MARCH 18 - 25, 2026
VOLUME 33, ISSUE 12
THE DEFINITIVE SOURCE FOR GRAND JUNCTION BUSINESS & COMMUNITY NEWS SINCE 1994
District 51 paid Kindness Week speaker $26,125 Brandon Leuallen The Business Times
M
esa County Valley School District 51 paid more than $26,000 for a motivational speaker to present at middle schools and high schools across the district with a lack of parental notification during Kindness Week events in February, according to documents released through a Colorado Open Records Act request. Records show the district paid $26,125 to CoolSpeak LLC for a three-day speaking tour by Dr. Laura Rizo that included assemblies at 11 District 51 schools from Feb. 9 through Feb. 11. The invoice lists a rate of $2,375 per school, covering a keynote presentation of up to 60 minutes at each location, with travel expenses included. The events were held at five high schools: Central; Fruita Monument; Grand Junction; Palisade; and R-5. There were also six middle schools: Bookcliff; Fruita; Mt. Garfield; Orchard Mesa; Redlands; and West. In a response to the records request, District 51 Communications Director Callie Berkson wrote that the presentation was funded through a Colorado Department of Education Stronger Connections Grant, which supports student mental health, wellbeing and belonging. “No general funds (school or district) were used,” Berkson wrote. See story Page 5
THEBUSINESSTIMES.COM
Will new tax put alcohol producers over a barrel?
Proposed bill would increase excise taxes 60 percent for Colorado brewers, winemakers, distillers — See Page 2 Brett Zahrte, production and sales manager for Palisade Brewing Company, stands next to two barrels of red ale that are a collaboration between the brewer and Palisade winery Sauvage Spectrum. Zahrte said if a House Bill that proposes increasing excise taxes on Colorado’s brewers, vintners and distillers becomes law as it currently reads, it will be one more knife blow as the state’s craft brewers are “trying not to die from a thousand knife wounds.” Photo by Tim Harty.
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 67 The Business Times 609 North Ave., Suite 5 Grand Junction, CO 81501