The truth is that grant-writing season never ends when it comes to the efforts of non-profit entities to raise funds for their worthy causes here in Grand County.

And here it is, Thanksgiving, so the season is upon us to say thanks and recognize the entities which grant funds to the many non-profits here in Grand.

While many non-profits in the county are grateful for the funds they receive, they usually don’t have the time or the means to say thanks and acknowledge publicly the gifts they receive. So let me do it here for them.

There are a total of 195 non-profit entities in the county. I work closely with many of them as part of my work with the Grand Enterprise Initiative. I am even on the boards for some. I know that they are grateful for the support they receive. (I have an advantage in getting my thanks and acknowledgement out there because the newspaper lets me write this business-oriented column usually every other week.)

And rest assured, acknowledging and proclaiming the thanks and the acknowledgement of non-profits is still “business” oriented because, in fact, almost all of these non-profits operate as if they were businesses. They are just subject to the requirements that their missions align with the 501 (c) 3 guidelines. That is, the nonprofit must be exclusively for a public or charitable purpose (such as religious, education or scientific, etc.) and no part of its earnings can benefit private individuals.

These non-profits in Grand County are mostly operating with very close margins most of the time and they are very busy. That makes it tough from them to meet one question written into the grant applications that go through the Grand Foundation for direct Grand Foundation funds or for the Donor Advised Funds.  The question reads as follows: If funded, how will your organization recognize Grand Foundation (or donor advised fund) support?

Here’s how in one of several places. So first, I’d like to recognize the support of the Grand Enterprise Initiative the Grand Foundation and several of the donor advised funds it administers: The Town of Granby, The Town of Winter Park, the Town of Grand Lake, the Grand County Board of County Commissioners, the Town of Fraser and the now defunct ROSH Fund of Granby. We have had other great donors as well to include Freeport-McMoran Community Foundation, Mountain Parks Electric, The Kenneth King Foundation, the Department of Local Affairs REDI (Rural Economic Development Initiative) fund, the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s RBDG (Rural Business Development Grants) and others such as the Milanovich Trust.

All these entities have supported our efforts at the Grand Enterprise Initiative. Thanks.

I’m sure that many other non-profits in the county would have a similar, but not the exact same, list of funds that help to support their worthwhile efforts in the non-profit realm of Grand County.

On their behalf, let me say thanks and hereby recognize the efforts of these funds to help make Grand County a better place to live. In particular, I know I can speak for Habitat for Humanity of Grand County and the Moffat Road Railroad Museum, as I am on the boards for both.

The support of all these funds is critical both financially and morally. By morally I mean it’s a great sign of moral support for these entities, and for the Grand Enterprise Initiative, to see some support. It does help to validate our work.

That being said, I don’t envy the work of the foundation and its funds in making the tough decisions of whom to fund and for how much. My guess is that the foundation would love if it had endless funds and could just dole out the money as requested. I can assure you that almost all of the requests are probably valid and worthy. But there’s just not that much money sitting around.

So I also want to thank the foundation and its donor advised funds for going through that tough process.

Could the counties public entities put more of their funds into the coffers of these non-profits? I’ve always thought so, but putting more out there gets to be a moral and ethical choice. How much should be taken from, say, road improvements versus a good, emotional cause? How far should tax dollars go toward well-meaning non-profits? Almost all are deserving. This gets into the realm of “moral hazard.”

Those are questions for another time and on a case-by-case basis. 

But let me say here: Thanks. Your funding is appreciated and recognized.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.” He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at pbrower@consultbrower.com.

There is an effort afoot to bring together common businesses in the county to form associations or industry groups. It’s a good idea because such groups are almost always good for business.

I say that because there was a time in my life when if I was told I should work together with my direct competitors and form an association, I would have laughed and refused.
This is despite the fact that I was already in a “sector partnership” that included my direct competitors. In the case to which I refer, it was the newspaper publishing sector and my paper at that time, the Sky-Hi News, competed directly with that other newspaper, The Winter Park Manifest.

And yet, we were members together in the Colorado Press Association. And yes, the press association did some good things that helped our businesses, either in spite of, or because of, our competitive situation.

This new effort, which is being launched by DiAnn Butler, the county economic developer, and related partners, is kicking off with a sector partnership meeting called “Collaborative Growth: Building Strong Industry Partnerships.” It’s set to take place from 9 a.m. to noon Thursday, Nov. 6 at Sun Outdoors in Granby. There will be coffee, refreshments and maybe a dough nut or two.

What is a sector partnership? It’s a group like the Grand County Builders Association, which was formed to help that industry in Grand County try to address collectively common problems that industry sector faces. It works. The Grand County Board of Realtors strikes me as another good sector partnership. But there are so many other possibilities.
I think of restaurants in the county as an example. In fact, several years ago, there was a serious effort to from just such an association.

What about an accommodations or hotel / motel sector partnership? Certainly there are issues that face all these entities that maybe could be resolved through a localized yet collective approach.

What about a housekeeping and cleaning sector partnership? There are many such businesses in the county that do that sort of work and many of them operate in silos, perhaps not aware that their problems are also the problems of their competitors. And maybe, through a collective approach, they could help to solve some of their similar problems.

It would be fun, maybe, to have a brewery sector partnership. I know that I would like to be at their first meeting.

Such partnerships can help with cooperative training efforts for staff and management. Such partnerships could help make more reasonable efforts to solve problems a sector may face with government. In other words, it’s perhaps much more effective for lobbying to occur on behalf of an entire group of businesses — rather than just one business — in front of a town board or the county commissioners, or even the state legislature.

I’m pretty sure that if I was an elected official I’d be more likely to listen to the issues of an entire sector or group than just one lone ranger.

Which is really the whole point of this. No man is an island and no business is a lone ranger. There are groups and natural conglomerations of people with like interests and concerns, all that could be resolved collectively to improve business.

So I encourage business owners and such to attend the event on Nov. 6 an in effort to discover common issues shared with your competitors. These issues will probably be easier solved through a partnership than as a lone voice in the wilderness.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.”  He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at pbrower@consultbrower.com.

In the many years that I have been involved with economic development efforts in Grand County, both as a newspaper editor and an enterprise facilitator, the dream of having higher education in Grand County has been a mainstay.

But getting an actual college, community college or University branch here has been elusive. There are many reasons for this.

And yet, the dream continues. Now MSU (Metropolitan State University in Denver) is making a real effort to get started on a continuing education, service skills education effort in Grand County. To be exact, the school of hospitality has stepped up to offer two classes here in the county that have honest-to-God true practical value for workers and residents in the county and their employers.

One class is the TIPS on-Premise Alcohol Server Training, set for Sept. 24. The second is the Always Food Safe Food Handler Certification, set for Oct 8. The classes take place at the Headwater Center in Winter Park and cost $90 each.

That these classes have true practical value in this county perhaps goes without saying. These are classes that service industry businesses want their employees to take. They are classes that service industry employees should want to take and probably may be required to take to work kitchens and food-based businesses in the county.

As tourism and recreation continue to grow in importance for the economy of Grand County, these sorts of classes demonstrate the value that higher or continuing education can have for our economy.

But for me this effort is really about exploration of the concept of higher education here in Grand County along the level of a Colorado Mountain College type of campus or learning center. This is important because such centers of learning and continuing education serve as springboards for business growth and expansion as students, professors and potential graduates nurture and develop the skills to serve our tourism-based economy.

Such a campus or higher learning center can also serve as an incubator for innovative ideas to flourish and for smart business ideas for our local economy to take off.
But there’s more.

There is an aspect of higher learning and higher education that doesn’t have to be so directly tied to creating jobs and earning paychecks. Such education in fields such as psychology, mathematics, literature and languages can help to create a society informed by the facts and the success of our national knowledge to create well-rounded, informed citizens.

Having a place or even a virtual environment for such learning in Grand County creates, in and of itself, something that is attractive to visitors, locals and aspiring second-home owners. People want to be part of an educated and informed community that creates and shares knowledge, both hyper-practical and, shall I say it, theoretical.

Over the years, and I mean many years, I have entertained and discussed a community college campus in Grand County, Grand County Higher Education and actual efforts to fund related campuses to the outreach programs at Colorado State University. These efforts struggled to maintain interest and financial backing. I think this MSU effort is starting with realistic goals and an honest attempt to test the market.

An affiliation with MSU in Grand County makes a ton of sense. It is a state-backed and highly respected University in the Denver area that serves a diverse student body, many of whom are commuters and others who board in. But the practical linkage to Denver is important because many people call the Winter Park Resort “Denver’s ski area,” (which it in fact was at one time) and the proximity of Winter Park and Fraser Valley to Denver makes it a first stop for many vacationers, both day skiers and summer day trippers. There is an organic link between Denver and Grand County.

And with the commuter train service starting next year with commuter-style linkage of Denver to Grand County (both to Granby and Witner Park and Fraser), the symbiosis of the MSU effort makes sense.

And now the market can be tested to see how valuable this effort by MSU will be in Grand County. This could be planting the seeds, finally, for some higher education in Grand County, both super-practical and highly fulfilling.

Which, ultimately, would be good for the local economy.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of the book “KILLDOZER:  The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.” He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at pbrower@grandei.org.

The “quiet” phase of the fund raising capital campaign for the Moffat Road Railroad Museum in Granby is officially over and now we are beginning the public outreach phase of this important effort.

In other words, we are going public with official requests to raise funds to finish the new Family Train Ride and the Dumont Depot project.

I say “we” because I serve on the board of directors for the Moffat Road Railroad Museum, a 501( c ) 3. I have come to see the incredible potential for this small and entertaining museum to continue growing as a top-notch museum and visitor destination in Granby.

