Montrose receives $3.3 million grant to revitalize Bullock Electric Steam Plant
Montrose was recently selected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently to receive a $3.3 million cleanup grant, the largest grant awarded to a Colorado community so far in 2026. The grant will be used to revitalize the Bullock Electric Steam Plant located on the city’s Uncompahgre River corridor. A press release from the city states that the goal of the project is to “transform a 20th-century relic of industrial power generation into a community asset and economic driver.” The Bullock Plant is a historic steam and electric facility, originally coal-fired and later converted to natural gas, which operated from 1953 to 1983. The building had deteriorated significantly since the plant was shut down in 1983, and has attracted illegal dumping and vandalism. The City of Montrose purchased the property in 2021 and secured the building, but it has remained unused, and is heavily contaminated with asbestos and other toxic elements. After remediation efforts and environmental cleanup , the city says it will retain ownership and redevelop the site for both public and private uses. The former power plant building will be adaptively reused as a multi-level indoor climbing gym to support year-round recreation, job creation, and private reinvestment. The project also aims to restore riparian habitat, create flood-resistant green space, and establish public river access for kayaking and fishing.
Republican candidate for Colorado governor remains undetermined
And in election news, the GOP gubernatorial has not been called. According to a statement by candidate Victor Marx yesterday, he was leading his opponent, State Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer, but just over 2,000 votes, with roughly 97% of the votes counted. Marx said “there are still lawful ballots to process, including military and overseas ballots, cured ballots, and provisional ballots. Every legal vote matters, and we will continue to respect the process until every lawful ballot has been counted.” Colorado law triggers an automatic recount when the gap between the top two candidates is no more than half of one percent of the leading candidate’s vote total. Colorado voters have until 11:59 p.m. on July 8 to fix eligible signature or ID issues. But since Colorado is a blue state with nearly all state-wide and Federal races going democratic in general elections, the outcome of this primary is unlikely to affect who becomes Colorado’s next governor.
900 breakfasts a day: life inside the Gold Mountain Fire Incident Command Post
Days ago, it was the Ouray County Fairgrounds. Now it's a small city.
Nearly a thousand people are working the Gold Mountain Fire, which grew to almost 28,000 acres over the holiday weekend near Ouray and stood at 3% contained as of July 6th. To feed, house and support them, an entire town has sprung up almost overnight in Ridgway — hundreds of tents, streets of office trailers, showers, laundry, a medical unit and its own security.
"We really kind of set up a little mini town," says Tyler Nathe, one of the Operations Section chiefs with the incident management team.
The scale is hard to picture until you stand in it. In the mess hall, head cook Shamarie Bailey serves 900 breakfasts nearly every morning. Each firefighter on the line can burn through 5,000 calories a day, and refrigerated semi-trailers hold days of meals in reserve.
"I do it because someone has to," Bailey says. "People are out there fighting the fires for us, and we've got to serve them. They have to eat."
There are no volunteers in this camp. Every cook, driver and firefighter is a trained, paid professional, drawn from more than 30 states — among them a tribal fire crew from California, the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians. Even the small things reveal the discipline: crews walk single file everywhere, even to breakfast, because on the fire line that's how a crew keeps count of every member.
Reuben Farnsworth, a paramedic from Delta County, has worked fire camps for a decade. "It's a mobile camp, kind of like the camps they set up for military personnel overseas," he says. "Kind of like a little city."
The fire is burning in places locals love — the West, Middle, and East forks of the Cimarron, where families have camped for generations. Nathie, who grew up in Grand Junction, has camped there too.
Near the mess hall stands an information board with the morning's maps. One corner is saved for thank-you notes and was a little sparse on Monday morning. If you want to drop thank you notes for the fire crews call the hotline at 970-355-3286 to learn how to deliver them.
If you want to donate to those effected by the fire visit the Ouray County Community Foundation at wc-cf.org.
