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Colorado - Wed. 08/19/26 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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MISSION FOODS SHUTTERING ITS PUEBLO TORTILLA PLANT
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Mission Foods, the largest tortilla producer in the U.S., informed the state that it will close its plant at 2110 Santa Fe Dr. in Pueblo and lay off 90 workers. “The entire facility will be closed and all employees at the facility will be impacted. This closure is expected to be permanent,” Kevin Shuman, the company’s director of human resources, informed the Colorado Dept. of Labor and Employment in a letter dated Aug. 14. Shuman said workers would be laid off from Oct. 13-27, which complies with the 60-day notice required under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. But United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 said the plant closure was immediate. Workers, including some who had been at the plant for more than four decades, were told to pack their belongings and leave immediately, resulting in both tearful and angry farewells, according to the union.
The plant traces its origins to Candelario “Candy” and Cedelia “Sadie” Estrada, who opened a popular family restaurant in Pueblo in 1956. So many customers requested their home-style tortillas that they opened a commercial production facility a few years later and shut down the restaurant. Their tortillas became part of Pueblo’s culinary heritage, and the plant provided stable jobs for decades. Mission Foods is a subsidiary of Gruma S.A. in Mexico, a conglomerate with nearly $5 billion a year in revenues controlled by billionaire Juan Antonio González Moreno and his family. In June, Pueblo had a 5.6 percent unemployment rate, the highest of any metro area in the state and well above the 3.9 percent unemployment rate statewide.
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VAIL ANNOUNCES 2026-27 OPENING DATES FOR ITS COLORADO SKI RESORTS
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On Tuesday, Vail Resorts announced its anticipated opening dates for the 2026-27 ski season, as enthusiasm for a possible Super El Niño drives hopes for a powdery winter.
- Breckenridge Ski Resort is the first scheduled to open on Nov. 6
- Followed by Vail Mountain on Nov. 13
- Beaver Creek Resort and Crested Butte Mountain Resort on Nov. 25.
- As always, Keystone Resort will open as soon as possible in October in hopes of being the first place available for skiing in Colorado. (Lifts started turning on Oct. 25 last year.)
Vail Resorts is hoping to bounce back after a lackluster 2025-26, during which visitation to its resorts dropped 12.5 percent due to abysmal snow conditions. That’s one reason the company has invested more than $100 million in snowmaking throughout its network of resorts over the past 10 years. New this season, Vail is ramping up “white glove” amenities and elevating its food offerings to keep loyal guests coming back.
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INVASIVE, INSATIABLE MUDSNAILS HIT CARTER LAKE
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New Zealand’s worst export, the voracious and self-cloning mudsnail, have invaded Carter Lake reservoir for the first time, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials announced Monday, part of a dangerous invasion that has fast-crawled its way up the Front Range. The female New Zealand mudsnail can clone itself, meaning just one gastropod in a pair of waders or boat bilge can launch an infestation and quickly result in hundreds of thousands of snails per square meter. The snails survive a bird’s digestion so can be spread far and wide, and they have no nutritional value and can thus starve fish carefully stocked by local wildlife managers. The mudsnails eat up all the algae and aquatic life otherwise consumed by important insects, depriving other species of food. Their dense multiplication also clogs up reservoir inlets and outlets as well as recreational structures.
“To limit potential further spread, watercraft that have boated on Carter Lake should expect thorough inspections and, in some cases, decontamination when arriving at other bodies of water,” CPW said in a release. Warning and advice signs will be placed at Carter Lake, which is west of Berthoud in Larimer County. The mudsnails, which have clogged lakes from Ontario to Zurich, were first found in the Boulder area watershed in 2004, according to an interagency task force. Longmont found them in St. Vrain Creek, between Longmont and Lyons, in 2022.
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SEARCH FOR DENVER AIRPORT CEO BEGINS
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The City and County of Denver is looking for a new CEO to replace Phil Washington, following his retirement this month and has hired a top search firm to do so. Denver announced last week it tapped Korn Ferry, a premier executive search firm, to lead a global search for someone to lead DIA, one of the busiest airports in the U.S. An official job posting will be available in the next few weeks, the city said. The announcement detailed the timeline for finding Washington’s replacement.
