The mountain area’s newspaper since 1958
WEEK OF JUNE 19, 2025
VOLUME 66 | ISSUE 31
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Testing shows PFAS in many mountain water systems State offers testing, help for private well owners who meet requirements BY JANE REUTER JANE@COTLN.ORG
This Google Earth image shows commercial properties for sale on Bear Creek Avenue, Morrison’s main thoroughfare. The Red Hotel site is in red. COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH Some speculate it triggered the recent spate of listings.
Five major parcels for sale on Morrison’s main street Red Hotel triggered decisions that could bring major change to town BY JANE REUTER JANE@COTLN.
Morrison’s main street may be perched on the precipice of major change. At least five large Bear Creek Avenue properties or businesses are currently listed for sale, and two other currently shuttered buildings are planned for major renovations. Those potential changes are in addition to construction of the Red Hotel, which is just beginning, and required the demolition of two older buildings. All of this is underway in a town that’s seen minimal commercial development for
six decades. The properties include not only Dave Killingsworth’s Holiday Bar and the adjoining properties, but the parcel just west of Killingsworth’s that had housed Morrison Liquor, a retail parcel at 120 Bear Creek Avenue home to The Moxi Poppy and formerly Meadowsweet Gifts & Wellness, the building that houses Sundance Sensations, and the Morrison Inn restaurant. Additionally, while the owners of the former Morrison post office and Morrison Carworks aren’t selling, they have plans to remodel those main street properties into new businesses.
“It’s like the whole town’s for sale,” said commercial broker John Becker, whose Fuller Real Estate company has listed three of the properties. “It’s all based on the recent sale of the Red Hotel site. That’s what most properties are using as a sales comp.” Exciting time for Morrison
Two lots formerly home to Blend and Morrison Glass sold for $1.15 million to the Red Hotel Fund in August 2024. That equates to nearly $180 a square foot in land value, which Becker said other property owners are using as a guideline in setting their prices. “It’s a very exciting time for Morrison,” said architect Chad Wallace, a partner in the Red Hotel Fund and COO of hotel builder Root Architec-
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ture. The hotel underwent a period of 15 months of scrutiny, contentious public debate and a significant redesign to gain the town’s approval. That process revealed inconsistencies in the town’s code. After the hotel’s approval, the board and its attorney revised the codes to further guard historic areas and “protect the scale and character of existing development from the encroachment of incompatible uses.” It also dissolved its planning commission, something trustees said would streamline the approval process. “With the planning commission out of the way, and I feel like some more progressive people on the
Conifer resident Ralf Topper was taken aback earlier this year when he saw a notification at his doctor’s office warning of chemical contamination of the domestic water supply. In a random state test conducted in April 2024, Conifer Medical Center tested positive for PFOA or perfluorooctanoic acid, part of a larger group of manmade chemicals known as PFAS or forever chemicals. Topper has since learned the center is among many places in the area with systems containing PFAS. “When I went on the (state) website and looked at where they had positive results, I was very surprised to see how ubiquitous this contamination was,” he said. “This is not point sourced. This is now throughout our environment, and that’s really scary.” Conifer High School also tested positive for the chemical, along with 26 water systems identified by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in 2024 as exceeding the new federal standards. Treatment systems
PFAs are human-made chemicals that resist oils, stains, water, and heat. The chemicals are common in non-stick coatings on cookware, coatings for carpets and fabrics, paper and cardboard food packaging, firefighting foams, ski wax and other products. They don’t break down easily and can stay in the environment and in the human body for a long time. In fact, the American Cancer Society says studies have found PFAS worldwide at very low levels in just
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