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After hiatus, a rally for high school baseball in Ridgway
Feature, Main...
After hiatus, a rally for high school baseball in Ridgway
Sporting nearly 30-year-old jerseys, pilot junior varsity team takes field, aims for long-term viability through fundraising
By Lia Salvatierra lia@ouraynews.com 
April 15, 2026
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect when Ridgway School District last had a baseball team, given updated information provided by Ouray County Baseball after the story was published. Ridgway High School’s 1997 baseball jerseys are having a comeback season this spring. The school’s new, pilot junior varsity baseball team is sporting them after a surprise discovery. The vintage unif...
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News
County renews water lease for fourth year
By LIA SALVATIERRA 
April 15, 2026
Ouray County commissioners signed off on an agreement Tuesday to lease and help pay for backup water to support the county’s irrigators for a fourth year. The lease secures a 2021 no-call agreement be...
News
Ditch users, county at impasse about culvert
By LIA SALVATIERRA 
April 15, 2026
A group of ranchers from the West Arm Ditch Company is refusing Ouray County’s offer to reinstall a faulty culvert this year if the water users pay for the materials, saying they shouldn’t have to pay...
News
News
Sex assault trial delayed for third time
By Mike Wiggins 
April 15, 2026
The trial for a man charged with sexually assaulting a then-17-year-old girl in Ouray County in 2023 has been postponed for a third time. Nate Dieffenderfer is now scheduled for an eight-day trial sta...
News
Planned EV chargers move to Visitor Center
By LIA SALVATIERRA 
April 15, 2026
During an April 8 meeting, the Ridgway Town Council agreed to move a charging station planned for the Ouray County 4-H Event Center and Fairgrounds to town property next to the Ridgway Visitor Center....
Looking Back
News
Looking Back
April 15, 2026
Compiled from the files of The Ouray County Herald, The Ridgway Sun, and The Ouray County Plaindealer 60 Years Ago April 14, 1966 The city-wide revival meeting underway this week at the Chipeta Theatr...
Features coverage
Good for you!
Feature
Good for you!
Ridgway Knowledge Bowl team wins second place at state competition
April 15, 2026
The Ridgway Secondary School Knowledge Bowl team placed second in the 2A state competition, held at Aims Community College in Greeley on March 16-17, a two-day competition with 11 rounds of questions....
Calendar & Events
Calendar & Events, Feature...
Calendar & Events
April 16-30, 2026
April 15, 2026
Thursday, April 16 Community book club, noon-1 p.m. at the Ridgway Public Library. Bring lunch and discuss "The Gales of November" by John U. Bacon. Saturday, April 18 Contra Dance with live music fro...
A valley of broken promises and bitter water
Columns, Feature...
A valley of broken promises and bitter water
By Carolyn Snowbarger 
April 8, 2026
For anyone driving the lonely stretch of Colorado Highway 141 through the West End of Montrose County, the sign for “Disappointment Valley” usually prompts a chuckle or a sympathetic sigh. It sounds l...
Calendar & Events
Columns, Feature...
Calendar & Events
April 9-23, 2026
April 8, 2026
Thursday, April 9 Adult craft night: making earrings out of old books, from 5:156:30 p.m. with the Ouray Public Library in the San Juan Room of the Ouray Community Center, 320 Sixth Ave. Sign up requi...
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Editor Picks
Letters, Opinion...
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Padgett must put needs of county ahead of own
By Dear Editor: 
April 15, 2026
Dear Editor: There is a need to acknowledge the recent revelations at the special Ouray County Board of Commissioners meeting March 30, where Commissioner Lynn Padgett first denied, then admitted to s...
Letters, Opinion...
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Padgett’s health issues impact county functions
By Carolyn Dresler 
April 15, 2026
Dear Editor: I read with concern and consternation the lead article in the April 2-9 edition of the Plaindealer relating to the March 30 public Board of County Commissioners meeting that resulted in t...
Letters, Opinion...
MTN Lodge shirking responsibilities to town
By SUE HUSCH 
April 15, 2026
Dear Editor: The full page ad in the April 9-15 edition was interesting to me. In very large print we were given the town manager's email address, and told he and the Ridgway Town Council are out of l...
Letters, Opinion...
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Free recycling? Hardly the case on Log Hill
By Daryl Gardner 
April 15, 2026
Dear Editor: Free recycling? That’s funny right there. We live on Log Hill and have Bruin Waste for trash and recycling curbside pickup. We don’t always have a lot of material to recycle each week. So...
Lou Ella Femia
Obituaries
Lou Ella Femia
April 15, 2026
August 30, 1938 – April 3, 2026 Lou Ella Femia, 87 – beloved wife, stepmother, and grandmother – of Ouray, Colorado, passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home during the early hours of Friday, A...
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First responders receive first COVID-19 vaccines

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