Current Issue
April 2009 Issue
Cover Story
Rough waters
By Bob KretschmanThe 2-acre back lot of Adventure Bound River Expeditions is quiet and still in February’s frosty air. Life jackets, camping equipment, outboard motors and inflatable rafts are stored away, and vans and buses used to transport customers to the river wait silently for warmer weather and peak flows.
Tom Kleinschnitz, who owns Grand Junction-based Adventure Bound, is waiting, too, to see how many vacationers visit this part of Colorado in a year when the troubled national economy has almost everyone watching their dollars and cents more closely.
“I’m projecting to have a dip…
Articles
On management: So the kid says to me…
By Pat WiesnerSo the kid says to me …
“How much money do you make?”
I told him. Then I told him that it wasn’t quite fair because I was retired and the more interesting question was just how was I still making money when I wasn’t working. “I want to be…
Rundles wrap-up: Suckers
By Jeff RundlesI follow the business news like the news hound I am, and of course the all-consuming recession is beginning to bug me. You get the run-up in the stock market one day on better-than-expected home sales reports, then a plunge the next day because some giant corporation announces poor earnings.…
Colorado Cool Stuff: Vez Sandals
By Eric PetersonAfter designing and developing sandals for Chaco, Steve Chavez wanted to do his own thing. “I found myself going in a different direction artistically,” he says, noting that he’s “addicted to leather and women’s footwear.”
After Chavez left Chaco in 2006, he came…
Colorado Cool Stuff: Vedante Pop Bands, Collars and Leashes
By Eric PetersonAfter a long career as a fashion designer and owner of Los Angeles apparel companies, Barbara Kantor “semi-retired” to Boulder in 1997. The avid walker often took to the Boulder Creek Path after nightfall, but thought most reflective clothing lacked style.
One evening…
Colorado Cool Stuff: PepPods
By Eric PetersonThe minds behind the PepPod, Zach Zeldner and Skip Meador — whose business cards sport the respective titles of “Zookeeper” and “Head Cattle Brander” — met playing soccer in Boulder and discovered tablet-based effervescent drinks on trips overseas.
“Effervescents are really big in the rest of the world,” says Meador,…
Colorado Cool Stuff: The Buffalo Collection
By Eric PetersonJulie Littlefield’s family started commercially herding buffalo on their 8,000-acre Scenic Mesa Ranch in the early 1990s, and then they got into the recreation business by opening the ranch to hunters and anglers. Overnight lodges followed about five years ago.
“We needed furniture,…
Battle of wounded knees
By Lisa MarshallAt age 44, cyclist Scott England has endured no less than 10 surgeries on his knee, shoulder and toes. He goes to physical therapy twice a week, has weekly pain-numbing injections in his joints, and even owns his own ultrasound machine.
Runner Kathy Gebhardt, 51, is on “volume 3” of…
Guest column: Redefining ‘disability’
By Theodore A. OlsenLong ago, I was diagnosed with epilepsy. My seizures were infrequent, brief and mild but disruptive. Thankfully, they have become fully controlled with the help of neurologists and medication. My treated epilepsy didn’t keep me from graduating law school with highest honors, representing employers for more than 30 years or…
Small biz tech-startup: Lightening Hybrids Inc.
By Eric PetersonINITIAL LIGHT BULB:
Brothers Dan and Sam Johnson, formerly chief executive officer/founder and chief technical officer of Loveland’s SA Robotics, teamed with Colorado State University’s Tim Reeser to launch a hybrid car company. Dan sold his equity stake in SA last year and began looking with Sam for a new…
State of the state: April
Manufacturing: Ski-lift builder opens larger plant in Grand Junction
A ski-lift manufacturer that is diversifying into wind-power generation equipment celebrated the opening of a larger factory in Grand Junction in January. Leitner-Poma of America, owned by Italy-based Leitner Technologies, now occupies a new 90,000-square-foot facility on 18 acres in the…
The economist: What’s the definition of a depression?
By Tucker Hart Adams“What’s the probability that the U.S. economy will never recover?” the reporter asked.
There aren’t many questions about the likelihood of an economic event occurring that I can answer with a great deal of confidence, but that one was easy. “It’s zero!” I replied. The U.S. economy has been through dozens…
Vine arts & entertainment: West Elks, the ‘other’ Colorado wine region
By Alta and Brad SmithOne of the prettiest drives in Colorado is on the West Elk Scenic Byway, a gawker’s paradise that loops through mountains and valleys south of Carbondale. On the western loop of the byway, just off 8,755-foot McClure Pass on Colorado 133, is an agricultural area known for its cherries and…
Colorado Cool Stuff: April
By Eric PetersonThe Buffalo Collection
Julie Littlefield’s family started commercially herding buffalo on their 8,000-acre Scenic Mesa Ranch in the early 1990s, and then they got into the recreation business by opening the ranch to hunters and anglers. Overnight lodges followed about five years ago.
Who owns Colorado: Steamboat Springs still has plenty of snow but could use another head of steam
By David LewisIf what you live for is white and fluffy and falls from the sky like manna, you might like Steamboat Springs.
In an average winter, perhaps 250 inches to 300 inches of snow fall on the Colorado mountains. And you will remember how remarkable last year’s snows seemed. Yet we still…
Sports biz: Skin game
By Stewart SchleyAttention, stupid people: You’re invited to a football game Sept. 18 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
You’ll love it. The players are all women, and they’re nearly naked.
Seriously. Can you dig it? Women, panties and full-contact football. Hut, hut, hut.
So high-five your buddy and fire up the Camaro…
Executive edge: Sheila Gutterman & Suzanne Griffiths
By Lynn BronikowskiAs the economy began sinking last fall, phone calls to the Littleton law offices of Gutterman Griffiths PC began rising.
“People who had wide assets were saying, ‘This is a good time to get a divorce because I’d get it cheaper,’” recalls Sheila Gutterman, president and co-founder of the nine-attorney…
Rundles wrap-up: The I-70 mountain corridor mess
By Jeff RundlesLord knows why I even decided to look into what’s being done to fix the I-70 corridor through the mountains.
The traffic problems from Floyd Hill, through the Eisenhower Tunnels, into Summit County and on into Vail have been vexing for many, many years, and I knew when I got…
On management: Kindle vs. The Post (or the Rocky)
By Pat WiesnerJust last week a friend told me, by e-mail of course, that “the use of technologies as an alternative delivery/viewing mechanism is mostly a generational consideration, though the lines are blurring. “I saw a gentleman who was at least in his 80s sitting in Starbucks the other day with an…
Cote’s Colorado: Coming soon (maybe) to a website near you: ”Rocky II”
By Mike CoteWelcome to the printed page, the place where black meets white, where inks meets paper, the format ColoradoBiz uses for bragging rights to a circulation that tops 20,000. We’re reaching thousands more readers every month online at cobizmag.com, where we can track how each story, commentary, blog, video or podcast…
