The Business Times Volume 32 Issue 24

Bike lanes on 4th and 5th spark downtown parking debate

Brandon Leuallen

The Business Times

lans to finalize protected bike lanes on Fourth and Fifth Streets this summer could cost the City of Grand Junction additional money in curb cut work and remove more downtown parking spaces.

That raises a broader conversation about the cost of implementation and the city’s downtown parking system, including the financial viability of potential changes.

Curb Cuts and Parking Losses

The vote to revert to two lanes with a protected bike lane may require cutting curbs at intersections where there is currently not enough space to fit both vehicle lanes and the bike lane.

This cost was not included in the May 29 special meeting when the City Council reversed a prior decision to end the pilot project.

See BIKE LANES on Page 8

No More Hedging

Teresa Mays is retiring from preciousmetals dealer Hedge Company, but only after selling the company to the right buyer.

— See story, Page 2

Teresa Mays sits next to a display case of precious metals at her Hedge Company office inside the Alpine Bank building in downtown Grand Junction. She took over the business after her dad, Ron Mays, died in 2007. Ron Mays started the business, along with International Coin & Stamp, 40 years ago. Teresa Mays is selling the business, but with the requirement that the buyer keeps the Hedge Company name and operates from a local office to continue providing the face-to-face service and privacy that her customers prefer over online buying and selling of precious metals. Photo by Tim Harty.

The golden years await

Mays ready to retire, but not until suitable buyer purchases Hedge Company

Teresa Mays put Hedge Company up for sale in October last year, knowing she will retire once her precious-metals brokerage at 225 N. Fifth St., Suite 514, gets sold.

That was a tough decision to make, because:

• She loves the work she does as a bullion broker, selling and buying gold, silver, platinum and palladium coins and bars for her customers.

• The business was started by her father, Ron Mays, in 1985, and he ran the show until he died in 2007.

• She loves her customer base and the relationships she established through earning their trust.

It also was a decision she felt she had to make for herself and others.

“I see lots of interesting products, meet interesting people,” Mays said of the temptation to continue to work.

“But it’s time, and my spouse is nine years older than me, and I just turned 65. And at some point, you just have to call it a day.

A couple of her requirements of the buyer are deeply personal:

• The buyer must continue running the business in Grand Junction to serve the customer base she established. Mays knows some potential buyers only want her customer list and won’t operate locally.

“That’s too easy,” she said “I think it would ill serve the customers that we’ve accrued over 40 years. And there is certainly a need here for someone to have a physical office to meet with my customers.”

• The business name must remain Hedge Company.

“You know, to carry on the Hedge name is important to me. My dad’s legacy is important to me. My legacy’s important to me,” she said.

“You know, to carry on the Hedge name is important to me. My dad’s legacy is important to me. My legacy’s important to me.” — Teresa Mays

“It’s going to be very difficult, I have to admit, because sitting here, you get to know your customers, and I’ve enjoyed that immensely. And that will be the hardest piece to walk away from.”

Mays hired Kevin Brooks of Sunbelt Business Brokers in Grand Junction to assist with the sale, and there’s an important contingency on the sale: It has to be the right buyer, or Mays won’t sell.

“Because I live here in the valley, and a lot of my customers have become my friends – you know how that works – that’s really important to me. And I think my customers deserve to have somebody local to help them out.”

When an acceptable buyer emerges and the deal gets done, Mays will walk away from the business that has been her life for the past 26 years.

See GOLDEN on page 4

Continued from Page 2

“I’m selling, begrudgingly, but it’s time to retire,” she said. “The older we get, the more people we lose around us, and it’s kind of a reality check. You know, I lost my sister in January at 61 (years old), and yeah, it’s time to turn the sail in a different direction and maximize the time I have left. And who knows how long that is, so that’s kind of why.”

Mays is one of 10 siblings, and the recent passing of her sister Laura Wright, who lived in Pueblo, hit Teresa hard.

“When she got sick, I tried to spend as much time with her as I could,” Mays said. “And if I was retired, I would have been able to be there a lot more than I could, so ...”

Mays said she will travel during retirement and spend much more time with family.

Asked about other plans she has, Mays quipped, “I do want to sleep for a couple of months.”

She also loves shooting sports and plans to remain involved in them.

“I just enjoy shooting. I think it’s a lot of fun,” said Mays, who is a member of “A Girl & A Gun.”

