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Colorado - Thu. 03/26/26 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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DENVER WATER INSTITUTES STAGE 1 REGULATIONS – FIRST TIME IN 12 YEARS
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The Denver Board of Water Commissioners enacted Stage 1 drought restrictions on Wednesday in the Denver metro area. The restrictions went into effect immediately and limit Denver Water customers to the use of water outside the home, such as for lawns, gardens, etc., to twice per week. Residents will need to follow schedules based on their addresses. Those with addresses ending with an even number will be permitted to water on Sundays and Thursdays, and those whose addresses end with odd numbers will be assigned Wednesdays and Saturdays. Denver Water’s typical rules for the summer months will also still be in place, including limiting outdoor watering to the cooler hours between 6 p.m. and 10 a.m.
Denver Water serves 1.5 million people, or about a quarter of the state’s population, with a service area covering Denver and some of its surrounding suburbs, including Lakewood, Littleton, Centennial and Lone Tree. The goal of Stage 1 drought restrictions will be to reduce average customer usage by 20 percent. Beyond limiting outdoor watering to two days per week, Denver Water will establish water budgets for its large customers.
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A RECORD WEEK, A RECORD YEAR FOR MIKAELA SHIFFRIN
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On Wednesday, at the World Cup finals at Lillehammer, Norway, Mikaela Shiffrin clinched her sixth overall World Cup title in the final race of the 2025-26 season. Shiffrin finished 11th in the giant slalom to hold off rising German star Emma Aichar. Aicher was 85 points behind Shiffrin entering the season’s final race for the overall title, which includes points from all races in the season. Shiffrin, virtually unbeatable in the slalom, needed to finish no better than 16th in the giant slalom to best Aicher, a top skier in all disciplines, while Aicher needed to win. The overall title comes after Tuesday when Shiffrin won the final slalom race of the season. Shiffrin won nine of the 10 World Cup slalom races, which set a new record for a single year. She also won the gold medal in this year’s Olympic slalom. Shiffrin also won the overall title between 2017-19 and 2022-23.
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BLM PLANS TO ROUND UP 1,100 MORE WILD HORSES IN COLORADO
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The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has announced plans to round up 14,000 wild horses across the West because of concerns over drought and wildfires. The wild horses will be removed using helicopters in Nevada, California, Arizona, Oregon and 1,111 will be removed in Colorado. Two of the three roundups in Colorado will use helicopters to drive the mustangs into corrals. The largest Colorado operation on the federal government’s schedule includes removing 911 mustangs by helicopter in August from the Piceance-East Douglas, a herd management area outside of Meeker in northwestern Colorado.
The BLM is also planning to use a helicopter to round up 100 horses from West Douglas rangeland, and 100 more through a bait-and-trap operation at Sand Wash Basin, which is along the Wyoming border. The goal is to shrink the wild horse population in Colorado from its current 1,727 horses down to 616 horses. The BLM is hosting an adoption event for 20 to 23 Colorado wild horses that have been trained in Grand Junction. The live auction will be at the Mesa County Fairgrounds Saturday, March 28, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The horses will be available for viewing from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, and educational booths will be open all day on Friday.
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BEARS ARE COMING OUT OF HIBERNATION TO FIND DRY GROUND...WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
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Already across the state there are bear sightings reported and more bears will be coming out of hibernation very soon. As the animals face bare ground instead of snow or snow patches, what will the impact of the warm, dry winter be? Joey Livingston, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife public information officer who tracks statewide bear activity, advises residents, “The years we tend to have the most human-bear conflicts are the years we have that late freeze and when it’s really dry.” Livingston says “drought plays a huge factor” in how bears behave because drought limits the growth of chokecherries, acorns and other nuts and berries that bears seek.
In 2025, the agency logged 5,299 sightings and conflicts, up 15 percent from the previous six years. CPW tracked 2,448 instances resulting in damage to homes, garages, sheds, fences and vehicles. “Some regions, particularly those with poor acorn and berry production, reported increased bear activity in residential areas, leading to property damage and vehicle collisions,” CPW noted in a news release.
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ROICE-HURST SHELTER EXPANDS WITH MEDICAL FACILITY
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Officials at the nonprofit Roice-Hurst Humane Society which operates animal shelters and adoption operations in Grand Junction and Delta, announced Tuesday that they will break ground Thursday on a new 900-square-foot medical facility at the shelter site in Grand Junction at 362 28 Road. The expansion will contain surgical and examination areas, and will allow the shelter’s current medical facility, located within a bus parked outside the shelter, to fulfill its original purpose of being a mobile animal medical clinic. In addition to the medical center, the expansion will add administrative offices, which will allow all of Roice-Hurst’s administrative employees to work on-site. The expansion will also feature a building that will serve as an adoption center, volunteer hub, and place for volunteers and fosters to get supplies. It will also contain the pet pantry program.
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CITY OF GRAND JUNCTION’S POPULAR SPRING CLEAN-UP STARTS MONDAY
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Many residents consider it the most popular project of the city of Grand Junction. It is the Spring Clean-Up, and it is more than a century old. It began in the early 1900s, and it allows city residents to get rid of unwanted items at no cost. The city crew covers the city over a two-week period to pick up the items placed on the street in front of residences.
City Requirements:
- Items must be in one pile placed up against the gutter in the front of the residence for pick up.
- Do not place items on private property, lawns, sidewalks or driveways. Keep items (pile) at least three feet from buildings, fences, mailboxes and cars.
