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Colorado - Mon. 06/02/25 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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CDPHE ISSUES WARNING ABOUT EATING FISH CAUGHT IN SOME STATE LAKES
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The Colorado Dept. of Public Health and Environment issued a warning Thursday advising people to strictly limit fish consumption from catches at popular lakes such as Chatfield Reservoir and Barr Lake because of increased risk of ingesting PFAS “forever chemicals” and mercury. Some fish from these identified waterbodies may also contain high levels of mercury or perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS). PFOS is one in a large group of human-made chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS have been manufactured since the 1940s for use in many products, like non-stick cookware, firefighting foams, and food packaging. PFAS do not break down easily and can stay in the environment for a long time. Certain PFAS, like PFOS, can build up in fish muscle tissue.
The identified waterbodies of concern from the PFOS are Chatfield Reservoir, Runyon Lake and Barr Lake. The department did not detect measurable levels of PFAS in Corn Lake, Gypsum Ponds or Vega Reservoir. More information is available at coepht.colorado.gov/fish-consumption.
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DIA ADDS MORE TRAIN CARS TO EXPAND CAPACITY BETWEEN CONCOURSES
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Alstom, a transit manufacturer based in France, announced last week that it will add 19 train cars, or automated people movers (APM) to its original order of 26, at Denver International Airport. The total order will increase the fleet at DIA to 45. The new contract is valued at $69 million, with the price for the entire order of 45 valued at $145.6 million. By the end of last year, nine of the new cars were operational. Each can transport about 850 more passengers to their gates per hour compared to the old cars. Alstom said the APMs will be manufactured and tested in America at Alstom’s facility in West Mifflin, PA. Since the new cars are fully automated, they can adjust for peak and off-peak times. The Alstom APMs are the first of their type delivered in North America. The lightweight aluminum car bodies are assembled using recyclable materials and a more efficient power supply, which provides a greater than 30 percent improvement in energy consumption.
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TRAIL RIDGE ROAD OPEN, WITH NIGHTTIME CLOSURES
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Officials at Rocky Mountain National Park announced that Trail Ridge Road is officially open for the season. The announcement was made in a Facebook post on May 30. Drivers should still expect icy spots, and the road will be closed at night. There are timed entry reservations for the road between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Outside of those hours, drivers do not need a timed entry permit to use the road. Information on timed entry is at go.nps.gov/romo/timedentry. Park entry fees are required: $30 for a one-day pass; $35 for a seven-day pass; or $70 for an annual pass. If you enter the park on foot, a day pass is $15 and a seven-day pass is $20. The Alpine Visitor Center and Trail Ridge Store are not yet open.
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SUMMER TRAVEL TO VAIL WILL INCLUDE INTERMITTENT TRAFFIC STOPS ON VAIL PASS
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Today, Monday, June 2, the Colorado Dept. of Transportation will begin work again on the Interstate 70 West Vail Pass Auxiliary Lanes Project. The project, which started in 2021, aims to improve safety and traffic flow on West Vail Pass with a series of improvements between Vail and the top of Vail Pass, specifically at the East Vail Interchange at mile marker 180 and the Vail Pass Rest Area at mile marker 190. Rock-scaling activities are set to cause traffic holds from mid-June to early September. The holds will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday to Thursday.
Intermittent traffic holds will also occur one to two days each week, from mid-June to early September, to allow helicopters to lift avalanche mitigation materials into place. Traffic holds will last for around 20 minutes in both directions, although delays could last longer as traffic queues are cleared. Recreation trail users in the area could also be held during rock scaling and traffic activity. Regular Vail Pass recpath maintenance will also resume in June. For motorists, there is a text alert notification system for the project, text vailpass to 21000 to receive real-time updates on I-70 traffic holds.
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IT IS STILL PRIME TIME AT CU: THE COACH PRIME EFFECT CONTINUES
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Sources at the University of Colorado Boulder report that the season tickets for the CU home football season have sold out. It marks the third year in a row that season tickets have sold out. This is also the third season that Deion Sanders is the head coach of the Buffaloes. Before Sanders was hired, CU had not sold out of season tickets since 1996. In fact, the Buffs had sold out of season tickets just eight times in its history before Sanders’ arrival: in 1972, and seven consecutive years from 1990-96. This is the third year in a row that CU’s season tickets were sold out before June. CU had never sold out of season tickets before August prior to Sanders’ tenure. Single game tickets went on sale to the public earlier this week. Those can be purchased at CUBuffs.com. The Buffs kick the season off against Georgia Tech on Aug. 29 at 6 p.m. at Folsom Field. There are seven games this year at Folsom Field for the first time since 1982.
