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New Analysis Examines Why Homelessness Is Concentrated in Mesa County
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The Business Times, Approved, Local

New Analysis Examines Why Homelessness Is Concentrated in Mesa County

By Brandon Leuallen | The Business Times Why does Mesa County account for such a large share of Western Slope homelessness? As the Grand Junction City Council debated whether to amend city code to strengthen enforcement of the camping ordinance, questions about shelter capacity and the size of the local homeless population took on new importance. The shelter-capacity discussion is further complicated by the fact the shelter system serves more than just Mesa County residents. Many neighboring communities have either no shelter at all, only seasonal shelter options, or significantly fewer homeless services. The question of whether Mesa County is carrying a regional burden has also surfaced during Grand Junction City Council discussions. During a Nov. 19, 2025, m...
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Commissioner Daniel: It’s Time for Fiscal Common Sense in Colorado
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The Business Times, Approved, Commentary, Local

Commissioner Daniel: It’s Time for Fiscal Common Sense in Colorado

By Bobbie Daniel | Commentary, The Business Times In the business world, there’s one principle that separates success from failure: You can’t spend what you don’t have. If a company tried to launch a dozen new initiatives without funding them, investors would walk, creditors would call, and the board would be out by morning. Yet somehow, that’s exactly how the State of Colorado has been operating. Each year, new laws are passed that sound good on paper but come with no money to make them work. Those costs get quietly pushed down to local governments — and ultimately to taxpayers. We call them unfunded mandates, and they’re the public-sector version of bad business. Here in Mesa County, we’ve been tracking these costs for two years, and the numbers tell the story. This year alon...
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Classroom or campaign: NEA handbook sparks questions in Mesa County
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The Business Times, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Classroom or campaign: NEA handbook sparks questions in Mesa County

By Austin DeWitt | Commentary, The Business Times In the last two months, the National Education Association (NEA) released its 2025 Handbook, the document that sets the goals and priorities for the nation’s largest teachers’ union for the coming year. And then, just as quickly, it was gone. Within 24 hours, the handbook was quietly removed from its website. Why? What was so controversial that it had to be scrubbed from public view? Fortunately, a copy was preserved before it disappeared, and what it contains should give every educator, parent and taxpayer pause. What the NEA Is Promoting The handbook calls for “racial quotas over merit” – a direct rejection of merit-based advancement – and instructs that “all educators must acknowledge the existence of white supremacy culture ...
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Grand Junction says no to climate strings: City declines Urban Trails grant
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The Business Times, Approved, Local

Grand Junction says no to climate strings: City declines Urban Trails grant

By Brandon Leuallen | The Business Times Despite support from the Urban Trails Committee, the City of Grand Junction confirmed it is not pursuing a state-run climate grant that could have required new local policies, including a potential “vehicle climate fee.” At its July 9 meeting, the Urban Trails Committee, chaired by City of Grand Junction Mobility Coordinator Henry Brown, listed “support for Local IMPACT Accelerators grant” as its No. 1 action item. The grant is funded through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program and administered by the Colorado Energy Office. The grant encourages local governments to adopt “transformative” policies that go beyond current state standards in areas such as transportation, building codes, l...
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Grand Junction Zip Line Project Fizzles Despite Lavish Public Subsidies
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Local, Approved, The Business Times

Grand Junction Zip Line Project Fizzles Despite Lavish Public Subsidies

By Brandon Leuallen | The Business Times The Las Colonias Riverfront Zip Adventures zip line, which was launched after initial delays in August 2023, then shut down partway through 2024, remains inactive in 2025. As an anchor business for the $30 million Riverfront development, Bonsai Design, a company that designs aerial-adventure courses and owns the zip line, secured $1.69 million in taxpayer-funded incentives, including payment of development fees, impact fees, land-lease discounts, property-tax breaks and grant support. Bonsai also was entrusted with operating the zip line, adding jobs and recruiting other outdoor businesses to fill the park. The online bookings page for the zip line states: “We are closed for the remainder of 2024. Thanks for a great season and we hope to se...
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Grand Junction quietly pursued $8.45M pedestrian bridge as auto dealer faced eminent domain
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The Business Times, Approved, Local

Grand Junction quietly pursued $8.45M pedestrian bridge as auto dealer faced eminent domain

By Brandon Leuallen | The Business Times Why was GJ Auto Sales selected as the site for the Colorado Department of Transportation’s Downtown Grand Junction Mobility Hub when other nearby options existed, including city and county-owned land? Neither CDOT nor the City of Grand Junction has answered that question, despite multiple requests by The Business Times. However, city records, planning documents, and emails reveal a longer story, one involving years of redevelopment planning, conceptual drawings, and a vision for linking downtown to Dos Rios via a pedestrian bridge and the 2nd Street Promenade.  City Maps and Early Planning City maps appearing to date from before 2021 show the GJ Auto Sales property — the future site of the mobility hub — being converted into park...
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Grand Junction officials question costs and business revenue loss from bike lane project
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The Business Times, Approved, Local

Grand Junction officials question costs and business revenue loss from bike lane project

By Brandon Leuallen | The Business Times Plans 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. Councilmember Anna Stout asked, “So ...
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Property Rights Violated? GJ Business Says City Crossed the Line
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Local, The Business Times

Property Rights Violated? GJ Business Says City Crossed the Line

By Brandon Leuallen | The Business Times This article is a follow-up to “CDOT Sells Used Car Dealer a Lemon,” published June 4 in The Business Times. In that story, we reported about CDOT acquiring the GJ Auto Sales property through the threat of eminent domain for a planned mobility hub. This expanded report traces the project’s timeline, revealing a process — jointly coordinated by CDOT, the City of Grand Junction and Mesa County’s Regional Transportation Planning Office — that began before the property owners ever found out and ended only after the property owners accepted a final offer just before condemnation proceedings could begin. For 22 years, Mike and Amber Martinez had operated GJ Auto Sales from a downtown Grand Junction corner, building up their small family business ...
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State transportation project shutters 22-year-old Grand Junction auto sales business via eminent domain
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Approved, Local, The Business Times

State transportation project shutters 22-year-old Grand Junction auto sales business via eminent domain

By Brandon Leuallen | The Business Times For 22 years, GJ Auto Sales was a fixture in the Grand Junction community, a family-run business operated by Amber Colunga Martinez and Mike Martinez. But now, the lot at 320 S. First St. will be transformed into a state-led mobility hub, part of Colorado’s climate-focused transportation plan. Selling the property to the state of Colorado, the City of Grand Junction and Mesa County due to impending eminent domain has left the couple without enough to financially open up again in a viable location. The Martinezes said they first learned of the Colorado Department of Transportation’s plans not through official communication, but by reading a story in The Daily Sentinel. “We found out about it through the Sentinel posting an article about i...
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