To get to completion on this important and final phase of finishing the museum, we now need $420,000, which is more than half of the entire campaign goal of $900,000. Yes, it’s hard to believe, but we’ve managed to raise $480,000 of this campaign from a variety of donors including the Milanovich Trust, the Boetcher Foundation, the El Pomar Foundation, the Gates Family Foundation, Mountain Parks Electric, the Grand Foundation (donor advised funds) and many private individuals (including our board members) to this campaign.

The goal of this campaign is to complete the renovation of the historic Dumont Depot, a genuine 1902 Colorado and Southern Rail Road depot from Colorado, and to complete the final touches on our new Family Train Ride, which will be a 15-inch gauge railroad ride for children and adults around our museum in Granby.

The Dumont Depot building itself was donated to the museum by the Barwick clan and the train was purchased and donated to the museum by the Milanovich Trust. But it takes time and money to renovate such an old building and to get a family fun train ride up and running.

Our plans are to make the Dumont Depot, which was moved to the museum in September of 2024, into a community events and meeting center that will also serve as the ticket booth and kiosk for the family train ride. This will entail the addition of an annex for a kitchen and restrooms.

For the train ride, we are at the phase of bringing the rails up to safety codes, building a winter storage shed for the train and embellishing and improving the ride overall so we can be operating it by the summer of 2026.

But all of this takes money. Yes, we do generate revenue through ticket sales to enter the museum (at the rate of 6,000 a year), and we do generate revenue through gift shop sales. But that’s not enough to fund capital improvements, much less operate the museum.

We hope to generate significant new revenue once the Family Train Ride is up and running and we plan to earn new revenue by leasing out the Dumont Depot for events such as weddings, family reunions, birthday parties and public gatherings.

But it takes money to get there and that’s why we are conducting this campaign.

The ultimate goal is to have the depot and train ride completed by the fall of 2026 when the new commuter rail service will start running between Grand County and Denver, with the terminus in Granby, right at the Granby train station near the museum.

Even without the depot and train ride the Moffat Road Railroad Museum is a valuable attraction in Granby in and of itself. Aside from being voted the Best Museum in Grand County for the last three years, the museum chronicles and celebrates the important Moffat Road rail line, once the highest railroad in the world and featuring the Moffat Tunnel underneath the Continental Divide. That tunnel allows massive rail freight traffic, Amtrak passenger rail and now the upcoming Denver commuter rail service. This is all very important for the economy of the Western Slope, Grand County and the United States in general.

Remember, we operate on land owned by the Town of Granby but leased to us at a rate that makes it possible for us to operate for the general good of the town and its visitors. Granby is an excellent partner in this endeavor.

The entire endeavor was started by Dave Naples (our executive director) 20 years ago as the Moffat Road Model Railroad Club. Naples has been tireless in driving the museum to its status as an important and entertaining asset in Granby.

The museum features an almost completed HO scale Moffat railroad layout that shows the route of the famous rail line, both over and under the Divide, an award-winning and longest running Christmas train, four life-size cabooses, an historic Shay locomotive, a renowned steam crane, a finished caboose and more.

So please, consider a donation to the Dumont Depot and Family Train Ride Capital Campaign so we can finish this important phase of the Moffat Road Railroad Museum by the time those important commuter trains start arriving in Granby in the fall of 2026.

Send your donations to: Moffat Road Railroad Museum, P. O. Box 2221, Granby, CO, 80446. Since the museum is non-profit, all donations can be deducted. Even more worthwhile, the museum can offer a Colorado income tax credit as we are included in the Colorado Enterprise Zone. Or, go to https://moffatroadrailroadmuseum.org/projects/depot/.

Every penny counts in this important economic benefit for Granby, where the Moffat Road Railroad Museum is a true family and tourist destination where people stop, tour the museum and spend money in Granby.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.”  He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at pbrower@consultbrower.com.

When the federal government starts talking seriously about selling federal lands in Colorado to help balance the budget in the new big, beautiful bill, I get nervous.

That’s because I think the likely “land rush” created will only hurt our local economy and seriously degrade the value of property that many businesses and individuals already own, free and clear, right here in Grand County.

As many county residents know, Grand County land is mostly owned by the federal government, with about 70 percent under the ownership of Uncle Sam. That land is under federal jurisdictions of agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service (Department of Agriculture), Bureau of Land Management (Department of the Interior) and National Park lands (Rocky Mountain National Park — Department of the Interior).

I can see some local government types licking their lips over the prospect of federal land in Grand County going private, mainly because if that were to happen that land would be subject to property taxation that doesn’t currently exist. That would, theoretically, mean more revenue to local government.

But in reality I don’t think any gain in property taxes would outweigh the current “opportunity value” I see in our public lands here in the county. By that I mean that much of any such land that goes private would probably remain agricultural, which means the revenue from it would be minimal. Even if purchased for high use, such as for resorts or ski areas or logging, the minimal tax income won’t make up for what we would be losing.

Oh, and don’t forget the cost that local governments would suddenly assume as they would have to provide roads, fire protection, police protection and more on these lands. I think they would lose money.

By opportunity value I mean that simply the fact of having all these acres of federal land in the county, most of which is recreational and wilderness, adds value to being and living here. For visitors, it makes them feel there is great public opportunity to recreate and play here, adding to the local attraction. I think it’s largely the same for many locals when it comes to recreation. There’s an intrinsic value to living in a place where most people can simply walk out their back doors and be on public land where they can fish, hike, bike, snowmobile and ski; or more.

In fact, many private properties that touch or abut public lands boast of higher value simply because of that fact.

For agriculture and resource extraction (logging and mining here in Grand), public ownership is a value-added feature. I doubt ranchers who currently lease federal land for grazing (at extremely favorable rates to the ranchers) will be happy to run out with all the money they have in the bank to buy that land and own it outright. It would expensive and would not make sense unless they are extremely wealthy.

And for uses such as logging and mining, outright ownership of the land doesn’t make sense when it can be leased or utilized through government contracts, which are usually favorable to industry. Once again, only the already wealthy entities would be able to see long term value in switching to private ownership for these sorts of extraction.

As many people may not be aware, it is possible for people wanting to “own” public lands to acquire those lands. That is through the land-exchange process, which allows people to swap public lands for other private lands that the federal government wants to acquire. Such processes have been used quite often in Grand County, most notably through the private acquisition of some lands at the base of the Winter Park Resort.

And I fear that if public lands could simply be “purchased,” the uses to which those once federal lands would be subjected would not always be in the public interest. My guess is that already-wealthy landowners would use this new right to buy up easements to public land (therefore locking up essentially public land to de-facto private use), closing off public access. Resort and commercial developers would then use this to buy attractive parcels to then milk it for financial gain only, not to benefit the general public. Imagine, if you will, a new dirt bike race course (or downhill mountain bike course) set up right on the hillside next to Monarch Lake, or near the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, or leading up to Strawberry Lake.

And my guess that any land that becomes available would go to the highest bidder, therefore taking the average man and the little guy completely out of the running. Imagine . . . more little kingdoms set up on our public land.

Federal lawmakers who are pushing this selling-public-lands notion are gaslighting America when they say any such land could open up property to more housing, employee housing and better public services. This seems like an outright lie to me since by far the most profitable use of any such land is intense resort or extraction use or high end home sales, to include denser, high-end residential properties.

I think opening up our public lands in Grand County for sale would hurt existing land values, degrade our existing public lands experiences and benefit only the super rich and “inside” players.

We should keep what’s public now public forever or all of us locals will pay the price.
Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.” He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.

It’s happened right here near Granby.

A fishing-person friend of mine was angling along the Fraser River when he noticed what he thought was a dog sitting on the opposite bank staring at him. He was by himself. As he looked more closely at this “dog,” he noticed that it had a radio collar and somehow looked different than a dog. It was a wolf.

‘We had a brief little staring match there by the river and then he went along on his own business,’ my friend said. ‘It was pretty amazing.’

I envied him because he had just seen a wolf. I have yet to see a wolf in the wild. Maybe, perhaps, I’ve heard some howling. Not sure.

 Which got me to thinking about this entire wolf reintroduction experiment and my extremely ambivalent feelings about the entire affair.

For anyone who has been living like an ostrich, Colorado voters, perhaps addled by Covid, approved a 2020 ballot initiative that directed Colorado Parks and Wildlife to develop a plan and reintroduce gray wolves west of the Continental Divide by the end of 2023. CPW has followed the directive and now 25 gray wolves have been released into the state, the first batch being dumped in Grand and Summit counties with the second releases taking place in Eagle and Pitkin counties.

The controversy and odd outcomes of the effort have continued unabated.

Wolves have killed, or “depredated,” cattle and sheep in Grand County and in other locale’s where they’ve been relocated. The predictable outcry from the agricultural community has been vociferous, as it probably should be, and the offending wolves have been moved. Or, if that didn’t work, the wolves themselves have been killed or “depredated.”

Now I am sure that it was horrible for these calves and sheep — and sometimes dogs, too — to be slaughtered mercilessly by wolves. Even worse, perhaps, has been the loss in money to ranchers who hoped to one day sell or breed those animals. It’s just unfortunate all around.

But I personally feel that the wolves have been subjected to an even more bizarre and awful sort of torture. The last batch of wolves flown in came from a part of the world where wolves are hunted from airplanes and helicopters or rounded up by snow machines and killed. Then, some of those wolves, after living a harassed ‘depredated’ lifestyle, were tranquilized and “transplanted” to a complete strange and foreign landscape and, well, released.

It's as if I woke up one morning after a deep sleep and found myself in a strange bed in, say, Vladivostok, Russia. With no help, no clues and no friends. And no food.

