ALPINE BANK: CHANGE IN OPERATING HOURS EFFECTIVE JUNE 4

Alpine Bank is announcing some adjustments to its operating hours at several branches. Primarily, Saturday operations are impacted, with some slight modifications to midweek business hours. Please visit the link below for a complete list of branches that will be affected by this change, effective Saturday, June 4, 2022. The following alternatives are available to meet your banking needs:

• Online and mobile banking, for deposits, transfers, paying bills and much more
• Night Drop for deposits, to post the next business day
• Convenient ATMs, where you can get cash and check your balance
• Alpinebank.com, to open an account online
• The Alpine InfoLine, 888-4-ALPINE (888-425-7463), with 24-hour information access to your account

These changes come about after months of careful consideration. We hope that with the alternative services listed above, you will continue to have a positive customer experience. Thank you for placing your trust in Alpine Bank.

LAKE MEAD CONTINUES TO LOSE WATER, LAS VEGAS USING BACK-UP WATER PLAN

The continuing drought has dropped the water level in Lake Mead to a level that has exposed the uppermost of the three water intakes that provide water to Las Vegas. The Southern Nevada Water Authority last week announced that its Low Lake Level Pumping Station is operational, and released photos of the uppermost intake visible at 1,050 feet above sea level at the lake behind Hoover Dam. The lower level intake was drilled in 2020 and pumps and a pipeline were installed at a cost of $1.3 billion to draw out water for Las Vegas, with its 2.4 million residents and 40 million tourists per year.

WILDFIRE THREATENS LAS VEGAS, NEW MEXICO

The Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire complex continued to expand across northern New Mexico Sunday and it had reached 103,988 acres and destroyed 166 homes. It was the largest fire burning in the U.S. Numerous communities northwest of Las Vegas have already had to evacuate and residents of the village of Mora were urged to evacuate Sunday afternoon. Residents in parts of Las Vegas, a town of about 13,000 people, have been told to prepare for possible evacuations. In addition to the 1,000 firefighters battling the blaze, the New Mexico National Guard is helping to battle the fire. The Governor’s Office said Sunday that soldiers have dropped thousands of gallons of water from a UH-60 Black Hawk on the blaze and they are going door-to-door to help with evacuations and working road blocks.

THE HAMMERING OF TECH STOCKS CONTINUES, NASDAQ HAS WORST MONTH IN 14 YEARS

Things were no different Friday than from the rest of April, as investors continued to sell off technology stocks, everything from shares of software and semiconductor companies to social media giants. The result was the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index fell 4.2 percent, which brought the total loss for the month to 13 percent, making it the worst month for the Nasdaq since October 2008. The Nasdaq is down 22 percent in 2022, the worst start to a year on record. The more broadly based S&P 500 also fell every week in April, resulting in a loss of 8.8 percent for the month. The year-to-date losses for the S&P 500 reached 13 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4.9 percent this month and is down more than 9 percent this year.

ASPEN AIRPORT IS CLOSED UNTIL MAY 16

Today, Monday, May 2, is the first day of a two-week closure of the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport. Starting today the airport runway and taxiway connectors will be closed for two weeks for maintenance and repairs. A new release from Pitkin County said, “Aircraft operations will be limited to emergency medevac and mountain rescue operations.” The airport will open for all operations at 7 a.m., May 16. Travelers can direct questions about impacted flights to customer service at their respective airline carrier. General aviation questions should be directed to Atlantic Aviation at 970-920-2016.

"RIDE FOR THE PASS" MAY 21

The 28th annual Ride for the Pass will be held Saturday, May 21, and registration is moving online exclusively this year. There are three options: a two-mile option for families that ends at Weller Lake; the standard 10-mile ride to the ghost town of Independence, which is timed and has age-group categories; and an untimed ride that includes category 1, pedal-assist e-bikes, which will be untimed. The registration fee is $25 for adults and $10 for children under 12. All proceeds support the nonprofit Independence Pass Foundation and registration is at the independencepass.org website.

