Flash flooding and mudslides create damage in Ouray
A large flash flood on Wednesday resulted in a number of large mudslides and debris flows in Ouray County. The Cutler and Dexter Creek drainage areas and the nearby neighborhood of Ponderosa Village on the east side of Hwy. 550 were heavily impacted. Multiple residential structures were damaged during the debris flow, but no injuries have been reported.
Ouray County Emergency Management stated yesterday that damage assessment crews were onsite today, and re-entry planning was pending for voluntary evacuation areas. The county will schedule a community town hall event when available.
While the monsoon season continues, there will likely be additional days of excessive rain in Ouray County and over the Gold Mountain burn scar area. The National Weather Service has been issuing multiple flood advisories and warnings recently, and Ouray County Emergency Management is reminding the community to heed these alerts when they are issued. They say a good rule of thumb is that if you can look uphill from where you are and see a burnt-out area, you are at risk.
RDR: A firefighter who died last week after being injured fighting a wildfire in Colorado will be honored this morning, 7/31. Vehicles will escort the body of Nathan Matthews and his family from Denver to Grand Junction in western Colorado. Matthews died on July 24 from injuries he sustained after being trapped by the Snyder wildfire near the Utah border.
Record number of tourists visit Colorado, but growth remains slow
The Colorado Sun reports that nearly 97 million people visited Colorado in 2025, spending a record 29.2 billion dollars. But the increase over the previous year was small, marking the second straight year of little growth.
State Tourism Office Director Tim Wolfe says the numbers are "flat"—and while that's better than a decline, he says it's a warning sign.
Business travel is down, international visitors remain well below pre-pandemic levels, and more travelers are making shorter, lower-spending day trips.
Tourism officials also say Colorado is falling behind other western states in marketing. The state's tourism promotion budget has remained largely unchanged for a decade and now trails neighboring Wyoming, with California spending far more to attract visitors.
Tourism leaders say the industry isn't in crisis, but they warn Colorado's growth has slowed significantly, raising concerns for mountain towns and other rural communities that rely on visitor spending.
New Colorado law restricts the purchase of semi-automatic weapons
Colorado’s new law, which goes into effect this weekend, restricts the purchase of many semiautomatic firearms and requires people to get a permit before buying one moving forward. People would also be required to take a safety training course and a test.For the Colorado Capitol News Alliance, Bente Birkeland brings us the story.
City council members debate potential ballot amendments
Tensions among Montrose City Council members continued to rise at this week's special meeting. The conflict stems from Mayor Michael Badagliacco's push to place at least two charter amendments on the November 2026 general election ballot. The first would move city elections from April to November of even-numbered years. Montrose has had April elections since 1994. Some municipalities use off-season elections to ensure that participating voters are focused on local issues rather than national politics. An off-season election may allow voters to get to know local candidates without them being drowned out by more highly publicized state- or federal-level races. But the turnout for off-season elections is typically extremely low—and some experts say that the relatively few voters who do turn out for local elections don't accurately represent the overall electorate.
Mayor Badagliacco says the switch would not only improve voter turnout, but also save the city up to $15,000.
Council member J. David Reed expressed concern about the timeline for the ballot measure. "I think this is way too fast. You are rushing to November for no valid reason whatsoever, or at least no validation," he said. "I think we are setting ourselves up to make serious potential mistakes just in ballot language. The unknown, unforeseen consequences. Slow this down. Do it right."
The other ballot measure under consideration during Tuesday's meeting would implement a lifetime 8-year term limit for all council seats. Badagliacco explained that "one of the biggest reasons for this in my mind is it encourages leadership opportunities for new candidates. It also promotes a periodic turnover of elected officials in office and it provides a consistent term limit standard for all the council seats."
J. David Reed immediately opposed Badagliacco. He said he dug through city records and found that only four individuals since 1882 have served longer than eight years. One of those individuals is current City Councilmember Ed Ulibarri.
Towards the end of the meeting, Mayor Badagliacco directed Montrose City Attorney Chris Dowsey to begin drafting ordinance titles for both amendments in case they make it to the ballot, though he did so over strong objections from Councilors Reed and Frank.