Many of those wolves may have wondered where the rest of their pack was. Some were released to wonder alone and, perhaps, get extremely lonely (they are pack animals). Some wondered without a pack and perhaps starved. Others roamed over this strange landscape, full of more humans than usual, and simply wondered what to make of it all.

Only to probably be tranquilized again and transplanted again only to wonder alone again to be shot for no good reason by some bored coyote hunter. Or harassed to death by other wolves.

It seems to me that life for these transplanted wolves isn’t so great. Neither is the life of cattle and sheep and their owners, here on the Western Slope. And then there are the human-imposed and nearly-impossible-to-resolve problems that are dumped into the laps of our Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers who must somehow figure out how to make this right. Darn near impossible.

So is it worth it to the wolves, the people, the sheep and the cute little lambs for people in the state to live their lives with the vague sense in their minds that there are wolves wondering around on Colorado’s Western Slope? It’s that idea of a forgotten wildness, I think, that prompted people to vote yes for this measure. A measure approved by people from the urban corridor in Colorado, not by people who live on the Western Slope.

We don’t need any more lone(ly) wolves, mangled sheep and calves and really angry ranchers. Let’s leave it like it is right now, in this sad and contradictory state of man-made wildness.

That way perhaps a Front Range visitor can exclaim about hearing a howling wolf and locals can hope their pet dogs are safe, and the wolves can probably just wonder: “What the heck?”

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.” He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.

Finding employees is one of the top problems local businesses have when it comes to thriving in Grand County. The labor shortage is an issue businesses wrestle with daily, right along with the high cost of housing and real estate.

And yet, surprisingly, there’s a potential solution to this problem of finding employees. This solution is in the realm of childcare and the fact that we don’t have enough childcare in Grand County and the child care we do have is awfully expensive.

Enter Katy Hale, the director of Grand Beginnings in Grand County. She makes an excellent argument for the need for more and better-funded childcare. She calls it “The Business Case for Child Care Support.” It’s an interesting case statement that she makes. And it makes sense, which became obvious at the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments Economic Summit three weeks ago in Silverthorne. She opened some eyes.

She says that by adding childcare and lowering its cost in Grand County we can put, by my estimates, 70-80 more able-bodied adults into the workforce. These are adults who live here already and who have a vested interest in making our communities thrive. In other words, potentially good employees. These are mothers (and perhaps some fathers) who currently can’t go to work because they need to stay home due to limited child care or can’t afford child care.

Think about it. It’s a win-win situation. Fix the child-care problem in Grand County and at the same time fix the labor force problem.

But there is a catch. There are several reasons there is a waiting list of 250 unduplicated children waiting for child care in the county. First, it costs a lot of money to put a child in day care. Believe me, I know, having put three kids through the local child care system in Grand County.

Second, there simply aren’t enough licensed child care providers in the county. This is because it costs a great amount of money to operate a child care center that conforms with all the state regulations. On top of that, it simply costs a ton of money to buy or lease the building or property for such a center. As well, people working in this field of early child care education don’t make much money.

And please don’t think I’m just some talking head railing on about yet another serious social issue. I helped to start the Granby Play Days Preschool years ago and served as president on its board of directors. I have also worked with several preschools and day cares in the county in my work here as an enterprise facilitator.

Everything Katy says is so true and so worrying because this child care problem has the potential to break our society, both locally and nationally. Something needs to be done.

And I haven’t even mentioned the proven importance of early childhood education and care for the best development of our children into productive, happy adults. And yet, the need for increased child-care support seemingly goes unrecognized and under-appreciated.

Interestingly, the voters have approved a measure that allows a portion of lodging tax revenues collected by the county to go toward improved and expanded child care in Grand County.

But the amount of money that child-care advocates might be able to glean from this new and appreciated source of funds won’t be enough. In my opinion, America, Colorado and Grand County (all of us) need to face the fact that we are failing as a society when it comes to early child-care, even with this probable added funding for that issue from lodging taxes. Starting local is a great place to start, however.

We expect both mothers and fathers to work to have a sufficient income to pay a mortgage or rent and food and transportation, not to mention health insurance; and yet it’s darn near impossible for all deserving families to pay for good child care.

Figures from Katy Hale suggest that somewhere between 60 and 90 percent of families would choose to put their children in licensed care if it was affordable, high-quality and at an accessible location. Not all children should be in licensed care, Hale notes, but for many, that is the best option.

As a nation and a society, we should be investing much more in a reliable and consistent early child care system. That’s what many other advanced nations do. We could do the same. But it will cost.

And it will pay too, by putting able-bodied Americans back in the workforce to address this labor shortage that is slowly but surely crippling our ability to business in Grand County and the United States.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.” He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.

I can’t help but think that the state of Colorado and the Union Pacific Railroad, by way of the historic Moffat Tunnel, have given Grand County a gift of immense proportions.

In particular, it looks like Granby, Fraser and Winter Park are in line to get daily commuter train service to and from Denver with three trains a day. I feel like putting three exclamation points after that sentence because the full importance of this is simply fantastic.

The Colorado Department of Transportation’s Mountain Rail project is going to become a reality. This service could start in November of 2025 or early 2026.

This was all worked out by way of an historic agreement worked out between the state of Colorado and the Union Pacific Railroad over the lease for use of the 6.2-mile Moffat Tunnel railroad bore that links the eastern slope of Colorado with the western slope. The western portal is at the Winter Park Resort.

Basically, in exchange for the railroad getting use of the Moffat Tunnel for its freight trains, the railroad agreed to commit to and then work out a way for the tunnel to be used for this commuter rail service. This is in addition to the California Zephyr Amtrak train, which runs daily through the tunnel linking Oakland, California with Chicago, Ill.

And then there’s the increasingly popular Winter Park ski train, which saw a huge jump in ridership for the 2024-25 ski season when rates were lowered and trips expanded.

In my opinion, this has profound implications for the Grand County economy and for the quality of life for people who live and work in Grand County and Denver. Think of it this way, if you will: Cities, small towns and suburbs along Colorado’s Front Range have been clamoring for years for a north-south commuter rail line that would link all of the Front Range. But it hasn’t happened yet, mainly because of its cost and logistical issues. And yet little ol’ Grand County is getting just the thing those Front Range entities want but at much lower cost and with broader implications for the state’s economy in general.

The biggest implication is for the tourism and travel industry. Tourism is the main driver of Grand’s economy. This rail innovation is going to boost it even more, without putting a million more cars on the road. In my eyes, the possibilities are endless with this rail linkage to Denver for the county. Granby, in particular, can become a true tourism hub with this commuter rail stop right in town.

Even more to the point, Realtors, developers and resorts right in Granby, Fraser and Winter Park have just had a huge opportunity just dumped in their collective laps.

Then there are the worker-commuter possibilities for people who may work in Denver and live here, or vice versa. With regular and dependable commuter service to and from Denver, I think the possibilities are endless for Colorado citizens who want to work and play in Colorado’s mountain paradise or in its urban core in Denver, or all of the above.

For Winter Park, the resort and the upper Fraser Valley, this rail-commuter project puts the gondola linking the town of Winter Park and the resort in an expanded position of logical importance. Think about it. There’s not a train station in downtown Winter Park but the stop at the resort will be able to link rail travelers to the town with the gondola, that will also service skiers and tourists going from town to the resort.

It creates this sort of wonderland of travel and economic opportunity and brings it all to a new level of possibility for Winter Park and Fraser.

These gains come about all with transportation enhancements through the commuter line that reduces pollution, increases efficiency and gets cars off the road while linking Colorado residents and visitors to the mountains and the city. It’s a win-win, in my opinion.

I know this sounds like chamber-of-commerce-like boosterism. But for once, I think it’s deserved.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of the book “KILLDOZER:  The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.” He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at pbrower@grandei.org.

Now the Colorado Futures Center at CSU predicts the Colorado economy will continue to grow modestly this year. This on the heels of a report from University of Colorado Leeds School of Business that essentially predicted the same thing last December.

But if there’s a prediction of growth, why do things feel a little bit “stuck” up here in the high country of Grand County? The gains of retail sales taxes year-after-year have slowed somewhat compared to two years ago. And it’s still painfully true that high housing costs are forcing unwanted slowdowns in the ability of businesses and public entities in Grand County to grow.

These factors also tend to put the brakes on the ability of people wanting to start new businesses to get out there and start them up.

An article by Aldo Svaldi in the Denver Post puts these contradictions in the spotlight. He writes: “Unemployment is rising but still historically low, jobs remain plentiful in most industries, wages are up and the economy has withstood blow after blow without rolling over. So why does a sense of gloom pervade about where the economy is and where it is headed?”

He writes that we can blame it on “inflation and high housing costs.”

For many people in Grand county the high inflation rate of the past year is abating for goods and services, but not in the realm of high housing costs. In fact, the biggest factor for us in inflation is exactly that: High rent and mortgages. How does this impact our economy’s ability to grow in a place like Grand County?

Let me share an actual anecdote that happened right here in Grand County.  A prominent and popular recreational amenity had hired a new manager more than a year ago. This manager was doing a good job and keeping things humming along at this business. Despite doing well and apparently being happy in the job, this manager decided to quit and has moved out of the county.

Why? Housing costs are too high here and he and his family could not afford to buy a home. Now what’s interesting about this is that this person had potential housing provided as part of the job. But, like most Americans, buying a house and living in it is the start of how we build our net worth over time. He and his family saw they couldn’t make that initial investment in their personal worth due to high prices.

They opted to move. So the business lost a manager. Our local economy lost a family and another house couldn’t be sold to a local worker because it just cost too much.

