Colorado’s mountain-town airports are busier than ever despite airlines limping through a pilot shortage and slashing service to smaller communities. The number of passengers flying in and out of Aspen, Durango, Eagle County, Gunnison, Hayden and Montrose in 2022 is on a record-setting pace, marking a rural airport strength that does not reflect national trends. […]
Hayden
Love, prayer and tickets: What we saw at the Rainbow Family gathering in northwest Colorado
ROUTT NATIONAL FOREST — The dirty dishes are stacked neatly next to three bins labeled wash, rinse and sanitize. Rob Savoye rolls up his sleeves and dives in, stacking washed sheet pans and mixing bowls from the Lovin’ Ovens kitchen on a rack built from downed trees. A guitarist sings under a tarp as bakers […]
Colorado schools fought to retain teachers during COVID. The struggle isn’t over.
After the pandemic shuttered schools in spring 2020, teacher Margaret Chase lost a key element of her on-the-job training: the ability to “hop across the hallway” for advice from seasoned colleagues. But the 25-year-old history instructor wasn’t on her own long enough for isolation to set in. Her mentors simply went virtual, and the advice […]
Xcel Energy may fill the hole left by closing its Hayden coal-fired power plant with salt. And fish.
There is molten salt in the town of Hayden’s future – maybe trout, too – but almost definitely molten salt. The idea of using molten salt energy storage to fill part of the gap in employment and taxes left by the planned closure of the Routt County town’s coal-fired power plant is being planned by […]
A Colorado school district wants its students to know where their food comes from — and how to scramble an egg
HAYDEN — In an eighth-grade health class, in a community surrounded by grazing cattle, chicken farms and fields of spinach, some students had no clue how to make a scrambled egg. A few had never even cracked one into a bowl. There was a clear division in the class of 13- and 14-year-olds. Some milked […]
Here comes Hayden: One of Colorado’s last down-valley ski towns to pop is having its moment
HAYDEN — Mathew Mendisco plucks his beer mug, No. 67 and flagged with a Sasquatch sticker, off its hook at the Yampa Valley Brewing Company and heads to the bar for a refill. Mendisco, Hayden’s town manager, chats with the bartender, then waves at the three other people sitting in the brewery after work on […]
At Colorado’s rural edges, vaccines help assisted-living facilities reopen their doors
Bingo is back in the dining room. In-person visits have returned, too, though with masks and plexiglass. The Haven Assisted Living Facility’s residents are even planning a field trip for a private movie screening once they’ve all gotten their second round of COVID-19 vaccines. Such changes are small but meaningful to residents in the Hayden, […]
Colorado Springs will shut down its two coal-fired plants by 2030. Now it’s time for Xcel to do the same, environmentalists say.
The Colorado Spring Utilities board on Friday voted to close one of its coal-fired plants in 2023 and the other in 2030 – leaving Xcel Energy, the state’s biggest electricity provider, with the few remaining large coal-fired plants in the state slated to run beyond 2030. Martin Drake Power Plant, in downtown Colorado Springs, will […]