Mays has a coin collection she said she needs to dust off, too.

“I have not looked at my coins in a long, long time,” she said. “Nothing of value, for sure, but just fun, fun historical pieces.”

MORE ABOUT HEDGE COMPANY

WANT TO BUY THE BUSINESS?

If you’re interested in buying Hedge Company, it starts with a call to Kevin Brooks of Sunbelt Business Brokers at 970-255-8000.

SMALL PURCHASES WELCOME

Teresa Mays said Hedge Company does not have minimums for buying or selling, except those imposed by the wholesalers.

She said the tagline on her radio commercials says: Putting precious metals within your reach.

“I wanted my business to make it possible for anybody at any income level to buy precious metals, whether it was a single, 10-ounce American Gold Eagle or a one-ounce silver round or a silver coin,” Mays said. “A lot of customers have a budget, so they can only allocate so much to precious metals at a time.

“I have a lot of customers who will buy thousands of ounces at a time, but a lot of my customers, again, on a budget, will just buy a couple ounces a month. And over the years, they’ve accumulated a nice little stash, and it’s just a way of diversifying their holdings.”

NEEDED TO SIMPLIFY

After Ron Mays died in 2007, it wasn’t just Hedge Company that he left behind business-wise. He also had a full-service coin shop, International Coin & Stamp.

Teresa Mays said her stepmom decided she didn’t really want the business and was willing to let Teresa take over, which she did, but she had to limit the operation.

“I knew I didn’t have the knowledge necessary to keep the collector-coin part of the business going, so I opted to just stick with the bullion business, because it was cleaner,” she said. “It was simpler, fewer counterfeits back in the day, and it just made my life simple. And then for years, I had like a hybrid business, where I did have collectible things and also the bullion business.”

Teresa said she got completely out of the collector part of the business in 2009.

“I sold International Coin & Stamp and all of the assets and decided just to focus on bullion,” she said.

NO NEED TO GOUGE

Teresa Mays said of being a bullion broker, “It’s just a fascinating-as-heck business. And it can be incredibly lucrative, too.”

Evidently it can be much more lucrative for Mays, but she’s content with the commission she charges.

“I’ve been told by folks who have studied the industry that my commission is not high enough, but I haven’t changed it,” she said. “Even after I put the business on the market, I decided just to keep it where it is. So, I still don’t charge what your average bullion broker will charge, but I like giving folks a fair deal, and I think they come back because of that. And they like the personal relationships that we develop.”

Counseling practice looks to thrive in new home

Tim Harty The Business Times

Seeking permanence and a place where its therapists and clients can thrive led Thrive Marriage & Family Counseling to say good-bye to leasing and hello to owning.

Thrive Marriage & Family Counseling’s founder Chantel Landeros bought the building, a 117-year-old house at 827 Grand Ave. in downtown Grand Junction, renovated it to meet the practice’s needs, and Thrive moved into it May 26, then hosted an open house June 21.

Now, the practice that Chantel Landeros started in 2019, when it was just her flying solo, can become what Landeros envisioned.

“I wanted to create a practice,” Landeros said, “that therapists wanted to

LEARN MORE ABOUT THRIVE

Thrive Marriage & Family Counseling is now located at 827 Grand Ave.

For more information, call 970-8121292 or email hello@thrivemfc.com.

Appointments can be booked online at www.thrivemarriagefamilycounseling.com/reachout.

wall got touched, every piece of flooring got touched. And then exterior-wise, we redid the entire outside and the deck.”

The exterior was stuccoed, and the deck was replaced.

Thrive Marriage & Family Counseling

“And then on the client side, I really wanted to create a place where clients felt proud to come to therapy. I wanted to take a level of shame out of getting mental health care and support. And so I really just am trying to create an environment for people to just feel like they can come and move from really surviving to thriving in their life without coming to always be at the bottom, to be able to start doing better in their life.”

The building is 1,462 square feet with five offices, and Landeros said it’s smaller than previous places the practice leased. And in this case, that’s better.

“It’s just better utilized space,” she said. “Everywhere I leased, I had a whole lot of dead space that we couldn’t really utilize. So, every square inch of this place is used for what we need it to.”

Landeros wanted that interior to be inviting and comfortable for clients, and the renovation that took place from the beginning of April until late May took it into account.