All athletes at CU are students as well and those athletes continue to set records academically. On Friday, CU announced that its 342 student-athletes recorded the highest spring GPA (3.264) in school history, pushing the cumulative GPA to 3.294, also a school record. Three CU teams had a GPA above 3.7, the three highest team GPAs on record (since 1996). The women’s ski team recorded the highest team GPA (3.825) in school history, the first team to reach 3.8. The CU football team had a GPA of 2.957, the best spring GPA ever for the program. The only semester with a better GPA for the football team was a 3.011 last fall.
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ALPINE BANK CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER RETIRING AFTER 36 YEARS
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Officials at Alpine Bank announced Alpine Bank Chief Financial Officer Eric Gardey is retiring at the end of 2025 after 36 years. Gardey began working at Alpine Bank in 1989 and became CFO in 2014. He joined the leadership team in 2021. Gardey helped lead the bank's growth to $6.7 billion in total assets and he was instrumental in bringing Alpine Banks of Colorado Class B shares to the OTCQX market in 2019. Gardey will retain his seat on the Alpine Bank Board of Directors. Alpine Bank President Glen Jammaron said, “Eric has been a bedrock of our success here at the bank."
San Juan and Mesa County Regional President Mike Burns will succeed Gardey, and Tyler Dahl, current Mesa County market president, has been promoted to Burns’ regional president position. Burns has been with Alpine Bank for 28 years and led the opening of Alpine Bank's locations in Durango and Montrose, the first branches for the bank in southwest Colorado. Burns’ role later included responsibility for another 10 branches in western Colorado, increasing total regional assets to $1.9 billion.
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SUMMER VACATION IS HERE, BUT THE CANADIANS ARE NOT
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Summer vacation season is here, but visitors from Canada, who make up the largest group of international visitors to the U.S. are not coming across the border for vacations. It is not just the Canadians, all international arrivals to the U.S. are down. About 1.9 million foreigners arrived at the main U.S. airports in the past four weeks, which is down 6 percent from the same period a year ago, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Air travel from Canada to the U.S. in April dropped 20 percent, while land crossings dropped 35 percent, according to the Canadian government. The drop in visitors comes after Tourism Economics initially projected the U.S. to see a 16 percent increase in international visitor spending in 2025. Now, it expects to fall about $8.5 billion, or a decline of roughly 5 percent.
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OURAY TRAIL GROUP: EVEN MORE IMPORTANT WORK NOW
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The Ouray Trail Group is a nonprofit founded in 1986 to preserve and maintain the trails in the Ouray area. The group works all summer to maintain front and backcountry trails near Ouray, clearing brush, fixing washouts, removing downed trees and completing treadwork to keep local trails in the safest shape they can be. This year, their work is even more critical as cuts in U.S. Forest Service staff have reduced federal staffing. The OTG works on as many trails as possible but concentrates on high-traffic areas like the Ouray Perimeter Trail.
Last year, OTG volunteers covered some 120 miles of trails and cleared 1,200 trees. The group has backcountry trips planned each weekend to a different trail, and they’re usually overnight affairs, though volunteers can work for a day and hike out if they like. There are also single-day trail work sessions every Monday and Thursday throughout the summer, where larger groups of volunteers work on popular trails near Ouray and Ridgway like Old Horsethief. The OTG is always looking for more volunteers and there is more information at ouraytrails.org.
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DURANGO: DOWNTOWN’S NEXT STEP IS COMMUNITY MEETINGS
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Durango’s Downtown Next Step is a program advanced by the city of Durango to redesign downtown Main Avenue with walkability and pedestrian and cyclist safety as a focus. City Council paused research into construction funding options in September until designs for Main Avenue from Fifth Street to 14th Street reached 60 percent completion and until construction began on the proposed new city hall and police station. Designs are currently at 30 percent completion and are expected to be completed by the end of the year, and the city will host a series of four meetings this month to seek feedback about design elements: sidewalk width, curb extensions, loading zones, street elements, amenities and flexible blocks for special events.