This sort of employee drain happens with businesses all across the county. This is especially true with what many would call “middle managers,” who tend to be the year-round work horses in many local enterprises. These tend to be people who have made more of a commitment to living and working in the county as opposed to the typical ski bums or worker bees who come here to work for a season or two and don’t mind living in provided housing.

That’s where inflation really hits home locally and where it hurts the most. We have a worker shortage and hence an economy that struggles to meet increasing tourist-based seasonal demand.

It’s the same old story all over again. When I first came here to work in 1979 my job offer depended on me finding a place to live. Housing was scarce then, too, and employers knew it.

But maybe there’s some hope. The tight labor market might be loosening as federal surveys of employers in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming found that a smaller share, 25% at the end of 2023 vs. 60% in 2022, plan wage hikes in the next 12 months. Also, fewer are looking to expand their workforce, and some said they plan to shrink it.
So, maybe there’s a glimmer of hope. The ColoradoCast for the first quarter predicts the Colorado economy will continue to grow modestly this year, about 2 % and gain momentum in the coming months.

I just hope the coming months bring “affordable growth.” We will see.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.”  He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at pbrower@consultbrower.com.
 

Many people starting or expanding businesses in Grand County tend to be involved in partnerships. To make things simple, I’ll call a partnership any venture that has two or more people as the owners and managers.

It’s inevitable, really, that many businesses get started as partnerships. Two or three friends get together and decide they could do on their own what they see happening in other businesses. They pool resources, labor and ideas and get the business going.

That’s fine and dandy. But partnerships, especially informal partnerships, can create real problems for the partners down the road. Friends can become enemies and longstanding happy relationships can sour. That’s because when money is involved, friendship only goes as far as the bank.

There are ways around these problems. I know it may seem like overkill for partners who are just getting going with a lawn mowing business, for example. But such “little” service businesses here in Grand County tend to grow, expand and diversify, with that little “hobby” business suddenly becoming a real money maker.

And when real money is involved, whether on the black or red side of the ledger, it’s really wise to have agreements worked out ahead of time.

So, first, when partners are getting serious about their business, I think it’s extremely important to have a partnership agreement. Attached with that agreement should be some sort of operating plan. And if the partners are wise, they will hire an attorney or attorneys to get this agreement on paper so that everyone knows what to expect.

For example, let’s assume that said business has a strong bank balance after a busy winter season and partner number one wants to tap into that cash for a great spring break getaway. That’s OK except for the fact that partner number two might think that some of that extra cash should be set aside for future capital purchases or emergencies. And suddenly, with partner number one’s vacation trip to Cabo suddenly threatened by partner number two’s frugality, the potential for discord arises.

This is assuming that the partners are 50/50 owners in the venture and have equal say in the course of the company and its cash and assets. This is where a good partnership agreement will have spelled out how cash distributions are allocated, probably with a clause that stipulates strong communication between the partners about company priorities, etc.

So weekly or monthly meetings should be required. And perhaps a cash investment or distribution policy agreed upon. That’s easier said than done.

Now there might be partnerships in which the owners are not 50/50. Maybe one partner has 30% and the other has 70%. This is easy in one sense, because the majority partner has the final say in such situations. But that can surely spell trouble when it comes to big decisions, especially when it comes to profits or debt. A partnership agreement would still help a lot in such situations as it would temper expectations for both parties.

Make sure an accountant or wise bookkeeper is involved in the process of drafting the agreement. Any such agreement should include how business dissolution will take place, how the business is valued, and how shares in ownership could be sold or transferred. Partners don’t always stay partners forever.

I also think a basic operations plan that spells out duties and responsibilities for the partners is critical. It can be as basic as who turns on the lights in the morning or who’s responsible for paying the bills. But it should be made clear so that conflict doesn’t ensue.
Partnerships are good for starting ventures as they can reduce the impacts of getting started in a financial and physical sense. But having a strong partnership agreement in place for partnerships is just good common sense.

Such agreements are good for business and friendships.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.” He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.

Back in the old days when I ran the local newspapers we frequently ran shop at home campaigns that, through a series of ads and perhaps a news story or two, urged people to shop at home.

These campaigns had varying levels of success.

What we meant in these campaigns was that county residents should try their best to buy stuff locally when it was at all possible. The thinking was that every dollar spent locally recycles through the local economy and “keeps the dollars at home” or the “keep your bucks at home” backed by a male deer with antlers visual.

Although I never saw the objective, empirical, double-blind study that proved this, the assertion was that every single dollar spent in a locally owned business gets recirculated in the local economy seven times, assuming, of course, that it gets recirculated locally and doesn’t immediately get spent at the nearest Walmart.

The shop at home enthusiasm among some local merchants has resurfaced again in one particular class of businesses: liquor stores. That’s because a law that went on the books in 2023 allowed grocery stores and some similar sorts of stores to sell wine as well as beer.

This was an especially devastating law for local liquor store owners because for many, many years the only place a person could buy a bottle of wine was at a liquor store. Back then, only just two years ago, there weren’t entire aisles in your friendly grocery store stocked and padded with a wide variety of wines, sparkling wines and Champagnes.

A person could buy a six-pack of beer in a grocery store back then, but not wine.

That all changed when the voters approved, through a ballot initiative, the legalization of the sale of wine in grocery stores, based mainly on the argument that it would be more convenient for shoppers to pick up a case or bottle of wine when they were also stopping by the store to buy a head of lettuce or pick up a prescription.

Is it convenient? Yes. It is better for our local economy? I would venture to say probably not. But even more telling, wine is frequently the highest-marked-up product in most liquor stores. No wonder the grocery store chain behemoths lobbied to get the question on the ballot, time and time again. The numbers coming in now show that 60% of the wine revenue in the last year is going to these massive chain stores.

With wine, we should keep our dollars at home. Here’s why. Those dollars spent on a bottle of wine at the two large grocery stores in Grand County (Safeway and City Market) don’t entirely end up back in the local economy. Yes, maybe a new employee was hired to handle the added wine division, but I’m pretty sure that the net gain after local wages to the local economy has been minimal. That’s because profits and margins on wine sales go back to corporate behemoths and not into the pockets of small entrepreneurs here in the county.

I was given the chance to look at the numbers at one local liquor store relating to wine sales since the new wine-in-grocery-stores law took effect and there was a drop in 2023 for wine sales when compared to 2022. The drop at this one store was 20% in wine sales. Ouch.

But this one store owner was clear. He didn’t want to sound like he was w(h)ining or complaining because liquor stores are in a regulated industry where changes in the law, and not necessarily the pure market, can have major impacts. The wine law change was one of those.

He was simply urging, as he was sure other small mom-and-pop liquor stores were too, that consumers think twice before making that easy and convenient wine purchase while wandering around the grocery store looking for chestnuts. The local liquor stores might not have chestnuts, but they do have wine. Lots of it.

Of course I have another pet peeve about all this wine we have in our grocery stores now. As if it’s not enough to devote an entire aisle to wine it appears the corporate-product-placement and retail-stocking gurus at these massive grocery stores have decided that clever placement of wine throughout the grocery store might just stimulate yet more wine sales not likely to take place at a small mom-and-pop grocery store.

You know what I mean. There are racks of wine displays of fruity chardonnays mixed in surreptitiously in the baked goods aisle, only to be matched by the unique displays for exotic sparkling wines like Asti-Spumante (of which I am a big fan) sneakily placed just at the edge of the meat and fish department.

I won’t be surprised if someday I’m looking for a tube of toothpaste only to find a counter of Pinot Grigio and other Italian varietals enticingly placed among the dental hygiene products. This would reflect the enticement of impulse shopping at its best.

And then there are these rumors I keep hearing of how easy it is for underage drinkers to sneak out with wine at these larger, busy establishments. That’s not so great.

So buy wine locally if you can. At least in these local stores you won’t find brussels sprouts and shaving cream racks blocking access to your favorite Cabernet Sauvignon.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.” He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.

The headline in the Denver Post did not really answer any questions about the chances of a recession in Colorado. It asked: “Can state dodge recession again?”

Since the newspaper was unwilling to stick its neck out on that question, I’ll answer it: Yes. And that’s a big “yes” when it comes to the unique economic conditions we experience here in the mountains of Grand County.

With all the talk out there almost everyday ad infinitum about “recession,” I thought I’d at least define it beyond the vague notion that a recession is just a general slowing of the economy. Here’s what Mr. Google says: “A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP (gross domestic product), real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.”

That we are even having to ask that question, after more than a year of hand-wringing, is an answer in and of itself. For me there’s no question that we will dodge a recession and that the nation will have the “soft landing” also much talked about in the financial media.

So let’s define that too: “A soft landing, in economics, is a cyclical slowdown in economic growth that avoids recession. A soft landing is the goal of a central bank when it seeks to raise interest rates just enough to stop an economy from overheating and experiencing high inflation, without causing a severe downturn.”

So that’s what I predict for Grand County. No recession and a soft landing. We are already, in fact, in what I would call a soft landing.

Here’s why. This fall has been a relatively slow season for many county business people, especially in comparison to the last three boom years. Yes, in relative terms, that period after COVID for the county was a boom time. Just take a look at the consecutive years of positive sales tax increases year after year. Consumer activity was definitely on the rise for the last few years, especially here in the mountain resort counties like Grand County.

That’s why we had inflation. Demand was up for our services and products up here while supply was down. And yes, there is a supply side in the service sector. Service is something like a commodity up here and service was hard to come by, mainly because there simply aren’t enough employees up here to meet demand.