“It was like a whole cosmetic overhaul,” she said. “I mean, literally everything, every

with that. She’s not looking to grow the practice in the immediate future.

“I think that the way that we do things right now works really well,” she said. “But I’m only six years into the business, so who knows what the future will hold.

Owning a building was like a threshold, and so I don’t know what’s next after this.”

Landeros said the practice is “always wanting to help support more clients,” so the therapists run schedules where they don’t have a lengthy wait list. She said that’s “a really big benefit to therapy in general, because a lot of times you call places, and there’s a really long wait list.

“So, when we get pushed for a wait list, we get creative and add more spots instead of making clients wait to see us.”

Landeros added new clients will see Thrive Marriage & Family Counseling’s focus is relationships.

“We really want to make sure that relationships are healed and healthy, so that individuals can be healed and healthy,” she said.

Cool like Colorado

Tim Harty The Business Times

You can find ColoradoCool Apparel’s T-shirts, hoodies, ball caps, beanies, stickers, magnets, tapestries and posters in more than 200 stores in Colorado. Plus, ColoradoCool leases 10-footby-10-foot consignment booths inside seven stores inside malls on the Front Range.

That’s pretty good growth for a Grand Junction-based wholesale company that CEO and Head of Design John Clinton started in the Fort Collins/Loveland area as a side business in 2016 to sell merchandise with his designs on them.

He and his wife, Erika Clinton, moved the wholesale headquarters to Grand Junction in 2021. And recently they took the next step in the company’s evolution. They opened a brick-and-mortar store in downtown Grand Junction at 443 Main St. on May 15.

It was a logical move, as Erika said, “We’ve been living here, have our warehouse here, enjoy all the outdoor activities and things to do out here and realized there’s a hole in the market. I mean, there’s only a couple of other souvenir shops around here – I think just one downtown – so there’s just kind of a need for it.

“And we realized that could be something that we were really interested in doing and not just having our spaces over in the Front Range – those have gone really well – and we were just thinking, ‘Hey, why can’t we do this ourselves?’ and, ‘Let’s give it a shot.’”

They knew exactly where they wanted to be in Grand Junction.

“We only wanted to do it downtown,” Erika said. “We weren’t interested if it wasn’t downtown, because with a store like ours, it’s a lot about foot traffic.”

See ColoradoCool on Page 10

Coffee and Community Connections

Wondering what’s new within our community? Coffee and Community Connections is your opportunity to stay looped in on what’s happening with key organizations in the Grand Valley. Thanks to our partnership with the Fruita Area Chamber of Commerce, this event brings you updates and insights from both ends of the valley in one convenient gathering.

This quarter’s event will highlight some of the important work being done in our schools to prepare students for life after graduation. Representatives from local schools will share how they’re connecting students to real-world experiences through Work Based Learning Programs. These efforts

not only support student success but also help strengthen the future workforce right here in our region.

We’ll also hear from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which plays a crucial role in managing and protecting the public lands that so many residents, visitors, and businesses rely on. With several changes happening within the organization, this is a great opportunity to learn more about their current focus and priorities.

Tourism leaders from both Fruita and Palisade will share what they’re seeing in terms of visitor trends, upcoming events, and how they’re working to promote each town as a destination. Tourism is a major driver of local business, and staying

in the know helps business owners prepare and get involved.

Municipal leaders from both towns will also be present to offer updates on local projects, community planning efforts, and ongoing initiatives that impact the business community. From infrastructure improvements to policy changes, these updates offer helpful insight into what’s on the horizon.

Coffee and Community Connections is a members-only event created to keep Chamber members informed, engaged, and connected to the people shaping our region. Members can register at Palisadecoc.com and Fruitachamber.org

Bike Lanes

Continued from the cover, Page 1

Councilmember Anna Stout asked, “So Trent, can you help me understand: if we go back to the pre-pilot configuration—meaning we rip up the paint, put it back to what it was—and also stripe the part that was never striped, what is the cost difference between that and Phase 2?”

Transportation Director Trent Prall responded, “Yeah, I believe I mentioned this at the last meeting, but the cost to revert back to pre-pilot was around $70,000, and to do Phase 2.0, it would be about $40,000. Those are rough estimates and don’t include any additional costs if we had to touch curbs or infrastructure.”

Main Street Parking and Fund Constraints

At the special meeting, Prall noted that about 30 parking spots would be lost, which sparked a conversation in the subsequent June 16 workshop, where council members discussed downtown parking with staff.