Each meeting is intended for different groups:
- June 4: downtown business owners
- June 10: downtown business employees
- June 16: Durango residents
- June 23: an accessibility meeting
For more information and meeting locations, go to engage.durangoco.gov/downtowns-next-step.
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CHRISTOPHER BLEVINS AND RILEY AMOS: DURANGO AGAIN WORLD MTB POWER
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Mountain biking is an American sport, from its start with wild riders in northern California riding paperboy bikes up and down Mt. Tamalpais. Coloradans are avid mountain bikers, but in terms of competition, the world leaders, as for the most part in roading, are the cyclists in Europe. However, there remains one place in the U.S. where world championship cyclists, both road and off-road, are raised. That is Durango, Colorado. For road cyclists, it was Sepp Kuss from Durango, becoming a force in the Tour de France and winning the Vuelta in Spain. In the mountain biking world, it is Christopher Blevins. Blevins is the first mountain biker since the Durango legend, Ned Overend in the 1990s, to win both the UCI World short track title and the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike Series XCO World Cup in Nové Město na Moravě in the Czech Republic a week ago.
It was significant enough to have an article in the Wall Street Journal. Jason Gay, the sports columnist for the WSJ, wrote, "After 30-Year Wait, an American Man Is Dominating Mountain Biking Again" featuring Blevins as well as "another Durango phenom," Riley Amos, who is now racing in the men's category after dominating the under-23 category. Both Blevins and Amos were 2024 Olympians and both, along with Sepp Kuss, started as youngsters in the Durango Devo program. The Devo program, co-founded by coaches Chad Cheeney and Sarah Tescher, is known for instilling a passion for riding bikes through a fun-first approach of practicing riding skills, going on adventures and building fitness. It may be fun, but it also has produced world-class cyclists.
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ADD A BIT OF FUNKINESS TO YOUR SUMMER
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Summertime in Colorado brings a variety of events and festivals. Many are well known, with music festivals of all types or lecture series, but many are smaller community festivals or maybe a bit wacky. Among the best known are: FIBArk in Salida, the nation’s oldest whitewater boating event; Strawberry Days in Glenwood Springs, the oldest (128 years) continuous community event; and Country Jam in Grand Junction, with top country music performers.
How about these:
- Whittle the Wood Rendezvous, June 19-21 in Craig, where the town invented a solution for its diseased trees in Craig City Park by having chainsaw artists turn them to art.
- Donkey Derby Days, June 27-29 in Cripple Creek, for more than 90 years Cripple Creek has hosted this festival to celebrate its resident donkey herd (yes, the town has its own donkeys).
- Eagle Mushroom & Wild Food Festival, Aug. 8-10, now in its 16th year, affords information on Rocky Mountain mushrooms and wild food found in the state, with mushroom foraging, culinary classes and hikes.
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COLORADO’S LARGEST GENERAL CONTRACTORS
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Largest general contractors in Colorado with Colorado location, 2024 Colorado revenue, and location of headquarters:
- Kiewit Corp.: Lone Tree; $1.82 billion; Omaha, NE
- Hensel Phelps: Thornton; $1.41 billion; employee-owned, Greeley, CO
- PCL Construction Enterprises: Denver; $686.68 million; employee-owned Denver, CO
- DPR Construction: Greenwood Village; $584.5 million; Redwood City, CA
- Saunders Construction Inc.: Englewood; $528.31 million; Arapahoe County, CO
- Holder Construction: Denver; $504.37 million; Atlanta, GA
- FCI Constructors Inc.: Grand Junction; $488.4 million; employee-owned, Grand Junction, CO
- JE Dunn Construction: Denver; $73.27 million; Kansas City, MO
- Shaw Construction: Denver; $440.1 million; Denver, CO
- G.H. Phipps Construction Cos.: Greenwood Village; $437.46 million; employee-owned Greenwood Village, CO
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MARKET UPDATE - 05/30/2025 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 05/29/2025)
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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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