Quick links: Finding a job when there’s openings everywhere | Floyd’s 99 Barbershop turns 25 | Public Storage takeover | More downtown Denver business loans | Trump accounts for foster kids | Take the reader poll
Ron and Karen Moreland, who live in a small southeastern Colorado town, are closing in on the age when they want to start thinking about retiring, but a dispute between Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Fort Lyon Canal Company over a new public access agreement threatened to put a wrench in that.
The Morelands own the Tackle Box fishing store in Hasty, a town of around 125 people in Bent County between John Martin State Park, Adobe Creek State Wildlife Area and Thurston State Wildlife Area, all anchored by reservoirs. They sell everything from lures and bobbers to rods, reels, ice and gently used coolers, and they cater to both novice and experienced anglers.
For years, they’ve done solid business during the months they’re open — from May to October — as people come to fish the reservoirs CPW has consistently stocked with warm water species like catfish, crappie and walleye. The photo gallery on their website shows old and young anglers gripping their catches and beaming into camera lenses capturing the clear blue waters of the reservoirs behind them.
The Tackle Box is the Morelands’ sole source of income — “it’s how we pay our bills and stuff,” Karen said. “But we’ve had it up for sale, because my husband and I are getting older, and now we’re going to have an even harder time selling it.”
It’s difficult enough trying to offload a business that relies on water during a drought like Colorado has been locked in for the last two decades. But on July 16, CPW closed public access to Adobe Creek and Thurston reservoirs after the Fort Lyon Canal Company on June 3 refused to renew their public access agreements, according to CPW.
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The canal company said in a statement the decision to sever the agreement was made “only after careful consideration of obligations to shareholders, operational needs and long-term management responsibilities associated with these privately owned facilities.”
Adobe Creek and Thurston reservoirs are critical components of the Fort Lyon Canal Company’s water storage and delivery system “and the company’s board of directors has a fiduciary responsibility to operate and maintain them for the benefit of its shareholders and the agricultural communities that depend upon them,” the statement continued.
Those shareholders invested more than $10 million in Adobe Creek Reservoir when the company was told it needed to build a new dam after their old one failed a state inspection — and they pay to operate the facilities and components in the irrigation system.
So even though the two entities were discussing doubling the lease price to $640,000 paid over 25 years, the compensation, Fort Lyon said, “didn’t reflect the value of the properties, the recreational opportunities being provided, or the (Fort Lyon Canal Company’s) operational obligations.”
CPW has invested in recreational amenities, stocked the reservoirs with fish and monitored dispersed camping around Adobe Creek Reservoir for decades.
But now the thousands who relied on the reservoirs for affordable fun that didn’t require reservations will have to head to John Martin State Park if they want to keep fishing, Moreland said, and she doesn’t know if they’ll do that or “just quit coming to southeast Colorado.”
The bulk of the Morelands’ customers are headed to John Martin State Park, so they may be OK even if they lose customers who preferred Adobe or Thurston reservoirs.
But the situation worries Lincoln County Commissioner Wanye Ewing, who says “economic development is a struggle on the Eastern Plains. Gone are the mom-n-pop clothing, jewelry or specialty shops. The bigger box stores have taken over those markets. We do have some hardware, parts and feed stores that seem to stay afloat. But businesses that take a minimal amount of water are few and far between.”
At this point, anyone who touches the water in either reservoir will be trespassing, so Fort Lyon Canal Company can call either CPW or a local sheriff to issue a ticket.
Hunting access will remain open at Adobe Creek and Thurston state wildlife areas for now, “but we don’t carry hunting supplies,” Karen said.
But not all is lost, because a spokesperson from Gov. Jared Polis’ office Thursday said conversations between CPW and Fort Lyon “remain ongoing, and CPW will work with the company until an agreement is reached.”
And Polis told The Colorado Sun in an email: “I want the Fort Lyon Canal Company and CPW to work together to keep this beloved recreational area open to the public for the long term. If negotiations break down, I’m happy to help mediate to achieve this.”
Section by Tracy Ross | Reporter
Is finding a job in Colorado getting harder?
At an Aurora job fair organized by Congressman Jason Crow’s office on Friday, an estimated 450 job seekers stopped by over four hours, resumes in hand. Employers had hundreds of openings — the Lockheed Martin recruiter said they had 700 openings in Colorado; PMI, which is opening a Zyn nicotine pouch manufacturing plant in Aurora, had 80; and Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center had 23 though they take applications year round.
But many employers mentioned that they were mainly collecting resumes for future openings. Most shared a sentiment similar to Michele Folan, a recruiter at Continuum of Colorado, a nonprofit that provides services to empower people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“This particular job fair has had the most foot traffic that I have ever had,” said Folan, who was hiring, and wished she had more jobs. “We filled a lot of our positions recently, which is a good thing. But we wanted to be out here just to get our name out and let people know we’re here.”
The number of job openings in Colorado now numbers more than 280,000 or nearly double what it was in late May, at least according to the state’s official job board at connectingcolorado.gov. Another count has Colorado’s number at 193,000 for June, according to data shared by job market researcher Lightcast.
That’s getting back up to the levels seen in 2021 and 2022, when employers struggled to find applicants and hire new employees. Meanwhile, Colorado’s job growth has slowed and it sure seems like there’s a lot of people out there looking for work. Something is different.
“We now do (the job fair) twice a year because of overwhelming demand. I think this is going to be our highest attendance yet,” said Crow, who showed up around noon to mingle with the community. “It also shows how much people are hurting.”