Chief Financial Officer Jay Valentine said in the workshop, “The parking enterprise fund is still in the black,” and added, “If we keep losing parking and losing meters and adding more enforcement, but can’t enforce or ticket or do the things that make the revenue come in, we will be in the red.”

Mayor Cody Kennedy asked, “If we were to switch some of the on-street spots on Main to free, we’d need to subsidize the lost revenue?”

Valentine responded, “Yes. If we were to do something like that, there’s an offset that has to happen.”

He added, “The fund was healthy at the end of 2023; 2024 doesn’t look as good.”

Staff confirmed that 73 metered spaces had been removed over the last year, mostly high-producing ones.

Concerns About Downtown Worker Safety

Councilmember Ben Van Dyke said, “I’ve had a lot of feedback from employees of downtown businesses who are struggling to find safe parking.”

Van Dyke asked about possibly making parking in the Rockslide parking lot

The intersection of 5th and Main Streets, where curb cuts on one side would be needed to add a bike lane under the city’s two-lane street plan.

free for employees from businesses in the area.

In response, staff explained that the city’s newer smart meters provide flexibility for app-based payments, validations, and codes, which could allow businesses to subsidize employee parking without altering the overall revenue model.

Business Input and Outreach

Councilmember Anna Stout said she wants more targeted engagement before making changes to the system.

“I’m concerned about doing anything systemwide without better data,” she said. “Are certain businesses being affected more than others?”

She recommended roundtables or stakeholder meetings to better understand impacts before taking broad action.

Kennedy Urges Caution, Open to Pilots

Kennedy supported exploring flexible programs but emphasized financial responsibility.

“I’m open to looking at options that don’t put the fund in jeopardy,” he said. “But I think we need to go out to businesses before we go too far down any road.”

Council asked staff to return with ideas for pilot programs or outreach strategies before pursuing any systemwide policy shifts and to bring further discussion to the council agenda at a later date.

ColoradoCool

Continued from Page 6

The Clintons knew what they wanted in their store, too, although at first they didn’t know if they could fill the space, because they’d never had so much room to display their wares. It turned out they had more than enough stuff to display, and they have plans for more.

“We were going for sort of a surf shop kind of cool,” Erika said “You know, a cool downtown spot where people were excited to bring their friends and their families and people who come to visit them, but also have that Colorado feel. We wanted it to be kind of a combination, because, I mean, we’re not in California, but we love when we traveled to go to surf shops and see what other people are doing, and it’s fun to bring a souvenir home from your travels and remember your trip.

“So, we kind of wanted to capture that. And then we just wanted it to look nice, and we put a little effort into making it look nice and not like your standard souvenir store.”

They’re happy with the results so far, which were aided by the timing of the opening.

“It’s surpassed our expectations, for sure, in a really good way,” Erika said. “Having JUCO in town, the Junior College Baseball World Series, that drew in so much traffic for us. It was awesome. We had all these guys from Tennessee and Alabama and Texas, all the teams, and that was awesome.

“And then Junction just has so much going on in the summer, so we’ve had a lot of foot traffic downtown, and it’s great to see. Downtown seems to be growing in a really positive way, and it’s fun to be a part of that change.”

Erika is a Grand Junction native whose time at Colorado State University overlapped a few years with John, and they both graduated with degrees in graphic design. Yet they didn’t meet in college.

“We had the same degree, a lot of the same professors. We actually knew some of the same people from our classes, but as far as we know, we never crossed paths, so that’s kind of funny,” she said.

Instead, they met and started dating as employees at hat-maker Zephyr Headwear in Loveland.

Erika makes it a point to say John started ColoradoCool on his own.

“This was his thing,” she said. “And then I got more and more involved as we started dating.”

Now, John remains the primary designer, and his flair for incorporating colors and signature Colorado and Grand Junction items is evidenced on every display rack and shelf in the store.

Meanwhile, Erika handles duties such as social media, marketing and web design. ColoradoCool uses some other designers, and at the Grand Junction store they have seven employees, including their first full-time employee.

“Most of them are from Colorado Mesa University, and that’s been working out really great for us,” Erika said.

