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Colorado - Mon. 08/17/26 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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IN THE MIDST OF PROLONGED DROUGHT, MANY CITIES HAVE VIRTUALLY NO RESTRICTIONS
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The U.S. Drought Monitor released last Thursday showed nearly the entire state is in some level of drought. Very apparent from the Drought Monitor is that the major cities on the Front Range as well as most of the West Slope, areas that use water from the Colorado River, are in extreme drought. Despite the widespread drought, 13 of the largest cities and towns in Colorado have not implemented additional mandatory water use restrictions. Those 13 communities, including the cities of Boulder, Fort Collins and Pueblo, are home to more than 1.5 million residents or about a quarter of the state’s population.
Boulder and Fort Collins have voluntary restrictions in place, but they are not mandated. Denver Water, Aurora Water and many towns on the Western Slope have implemented mandatory rules to curb water use. Pueblo, on the other hand, has neither mandatory nor voluntary restrictions in place. Fort Collins and Colorado Springs both draw water from the Colorado River, but Colorado Springs Utilities leaders have not implemented additional drought restrictions this year, though their customers are limited to three days a week of outdoor watering every year, regardless of drought status. The state’s second-largest city draws 70 percent of its water from the Colorado River, 25 percent from the Arkansas River and 5 percent from the South Platte River.
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MINIMUM WAGE GOING UP IN COLORADO AND DENVER IN 2027
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The Colorado Dept. of Labor and Employment’s Division of Labor Standards and Statistics Thursday announced minimum wage for Colorado hourly employees is set to climb next year to $15.71 per hour from the current wage of $15.16 an hour. Restaurant servers and other tipped workers will see a new minimum wage of $12.69 an hour. Colorado’s minimum wage is adjusted annually following state constitutional amendments approved by voters in 2006 and 2017, which had boosted it by set yearly increments to $12 an hour in 2020 followed by regular annual increases adjusted for cost-of-living. Last week, the City and County of Denver announced a minimum wage increase to $19.84. Municipalities can require higher wages than the state minimum.
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THE HEAT IS ON…AND IT JUST CONTINUES
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Colorado just experienced its second-hottest July on record, continuing a long-term warming trend with repeated heat waves. According to the Colorado Climate Center’s monthly climate summary, July averaged 4.8 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average. In looking statewide at conditions in his climate summary, Colorado State Climatologist Russ Schumacher reported that for portions of the Western Slope and much of the Front Range, July 2026 was the hottest ever documented in 132 years of recordkeeping. Because July is typically the hottest month of the year, Schumacher noted that areas in the mountains, including parts of Eagle, Summit, Grand, Garfield, Routt and Moffat, experienced the hottest month ever recorded.
At an average of 78.75 degrees, the climate summary states July 27 was the hottest day ever recorded in Colorado, including temperatures in Burlington reaching 113 degrees, or two degrees shy of the all-time high. Three of the top seven warmest days ever recorded in Colorado reportedly occurred last month. Temperatures have trended above average for 14 consecutive months, with December, February and March all being the warmest on record, and November being the third warmest on record. Since the turn of the century, only two summers have been cooler than the 20th-century average, with none since 2009.
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BLUE MESA RESERVOIR ENTERS NEW TERRITORY DROPPING TO ¼ OF ITS CAPACITY
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As Lake Powell reaches record low levels, federal officials have used other reservoirs in the Upper Colorado River Basin to help fill it. Normally, one of those reservoirs, Blue Mesa, would be a prime candidate as it is Colorado’s largest body of water. There has been and will not be any releases from Blue Mesa Reservoir however, as the Bureau of Reclamation reported last week it had dropped to less than 25 percent of its capacity. As the water has receded the ruins of the community of Lola, which was flooded when Blue Mesa was filled, have become visible. The low levels have also revealed the general path of the Gunnison River, which was dammed in the 1960s to form Blue Mesa.
The Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association has had to implement restrictions on allocations, with users limited to a 50 percent allocation this spring. Had those restrictions not been implemented, the water level in the reservoir could have drained to a level below the valves for the hydro-electric generators. Caleb Foy, senior water resources engineer at the Colorado River Water Conservation District, said Blue Mesa is in "uncharted territory," as "It's never been drawn down to this level this time of year."
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WEST SLOPE RANCHERS JOIN CLIMATE CHANGE LAWSUIT VERSUS OIL COMPANIES
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A wide-ranging lawsuit brought by the city of Boulder and Boulder County against three Suncor Energy entities and Exxon Mobil contends that the energy companies should be accountable for costs incurred by local communities from the effects of climate change as a result of greenhouse-gas emissions. The city and county seek monetary damages for costs incurred responding to wildfires, repairing transportation infrastructure, restoring watersheds and other harm related to climate change. They do not seek to regulate emissions or fossil fuel production. They only want the fossil fuel companies to help pay for harms the county contends were caused, in part, by the activities of Suncor and Exxon. The lawsuit has brought about a wide array of groups filing briefs in support of Suncor and Exxon as well as the Boulder city and county.
One of the latest filings is one from six well-known ranchers filing in support of Boulder city and county. Those ranchers include Kathleen Sullivan Kelley of Meeker, Rio Blanco County cattle rancher Deirdre Macnab, Kathryn Bedell, executive director of the Southwest Grass-fed Livestock Alliance, Jay Fletcher of Steamboat Springs, Andy Breiter of Boulder County; Mike Callicrate, who ranches and farms in Kansas and operates a retail meat business in Colorado Springs; and Caleb Valdez in Montezuma County. Among those filing in support of Suncor and Exxon are the Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado.
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ANOTHER MEASURE OF HOW EXPENSIVE HOMES ARE IN COLORADO
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It is understood that the cost of housing in resort areas of Colorado and even on the Front Range is very high, but now online loan platform Lending Tree has offered another measure. Lending Tree ranked the affordability of homes by using the median home prices of micropolitan statistical areas (those with an urbanized population ranging from 10,000 to 49,999 residents) and also looked at the ratio of home prices to median household income to measure affordability.
There were 538 communities studied and the Lending Tree methodology showed:
- Of Colorado’s 10 micropolitan areas, five ranked in the top 50, or half of Colorado’s micropolitan areas ranked in the top 10 percent nationally for highest home prices
- The Breckenridge micropolitan, which includes Summit and Lake counties, ranks as the fourth most expensive housing market in the study with a median home price of $748,200 and an affordability ratio of 7.1
- The Steamboat Springs micropolitan, which covers Routt and Moffat counties, ranks as the seventh most expensive market in the study with a median home price of $564,500 and an affordability ratio of 5.9
- Montrose was the 19th most expensive micropolitan area in the U.S., with a median home price of $388,400 and affordability ratio of 5.4
- Fort Morgan ranked 30th, with median home price of $388,600 and affordability ratio of 4.6
- Cañon City was close to Fort Morgan, with $324,000 and ratio of 5.2
- Not making the top 50: the Edwards micropolitan - with Vail; the Rifle micropolitan - with Aspen; Durango, Alamosa and Sterling
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RELEASES FROM TWIN LAKES TO HELP THE UPPER ARKANSAS RIVER
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The Southern Colorado Water Conservancy District, after working with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Colorado Water Conservation Board, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Colorado Water Trust, secured agreements to dedicate and release 2,500-acre-feet of water from Twin Lakes Reservoir to provide increased flow in the Upper Arkansas River. The releases began earlier this month and will continue through November. A primary reason for the water releases is to help fish and aquatic wildlife in the river.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Upper Arkansas River Basin Aquatic Biologist Alex Townsend said, “We are experiencing unprecedented low flows and high-water temperatures on the Upper Arkansas River this year, and it’s crucial to find ways to help protect the river for its fishery and recreational value.” Performance Tours owner Kevin Foley, who has been rafting on the Arkansas River for more than 40 years, said that flows on the river have been lower this year than the two historic drought years of 1981 and 2002. Foley said the releases will not create whitewater but will make "a big difference."