Washington, who has more than 50 years of experience in military and public service, was nominated by then Mayor Michael Hancock and confirmed by the Denver City Council in 2021 to lead the fourth-busiest airport in the U.S. He spearheaded the airport’s Vision 100 and Operation 2045; two long-term master plans aimed at preparing the airport to support 100 million annual passengers and more. The city named Dave Laporte, the airport’s chief operating officer and executive vice president, as interim CEO for the time being.
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SUNDANCE PARTNERS WITH CU BOULDER TO GIVE STUDENTS 'FRONT ROW' ACCESS TO FESTIVAL
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As Boulder prepares to host its first Sundance Film Festival next year, students at the University of Colorado Boulder will get special access to experts in the filmmaking industry throughout the year. They also will be able to get discounted tickets for the event. The Sundance Institute and CU Boulder have signed an agreement to partner ahead of the festival’s debut and give students opportunities to be part of the event. The agreement allows students to not only participate in the festival but also make connections with Sundance leaders and professionals. It includes cocurricular activities planned by Sundance Institute, a volunteer and internship program, a sustainability research collaboration to study the greenhouse gas emissions tied to the festival and free and discounted tickets for students.
The Sundance Film Festival will run from Jan. 21 to Jan. 31, 2027, and will be spread across Pearl Street and the CU campus. The festival selected four locations on CU Boulder’s campus to host movie screenings and official Sundance events at the Macky Auditorium, Roe Green Theatre, Muenzinger Auditorium and Old Main. More than 80,000 people are projected to take over Boulder during the festival’s 10-day run. The festival will take at least 100 students to volunteer during the event and 30 students to serve on a student advisory board to help facilitate the festival’s campus experience. The pilot internship program will be available for eight students. The festival will also host several free screenings on campus and student-only panels with filmmakers.
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TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MOVES TO KILL 'ROADLESS RULE,' BUT COLORADO HAS ITS OWN PROTECTIONS
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The U.S. Forest Service filed a plan Tuesday to strip road-building and logging protections from around 45 million acres of national forest land. The “roadless rule” restricts building roads, commercial logging and other large-scale development on a huge swath of national forest land. Environmental groups say the rule has protected watersheds and wildlife habitat from decades of disturbance. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who oversees the Forest Service, framed the proposed repeal as a way to improve wildfire prevention and give more flexibility to land managers. Last year, the Trump administration announced its intention to dramatically increase logging on public lands. Rescinding the “roadless rule” could lead to more roads that are used to access timber. Environmental groups say that because humans cause most wildfires, killing the rule could lead to more ignitions if people start venturing more into previously hard-to-reach forests.
Colorado and Idaho are exempt from the move because they have their own roadless rules developed with the federal government. In Colorado, more than 4 million acres are protected as roadless, and more than a million acres have higher protection than under the federal rule, according to the Forest Service. The public has until Sept. 21 to comment on the proposed rule and draft environmental impact statement. Once the administration finalizes the proposal, which may be later this year, it is likely to face litigation.
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PITKIN COUNTY RELEASES BIENNIAL COMMUNITY SURVEY RESULTS
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The results of the 2026 Pitkin County Community Survey were released Tuesday, with 85 percent of people rating Pitkin County as an excellent or good place to live. But affordability lagged behind, with just 8 percent saying there was ample affordable housing and only 6 percent giving high marks to the cost of living. The biennial survey assesses quality of life across 10 areas, including safety, mobility and affordability, to name a few. In spring 2026, the survey was sent out to 5,000 randomly selected households, yielding around 550 responses — 124 additional responses came in through an online survey available to the whole community. The survey not only compares Pitkin County to 400 communities nationally, but also specifically provides comparison with about 20 resort communities in the region, such as Telluride, Vail and Frisco.