There become negatively customers, Businesses number of beneficial operate daily business Being focus on leadership, of the products constructive can excel This times. Customers seeking value stand out consultant Once

Stop competing and start differentiating

There are two common approaches to viewing marketplace competition: You can become negatively focused on others in your sector, which may detract from achieving success, or you can focus on improving your own company. The latter approach involves self-discipline and can help enhance business operations, facilitate effective changes and yield positive outcomes.

Consistently focusing time and energy on another company’s activities and feeling negative about their achievements can limit your own progress. This mindset should be replaced with a more constructive way of thinking.

Over the course of my career as a business coach and consultant, I have encountered business owners who struggled due to adopting a negative attitude toward competitors, especially when those businesses were outperforming them or gaining market share. Some business owners even felt resentment toward former customers who chose competitors perceived as offering better value. Such negativity is neither necessary nor helpful and could lead to losing more customers, market share, team members and possibly the business itself.

Businesses in a given market sector compete for the loyalty and patronage of a limited number of customers. Instead of becoming resentful of others in the same sector, it is beneficial to focus on controlling what you can – how you, your team and your company operate daily – and let the rest go. It is wise to strive for continuous improvement in your business operations and ways to set yourself apart from others in your sector.

Being aware of what the competition is doing is prudent, but maintaining a focus on your own business operations is crucial. Evaluate the effectiveness of your leadership, analyze the performance of managers and the entire team, review the quality of the products or services offered, and identify areas for improvement. By taking this constructive approach, progress can be fueled to the next level by focusing on how you can excel in the marketplace.

This self-focused approach is particularly important during challenging economic times. Customers are increasingly attentive to the service and products they receive, seeking value for their money. As a business owner, this could be an opportunity to stand out and gain market share. Working with a qualified professional business coach or consultant might be beneficial to identify and implement improvements.

Once areas for improvement are identified, it is essential for the team to work together

to implement agreed-upon solutions. Necessary changes must be made and followed through to completion for customer satisfaction, loyalty and growth.

Business owners who adopt this self-focused and self-accountable approach often find it effective and liberating. They discover empowerment, success and satisfaction through undistracted attention on their operations and efforts to create an excellent company.

Focusing on your own business operations can lead to accomplishing more with the resources previously directed toward competition. Implementing changes that enhance products and services can result in increased customer satisfaction and success.

Moreover, adopting this approach can also foster a culture of innovation within your organization. When team members see the focus shift from external competition to internal growth and excellence, they are more likely to engage in creative problemsolving and take ownership of their work. This mindset encourages a proactive rather than reactive attitude, enabling the company to anticipate changes in the market and adapt swiftly.

Another significant benefit of concentrating on self-improvement is the ability to build a strong, cohesive team. Employees thrive in environments where their contributions are valued, and a positive mindset radiates from the leadership. By emphasizing collaboration and shared goals, the team can align its effort toward achieving greater customer satisfaction, improving operational efficiency and driving overall business success.

Finally, this philosophy not only benefits the business internally, it enhances its reputation externally. Customers and partners are drawn to companies that project confidence, consistency and a commitment to excellence.

By focusing on what you can control and continuously striving for improvement, you can build a brand that stands out in the marketplace, not by tearing others down, but by lifting your own standards to new heights.

Marcus Straub owns Life is Great Coaching in Grand Junction. His personalized coaching and consulting services help individuals, business owners, executives and companies build teams, organizations and lives filled with happiness and success. Straub is winner of the International Coach of the Year Award and author of “Is It Fun Being You?” He’s available for free consultations regarding coaching, speaking and trainings. Reach Straub at (970) 208-3150, marcus@ligcoaching.com or through the website located at www.ligcoaching.com.

Nonprofits: Hope as a Call to Action

A mother fleeing domestic violence, with her two children in tow, across five states before finding safety in a Western Slope shelter –where she receives the support needed to rebuild her family’s life.

A man whose world was changed in an instant by an accident resulting in brain injury finds independence and dignity in a supportive living commu-

A hungry elementary-school student receives a backpack filled with food to get through the week-

A family, facing the heartbreak of losing someone they love, is guided and comforted through the end-of-life journey and the difficult months that follow.

A young pregnant woman diagnosed with a brain tumor secures health insurance and lifesaving care thanks to a helping hand.

A struggling student receives tutoring and graduates.

A veteran, standing on the edge of despair, is pulled back from the brink of suicide.

