for-profits, even maybe offering them some space if they’re willing to do it. The idea is it will be as egalitarian as the town is.”
And that could have the ripple effect of telling new, young, not-confident-enough-to-call-themselves-artists artists like Hodsdon once was that in Fraser they can be whatever they want.
Section by Tracy Ross | Reporter
July 4 cookout costs more than last year — but not in Colorado
According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, a traditional Independence Day burger feast for 10 people costs $73.82, up 4% from last year. But in Colorado, the same meal is 3.3% cheaper than what Coloradans paid last year. Colorado’s total of $73.93, however, was 11 cents more than the U.S. average.
Credit some of the savings to the ingredients of potato salad. Egg prices are down 44%, potatoes down 11% and celery down 10%. That shaved off $1 from the cost of 2.5 pounds of homemade potato salad. Lower pork prices also chopped 23% off 3 pounds of pork chops while ice cream was 10% less.
But the cost of 2 pounds of chicken breasts was up 27%, hamburger buns were up 33% and two pints of strawberries up 12.6%. Ground beef was surprisingly up just 1.2% from last year, perhaps because of grocery store sales and not what else has been going on in the industry.
“We can’t really pinpoint a reason for this year’s decline, solely because there are a handful of items that decreased a few cents, which add up to a few dollars less than last year. It could be as simple as store sales, competitive retail markets, and where the surveys were taken within the state,” said Melissa Weaver, a spokesperson for the Colorado Farm Bureau.
Since 2016, the national bureau has sent secret shoppers to grocery stores nationwide to track the price of the same 12 items by region. But while food prices have mostly increased in recent years, that hasn’t meant farmers are pulling in larger profits. AFBF President Zippy Duvall said in a news release that the farmer’s share of every dollar “is around 6% after expenses.” >> July 4 cookout costs
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July 4 is Saturday. And it’s a big year: The nation’s 250th birthday, Colorado’s 150th, CU Boulder’s 150th, What’s Working’s sixth anniversary … the list goes on!
As the most American of American holidays, most workers will get a day off. Not everyone, of course. And not everyone can afford to celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday. Have your plans been impacted by the economy?
Take the What’s Working reader poll and help us better understand what’s going on around the state. >> cosun.co/WWJuly4
Sun economy stories you may have missed
➔ Can a giant robot glue gun help solve Colorado’s housing crisis? Azure’s 3D printers in Montbello can build a $70,000 home out of 100,000 recycled plastic bottles in just a couple of days. >> Read story
➔ Regulators cut Colorado oil and gas firms’ fines to $2M after settlements. Six oil and gas operators were facing $11 million in fines for falsified reports involving soil, groundwater and organic contaminant sampling tests >> Read story
➔ Universal basic food pilot program tackles food insecurity in new way. A yearlong pilot provided no-cost groceries to people in Denver and Del Norte, aiming to help people struggling to make ends meet — even if they aren’t eligible for SNAP >> Read story
➔ Colorado won federal approval for its plan to import prescription drugs from Canada. Now comes the hard part. The state hopes the program will save Colorado consumers millions of dollars per year on drug costs and health insurance premiums >> Read story
➔ Eastern Colorado farmers brace for worst wheat harvest since 1965. In the heart of Colorado wheat country, only about half the typical precipitation has fallen this year, forcing farmers to make hard choices >> Read story
➔ Colorado helium reserves got big boost when war with Iran cut off 30% of the world’s supply. Southeastern Colorado has been producing helium for two decades, but when the Strait of Hormuz was closed, it suddenly became a lot more valuable >> Read story
➔ Ready for your next steak? These Colorado ranchers are battling drought to get it on your plate. With an eye on water levels, grazing options and the bottom line, cattle producers tailor strategies for survival >> Read story
Other working bits
➔ CU Denver, artist spaces and other new investments in downtown Denver. The city’s Downtown Development Authority board approved about $45 million in new investments on Wednesday.
A $4.5 million grant was awarded to the University of Colorado Denver to build a “regional innovation and entrepreneurship hub” at 1050 17th Street. Now, CU Denver needs to complete its $29.7 million purchase of the 25-story Independence Plaza, which the school is getting for a good deal. Denverite reported the building last sold for $144.5 million. DDA also set aside $8.5 million to put into the project, depending on future applications and approvals.
