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Colorado - Thu. 04/03/25 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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PRESIDENT TRUMP ANNOUNCES TARIFFS TO GO INTO EFFECT APRIL 5
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President Trump Wednesday, in an announcement at the White House's Rose Garden, revealed his long-awaited program of tariffs. The baseline tariff rate will be 10 percent on all countries and the rates will go into effect April 5. However, the 10 percent rate is the baseline, some nations will be assessed rates which the president referred to as a "discounted reciprocal tariff" to be implemented April 9. Trump held up a chart while speaking at the White House, showing the United States would charge a 34 percent tax on imports from China, a 20 percent tax on imports from the European Union, 25 percent on South Korea, 24 percent on Japan and 32 percent on Taiwan. A complete reciprocal tariff chart is available at newsweek.com/trump-reciprocal-tariff-chart-2054514.
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DENVER CITY COUNCIL: $15M CONTRACT TO STUDY PEÑA BLVD. WIDENING
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At their regular meeting Tuesday, the Denver City Council voted 9-2 in favor of providing a five-year contract to Lakewood-based Peak Consulting to study how Peña Boulevard could be widened, with the intent of accommodating more traffic to Denver International Airport. The study will consider ways to widen the road west of E-470 as well as potential environmental impacts, a requirement under the federal National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. It is a precursor to an eventual construction project on the corridor. The Peña Boulevard study process will include public engagement, scoping, analysis of alternatives, environmental effects and possible mitigation. Peak Consulting’s team will also perform some design work under the contract. An airport official said earlier that the process was expected to take less than the maximum five years.
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CONTROLLING CROWDS: SOME BEAUTIFUL PLACES REQUIRE PERMITS FOR ENTRY
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Many people in Colorado have advocated controls on the number of people allowed into wilderness areas or other locations that can only accommodate a limited number of people at one time. Three of the most notable are Rocky Mountain National Park, backcountry permits for the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness Area and Hanging Lake. Here some other nearby places requiring permits for entry:
- The Wave in Coyote Buttes North in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness
- Angels Landing in Zion National Park
- Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon
- Half Dome in Yosemite National Park
- The Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park (probably the longest in existence, since 2006)
You now generally can reserve online and find a complete list under "permits" at recreation.gov.
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UNITED AIRLINES ADDS MORE LONG-RANGE INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS
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United Airlines is going to destinations that are not being served by its U.S. rivals and increasing its position as the U.S. carrier with the most service to Asia. United will add daily flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Bangkok, Thailand in October. On Oct. 25, United will add its second daily nonstop flight from San Francisco to Manila, Philippines. On Dec. 11, it will begin nonstop service from San Francisco to Adelaide, Australia, which will operate three days a week. The giant U.S. carrier has aggressively been adding far-flung destinations not served by rivals to its routes, like Nuuk, Greenland, and Bilbao, Spain, which start later this year.
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GARCO COMMISSIONERS PICK UP FUNDING FOR VALLEY MEALS
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Valley Meals and More grew from a one-person operation, the founder Mary Kenyon, delivering meals during the COVID-19 shutdown, to a delivery system providing more than 2,000 meals every month to older adults, those over 60 years old, in eastern Garfield County, including Glenwood Springs, West Glenwood, Carbondale, Missouri Heights, El Jebel, the Crystal Valley and other areas of unincorporated Garfield County. Valley Meals and More provides home delivered, ready-to-eat meals on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. At the beginning of the year, deliveries had to be severely cut back in view of an operating deficit of $8,000 per month.
At the March 24 meeting of the Garfield County commissioners, the commissioners unanimously agreed to allocate $33,000 to fund 160 meals per week for seniors. The funds will be used to reimburse Valley Meals and More for 40 meals daily, four days a week, for low-income, homebound seniors aged 75 and above until the end of June.