When that happens, the cost of the service goes up, whether it’s in a restaurant, a room-cleaning service, construction services or even government services. Hence the inflation we’ve been seeing. When it comes to price increases we’ve seen in stores, that’s not so much a local issue as it is a factor of national chains, producers and distributors facing these similar demand and supply issues.

And remember, real estate and construction are key aspects of our local economy here in Grand County and both have been facing these supply and demand pressures. People aren’t willing to sell homes that have low interest rates and yet builders are struggling to meet the demand for new homes.

And yet we have a housing crisis taking place here, as throughout Colorado, where there simply aren’t enough affordable homes. That drives the scarcity in workers and that then drives higher prices in the service sector.

And yet now I think there’s light at the end of the tunnel of worry about recession. I think inflation is going to continue to recede, mainly because gasoline prices are going to continue go down and stabilize at the lower point. This is because the U.S. is producing record amounts of oil and too many new oil-producing nations dependent on oil revenue aren’t willing to cut production just to raise prices. There will be lots of oil out there, driving prices down.

Granted, Putin and Arabs want the prices to go up but I think we are in a downward price pattern for now.

There you have it. No recession, we get a soft landing and the economic climate in Grand County in 2024 will be much like it has been in 2023.

The only big dark spot on the financial horizon relates to something over which we really don’t have much control. If we don’t get some good snowfall pretty soon my guess is that will cut into our winter tourism revenues.

So pray and dance for snow. Those flakes are just like money falling from the sky.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.” He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.

As a local resident who truly wants to own an electric car I’ve had to accept several drawbacks about electric cars in a place like Grand County.

First, since I live in Granby, and my work involves a fair amount of driving, I put many miles on my car. But owning an electric car, under the limitations they suffer from now, fills me with anxiety. I would have severe “range anxiety” in my electric car up here. I just don’t think I could go long enough and far enough without having to charge.

And then, well, where would I charge? There are charging stations in Grand County but not all of them are fast chargers and, well, as there are more electric cars on the roads, how long will I have to wait in line for the chargers to be available in the town where I end up?

To add insult to injury, because it’s cold up here, my electric car would have to be heated to a greater degree than electric cars in most markets. Heating the car uses up power (electricity), which in turn would shorten my range even more, creating yet more anxiety.

So I’ve decided not to make the jump to an electric car even though I’d love to, if it was as convenient as my gasoline-powered car.

What I’ve always thought to myself was that if I could be assured that electric cars could charge up on and move on in a way that’s similar to how we do it now with gas stations, then I’d make the jump.

I have friends and acquaintances who swear by their electric cars, including the crew at Mountain Parks Electric. They dismiss my range anxiety and electric-car reluctance as a bunch of needless worry. But like I said, if it can be made as convenient and worry free (relatively) as it is now with my petrol-powered vehicle, then I’d make the jump.

Alas, lo and behold, maybe there’s a solution out there to this problem. There’s a company out there called Ample, which has adopted the business model I have dreamed about for electric cars. This is, rather than taking the time the charge the car when it’s out of charge, why not just go to a place like a filling station now and swap out the dying battery for a freshly-charged, ready-to-go battery.

This would allow a car to be ready to go on electricity in five minutes, let’s say, similar or even less than the time for a gasoline fill-up.

I think it’s a great idea because once it achieves fruition, it would be very similar to just filling up my car at a gas station now. Good bye range anxiety.

This company, Ample, calls its system “fully autonomous modular battery swapping.” It has developed a system that allows for all types of batteries to be “swapped” using robots and unique pairing with cars, so all type of cars can have their batteries swapped out.

They say the process takes five minutes.

And, they envision these easy-to-build Ample swap-out stations to be located in cities, suburbs and the hinterlands, much like we have gas stations in all those areas now.

I really like the idea and maybe, just maybe, this company will give me the peace of mind I need to drive an electric car in Grand County.

But there’s more. A Colorado-based company, called Solid Power, is developing solid state batteries for use in electric cars that don’t use any fluids and which promise to offer ranges of up to 500 miles or more on a faster charge.

Batteries like that would also give me significant reason to get over my range anxiety and buy an electric car.

Of course, neither of these electric car innovations are out there on the market yet. But both companies promise they are coming soon.

I look forward to the day so I can relax while I drive my heated, all-wheel drive electric vehicle all around Grand County.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.” He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.

When comparing Grand County’s most recent batch of economic development stats to the numbers for our northwest region, one thing becomes clear.

Grand County is not the big kid on the block. In terms of population, wages, wage growth and jobs, we consistently rank fourth out the five counties in the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments regional economic update. Those five counties are Eagle, Grand, Jackson, Routt and Summit.

And believe me, it’s not that I want to be the biggest when it comes to these numbers. There’s a lot to be said for not having the highest number of jobs, the highest population and highest number of housing units. In other words, more and bigger isn’t always better because the bigger counties just have bigger problems with housing and jobs.

It all starts with population, a simple metric to understand. Eagle County, consistently the best performing county of all five, has a population of 55,285, which is nearly a full 40,000 more people than Grand County with 15,796. Summit County, a place about the third the size of Grand County, has 30,585 residents, while Routt County has 25,007 people. The outlier of all these counties is Jackson County, with 1,302 residents.

The trend with population drives almost all of the other metrics in the regional economic update. The median household income for Eagle in 2021 was $94,928 compared to $78,779 in Grand, $96,316 in Pitkin and $93,776 for Routt and $90,297 in Summit. Jackson’s median household income in 2021 was $55,535.

A number I found interesting in these numbers was the average annual wage, based on numbers from the first quarter of 2023. In Eagle County that number is $63,024, with Grand at $49,712. Pitkin, the home of Aspen, comes in at $73,736 in this category, with Rout at $60,216 and Summit at $55,640. Once again, Jackson County has a much different number at $42,900.

The report is important in getting a feel for the jobs available and the job market in general. Here are the numbers for total jobs for each county for the first quarter of 2023: Eagle - 36,437; Summit - 24,687; Pitkin - 19,328; Routt - 17,108; Grand - 8,089; Jackson - 555.

And yet with all these jobs the unemployment rate for all the counties ranged anywhere from 2.6 percent to 2.9 percent. Grand is at that 2.9 percent number. The differences in those percentages are almost meaningless because with unemployment percentages like these, the entire region is really fully employed.

While in general most of these counties are heavily dependent on tourism and the outdoor recreation industry, Routt County and especially our neighbor to the north, Jackson County, aren’t as dependent on tourism as the other three counties.

Routt County is more diverse in terms of industry when compared to the other counties in the Northwest region in that 70 percent of jobs come from outside the tourism sector. In Jackson County, 60 percent of its jobs come from outside the tourism sector.

“Grand County’s economy is dominated by the tourism and outdoor recreation industry,” the report states. This accounts “for 40% of all jobs: accommodations and food service (25%) and arts, entertainment, recreation (15%). These sectors pay below average as compared to average annual wage for Grand County, the State of Colorado and the U.S. . . . 52% of the jobs in the county pay $44,356 and below. This high concentration of low paying jobs results in Grand County reporting an annual wage of $49,712 for all industries, which is below average for the state and the U.S.”

Grand County reports moderate job growth year over year of .8 % and 11% over the last decade. While wages are relatively low compared to the region, State, and U.S., the county has seen substantial wage growth over the short term (14.6% year-over-year) and longterm (up 73.2% over the last decade).”

What accounts for what is essentially a fourth place finish of five counties in terms of economic performance? Several factors. Lower overall population limits chances for momentum in growth. Grand County is not as centralized as most of the other counties where large and well-connected towns in each county tend to dominate, resulting in a better economies of scale. Three of the counties have the advantage of Interstate 70 passing through, although Routt County seems to do well without that transportation juggernaut that shovels money and people into and through those counties.

So what’s different in Routt County? They have a more diverse economy. The report states: “Routt County is more diverse in terms of industries when compared to other counties in the NWCCOG Region in that 70% of jobs come from outside the tourism sector. While accommodation and food services do account for the most jobs (17%), higher paying sectors such as healthcare (11%; paying annual wage of $66,872) and construction (8%; paying annual salary of $63,596) account for a large portion of jobs. Health care continues to be a strong sector in the Routt County economy.”

In this case I think Routt County benefits from being that much farther away from Denver. In Grand, I think many health care dollars go to Denver because the big city is so close. In Routt, those dollars mostly stay in the county. It makes a difference.

I’m not so sure I would want Grand to be first place in overall tourism numbers. But it sure would be nice to be higher on the regional totem pole when it comes to average annual wage and total number of housing units.

The numbers continue to point to the fact that Grand County is truly an “Island in the Rockies,” as Bob Black’s history book celebrates. We’re an island, really, even within our region.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He provides free and confidential business management coaching for anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.” He can be reached at 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.

The entire business of renewable energy, carbon pollution and local energy self-sufficiency comes to mind for me as debate continues about the massive oil trains that could be coming through Grand County in the future.

As reported in many places, there’s a proposal out there to run up to 10 additional long trains on the rails through Grand County each day to take advantage of oil fields in Utah. It’s a big deal because a new rail spur needs to be built in Utah to link up to the line that runs through Grand County.

Permitting is well underway to allow this. If allowed, the new rail spur will be built and “heavy,” tar-like crude would be shipped on rail through Grand County to refineries east of here.

Of course I’d rather not see this happen because I see the potential for disastrous spills into the Fraser River in the Fraser Canyon, the Colorado River in Byer’s Canyon and Gore Canyon. This is not to mention that the rail line essentially goes right next to my backyard. My land touches railroad property.