Respondents gave particularly high marks to the county’s natural environment, parks and recreation and safety. But affordability stood out as a weakness. Residents expressed concerns about the availability of affordable housing, food and childcare. Traffic also remains a key point of frustration but, while these ratings came in below the national average, they remained consistent with peer communities regionally. Survey results varied across the five districts that make up Pitkin County, which includes the city of Aspen and more rural areas like Redstone, which has an estimated population of 127 people. The Community Survey results are available to the public through an interactive online data dashboard, in addition to the traditional survey report.
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NATIONAL REPORT RECOGNIZES ROUTT COUNTY FOR WILDLIFE HABITAT PLANNING
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The National Association of Counties released a report last month on county planning for wildlife habitat connectivity, which featured Routt County as one of only five counties in the U.S. as notable case studies. Routt County Commissioners Sonja Macys and Tim Redmond attended the 2026 National Association of Counties Conference from July 17-20, where the commissioners spoke on a panel about the county’s progress in updating its planning codes and policies, among other strategic initiatives, to reflect wildlife protection. The other four counties featured as case studies are San Diego County, California; Kane County, Utah; Albemarle County, Virginia; and Teton County, Wyoming.
The report notes how Routt County has integrated wildlife protection and connectivity into both its 2022 Master Plan and its 2024 Unified Development Code. Routt County incorporates species activity mapping, which is updated every four years and incorporated into the Unified Development Code. Developer applicants are then required to use these maps to “identify sensitive habitat areas and evaluate potential development impacts.” With increasing development pressures in Routt County, planning staff are exploring additional mechanisms for applicant development guidelines in high-priority wildlife habitats, including establishing “like-for-like offsets,” adopting a simple formula for habitat valuation, adopting study maps to guide land use planning and implementing a compensatory mitigation fund.
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- Steamboat Today, 08.13.26
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TROUT UNLIMITED BRINGS RECLAMATION & MINING CONFERENCE BACK TO DURANGO
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Diverse professionals, researchers, policymakers and others interested in water quality will gather in Durango on Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 to share perspectives and expertise about mining and its impact. Trout Unlimited is bringing the semiannual Rocky Mountain Mining & Reclamation Conference back to Durango, for the first time since 2016. Trout Unlimited (TU), a national nonprofit focused on healthy rivers and clean water, is the conference’s new host organization, after many years of supporting and participating in the event. Past conferences have been in Leadville, Ouray, Silverton, and other historic mining towns. The last time the conference was in Durango in August 2016 was during the one-year anniversary of the Gold King spill.
This year’s Mining & Reclamation Conference theme is “Rocky Mountain Resilience – Reclaim, Reprocess & Re-imagine Mining." The first evening, Sunday, Aug. 30, provides a meet-and-greet reception with a keynote address by Colorado School of Mines’ Dr. Molly Morgan at The Powerhouse. The conference offers a full day of concurrent technical talks and evening exhibitor happy hour on Monday, Aug. 31. Then, Tuesday, Sept. 1 features field tours to historic mine sites and reclamation areas, and an evening reception and dinner at the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum. The conference finishes on Wednesday, Sept. 2 with a half day of technical talks and closing remarks at Fort Lewis College. More information and registration for the conference are available at the link below.
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- Rocky Mtn. Mining & Reclamation Conference
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KVNF RAFFLES OFF A BRAND-NEW 2026 TOYOTA TACOMA SR5
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KVNF Community Radio is raffling off a brand-new 2026 Toyota Tacoma SR5, valued at $43,749. This annual raffle is one of KVNF's largest fundraisers, helping support community radio programming and operations across Western Colorado. Tickets are $20 each or 3 for $50, with no limit on the number of entries per person. Only 5,499 tickets will be sold. Ticket sales end August 30, 2026, or when all tickets are sold out. The winning ticket will be drawn on Aug. 31, 2026.
Tickets can be purchased:
- Online at kvnf.org
- At the KVNF Studios, 233 Grand Ave., Paonia
- At select summer events throughout the region
KVNF's Summer Raffle is made possible through the generous support of Alpine Bank, Bighorn Toyota, and Big B's Delicious Orchards. Proceeds from the raffle support KVNF's mission to engage our communities through access to diverse music, news, and voices.
