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Posted inEnvironment, News, The Outsider

A 120-year-old water tunnel beneath the mountains is the Uncompahgre Valley’s lifeline. We went inside.

MONTROSE — After more than a half-hour splashing through the dank dark of one of the world’s longest irrigation tunnels, Dennis Veo grins in the sunshine showering the cliffs of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River.  “The guys who did this were dang sharp,” says Veo, the operations manager of the Uncompahgre Valley Water […]

Posted inBusiness, Growth, Housing, News, The Outsider

As record-setting real estate sales continue in Colorado resort towns, buyers are now looking way down valley

The blistering pace of real estate sales is continuing in Colorado’s high country, with every resort community setting new records in each month this year.  “It’s been crazy,” Crested Butte broker Frank Konsella said, “way past everything in 2019 and 2020.”   Last year saw record numbers of home buyers paying highest-ever prices for properties in […]

Posted inNews, Politics and Government

In Colorado’s hard-to-count communities, census outreach and coronavirus support are one and the same

To say that 2020 has not been a normal year to take a national census — well, it doesn’t quite capture the full extent of the situation. The Census Bureau’s normally nonpartisan operations have been repeatedly undercut, whether it’s in the form of chronic underfunding, the federal administration’s fear-stoking attempt in 2019 to add a […]

Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors

A former mining camp is converting into a boutique getaway, sparking hope in Montrose County’s West End

NATURITA — The flashing lights bounce off the rusting water tank as the DJ’s thunderous bass resonates across the desert. A couple dozen well-spaced revelers, young and old in wigs and glitter and outrageous costumes, frolic beneath the glowing Milky Way.  A friend leans over to Natalie Binder as they absorb the scene from the […]

Posted inBusiness, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government

We now know how many billions of gallons of water Colorado will save by closing coal-fired power plants

The closing of 30 coal-fired generating units across the West – including 10 in Colorado – could free-up more than 76 billion gallons of river and groundwater a year in the increasingly parched region, although utilities appear cautious about giving up their water rights. An analysis by the Energy and Policy Institute, a non-profit, utility […]

Posted inBusiness, COVID, Health, News

Don’t use coronavirus antibody tests for workplace decisions, western Colorado health officials say

Some Ouray County employers have asked workers to get coronavirus antibody tests in order to return to work, against the advice of medical experts who question the value and accuracy of the tests. In the last seven weeks, 27 people have had blood drawn at Mountain Medical Center for the testing, which measures whether people […]

Posted inColoradans, COVID, News

Coronavirus canceled Memorial Day ceremonies. But in Montrose a lone trumpeter stepped up to honor the fallen.

MONTROSE — Daniel Pumphrey walked among the decorated graves of fallen warriors Monday morning soaking in the warm Colorado sun, a flat-finished trumpet tucked under his arm. Pumphrey normally plays before a crowd on this day, Memorial Day, yet with people told to stay away because of the ongoing threat of the coronavirus, he prepared to […]