And then I look at my car, which runs on a gasoline-powered engine. I look at all the cars and trucks zipping around the county and the state, most on gasoline or diesel. I look at the planes in the sky running on petrol. And then there’s the electricity I use, which has a component of carbon-fueled power. And I feel a sense of futility thinking that somehow all that power will be replaced by carbon-free or renewable energy. Probably not in my lifetime.

Which is my way of saying there simply has to be a bridge that gets the world from carbon-based energy to carbon-free energy. Part of that bridge is petroleum. And some of that petroleum could very well come from those oil fields in Utah that may just be passing through the county and jeopardizing our environment, which is to say, water.

Our transition just might need that oil so that the bridge to renewables is relatively inexpensive.

And our economy here does depend on the railroad, believe it or not. Perhaps the best gauge of that is the amount of property taxes paid to Grand County by the Union Pacific Railroad. For fiscal 2021 the Union Pacific Railroad was the second largest property taxpayer in the county with an assessed valuation of nearly $21.7 million. That’s a lot of money to the county coffers, and to other political subdivisions, in property tax revenues.
I know the railroad will survive with surplus profits with or without the new oil trains passing through the county. But the importance of rail to the county is something to consider, regardless.

And speaking of the bridge to renewables and, perhaps, local energy self-sufficiency, I can’t help but consider the importance of nuclear power as a way to get us from now to total renewable power sometime in the future. I think the development of the new advanced, small nuclear reactors should play a role in that energy transition.

I think we could do it locally, creating jobs and new local revenue streams.

The U. S. Department of Energy says that these advanced, small nuclear reactors are safe, clean and affordable and can be placed in areas where the larger reactors with which we are familiar could not be placed. Perhaps one such reactor, carefully placed somewhere in Grand or Jackson counties, could give us our own power that is clean and reliable for years to come. And get us to clean, renewable power in the future without breaking the bank.

I know, it sounds nuts. But, we have one thing that nuclear reactors need: The Cold. Our cold air and cold water just might help make operating such a reactor a bit more feasible for our isolated, expensive-to-power region.

Just think about it. Then, perhaps, Grand could exporting more than just water and hay.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He provides free and confidential business management coaching for anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of the book “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.” He can be reached at 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.

Grand Lake and the Grand County creative community have just heard the good news about Grand Lake receiving a $3 million Community Revitalization Grant.

I know, that sounds vague. But it isn’t. That $3 million is the foundational funding for building a Grand Lake and the state-certified Grand Lake Creative District Space to Create Project, which is a downtown building in intended to provide a year-round, sustainable and affordable home for the community’s creative class.

 This has been in the works for three years, largely through the work of DiAnn Butler, Grand County’s economic developer, and the Town of Grand Lake and the associated arts communities.

What’s so good about this project is that it provides housing, that ever-so-needed commodity in Grand County, while also nurturing those who create the very wares and artwork that sells to our visitors, and locals, too. And which attracts visitors to our community.

The completed project will include 18 unites of living and workspace, as well as a gallery, commercial, and community space on the ground floor. This would be located in the town-owned land one block east of the town hall one block off main street.

The goal is ultimately to stabilize the economy year-round in Grand Lake. This will help retain our area’s workforce year-round, creating a spark for the economy in Grand Lake. That is, artisans who create for Grand Lake should be able to afford to live here with this space. A space that will also nurture their craft as a “working” art exhibit.

Units may also be available to vital workers who currently struggles with housing.

An important point to remember here is that many of our artisans are not “full-time” artists in the sense that they can make a full living off their art alone. In fact, many of these artisans work at other jobs that support our local economy. Think of the store clerk who is a great potter, the waiter or waitress who is a good photographer, or the carpenter who is also an artful sculptor of wood. In other words, the artisans are also local employees.

And it will help boost the local economy. Grand Lake, as a tourist town, will be able to offer yet another “commodity” in the space to create project. That’s because part of the vision of this facility is that some of the artisans will want visitors to stop by and observe them as they work on their craft.

This gives visitors yet another thing to do while also giving artisans mote stuff to sell. All this serves to enrich and move forward the local arts community.

Even better, the facility’s design envisions a placement that will provide adequate parking.
Work is already taking place in this realm in Grand Lake. The Grand Lake-based Rocky Mountain Folk School is an effort launched last winter that seeks to create a folk school workshop destination in Grand Lake. The Rocky Mountain Folk School operates, with pottery classes and more, as well as with visiting artisans, in the old town hall and library building in Grand Lake next to the town hall, and not so far from the proposed space for the Grand Lake Space to Create building.

This venue hosts potters, weavers and other creative artisans who have skills that can be taught in destination-oriented events. Even better, the Folk School helps artisans make crafts to be sold in local stores and at the work space of the artisans.

There’s still money to be raised to fill out the budget of this $12 million project. But this is a great start for an innovative way to provide housing, nurture local artisans and jump start our economy.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of the book “KILLDOZER:  The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.” He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.

A new entertainment option for Granby, combined with a new firearms store and firearms training center, has opened its doors in Granby.

Troublesome Tomahawks and High Mountain Firearms are officially open for business in the Pine Cone Plaza, three doors east of Java Lava in Unit D2. A grand opening celebration for the new enterprise is set for Friday night, Oct. 28, just in time for the Trick or Treat main street event.

Owners Seth Stern and his partner Jo Pfaff had a soft opening at the business two weeks ago and are now operating, hoping to soon be serving beer and wine if the current application is approved.

Why a tomahawk- and knife-throwing enterprise?

“They are popping up all over the state and region,” Stern said. “And the more we looked into it the more we discovered that it was growing in popularity and growing as an activity.”
Stern, who was born and raised in Granby, where he also went to high school, has been conducting conceal carry classes in the Grand County area for six years from his base in the Northern Front Range. He had a 10-year career in the U.S. Air Force before attending college in Fort Collins.

He felt that now was the time for him to come back to Granby, where he enjoys the small-town feel and the opportunity to be in business.

He and Pfaff felt there was a gap in the local market for things to do. It was that simple
“There’s really nothing for people to do here at night,” Stern said. “When it’s after skiing in the winter and after the sun goes down in summer, it’s pretty darn quiet. We felt this business could provide a diversion.”

He noted that with the closure of the bowling alley in Grand Lake, lively indoor activity options dwindled. And then there was the closure of the Budget Tackle firearms operation. With that closure, Stern decided there was an opening in the market.

How does it work, this tomahawk or axe-throwing?

“I had one customer describe it as darts for men,” Stern said with a laugh. “Women are also really good at tomahawk throwing too,” he added.

Basically, ax throwers line up 12 feet from a special cottonwood-backed wall where a bullseye has been painted. Points are accrued by the throwing based on how close to the bullseye the throw has landed. There’s even a bonus spot at the top of the target for extra points.

There are three lanes for throwing and each lane can accommodate up to 12 people. Throwing axes are offered on site that people can use. Tomahawks or axes can also be purchased on site.

“It’s really fun,” Stern said. “People get to throwing just for the fun of it and then, before you know it, they’re getting competitive and accurate.”

Stern says that in a few months they’ll be testing the market in the venue to see if there’s an opportunity to start league play. They also plan to make their facility available for special events, birthday parties and corporate gatherings.

Firearms
Stern said he felt there was also a need for a federally licensed firearms store in the area, especially after the closure of Budget Tackle in Granby.

“We’re doing retail firearms sales,” he said. “Our displays are going up soon. We are also licensed for suppressors and short barrels.”

And soon he will be building armalite rifles.

Stern has been conducting concealed carry firearms classes in the county for six years and from that educational platform he can now offer, in his facility, a dedicated classroom for dry-fire handling classes.

With a federal firearms license, Stern can also receive and ship firearms.

“We’re here to make sure you get the equipment and service people need for hunting or recreational shooting, as well as training,” he said.

Yes, we work with several non-profits here at the Grand Enterprise Initiative. Heck, this initiative is a non-profit.

That being the case, I sometimes get approached by people with good business propositions who have suddenly realized their business might not make any money or won’t make much money. That usually is realized after doing cash flow projections or budgets.

The most common issues are that the markets here aren’t big enough or that the expenses of operating the business far outstrip the revenue. Despair sets in and then the bright light comes on: ‘I know, I’ll become a non-profit.’

The idea is that, well, perhaps the business can make up for the low revenue with grants and donations. Or maybe people will donate space to a non-profit, taking out one of the big expenses. Or, well, heck, people just might give us stuff.

But not just any business can suddenly become a 501 (c) 3 non-profit. Here’s what the “exempt purposes” for which a business operates that can help it to qualify as a legitimate non-profit (please forgive the government lingo):
“The exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3) are charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, and preventing cruelty to children or animals. The term charitable is used in its generally accepted legal sense and includes relief of the poor, the distressed, or the underprivileged; advancement of religion; advancement of education or science; erecting or maintaining public buildings, monuments, or works; lessening the burdens of government; lessening neighborhood tensions; eliminating prejudice and discrimination; defending human and civil rights secured by law; and combating community deterioration and juvenile delinquency.”

I know, that’s a lot to digest. But what it suggests rather clearly is that not just any old business can suddenly be a legit non-profit just by saying it’s a non-profit. The government likes to be clear about this because it just doesn’t want to give preferential tax treatment to normal, regular businesses or operations that aren’t really doing what’s spelled out above.

As well, the government knows that some unscrupulous individuals use the non-profit status to feather personal nests by, say, employing a relative and paying that relative absurdly large amounts of money because the tax liability for the company as a non-profit is more generous than for a regular corporation. And, yes, this is a common way that people abuse non-profits.

As well, the government gives donors good tax benefits for donating to non-profits and it wants to be sure that the donations are being made to enterprises with altruistic intentions and good motives that are generally a plus for society. And, I might add, that help to fill in the safety net that government can’t provide for every single American.