These are just a few of the countless stories that unfold everyday across the Western Slope, stories of hope, resilience and transformation made possible by nonprofits. For many, the impact of nonprofits remains invisible until the moment help is needed. Yet the presence of these change-makers enriches every community they touch.

Nonprofits exist to serve the public good, whether by supporting fellow humans or protecting our environment. These groups prioritize service over money and are a critical part of the fabric of all the communities across the Western Slope. People who work in these organizations don’t generally go around saying their job is to change the world – they are humble that way – but in fact they have seen something in the world that doesn’t seem right, humane or just and have chosen to spend their career making the world just a little bit better.

Nonprofits are held to rigorous standards of transparency and accountability. They must earn the trust of their donors, clients and volunteers every day by demonstrating real impact, integrity and responsible stewardship of resources. Most nonprofits are governed by local boards of directors, powered by the generosity of donors and the dedication of volunteers. They embody the very spirit of local control and community-driven change.

As governmental support is withdrawn, nonprofits will continue to do what they have always done: serve as first responders to social emergencies. Their deep knowledge of community, adaptability and willingness to step into the gap are needed now more than ever.

To defend nonprofits is to defend the very idea that we can – and must – care for one another. If you believe in uplifting the vulnerable, protecting our natural resources, and that hope is not just a slogan but a call to action, then stand with nonprofits. Support them. Volunteer. Donate. Advocate.

Supporting nonprofits means nurturing hope, resilience and opportunity across Colorado’s Western Slope.

Let’s just be honest, you didn’t like what I wrote

But more important, you read what I wrote. And that’s not “self-aggrandizing” as one new fan declared in an email offering. It’s just a simple truth directly related to not what I write, but rather why I write.

I do write in hopes people read it. But, again, most importantly, I write because I want people to think about what I put on paper. And then talk about it. Engage others in it. Make freedom better because of it.

Lofty goal, that last one. And yes, I realize I’m not the most eloquent or well-spoken of writers on the planet. I fully realize that I’ll never be in anyone’s upper echelons of “literary greats.” I’m fine with that. I just try to get my message across the best way possible in the manner that I have been writing for over two decades. And to my shock and amazement, some folks have been reading what I write for that long.

Then there are those who pick up a random paper, read my stuff, and write to me.

And whether I like it or not, those are the folks who tell me I might have a topic wrong. No, not my opinion, as some of you non regular readers or leftist members of Restore the Balance (but I repeat myself) would be hoping. I stand firmly in my opinions.

No, this time I’m referring to something I said in a column or two back – see, even I can’t keep track of my own brilliance-spewing as it now hits the presses so often – which had something to do with how this weekly thing is growing, and we now have more readers than ever. All in all for a newspaper, the best thing.

Then again, there are days where I begin to think I could use a few less of you. Then I laugh and say, “Now Craig, to be in the newspaper business, you have to respect this whole ‘Freedom of the press’ thing for yourself and ‘freedom of speech’ thing for the leftists who engage you as the result of them.”

And that’s no matter how poorly their diatribes are written or how many times they attempt personal attack “zingers” while claiming they don’t want to engage. But I have to admit, these musings confuse me, because some folks need multiple emails to tell me they won’t engage on one hand and on the other hand they appear to have no concept of grammar and punctuation, which leads me to believe I might just be in that upper-echelon of great writers I hear so much about.

Quite the conundrum for a little newspaper-owner-publisher-editor(?)-guy in small-town, western Colorado.

But as a human being with feelings (the most important human aspect according to the left), I must admit, sometimes the folks who take the time to write get to me. It used to be personally, but I get over that quickly anymore. Now, it usually comes in the form of: Just what in the name of cognitive dissonance are you talking about?

So, just for fun, let’s put another sample of these (not worthy of a “Sentence to the Editor”) ditties out there. As always, I’ll leave in the grammatical mistakes – as they do with mine.

“What facts support your opinion that the LEFT is breaking the law? Trump is a convicted felon, and he breaks the law on a daily basis by denying immigrants due process. That’s just one example. There are plenty of lawsuits to support his complete disregard for the constitution, the rule of law and the truth. I will never pick up your newspaper again.”

On the first part I have one word: Seriously? On the middle part, I did say you can’t use “lawfare” or “talking points” and as expected, you did. Lastly, I’m not sure you have ever read the paper, because I’ve been writing like this for 25 years. But I had to ask and got this.

