Plaindealer Staff Report
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The Town of Ridgway will elect three council members and a mayor on April 3, Town Clerk Pam Kraft said on Monday. The council posts are currently held by John Clark, Rich Durnan and Rick Weaver, and Pat Willits is mayor.
Willits told the Plaindealer he has not decided yet whether or not to run again for mayor, a position he has held since April 2000. Clark and Weaver told the Plaindealer they intend to run again for the council positions. Durnan was out of town and unavailable for comment. Clark has served successive terms since 2000 and Weaver has been on council since 2008. Durnan was elected in 2010.

By Jessi Marlatt

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In December 2011, SilverLeaf Financial, a Salt Lake City-based private equity firm specializing in buying distressed properties, purchased the luxury golfing community called Cornerstone, which is located between Ridgway and Telluride. The 6,000-acre planned community was obtained through “creative financing” for an undisclosed amount.
Cornerstone is not the first luxury community obtained by the Utah company.
In October, SilverLeaf Financial acquired a $57 million non-performing loan secured by...

Jessi Marlatt

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Denny Merrill has worked for the U.S. Postal Service in various capacities for 23 years, and now he will be transitioning from Ridgway Acting Postmaster to performing “regional service reviews,” which are internal audits to ensure all post offices run basically the same way.
Merrill has worked in the Ridgway and Telluride post offices for the past five years, spending most of that time in Ridgway. He has watched the office here transform from a place people left as quickly as possible when retrieving their mail to a social hub within the community.
“Meeting all the people at the window and making friends is the best part of being a postmaster,” said Merrill. Merrill and his wife Ginny will remain in the area. They own a house on Log Hill and Ginny works for Hazel’s Housekeeping as a manager.
“We love it here, this is our home,” said Merrill, who explained he is being replaced by Renee Rexford from Cattaurgus, N.Y., who has been transferred here as a hardship case. Details of the transfer are not yet available.
Replacements of postmasters by transfers are uncommon but not unheard of. Merrill worked as the “acting postmaster” but officially the job was vacant in the Washington, D.C. books.
“We got a call from Washington last week out of the blue,” said Merrill. “I will continue working for the postal service, and this office will go on. There is a good crew here.”
His last day will be Monday, Jan. 30 when the transfer of authority will take place.

By Jessi Marlatt

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Baked goods and beer will be served under the same roof at Flour Power, the new bakery and bar opening in Ridgway.
“It is going to be a family-run business,” said Amy Madaris, who  opened the new store with her mother, Becky Foulk on Wednesday, Jan 11. The duo is getting a lot of help from their husbands, Roger Madaris and Mike Foulk, who is also Amy’s father. “I have already hired five people to work in the bakery, and my parents will be running the bar most of the time.” The opening date for the bar has been delayed due to paperwork for the liquor license.
Madaris and her mother formed an LLC one year ago and have been constructing the new restaurant and bar for six months. “My husband and I have done most of the work,” said Madaris, as she brushed sawdust off...