All that being said, I wouldn’t want anyone to think that being a non-profit is somehow any easier that being a regular, for-profit enterprise. That’s because asking for money to support a non-profit is much more difficult and, really, riskier than many people believe. Yes, there are grants out there for non-profits, but they aren’t always easy to get, is what I’m saying. And it’s stressful to have to rely on what are essentially gifts for your survival.

As well, the bookkeeping and accounting requirements for a non-profit exceed, in many ways, what’s usually required for a regular business. The government, non-profit funders and the community want to know, and deserve to know, if a non-profit is a functioning, worthwhile non-profit. It’s good accounting good for accountability.

All that being said, I consider non-profits I work with as if they were “businesses.” They don’t general profits to benefit shareholders and owners. Instead, they generate “margins” that all must be funneled back into the mission of the non-profit.
It’s still business. It’s just business for a good cause.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He provides free and confidential business management coaching for anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of the book “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.” He can be reached at 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.

I’ve just returned from a conclave of non-profit entities in northwestern Colorado and I was struck yet again by the number of not-for-profit entities and agencies in just the northwestern part of Colorado.

But what really struck me was the number of not-for-profits in Grand County and how, when I thought further about it, they constitute a large part of our business-based economy. This is despite the fact that they are non-profits.

What’s a non-profit? For the purposes of this article they are entities that have a legally recognized 501 (c) 3 status under the internal revenue service’s tax code. This classification allows these entities to accept donations and contributions that can then be legally written off by the donors, giving a tax break to donors who are inclined to give. If a non-profit does have “free cash flow,” then that money must be directed back into the non-profits mission, not into the pockets of shareholders or owners.

Consider this. Megan Ledin, the director of the Grand Foundation, Grand County’s community foundation, said there are roughly 180 non-profits in the county. When you throw in entities like the National Sport Center for the Disabled, with its large program in Winter Park, they help to create about 700 jobs in the county. Not all of those jobs are full-time. But they are jobs that pay.
And then take this into consideration. Megan said there have been studies conducted in the county which show that 15% of the total business activity in Grand County can be attributed to non-profits. That’s payroll, purchases by employees of non-profits — the overall economic impact.

Even more eye-opening, in light of those numbers, is the fact that many of the people who work for non-profits do so on a volunteer basis. By that I mean that many of the non-profits devote their funds and resources to the services they offer without paying a cent in payroll. But that non-paid non-profit activity still creates significant economic activity.

What accounts for this large non-profit sector in Grand County? Opportunity and demand.
Let’s start with the demand. When considering a not-for-profit entity like the Mountain Family Center, it’s easy to see that people have a need for the services and products they offer. But to offer that and expect to make a profit while also satisfying the demands of private ownership would be a difficult proposition. By being non-profit, a variety of revenue sources open up and the demands for profit diminish.

Which is not to say non-profits can operate on a fiscally irresponsible basis (more on that in my next column). In fact, many non-profits are more fiscally accountable that private enterprises due to heightened reporting requirements of the government and donors.

Anyway, there are other demand issues, like the Grand County Rural Health Network, which offers health navigation and resources in this difficult health care environment in which we live. Or there’s Habitat for Humanity Grand County, which works to provide affordable home ownership in this challenging real estate environment.

I could go on. Even the work I do, which is under the auspices of a non-profit, offers free business management coaching for business people and entrepreneurs who normally would not be able to afford it.

So there is demand and there’s opportunity to find funding through non-profit channels to meet that demand. Government funds, foundations and private individuals want to use their resources (money) to help meet the needs and demands of our population. Many times they do that by helping to fund non-profits.

Now I could go on forever about why many non-profits are doing the work that perhaps our government should be doing. That’s a debate for another forum. But the truth is that non-profits, for the most part, help to meet critical community needs that make our lives better in Grand County.

We should be grateful for that, whether they make a profit or not.

(In two weeks I’ll go more into the dynamics of being a non-profit in Grand County and elsewhere. Take it from me, it’s not as easy as a person might think.)

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He provides free and confidential business management coaching for anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of “KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage.” He can be reached at 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.

It may seem hard to believe, but applications for new businesses in Colorado continue to outpace previous years. In Grand and Jackson counties, those applications are on par, but not exceeding, past rates.

With these new business ventures waiting in the wings to get started, I want to educate people here a little bit on the hidden costs of getting started.

Business Insurance: I am gratified to report that for many of the entrepreneurs coming to me to start their businesses, they are generally aware that they will need insurance. But the details of insurance are important.

Yes, general liability is a good idea, along with professional liability and commercial auto and commercial property insurance. These need to be considered regardless of whether a business owns or rents the property in which they operate. Working out of home? There is home-based business insurance.

Is insurance really necessary? For some peace of mind, yes. But for many businesses, their clients and customers may want to know if the business they are working with is covered by insurance. For that reason, it's good to have. Will insurance cover a business for all problems and issues? Probably not. But having insurance that covers some issues is better than none at all.

For businesses who have employees, workers' compensation insurance is a must. It's expensive but you don't want to be without it.

It's easy to forget that for many businesses, permits and licenses are critically important. They generally cost money and take time to acquire. Restaurants, bars and breweries, for example, must have state and local permits (and sometimes federal, too) before they can sell a drop. These can take time and can be a hassle.

There are even requirements for permits to be an incorporated business in Colorado, which isn't expensive, but is a good idea.

New business owners will want to be aware of the possible ongoing costs of using certain software for bookkeeping, inventory, payroll and perhaps other specific functions. Anymore these days these programs are billed monthly. Just don't forget that these software demands will likely require monthly payments that will affect cash flow, probably every single month or quarter.

Most of the clients we work with here in Grand County work for themselves. They should be aware of the obligation to pay self-employment taxes. That comes to 15.3% on net earnings, which is 12.4% for social security and 2.9% for Medicare.

For companies that have employees, that cost is split between the employee and the employer. The feds and the states may also have unemployment taxes that need to be factored into the cash picture as well.

Up-front operating funds are critical to the survival of almost all successful small businesses. This is money that an entrepreneur should have in the bank (or accessible through a loan) to cover operations for anywhere from three to six months. Six months is the best. Many people simply don't accept that for the first few months of a new business, there just won't be enough cash pouring in to cover running the business.

There are other unexpected costs to consider, such as grand opening fees, special training and certification for managers and employees and perhaps the extreme cost of health insurance and other benefits for staff. It's a very competitive world out there for hiring right now and having good benefits can help.

Oh, and don't forget that if a business is being purchased, a title search and debt search is critical. A new business owner usually does not want to inherit the past debts and tax obligations of the previous owner. Check that out carefully.

Yes, it costs money to start or acquire a business. But in the long run the payoffs are great if preparations and planning takes place before starting or re-starting a business.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.
 

There really is a business angle to the imminent return of the Rainbow Family of Living Light to Grand County this summer.

Press reports and hearsay are stating that the Rainbow Family is planning a 50-year reunion of its first gathering in Grand County, that took place in June and July of 1972. That gathering, which has also become known as the Strawberry Festival because much of the event took place at Strawberry  has achieved the status of near mythical folklore in the legends of Grand County's past.

And now the Rainbow Family is coming back. As they say, past is prelude.

The gathering was resonant all over the state and the region. Remember that 1972 was a year that some would say was the peak of the Hippie era in America. Yes, the Sixties are known as the Hippie decade, but it was the early Seventies when Hippie-dom in all its counter-cultural splendor really consumed the American consciousness.

And based on the press reaction and coverage I've seen this week, it still consumers the American and regional consciousness. The forest service is worried about permitting, local government is worried about the big crowds (if they even arrive in large numbers) and the world in general is freaked out, to coin a phrase from that era.

This pre-event freak-out isn't dissimilar to what happened here 50 years ago.

The festival back then was billed as a Gathering of Peace, where the participants would participate in a 4,000-year-old peace dance (based on Native American traditions) with the spirits of the dead, all to be fulfilled at Lake Granby, coined as the "Center of the Universe." A crowd would "omm" in unison at the given sunrise moment, and world peace would be enhanced.

At least that was the idea.

I get the impression that it was mostly a good-spirited and well-intentioned gathering that was all about peace, love and understanding. But the fear and anxiety news of the gathering then provoked made it seem like Attila the Hun had announced an impending invasion of the county

Petitions were circulated, urging then Governor John Love to stop the "hippie picnic. The so-called Universal Life Church Meeting of Peace." People believed that 140,000 of the Hippies would descend on the county. A total of 548 people signed the petition. The gathering was ultimately permitted, but with strict limitations on crowd sizes on public land and times of activities.

If it wasn't for Granby local Paul Geisendorfer, who offered land his family owned in Granby and at Strawberry Bench (a private national forest inholding owned by his family) for the longer gatherings and camping, the Strawberry Festival might have been a colossal flop. But it wasn't and it's still talked about today, even without a reunion event.

Good for business? Yes. Once again, Grand County's gotten lots of free publicity in news stories general exposure. You can't buy that kind of viral exposure.

Will these "hippies" bring money to spend? Well, not all of them. But remember, the Hippies of yesterday are in some cases the investment bankers, Silicon valley millionaires and top-level bureaucrats of today. They just might bring money and they just might want to lease and use some of our abundant short term rentals and condos.

We know that not all of these types will be rich, but they will come and enjoy our landscape, I hope, in a non-impactful way. We'll see.

Perhaps local merchants can come up with Rainbow Family and Strawberry Festival themed merchandise. Tacky, I know, but it's one idea.