“No. I picked it up once or twice before and didn’t like it. I only picked it up this time as I know Scott High. My point is you’re spreading misinformation. And that’s all. I’m not going to engage further.”

Now, I could ask what she didn’t like about the paper as the Scott High story was excellent. But I also know already it’s a who, not a what. And then to close with the misinformation and engagement ceasing without providing any information contrary to what I wrote previously and engaging over two emails tells me one thing: This writer doesn’t believe in freedom of speech, doesn’t care to engage those with opposite viewpoints and has the ability to reduce the quality of a publication with dozens of great stories down to the fact they didn’t like what someone wrote.

In other words, they appear to be a leftist, “drive by” (as Rush would say) caller projecting talking points and then hanging up. What they don’t realize is that I’m fine with that if that’s your style, because I look at your taking the time to write in this way from William F. Buckley.

“Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover there are other views.”

Keep those emails coming. And I’ll have another for you next week that attacks my closing.

In Christ and freedom.

n PALISADE PEACH FESTIVAL SEEKS VOLUNTEERS

The Palisade Chamber of Commerce said the 2025 Palisade Peach Festival is looking for volunteers to work the event Aug. 14-16. Volunteers are needed for jobs such as helping with festival logistics, greeting guests, supporting sustainability efforts and assisting at events around town.

All volunteers will receive: a weekend festival ticket; commemorative festival cup; a drink ticket for the Peach Pit Bar; and a fresh Palisade peach.

Learn more about volunteer opportunities at palisadecoc.volunteermatters.org/ project-catalog/15 or email volunteer coordinator April Arnold at palisadepeachfestival@ palisadecoc.com.

n ABC STORAGE BECOMES U-HAUL NEIGHBORHOOD DEALER

ABC Storage Inc. signed on as a U-Haul neighborhood dealer to serve the Grand Junction area, U-Haul Co. of Colorado announced in a news release June 12. ABC Storage, 2546 W. Pinyon Ave., will offer essential services such as U-Haul trucks, trailers, towing equipment and moving supplies.

Normal business hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. U-Haul products can be reserved at this dealer location by calling 970-263-5444 or visiting www.uhaul.com/Locations/ Truck-Rentals-near-Grand-Junction-CO-81505/029188.

Because no financial investment is required to be a dealer, local affiliates are not U-Haul franchises. They are simply small businesses that have committed a portion of their lot space for U-Haul equipment, and a portion of their time to help meet the mobility needs of customers. Learn more about the dealer program and how to join by visiting uhaul.com/dealer.

n WRITERS SYMPOSIUM BEING HELD AUG. 8-10 IN CEDAREDGE

The Grand Mesa Arts & Events Center will host The Grand Mesa Writers’ Symposium on Aug. 8-10 at 195 W. Main St. in Cedaredge. The symposium will feature large and small group presentations by award-winning and best-selling writers who specialize in fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

The featured writers are Colorado residents, including novelist Shelley Read, historian Dr. Timothy Winegard and poet Wendy Videlock.

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Read’s debut novel, Go as a River, has won critical acclaim and worldwide attention and has been translated into 34 languages. Read is a former senior lecturer at Western Colorado University in Gunnison. A fifth generation Coloradoan, she lives with her family in the Elk Mountains.

Winegard has a PhD from the University of Oxford and is an associate professor of history at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction. The New York Times bestselling author has written six books including his most recent work, The Horse: A Galloping History of Humanity. His writing has been published globally in more than 15 languages. Videlock lives on the outskirts of Palisade and serves as poet laureate of Western Colorado. She’s authored five books of poetry, a children’s book and a collection of essays. One of her latest poetry collections can be found in her book Wise to the West.

Organizers encourage interested individuals to register early to reserve an opportunity to interact with a featured writer in a small group setting. The registration fee for the entire symposium is $125. For an additional fee, symposium attendees can meet with one of the featured writers during that author’s office hours.

Attendees are invited to share their writing in a free open microphone event, and they can meet local and regional authors and purchase signed books at the symposium’s Western Colorado Pop-Up Bookstore. Those not attending the symposium can purchase a ticket for “A Celebration of Writing” panel presentation by all three featured writers.

The Grand Mesa Writers’ Symposium offers fourteen unique workshops presented by published novelists, poets and nonfiction authors. A full schedule, including workshop descriptions and other details as well as registration information can be found at the symposium website: www.grandmesawriters.org.