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SUNLIGHT MOUNTAIN RESORT: SEASON ENDS SUNDAY
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The last week of the 2024-25 ski season is bringing more snow to Sunlight Mountain Resort, which will provide good conditions for the closing day Sunday, April 6. Sunlight will host its second annual Color Run at 3 p.m. Sunday underneath the Primo lift loading point. Lift riders can pick up two cups of colorful, biodegradable, and Forest Service-accepted powders to sprinkle down the mountain as the harbinger of the spring season. Last Friday, there was a special ceremony for the Segundo Lift, the state’s oldest operating lift, which began service on Aspen Mountain as Lift 3 in 1954. This Sunday will be the final runs for both the Segundo Lift as well as the Primo Lift as both will be replaced before the opening of the 2025-26 season.
Sunlight Resort will host a lottery at noon at Tom’s Tavern, where the final 10 chairs will be reserved for 20 lucky riders on both Primo and Segundo. Forty select people will get the chance to ride two of the longest running chairlifts in Colorado before they are shut down for 21st century lifts. Tickets for the drawing will cost $25. Sunlight officials say the resort will sell individual chairs from the chairlifts, but no date has been set for the sale, but the public will be notified “far in advance.”
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COLORADO NATIONAL MONUMENT NUMBERS UP LAST YEAR…A “GENTLE” INCREASE
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Officials at Colorado National Monument reported an increase of about 2,000 visitors in 2024 over 2023 numbers, in what officials called a “gentle” increase. The monument recorded 488,038 recreational visits last year, compared to 486,179 one year earlier. The monument previously had seen visitation grow from less than 400,000 in 2019 to more than 435,000 in 2020 and nearly 500,000 in 2021, as it experienced a pandemic-related visitation bump. Recreation visits cooled off in 2022, totaling 480,442, before rising at a measured pace over the past two years.
- Nationally, the National Park Service recorded nearly 332 million recreation visits last year, a record and a 2 percent increase from the previous year.
- Visitation last year at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park fell to about 336,000 from 357,000 in 2023.
- Dinosaur National Monument saw a slight drop, to about 322,000 from 326,529.
- Mesa Verde National Park also saw a drop, to about 480,000 from about 505,000.
- Visitation at the Great Sand Dunes National Park was down significantly, to 437,661 from more than 512,000.
- Rocky Mountain National Park visitation was up very slightly, reaching around 4.15 million.
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DURANGO VOTERS APPROVE REAUTHORIZATION OF HALF-CENT SALES TAX
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Voters in the city of Durango Tuesday approved Ballot Measure 2A by a more than two-to-one margin (3,230 “yes” votes and 1,557 “no” votes). Ballot Measure 2A asked voters whether a 2005 half-cent sales tax should be reauthorized for 30 years, through 2056, to fund a new joint city hall and police station and continue funding maintenance, acquisitions and upgrades to parks, open space and trails. With the approval, the city is allowed to increase its debt by $61 million, with a repayment cost of $123 million, to fund the renovation and construction of the historic former high school at 201 E. 12th Street and the former Big Picture High School next door. The two buildings will serve as the new city hall and police station, respectively.
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YOU WILL PAY FOR PARKING IN VAIL THIS SUMMER FOR FIRST TIME
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On Tuesday, the Vail Town Council voted unanimously in favor of the plan proposed by the town’s Parking and Mobility Task Force to implement a charge for parking at the town’s Vail Village and Lionshead parking structures this summer. It is the first time in the history of the parking structures that there will be a charge for parking in the summer. The approved plan calls for parking in the Vail Village and Lionshead parking structures to be $2 per hour, with the first hour free and a maximum of $10 per day. After 3 p.m., parking will continue to be free, and the overnight rate (assessed between the hours of 4 a.m. and 5 a.m.) will be $60. The program will run from May 30 to Sept. 28.
A Vail Local Pass will cost $25, and an Eagle County Local pass will cost $50, an employee pass will cost $150, an employee-plus pass will cost $450, and a premium pass will cost $1,220. The premier and employee plus passes will provide free access to all of the town’s lots; the employee pass will provide free access to the Lionshead parking structure and a 50 percent discount to the Vail Village parking structure; and the Vail and Eagle County Local passes will provide 50 percent discounts off all lots. Winter parking passes will remain active throughout the summer.