And now I worry about how the world will celebrate the infamous motorcycle gang "riot" and "celebration" that shut down Grand Lake for two days in early July of 1975. Will we invite those gangs back to re-live the crazy days of their youth?

After all, Harley Davidson riders today are more likely to be orthodontists and business professionals rather than the rough-and-tumble gang members of the old days. Let's start planning now!

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of "KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage." He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.
 

Early childcare is an important aspect of economic development and community development.

What's the price of war here in isolated Grand County? Higher prices.

It's hard to imagine that the Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine could have much of an impact half-a-world away high in the snow-covered Rockies.

But the truth is, it will have an impact.

It's already very clear that gas prices are going to go sky high, but still not as high (adjusted for inflation) as the prices seen in 2008. My biggest fear about expensive gas, aside from the hit on my wallet, is the way it could discourage visitors from making the drive to Grand County.
And yet, the pundits are saying that they don't think even $5-a-gallon gas is likely to greatly discourage Americans from getting in their cars and driving, especially when it comes to driving for vacation.

Why is that? In a word: COVID. There is huge pent-up demand in Americans to live, laugh and recreate the way they did three years ago, long before the COVID crisis. And now, and this summer, are the times when that pent-up demand is going to be released. High gas prices will be seen as an inconvenience but not a barrier.

I base this on the fact that we've already seen how extreme demand for visiting and vacationing in Grand County has fueled a minor boom in sales tax revenues and high revenues to the businesses that can manage to remain open and operating. Just go to Winter Park or Fraser any given weekend this winter and take a look at the long lines for restaurants, the crowded bars and brew pubs and traffic. It's been busy.

And remember, much of this has happened while the shadow of COVID was still very real, thanks to Omicron and Delta. But the specter of more serious outbreaks of COVID has faded and people are just letting it all hang out. Look out for this summer, despite Putin's war in Ukraine.

Don't believe me? Here's a paragraph from an article in the Wall Street Journal on this very topic:

"Michael Tran, managing director of global energy strategy at RBC Capital Markets, said that after two years of Covid-19 he expects consumers to hit the road even with high gasoline prices. The last time rising gasoline prices curbed demand was in 2008 amid a spike in oil during the financial crises, he said. Back then, gasoline rose to a record $4.11 a gallon, which equates to about $5.20 a gallon today adjusted for inflation, he said."

Oh, there will be other impacts on our local economy, however. Food prices are going to continue to go up because of the war. Ukraine, after all, is one of the world's largest exporters of wheat. Take that off the market and watch as prices for all wheat-based products go sky high. This might be good news only for those "no gluten" foodies out there, and for the many Colorado wheat farmers.

But once again, I don't think that will dissuade people who want to dine out from doing so. And I doubt it will dissuade the rest of us from eating. It's just going to cost more.

Of course if Putin's war evolves into a nuclear conflict, all bets are off.

But short of that right now, my latest venture into the restaurants and bars in Winter Park and Fraser elicited this repeated refrain from the hard-working bartenders, waiters and restaurant owners: 'It's like Christmas break never ended.'

And like a war never started.
 
Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of the book "KILLDOZER:  The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage." He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.
 

When I first took this job offering business management coaching in Grand County I was told by a business associate that I was on a fool's errand.

He looked at me with a conspiratorial twist on his lips and a sardonic twitch of his eyebrow. 'Good luck,' he said. 'That'll be like trying to push a wet noodle up a mountain with your nose.'
That was 10 years ago. And despite the pang of doubt his comment gave me, I am happy to report that the Grand Enterprise Initiative is still going strong in 2022. I'm glad because I know we do good work and because I like the good work we do.

But first, the basics. The Grand Enterprise Initiative is a non-profit, grassroots economic development organization that strives to build strong communities by nurturing entrepreneurs, one business at a time. We do this by offering free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County.
We work with anyone in Grand County who calls us up and asks for help.

It's free because many people who are contemplating that little start-up don't have the money to engage a full-blown business consultant.

It's confidential because some people might be embarrassed about sharing with the world their tightly held secret aspiration for a business. Some people worry that people might "steal" their idea.

The key to our success with this initiative is that we take a client-driven, non-paternalistic approach to our work. By that I mean we only work with people who call us up and ask for assistance. We do not knock on doors and tell people what they are doing wrong or how we can make them better. We let the people drive our work.

How do we know this works? Well, our numbers after 10 years say much about what works. In 10 years we've worked 480 people who have called and asked for assistance and with whom we've had a meaningful conversation. Of those clients, we have helped 134 start new businesses. We didn't start it for them. They started their businesses. We just stood on the sidelines and helped.

We estimate that those new businesses have helped to create 245 new jobs and have generated, annually, about $11 million in new sales. In these numbers include our work with 10 non-profits that include preschools and specific trade groups. We've also helped with many minor tune-ups for businesses, diversifications, acquisitions and business expansions.

Have all these new and expanded businesses succeeded and stuck around? No, not all of them have. New small businesses nationally have a rough track record, with estimates stating that naitonally about 50% of such new ventures fail or close in the first two years. Our record is better than that, with 25 of our new ventures either closing or relocating.

These are dicey numbers because we've had several clients who, although successful, decided to sell or close their ventures simply because people have come along and offered to buy their real estate for other functions, such as employee housing. Is that a failure or closure? You can decide. Or then there are the several businesses who have decided to close or scale back because they can't keep up with their success, mainly due to lack of employees. Failure? I think not.

We couldn't have succeeded in our efforts without the help of generous donors over the last 10 years. Thanks to them. They include: The towns of Granby, Winter Park, Fraser, Grand Lake and Kremmling; The Milanovich Trust; Grand County; Marise Cipriani; the Grand Foundation itself and its role administering a variety of donor-advised funds; the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments; the USDA Rural Business Development Block Grant program; the Colorado Department of Local Affairs and its REDI (Rural Economic Development Initiative) program; the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade and its Economic Development Organization Recovery Grant effort; and others.

We have worked closely with DiAnn Butler, Grand County's Economic Developer, in our collective effort to create a thriving entrepreneurial culture in Grand County. It's working.
We couldn't have moved forward without a strong board of directors: Merrit Linke, board president; and board members Peggy Smith, Mike Periolat and Wally Baird. Thanks.

But ultimately, we should say thanks to the ambitious, creative and talented entrepreneurs and business owners in Grand County. They can succeed in a uniquely challenging business environment.

Many of them have succeeded in pushing that wet noodle up the mountain.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He provides free and confidential business management coaching for anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of "KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage." He can be reached at 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.

As I sit here watching the snow dump on our already snowed-in landscape, I am reminded of the article written by John Meyer that ran in the Denver Post way back on November 27 of 2021.

In the realm of weather perception, that seems like eons ago. Try and remember the hand-wringing that was going on then. Many ski resorts in Colorado had delayed their openings from early or mid-November to late November. And the openings, as they were, featured very limited terrain on less than desirable snow.

Right here in Granby, where the Granby Ranch Ski Area was planning a major professional ski race, the worry was causing ulcers and real fear. They just weren't able to make enough snow.
Why? It wasn't cold enough - at night, especially.

These not-so-cold temperatures were disturbing because it wasn't so long ago that ski areas, even if it wasn't actually snowing in November, could count on cold temperatures so that they could make snow. That was a huge innovation in the industry that expanded ski seasons, brought tourists to ski communities a month or two early, and made for a longer ski season and more prosperous economy in general.

Take away the cold air, make it warmer and that innovation begins to be, well, diminished, and in some places, nonexistent.

The gist of John Meyer's article was that most people in the ski industry are increasingly aware of the threat that climate change poses to their business model. They look at it, rightfully so, as an existential threat. It is. It poses some threat to our overall local economy too.

Even worse, the extent of climate change and warming is more extreme in places like Grand County and the mountain West, where ski areas are generally located. Consider this from the Denver Post: "An analysis by the Washington Post highlights the climate change challenge facing the region. Based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data between 1895 and 2019, the analysis found that a group of counties in northwest Colorado and Eastern Utah warmed more than 3.6 degree Fahrenheit. That's double the global average."

Great.

And the future trend, based on climate models, "predict that average temperatures in Colorado could rise 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit by 2050," states John Fox in the article by John Meyer. Fox wrote a recently published book called "The Last Winter."

No matter how I look at it, the prospect of shorter ski seasons and, perhaps, nearly nonexistent ski seasons, seems very real.

The industry is trying to do something about it. Ski areas are buying green power to run their lifts, initiating energy-saving programs and trying to reduce their carbon foot prints. Must most importantly, several of the large players are banding together to do what they can to confront the real threat of climate change.

John Meyer states in his article: "Like Aspen, Vail Resorts is involved in combating climate change through the public policy arena. This year it announced a partnership with competitors Alterra Mountain Company, Powdr and Boyne Resort to present a united front in something called the Climate Collaborate Charter. Alterra operates 15 North American resorts including Steamboat and Winter Park. Powdr operates 11, including Copper Mountain and Eldora."

I want to believe that this consortium of ski areas can start to promote and enact the message that climate change is the biggest challenge of our century. It is an existential threat, not only to the ski industry. My hope is that battling climate change can become a unifying (and non-partisan, non-culture war) national endeavor like when the U.S. fought in WWII. God knows that our nation needs a unifying effort the can help bring us together under a common cause.

And, just maybe, help our local economy too.

Patrick Brower is the Enterprise Facilitator for the Grand Enterprise Initiative. He offers free and confidential business management coaching to anyone who wants to start or expand a business in Grand County. He is also the author of "KILLDOZER: The True Story of the Colorado Bulldozer Rampage." He can be reached by calling 970-531-0632 or at patrickbrower@kapoks.org.