Videos E-edition
Ridgway to grow capacity to fight wildland fires
The Ridgway Volunteer Fire Department's wildland team digs a fire line to help with containment on an assignment. Individual firefighters from the department have responded to wildland fires across Colorado and in Texas, Arizona, California and Alaska since 2022. Photo courtesy Cash House
Main, News
By Lia Salvatierra lia@ouraynews.com on December 3, 2025
Ridgway to grow capacity to fight wildland fires
Additional staff, engine can enhance skills, create more revenue

Ridgway’s wildland firefighters have mopped up hotspots in Nevada, fought wildfire on the front lines in California and protected structures at home in Colorado.

New council’s first task: Fill vacancies
News
New council’s first task: Fill vacancies
December 3, 2025
After soliciting applications, councilors to interview, pick appointments Jan. 5 By Mike Wiggins mike@ouraynews.com Ouray city leaders swore in a new mayor and city councilor Monday night, then turned...
News
Slow start to snow season
Wave of storms helps, but snowpack in San Juans well below normal
By Mike Wiggins mike@ouraynews.com 
December 3, 2025
A series of post-Thanksgiving storms delivered desperately needed snow to the moisture-starved San Juans, but snowpack at the start of December remains well below average in Ouray County and the surro...
News
SEASON OF SHARING
Ridgway Ouray Community Council
December 3, 2025
Editor's note: The Ouray County Plaindealer is continuing its tradition of featuring nonprofit organizations based in Ouray County, serving Ouray County in a series of profiles called Season of Sharin...
News
Snowpack lagging in San Juans
December 3, 2025
A recent series of storms helped boost the paltry snowpack in the San Juans, but the amount of water in that snowpack in the Gunnison River Basin — known as snow-water equivalent — is still among the ...
Letters, Opinion...
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
‘Timeout’ for Padgett sends bad message
By Dear Editor: 
December 3, 2025
We don’t put women in timeout; we put children in timeout. When you put a woman in timeout, you are putting her voice in timeout; telling her to go be quiet and that she should be seen and not heard. ...
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Editor Picks
Governor’s silence on Tina Peters is baffling
Columns, Opinion...
GUEST EDITORIAL
Governor’s silence on Tina Peters is baffling
December 3, 2025
I do not know why Gov. Jared Polis keeps playing footsy with Tina Peters and President Donald Trump. Apparently neither does any other serious individual engaged in Colorado’s election system. Since T...
Letters, Opinion...
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Nauer’s ‘timeout’ idea is a non-starter
By Dear Editor: 
December 3, 2025
Had I not participated in scores of Ouray County Board of County Commissioners' and Planning Commission meetings, that Commissioner Lynn Padgett was elected or appointed to, I may have felt differentl...
Looking Back
News
Looking Back
December 3, 2025
Compiled from the files of The Ouray County Herald, The Ridgway Sun, and The Ouray County Plaindealer 60 Years Ago December 2, 1965 A proposal to trade lands adjacent to the Radium Springs swimming po...
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Remote-triggered avalanche in San Juan Mountains

First responders receive first COVID-19 vaccines

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