Buena Vista closed out the year 2020 with a year-to-year increase of 20.7% in sales tax returns in the month of December.

Sangre de Cristo Electric Association’s wholesale electricity provider, Tri-State Generation, filed a plan with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission at the end of last year that states the wholesaler would double its solar and wind resources by 2030.

The decision on exemptions for the lease of the Tennessee Pass Line by Colorado Midland & Pacific Railway Company from line owner Union Pacific Corporation will have to wait, pending consideration of arguments presented to the U.S. Surface Transportation Board in opposition to the actions.

Salida lost a leader and friend with the death of Charles “Charlie” Forster, 72, following a long battle against a type of lymphoma cancer.

A family friend confirmed late Thursday that Mr. Forster, the former president of Collegiate Peaks Bank died peacefully Thursday at his home in Salida.

New construction in Chaffee County dropped slightly, roughly 20 percent during COVID-stricken 2020, with total building permits filed with the county building department last year numbering less than in 2019, 2018 and 2016.

Even during a pandemic, new dining opportunities have developed in Buena Vista, with more coming in 2021.

Speculation over what kind of freight a proposed reactivation of the Tennessee Pass line by the Colorado Midland & Pacific Railway Company has sparked much discussion between different interest groups in Chaffee County and beyond.

Sales tax returns for the town of Buena Vista were up 9.81% in October and 18.04% in November 2020, town treasurer Michelle Stoke said in a memo to town trustees.

One aspect of the 2020 market that is not disputed by the statistics is that demand for real estate remained strong, and prices continued to increase over previous years.

At both ends of the county, the percentage of pending, closed and new listings were remarkably similar, as were the increases in the median closed prices.

As the early phases of work to reactivate the Tennessee Pass Line begin, local and regional officials are voicing concerns about the proposal to once again run trains along the long-dormant track.

The Greater Arkansas River Nature Association released the results of its 2020 waste audit at the end of December, which tracks the trash disposal and recycling habits of Chaffee County Residents.

Better known as “Charlie” to his coworkers and friends, Forster has been involved in community affairs and civic improvements in Salida, Buena Vista and Poncha Springs from the time he first came to the county in 1985.

Better known as “Charlie” to his coworkers and friends, Forster has been involved in community affairs and civic improvements in Salida, Buena Vista and Poncha Springs from the time he first came to the county in 1985.

While many unknowns still linger about the lease of the Tennessee Pass rail line announced on New Years’ Eve, rafting outfitters are concerned about the return of train service on the tracks along the Arkansas River, which have been unused since 1997.

DENVER – The U.S. Small Business Administration, in consultation with the Treasury Department, announced in a late morning press release that the Paycheck Protection Program  will re-open the week of Jan. 11 for new borrowers and certain existing PPP borrowers.

The final day of 2020 brought unexpected news to the Upper Arkansas Valley with the announcement that a rail company was making moves to resume service on the Tennessee Pass Line, renewing the possibility that trains may again travel the rails for the first time in decades.

As the last passenger train headed east departed Salida July 23, 1967, The Mountain Mail reported “a little girl standing nearby started to cry. Another onlooker, a Salidan, said, ‘That’s how we all feel.’”

Stakeholders in a new mixed-use development coming to East Main Street held a ceremonial groundbreaking Friday afternoon for the La Vista development.

A new mixed-use development at the corner of East Main Street and South Court Street in Buena Vista will be hosting a ground-breaking ceremony at 1 p.m., Friday, Dec. 18.

The Heart of the Rockies Chamber of Commerce warned its subscribers about a scam e-mail titled “INVOICE” that appears to have been sent by the chamber on Dec. 10.

LEADVILLE – Bailey-Kent Funeral Home owner Shannon Kent was permanently barred from operating funeral home and cremation services by the Department of Regulatory Agencies on Tuesday.

The Buena Vista board of trustees voted unanimously, to approve the town’s 2021 budget Tuesday night.

Here’s what you missed from the Nov. 24 meeting of the Buena Vista board of trustees:

Medicare Open Enrollment season runs until Dec. 7, and changes that exclude independent pharmacies from preferred pharmacy networks means that the Part D drug plan you used in the past may not be the most cost-friendly option if you are a patient at an independent pharmacy.

Sales tax returns for the month of September jumped by 19.44% compared to the same month last year, according to Buena Vista town treasurer Michelle Stoke.

The Buena Vista Chamber of Commerce will launch its #ShopBVFirst campaign the week of Thanksgiving, promoting local businesses in an effort to get shoppers to spend their money locally this holiday season.

Salida Hospital District Board of Directors heard an update on progess at the Buena Vista Health Center as the project nears completion.

A groundbreaking ceremony at the Railyard development on Sept. 21 marked the first stage of the project’s vertical construction beginning with six residential structures.

The year 1986 was a hard time for Buena Vista. The nation’s economy was in a recession, and the Climax mine north of Leadville, the Arkansas Valley’s largest employer and at one time the largest source of steel-hardener molybdenum in the world, had suspended production in 1982 ahead of closing in 1987.

Sales tax returns are in for July, the highest-earning month of the year in Buena Vista, with receipts rising 8.85% over the same month in 2019.

When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March this year, quickly leading to numerous cancellations of events and state mandates aimed at slowing the spread of the viral respiratory illness, staff and trustees in the town of Buena Vista were concerned about the effect Stay at Home would have on a tourism economy based on getting outside.

Last week, the Buena Vista Chamber of Commerce board of directors announced that events coordinator Melissa Traynham would be stepping up as the chamber’s executive director.

Sales tax returns for June were up by 8.52% over that month last year, according to the latest report from town treasurer Michelle Stoke.

The Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center’s Buena Vista clinic’s expansion will include a decontamination room for patients with infectious illnesses like COVID-19, thanks to a $25,000 grant from the Department of Regulatory Affairs.

Interstate 70 reopened Monday after 2 weeks of being closed east of Glenwood Springs due to the Grizzly Creek Fire.

Permits for building, mechanical, electrical or plumbing work issued in the county in the first half of 2020 are down from last year by 16.44 percent, according to a report from a July meeting of the Chaffee County Board of Commissioners.

“It’s a 2-year phased process, and for us actually its our third go at this one,” said Chip White, the vice-president of CCT. Fiber will reach the town by “going down the county road to going down the Sangre de Cristo Electric easement all the way from Buena Vista to an infrastructure starting point at Mount Princeton Hot Springs Resort, then we go from that point all the way over their utility poles all the way into St. Elmo.”

Valley-Wide Health Systems is set to open its integrated primary care clinic on U.S. 24 Monday, Aug. 3.

Increase is 11.4% above 2019’s record receipts

"Would you rather work from downtown Denver, or would you rather work from downtown Buena Vista? Or anywhere in the area here?"

For Bill Lockett at Collegiate Peaks Realty in BV, that’s a rhetorical question. But it’s a question that many of his clients have been seriously asking themselves after COVID-19 moved many professionals out of the office and into the world of working remotely.

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife commission voted unanimously to raise fees on river outfitter licenses at its meeting last week.

CPW boating safety manager Grant Brown said the fees have never been increased before and have been the same since 1995.