The DDA, a quasi-governmental entity that is investing future city taxes to spur the downtown economy (it’s got to pay back the city eventually), is key to the city’s downtown redevelopment. The board also approved a $1.35 million grant for the nonprofit Community Arts Stabilization Trust, or CAST, to find permanent and affordable spaces for artists and cultural workers. CAST, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, had previously received a $1.9 million award from the Colorado Health Foundation in January to redevelop the East Street School in Trinidad into a live-work artist housing project.
Another $40 million was earmarked for a job-creation and investment fund to invest in small businesses and local jobs. More details are expected soon, according to officials.
That brings DDA’s total approved to $266.4 million, which is intended to spur development in upper downtown Denver. Other projects include converting older, underused office towers into housing, and loans to small businesses to bring food, art and culture back to the city’s urban core. >> Details
➔ Colorado job growth at 0%; May unemployment stays at 3.9%. A smaller labor force with fewer people working and fewer unemployed last month kept the state’s unemployment rate in May at 3.9%, where it’s been since January, according to the state Department of Labor and Employment. The U.S. unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.3% in May.
While more working-age Coloradans are part of the labor force than the U.S. average, the state’s participation rate dropped two-tenths of a percentage point in a month to 65.9%, the lowest since August 2020. That’s also a 1.4 percentage point decline from May 2025. The U.S. participation rate was unchanged at 61.8% in May.
But the state’s shrinking labor force, which declined by 9,400 working-age adults to 3,206,200 Coloradans, pushed the labor force participation rate down two-tents of a percentage point to 65.9%, which is the lowest since August 2020. The U.S. participation rate was 61.8%, down six-tenths of a percentage point from a year ago.
Employers also reported that they lost 400 jobs in May, though the net loss was felt by the government and not the private sector, which saw educational and health services gain the most jobs, at 1,900. All May numbers are preliminary. April’s job growth was also revised down to a gain of 10,900 jobs instead of 11,800.
The Fort Collins area had a 1.1% job growth rate in the past year. Greeley was the only other major metro to see growth. The rest saw employment fall, with Pueblo declining the most at minus 0.9%. Since May 2025, Colorado added just 100 jobs, thanks to growth in the private sector, giving the state a 0% job growth rate, which is better than a year ago May’s minus 0.2% rate. Job growth in the U.S. was up 0.3% in the same period.
“Colorado has lagged the U.S. growth rate in all of the past 13 months,” noted the state labor report. >> View the report
➔ Gas prices fall but already dampened summer travel. As the nation’s average gas prices fell below $4 a gallon and a barrel of crude oil dipped below $70 for the first time since February, Colorado’s average gas price followed a similar route, and ended the week at $3.75, nearly $1 less than a month ago, according to AAA’s gas tracker.
In Colorado, average prices are still 17% higher than a year ago, with Durango in the lead at $4.52 for a gallon, up 45% from last year.
High gas prices topped the list of reasons why Coloradans say summer travel is less affordable this year, according to a new Red Rocks Credit Union survey of 300 Coloradans. Gas was blamed more frequently than airfare and hotels. And 59% said they plan to travel less than last year. >> See survey details
➔ Need hands-on help with taxes? Denver’s IRS office is open Saturday. The IRS’ Taxpayer Assistance Center in Denver has special hours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today, June 27, as part of an effort this year to help more taxpayers outside the regular work week. Being open at several locations nationwide one day a month so far this year has helped 13,000 taxpayers get some face-to-face help, according to the tax agency. The Denver office is located at 1999 Broadway, but try calling for an appointment first at 844-545-5640. Can’t make it Saturday? The Denver office is open Monday to Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. >> Details
Section by Tamara Chuang | Business/Technology Reporter
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What’s Working will be taking a break for July Fourth next week, but Colorado news continues to happen, so don’t miss updates by heading directly to ColoradoSun.com. Thanks for sticking with us and we wish everyone a great 250th! ~ tamara & tracy
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