- Piles bigger than a large dump truck, i.e., more than 10 cubic yards, will be subject to a $150 charge.
- For residents north of North Avenue, pick up starts March 30 at 6:30 a.m.
- For residents south of North Avenue (including areas of Orchard Mesa and the Redlands), pick up starts April 6 at 6:30 a.m.
- Items can be placed in a pile two weeks before your area's pick-up date but must be in place by the first pick-up date.
- Complete information is available at gjcity.org/1422/Spring-Clean-Up.
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LETTER FROM THE FIRE CHIEFS OF ROUTT COUNTY
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Kenyon Shephard, Interim Chief, Oak Creek Fire Rescue; Chuck Cerasoli, Fire Chief, Steamboat Springs Fire Rescue; Ky Cox, Fire Chief, Yampa Fire Protection District; Matt Mathisen, Fire Chief, North Routt Fire Protection District; Trevor Guire, Fire Chief, West Routt Fire Rescue; Josh Hankes, Executive Director, Routt County Wildfire Mitigation Council, collectively the Fire Chiefs of Routt County, issued and published an open letter to the residents of the county. The chiefs recognize the low snowpack and the increase in "the potential for an early and intense fire season" and the elevated risk for homeowners.
These are "a few ways you can start to prepare today," according to the fire chiefs:
- Register for Routt County Alerts
- Create a comprehensive household evacuation plan
- Ensure your address sign is visible from the road, noncombustible and reflective
- Request a Home Ignition Zone (HIZ) Evaluation, or self-evaluate
- Reduce fuels on your property in alignment with HIZ principles
- Consider structure hardening projects (screen vents, replace combustible attachments, etc.)
Visit routtwildfire.org for more information.
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THE STORMS RAVAGING HAWAII ARE BIGGER, STRONGER THAN EXPECTED
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The Hawaiian Islands have been lashed by storms for the past two weeks, generated from a so-called Kona low, but even after those storms and the continuing rain, the storm that hammered Oahu on Monday even took the National Weather Service meteorologists aback because of its ferocity. In Honolulu, the downpour dumped 2 to 4 inches an hour, and although the rain was highly localized, some areas had 6 to 8 inches of rain. The same was true for Oahu’s North Shore. The storm forced evacuation orders for some 5,500 people north of Honolulu. Even before Monday’s storm, Gov. Josh Green said the costs of the storm would top $1 billion, with damage to airports, schools, roads, homes and a Maui hospital in Kula. The governor said it was Hawaii’s most serious flooding since 2004.
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SARAH MULLALLY BECOMES THE FIRST FEMALE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
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In a historic enthronement Wednesday, Dame Sarah Mullally was installed as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury in a ceremony attended by the Prince and Princess of Wales, representing King Charles, and the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, along with 2,000 other guests. Mullally becomes the most senior cleric in the Church of England and spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, which includes some 85 million Anglicans worldwide. St. Augustine was the first Archbishop of Canterbury, installed in A.D. 597. All the following 105 archbishops were male until Wednesday. Despite the celebratory nature of the installation, the new archbishop inherits a church in a moment of transition and unease, both in Britain and the world.
For more than two decades, the global Anglican Communion, which includes the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Church of Nigeria, among others, has been divided over issues including same-sex marriage and the ordination of women and LGBTQ people. The Anglican Church’s center of gravity has moved away from its ancestral home to the global south, with a vast majority of Anglicans now living outside England and rising membership in Africa, parts of Asia and Latin America. Wednesday's ceremony had a distinct focus on reflecting the church’s diversity and global reach into 165 countries. A key prayer was sung in Urdu; another prayer was delivered in the Bemba language of Zambia; there was a gospel reading in Spanish; and hymns were sung by the African Choir of Norfolk.
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FOLLOWING A MYSTERY TRAIL, AGATHA CHRISTIE
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Even fifty years following her death in 1976, Agatha Christie remains the Queen of the Murder Mystery, with her books having sold more than two billion copies worldwide. Christie was a traveler of the globe, and trains and ships were the ultimate settings for her homicides.
Here are seven locations for travelers to experience the life and works of Christie:
- South Devon, UK: Christie was born in Torquay, a seaside town in Devon, UK. There is a walk, the Agatha Christie Mile in Torquay, with dozens of locations that are named in her books. The International Agatha Christie Festival takes place Sept. 12-20, 2026.
- London: By the 1930s, Christie had six houses in London. There is an Agatha Christie walking tour here, also.
- Luxor and Aswan, Egypt: She first visited Egypt in 1908 and became a regular visitor accompanying her second husband, Max Mallowan, an archeologist, on his digs. Her mystery, Death on the Nile, is set aboard a Nile cruise.
- Istanbul, Turkey: The Orient Express was very special to Christie, and she immortalized the original train in her novel Murder on the Orient Express. That train ended service in 2009, but the luxury Simplon-Orient-Express recreates the journey using restored train cars.
- Cape Town, South Africa: It was surfing in South Africa that enticed Christie and she wrote it into her book The Man in the Brown Suit, set partly in South Africa.
- Barbados: Christie’s 1956 trip to Barbados produced A Caribbean Mystery, set on the fictional island of St. Honore
- Petra, Jordan: Christie’s novel Appointment with Death was a murder mystery in travelogue form, following a family traveling from Jerusalem to Petra.
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MARKET UPDATE - 03/25/2026 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 03/19/2026)
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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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