Section by Tamara Chuang | Business/Technology Reporter
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Sun economy stories you may have missed
➔ 2 large hospital systems announce a new partnership in Colorado. Under the proposed affiliation, AdventHealth will take over operations of three Intermountain Health hospitals >> Read story
➔ Colorado Medicaid owes federal government at least $8 million for in-home disability care, audit finds. The Office of Inspector General targeted an additional $45 million in federal money for further review but state officials say there was no fraud >> Read story
➔ Keeping coal plants open in Colorado could cost $87M, with consumers paying the tab. Turning power plants on and off to generate electricity at a fraction of their capacity is costly, and inefficient, owners and analysts say >> Read story
➔ How would a Front Range train work, what would it cost, and when would it start? Rail planning agency must decide in August about asking voters in November for a one-third penny sales tax >> Read story
➔ On an Aurora golf course, young caddies learn confidence, communication — and how to handle a paycheck. Teenagers at CommonGround Golf Course find enduring skills within the game’s traditions and intricacies — and sometimes, a life-changing college scholarship >> Read story
➔ $30M will be spent to clear the water at scenic Grand Lake. The Three Lakes CLEAR Fund arrives after 18 years of painful trial and error to keep the natural wonder clear and cool while delivering water to Northern Colorado >> Read story
Other working bits
➔ Home-grown Floyd’s 99 turns 25. From a single shop in Denver at West 11th Avenue and Broadway in 2001, Floyd’s 99 Barbershop has become a Colorado success story with more than 140 locations and 2,000 employees nationwide. This year, it turned 25.
The idea of opening an elevated walk-in barbershop came to brothers Bill, Rob and Paul O’Brien back in 1999 when they incorporated (hence the 99) with the rest of its name being a nod to the fictional barbershop in “The Andy Griffith Show.” The brothers still run the business today, though a lot of the expansion is due to franchising that started in 2006. Of the opened stores, 80 are franchise locations with another 52 sold but not yet open, the company said.
The brothers “knew it was going to be big when the owners of Paul Mitchell came into the shop and were just shocked at the concept and so impressed with what they had built and couldn’t get over that ‘outsiders’ to the industry had created it,” said Rob O’Brien in an email. Maybe that’s why Floyd’s has since added partnerships with Paul Mitchell for hair products and training.
It’s a big year for the Greenwood Village-based company so if you see crowds at Coors Field on Saturday, it’s just the brothers, 500 Colorado employees and franchisees celebrating in a massive 25th anniversary bash.
➔ Public Storage buys local rival, lays off 107. On the same day Public Storage completed its $10.5 billion all-stock purchase of National Storage Affiliates in Greenwood Village, the Texas self-storage company sent a letter to the Colorado labor department that it was laying off 107 workers there. Jobs included vice presidents and directors. Impacted employees were given at least 60 days of severance.
But according to the company spokesperson, Public Storage is keeping the Greenwood Village office open and some former National Storage Affiliates corporate employees. Plus, it’s adding all of NSA’s 1,000 self-storage facilities to boost its own property portfolio to 4,500 in the U.S.
“Where there is overlap, we are handling those decisions carefully and with respect for the individuals involved,” a Public Storage spokesperson said in an email. “We are pleased to be welcoming almost all NSA team members around the country to the combined company, including employees at NSA’s corporate office in Denver, which will remain open.”
At the end of last year, Public Storage employed 5,900 people and at the end of 2024, it said it had ownership interests in 88 storage facilities in Colorado, according to the company’s annual report.
➔ Downtown Denver movement in development efforts. Downtown Denver’s office vacancy rate has continued to get a little emptier but in the second quarter, it finally went the opposite direction, though barely. The total vacancy rate fell two-tenths of a point to 38.6% in the second quarter, according to the latest report from real estate brokers CBRE, which called it the “most encouraging quarter in nearly two years.” The slight change came from leases for Class A properties, which are the newest and nicest office spaces available.
The city is still working on getting workers to return to the office. Denver’s office visits again had the lowest recovery rate compared to pre-pandemic era with the average number of workers back in downtown office spaces, off by 40% in June compared to June 2019, according to researcher Placer.ai. That’s better than the 53% in May, compared to May 2019.
And the city’s development effort, known as the Downtown Development Authority, continued to award incentives to businesses hoping to speed up the return of foot traffic and workers to the upper downtown area around the old 16th Street Mall, now just called 16th Street.
➔ Foster children in Colorado can now get a Trump account. It’s part of the new Fostering the Future Accounts launched by First Lady Melania Trump last month. Gov. Jared Polis provided the required opt in to the program this week to allow state child welfare agencies to set up and manage savings accounts for eligible children in foster care who don’t have one.
Savings are invested and are treated as traditional retirement accounts, so there’s a 10% penalty to take money out before turning 59½. However, when the child turns 18, they get control of the account and it’s fee free to withdraw savings to buy a house for the first time or pay for education expenses, though income taxes do apply (see the FAQs here).
That should help foster children to get in on the Trump accounts, which provide $1,000 from the U.S. government for eligible kids born between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2028. Older children may be eligible for $250 from billionaires including Michael and Susan Dell. Chipmaker Micron is also providing $250 for Trump accounts for children living in areas where the company operates, which includes Boulder and Weld counties.
Section by Tamara Chuang | Business/Technology Reporter
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Thanks for sticking with us and if you’re wondering what to do this week in Colorado, check out the Sun’s Colorado 150 years of statehood series on train rides. ~ tamara & tracy
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