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TOWN OF AVON TO PURCHASE STATE LAND BOARD SITE FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING
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The town of Avon on Thursday signed a contract to purchase 76 acres of Colorado State Land Board property on both sides of the Eagle River in Dowd Junction for $5,861,293, which is pivotal to building affordable community housing on the land and concludes three years of efforts to complete the deal. The deal includes: 4.6 acres which was the site of a former Colorado Dept. of Transportation mobile home park; 53 acres on the north side of the Eagle River and 18.4 acres of Eagle River corridor land. Avon officials say they plan to annex the property soon after closing, zone it for community housing and then subdivide a portion of the property to create the first development parcel on the former CDOT mobile home site. That first-phase housing project will likely consist of at least 100 new residential units. The terms of the sale require all residential development to be deed-restricted community housing.
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“WOOD FOR LIFE” ANOTHER VALUE FROM FOREST THINNING
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Over the Fourth of July weekend, the Ferris Fire ignited and raged through the San Juan National Forest north of Dolores. As firefighters rushed in to combat the fire, they also raced to save timber as well. The fire was in an area where forest crews had conducted forest thinning and as part of that wildfire mitigation work, the smaller diameter logs, normally left for slash, were cut, split and stacked in partnership with several tribes for use on reservations throughout the Four Corners. The Navajo, Ute Mountain Utes, Southern Utes and other reservations have large areas with no electricity and heat their homes in winter by burning wood.
Following the closure of the Kayenta Coal Mine in 2019, tribes lost coal as a means of heating and established a partnership with the USFS to cut and stack the byproduct from forest thinning for use in the winter. The Wood for Life partnership was established and in the years since the group has delivered 32,620 cords of wood collected from 13 national forests, which is enough to heat almost 6,500 homes.
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EVEN BEFORE ITS OPENING IN 2027, RODEO DUNES ATTRACTING GOLFERS, RESERVATIONS
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Rodeo Dunes, the links-style golf course located on a 4,000-acre site north of Roggen in Weld County, is not only on pace for its public opening next year but is having limited play this year for founding members and influential golf world players. Already most tee times for 2027 have been booked but additional slots should be coming soon. Rodeo Dunes has established a virtual waitlist for future tee times (see: rodeodunes.com/tee-times). Rodeo Dunes byline is "Long before golf arrived, the wind had already done much of the work," and it is the wind, sand hills and native grass that make Rodeo Dunes an ideal links location.
It is located about 35 minutes from Denver International Airport, has a 125-mile view of the Rocky Mountains and Tom Ferrell, the course’s vice president of communications Rodeo Dunes provides “a real showcase for an area of Colorado that doesn’t get a lot of tourist attention,” Ferrell said. “… I really believe that the Eastern Plains communities will benefit economically as we grow."
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THINKING ABOUT GOING TO A BRONCOS GAME – HERE’S WHAT IT WILL COST
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The Action Network computed the cost of going to an NFL game in all 32 NFL cities for a family of four, with the cost of tickets, parking, food and drinks. When 2026 prices were not available for concessions, 2025 prices were adjusted for inflation. With the Broncos winning their first preseason game, if you were planning to go to game this fall, The Action Network says it will cost $1,655.57, the 10th highest in the NFL.
These are the costs:
- $1,551.76 for four general admission tickets
- $55.00 for parking
- $20.68 for four hot dogs
- $17.14 for two beers
- $10.99 for two sodas
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HIGHEST PRICED NFL STADIUMS
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The Action Network computed the cost of going to an NFL game in all 32 NFL cities for a family of four, with the cost of tickets, parking, food and drinks.
These were the most expensive cities for an NFL game:
- Highmark Stadium, Buffalo Bills, $2,193.95
- Soldier Field, Chicago Bears, $2,169.87
- Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia Eagles, $2,116.94
- Ford Field, Detroit Lions, $2,109.50
- Lumen Field, Seattle Seahawks, $2,078.51
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MARKET UPDATE - 08/14/2026 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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