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COLORADO WILDFIRE SUPPORT
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Alpine Bank has created funds to support the families of the firefighters and pilot who were tragically impacted by recent local wildfires - the Snyder Fire and the Gold Mountain Fire. Alpine Bank has made the initial donations and invites our local communities to join us in supporting these families. Alpine Bank has a longstanding commitment to supporting the communities it serves, especially in moments of hardship. These firefighters were there for our communities and now it’s our turn to stand beside their families and support them however we can. That’s what neighbors do. The benefit accounts are open for donations now through Aug. 31, 2026, with all funds going directly to the firefighters' families. Information on how to contribute can be found at the link below.
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COLORADO RIVER CRISIS: LAKE MEAD, LAKE POWELL INCH CLOSER TO 'DEAD POOL'
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In the past 10 days, both Lake Mead on the Arizona-Nevada border and Lake Powell roughly 300 miles northeast on the Utah-Arizona line have recorded their lowest water levels since the reservoirs were first filled.
- Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, which supplies water to Nevada, Arizona and California, measured 1,040.4 feet above sea level on Aug. 7. The level has continued to drop since then. On Monday, the reservoir measured 1,039.83 feet above sea level, nearly 190 feet below full and down about 2 feet over the past 30 days. A year ago, Lake Mead stood at roughly 1,054 feet. Hoover Dam, which created Lake Mead, was built in 1935. The reservoir was last at full in 1983. If the reservoir loses another 4.76 feet, Hoover Dam begins to lose its ability to generate significant hydropower. At 895 feet, it reaches “dead pool” — a complete shutdown of Hoover’s hydropower system.
- Lake Powell, the nation’s second largest reservoir and the water bank for Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, reached its lowest point in history on Sunday at 3,519.8 feet above sea level. A year ago, it stood at 3,551.33 feet above sea level. Glen Canyon Dam, which created the reservoir, was constructed in 1966. The last time Lake Powell was close to full was in 1999. At 3,490 feet, Glen Canyon Dam also begins to lose its ability to generate hydropower. At 3,370 feet, the elevation known as dead pool, hydropower production would stop entirely.
- Both reservoirs are fed by the Colorado River, which has been hit by what some called a thousand-year megadrought that has cut its supply from around 15 million acre-feet per year to 12 million.
J.B. Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California, told PBS last week that three-quarters of the population of the Colorado River Basin, some 30 million people, are directly affected by risks to Lake Mead. Under the 1922 compact and subsequent agreements, the seven states on the Colorado River still legally count on divvying up 15 million acre-feet of water. In fact, nobody’s getting what the compact promised anymore.
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- Denver Gazette, 08.17.26
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UNEASY CU ECONOMISTS CUT THEIR NEW JOBS FORECAST BY MORE THAN HALF
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Colorado’s job growth in 2026 is weaker than expected, according to a report from CU’s Leeds School of Business:
- CU economists cut their forecast from 17,000 new jobs this year to 6,000. Weak employment in retail and leisure and hospitality jobs are the main reasons for the slimmed-down expectations, according to Brian Lewandowski, a CU economist.
- Statewide, retail sales are not keeping up with inflation, he said. That tracks with less demand for retail workers.
- Colorado’s job market has been sluggish for more than two years relative to the U.S. Last year, the state lost jobs for the first time since 2010, excluding job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- In June, Colorado’s labor force shrank by 64,900 people from the same time last year. A lot of other states are also seeing a shrinking workforce. But the decline in Colorado was among the steepest in June.
- Colorado has seen a slowdown in people moving from other states, as well as an increase in people leaving the state. Additionally, President Donald Trump’s aggressive push to increase deportations is almost certainly having an impact on the labor force nationwide, although it’s difficult to tease out how large of an impact, according to Lewandowski.
- Lewandowski forecast job growth will pick up in 2027. “I still don’t think it’ll be phenomenal job growth,” he said.
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MARKET UPDATE - 08/18/2026 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 08/13/2026)
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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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