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APRIL FOOLS’ DAY HAS A LONG AND INTERNATIONAL HISTORY
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Tuesday was April Fools’ Day, and most Americans know of the tradition of playing pranks and spreading hoaxes, followed by the “April Fools” pronouncement, but not as many know the origin of the first of April foolishness. There are several theories, but most revolve around the change in calendars, moving the start of a new year from spring to January and mocking those who failed to note the change. The Library of Congress attributes April Fools’ Day to when King Charles IX of France in 1564 moved the New Year celebration from its weeklong observance beginning March 25 to a celebration on Jan. 1. Those who forgot or were never told about the change were mocked.
A corresponding theory dates to 1582, when the Julian calendar was changed to the Gregorian calendar. The Encyclopedia Britannica notes that the Fools' Day is connected to the vernal equinox, on March 21, when people start to be fooled by the unexpected changes in weather. Whatever the origin, there is clear evidence of the spring event in 1561, when Flemish writer Eduard De Dene wrote in his poem about a nobleman sending his servant on pointless tasks. The servant soon realizes that he has been “sent on ‘fool’s errands’ because it’s April 1,” according to the Library of Congress.
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MORE HIGH-SPEED RAIL SERVICE FROM LONDON TO EUROPE COMING
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The United Kingdom's Office for Rail and Road released a report on Tuesday that verified the East London depot of Eurostar, which is the high-speed train providing cross-Channel services via the Channel Tunnel, has potential space to store more trains, creating the opportunity for more direct, high-speed train services between London and destinations like Cologne, Lyon, Frankfurt and Geneva. Currently, the Eurostar is the only cross-Channel rail operator. British train operator Virgin said there were "no more major hurdles to overcome" for new services using the Channel Tunnel, and that they would be proposing some immediately.
Direct high-speed rail from London currently runs to Paris, Brussels, Lille, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. All the additional destinations under discussion already possess high-speed rail links, and with direct service, many could be reached in five hours or less. Eurotunnel, the tunnel’s owner, has said it wants to double the number of trains using the tunnel, currently at roughly 500 per week. Numerous European train companies have expressed an interest in running these services, including Germany’s Deutsche Bahn and Spain’s Renfe and Evolyn.
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FORBES' 39TH ANNUAL WORLD’S BILLIONAIRES LIST
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On April 1, Forbes released its 39th annual World’s Billionaires List for 2025. Forbes ranking is every person in the world who Forbes estimated to have a net worth of $1 billion U.S. dollars or more on March 7, 2025. According to Forbes, the list was generated following extensive interviews with the billionaires themselves, if possible, but also interviews with employees, asset managers and financial advisors and a broad range of others. All assets were considered: holdings in public and private companies, real estate, art, yachts, planes, ranches, vineyards and more.
Here are factors in the 2025 list:
- A record 3,028 made the list
- It’s the first time the list topped 3,000
- It is 247 more than last year
- In total, the aggregated wealth is a record $16.1 trillion
- That’s $2 trillion more than a year ago
- It is more than the GDP of every country in the world besides China and the U.S.
- The average fortune: $5.3 billion
- There are 3 people worth more than $200 billion for the first time: Elon Musk ($342 billion), Mark Zuckerberg ($216 billion), Jeff Bezos ($215 billion)
- There are 15 people worth more than $100 billion
The complete list is available at forbes.com/billionaires.
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MARKET UPDATE - 04/02/2025 Close
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(Courtesy of Alpine Bank Wealth Management*)
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Canadian dollar (per U.S. dollar)
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Mexican peso (per U.S. dollar)
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30-year fixed mortgage rate (Freddie Mac 03/27/2025)
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*Not FDIC insured. May lose value. Not guaranteed by the bank.
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Alpine Bank is an independent, employee-owned organization with headquarters in Glenwood Springs and banking offices across Colorado's Western Slope, mountains and Front Range. Alpine Bank serves customers with retail, business, wealth management*, mortgage and electronic banking services. Learn more at alpinebank.com.
*Alpine Bank Wealth Management services are not FDIC insured, may lose value and are not guaranteed by the bank.
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