GRAND JUNCTION IN FULL BLOOM

The city of Grand Junction's Parks and Recreation Dept. has begun its annual process of planting flowers downtown and the city has doubled the number of plants it uses each year over the past few years. The city is growing 12,000 annuals and perennials this year. The plants are grown at small greenhouses at the parks operations building and the city leases additional space at GroFresh Farms 365. The city is now investigating longer term solutions, with a primary focus on minimizing water usage. Once the plants are in place the city uses a 1-2-3-3-2-1 watering pattern (once a week in April, twice a week in May, etc.)

SOUTHERN UTES SECURE EPA APPROVAL OF WATER QUALITY STANDARDS

It was 20 years in process, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 8 announced that it had approved the Southern Ute Indian Tribe's water quality standards under the federal Clean Water Act. The approval allows the tribe to protect the water quality of the lakes and rivers it uses for swimming, boating and fishing. The tribe provides drinking water and wastewater treatment for the nearby town of Ignacio, as well. The Southern Ute Indian Tribe is only the 47th federally recognized tribe, out of 574 nationally, to have tribal water quality standards approved by the EPA under the Clean Water Act.

800 VOLUNTEERS REMOVE TRASH FROM 80 MILES OF VAIL AREA ROADS

The Eagle River Watershed Council's annual Community Pride Highway Cleanup took place Saturday, bringing out 836 volunteers, who removed trash from 80 miles of roadway, including sections of Interstate 70, U.S. Hwy. 6, U.S. Hwy. 24, Colorado Hwy. 131 and the Colorado River Road. In addition to the roadways, volunteers cleaned a few local parks, campgrounds and community spaces.

SKIERS TRIGGER "UNCOMMON" HALF-MILE WIDE AVALANCHE ON BALD MOUNTAIN

Last week, two skiers triggered a series of windslab avalanches on Bald Mountain east of Breckenridge that resulted in slides an estimated half-mile wide and 10 feet deep. The first slide was a 50-foot-wide windslab, which set off a chain reaction of additional slabs, finally breaking an entire chute loose. Colorado Avalanche Information Center director Ethan Greene called the event “uncommon.” Windslab slides normally do not trigger deep slab avalanches and CAIC officials say "this snowpack is nowhere near stable in a lot more places than one might expect."

A DRY, WINDY, RECORD-SETTING APRIL

If you thought there was very little moisture in April and it seemed exceedingly windy, you were right. Denver averages 1.68 inches of rain in April. By the end of the month, Denver had recorded just 0.01, yes that is one one-hundredth of an inch, at the official National Weather Service reporting station at Denver International Airport. Official weather records for Denver go back about 150 years, or some 1,804 months, and only 21 of those months have reported 0.01 inches of rain or less. Boulder, which averages 3.05 inches of moisture in April, had its driest April on record, with just 0.12 inches of rain measured. There were huge deficits in moisture in April reported in Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Pagosa Springs, Telluride and across the Eastern Plains.
Then there was wind and fire danger. Colorado had a record number of days in April in which the state was included in the Storm Prediction Center's regional fire outlook and in a number of active local fire alerts issued by the National Weather Service. There have been 21 unique high wind warnings issued for local areas in April, with winds reaching 40 mph for at least one hour, with gusts over 58 mph. That is more than the total number of high wind warnings for all of 2009, 2013 and 2015.

STAR LIGHT, STAR BRIGHT...

For some communities in Colorado, Willie Nelson's song should be, "Turn out the lights, the party's starting..." Those are communities that have undertaken the measures and lengthy review to become designated International Dark Sky Communities. Remarkably, 80 percent of Americans live in places where the Milky Way is no longer visible. Not here:
International Dark Sky Communities (with year of designation)

• Westcliffe and Silver Cliff, 2015
• Norwood, 2019
• Ridgway, 2020
• Crestone, 2021
• Nucla and Naturita, 2021

International Dark Sky Parks (with year of designation)

• Hovenweep National Monument, 2014
• Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, 2015
• Dinosaur National Monument, 2019
• Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, 2019
• Jackson Lake State Park, 2020
• Slumgullion Earth & Sky Discovery Center, 2020
• Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, 2021
• Mesa Verde National Park, 2021
• Curecanti National Recreation Area, 2021
• Top of the Pines, 2021