OWNER OF LA DODGERS BUYING UP PROPERTY IN CRESTED BUTTE

Chicago financier and billionaire Mark Walters, who also is the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has purchased six high profile properties in Crested Butte. Walters and his wife Kimbra have owned a home in Mount Crested Butte for more than 10 years and he bought the historic Grubstake Building on Elk Avenue in downtown Crested Butte in 2011. In the past year, Walters has acquired the Forest Queen building on Elk, the Gunnison Savings and Loan Building on Elk, and the Princess building on Elk. In addition to those properties in town, Walters paid $6.3 million for the Almont Resort at the confluence of the East River and Taylor River.

THE CITY THAT FARED BEST DURING THE PANDEMIC? SALT LAKE CITY

The COVID-19 pandemic shut down businesses and forced job layoffs in 2020. No metropolitan area recovered faster and did better in overcoming the downturn than Salt Lake City. It had the lowest average unemployment rate and highest share of people working or looking for jobs of any metro area. The other cities that did well were Austin, Denver, Indianapolis and Kansas City. Those that suffered the most were Las Vegas, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Salt Lake City ranked best in the survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal because of fewer business shutdowns, more moderate health consequences from COVID-19 and a young and well-educated population that supported a tech sector that was already on fire before the pandemic began.

SBA OFFICE: SOON TO ADMINISTER PROGRAMS FOR VENUES, RESTAURANTS

The Denver office of the Small Business Administration not only handles the typical 7(a) loans, but also Paycheck Protection Programs, Economic Injury Disaster Loans and more. Soon, the SBA will start accepting applications for Shuttered Venue Operators Grants, which are designed to help concert halls, museums, theaters and other entertainment venues get the money they need to pay staff and re-open. The administration will also soon announce plans to open the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. There is information on the Restaurant Revitalization Fund at restaurantsact.com/rrf.

TRAFFIC DELAYS IN GLENWOOD CANYON FOR RE-INSTALLATION OF POWER POLES

The Colorado Dept. of Transportation announced there will be 15-minute traffic stops in both directions on Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon on Wednesday, April 14, to allow helicopters to carry in four power poles for installation. The power poles were damaged by last year's wildfire. The stops will take place from 9 a.m. through 5 p.m. There will be 30-minute stops on April 21 as well for helicopter-power pole operations. Helicopter operations will continue April 22 if work is not completed. The closures are for westbound traffic at mile point 123.95 east of the Hanging Lake Tunnel bore and a rolling stop will be in place for eastbound traffic.

ROCKFALL MITIGATION WORK ON HWY. 133 WILL AFFECT TRAFFIC ALL SUMMER

The Colorado Dept. of Transportation Friday announced that a $2.8 million rockfall mitigation project will begin this month and continue until October on Colorado Hwy. 133 and McClure Pass. The work will take place at five points on Hwy. 133 from mile point 48 to mile point 60.3. The work will include rock scaling and blasting, rockfall wire mesh installation; and construction of a rockfall catchment structure. Travelers can expect single-lane, alternating traffic from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, through the affected work zone. Traffic may be held for up to 20 minutes at one or two sites, when safety or project activities warrant.

GRAND JUNCTION: A CONSTRUCTION BOOM TOWN

Grand Junction is experiencing a construction boom in 2021. In the first quarter this year, Mesa County issued more than 1,400 building permits. That is some 400 more than were issued in the first quarter of 2020 and more than 450 more than were issued in 2019. Mesa County handles both the issuing of building permits as well as building inspections for all the municipalities in the county. The majority of the building permits were issued in Grand Junction in the first quarter, 654. Although the building boom is concentrated on housing, applications for commercial projects are also up significantly, according to county building officials.

BRECKENRIDGE: STRONG SPRING BREAK NUMBERS

Breckenridge had no spring break last year because ski areas and businesses were closed down in March, but spring break returned this year and lodging numbers were up 6 percent over spring 2019. The Breckenridge Tourism Office reported the average occupancy in town hit 78 percent between March 6 and April 3, with a peak of 89 percent on March 18. The peak spring break period this year was March 12 to 20 and during that time average occupancy in Breckenridge was 85 percent. Breckenridge hired a private security force to patrol Main Street during the spring break period to enforce public health orders, including the wearing of masks, but there were few problems.

CATHY RITTER NO LONGER HEAD OF COLORADO TOURISM IN SURPRISE MOVE

"Cathy Ritter has concluded her service with the Colorado Tourism Office." That was the brief, and surprising, statement issued late Thursday afternoon by the "CTO Team" to tourism officials around the state. Ritter had headed the CTO for six years. Jill Corbin, who served as deputy director of the CTO under Ritter, will take over as interim director. Making the departure even more surprising is the fact that the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, which oversees the Colorado Tourism Office, released a statement earlier last week trumpeting the fact that Ritter was among five new trustees of the international, U.K.-based Travel Foundation, which operates in 30 countries to help maximize the benefits and reduce the impacts of tourism.
Ritter had led the effort in Colorado to address the issues of "overtourism," by conducting listening sessions across the state and redirecting the marketing of the state's tourism to spread visitors across the state and build shoulder-season tourism. Under Ritter's plan, tourism numbers stabilized in 2018 and 2019, while spending by travelers increased to more than $22 billion a year. Ritter led the CTO to become the country’s first to develop a destination stewardship plan to educate travelers about reducing their impacts and developed the "Care for Colorado" program.

WATER BY THE NUMBERS, AND NOT A POSITIVE OUTLOOK

The Natural Resources Conservation Service and Colorado Basin River Forecast Center released their streamflow forecasts for the period April through July. Both indicated the drought of last year left such dry conditions that the parched soils will diminish stream flows this year:

• At the beginning of April, the water content of the Upper Colorado River Basin snowpack was 90 percent of average
• It stood at 78 percent last week
• The NCRS predicted the streamflow for the Roaring Fork River at the confluence with the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs will be 70 percent of average
• The CBRFC model predicts just 68 percent of average
• Ruedi is starting at a lower level this year, just 57 percent full of its 102,000-acre-foot capacity
• Inflow from the upper Fryingpan River is projected to be 112,000 acre-feet, but half of that will go through the Boustead Tunnel to the Front Range
• The Lake Powell inflow is forecast to be 3.2 million acre-feet, just 45 percent of normal