Gio Mendoza’s coworkers thought he was missing for more than an hour. Emergency dispatchers were scrambling to get in touch with him. They had no idea the Ouray County sheriff’s investigator was stran...

A Ridgway woman is proposing the town give "creative" residents a monthly, unconditional cash payment to encourage them to stay living and working in town. Ridgway resident Tia Mihelarakis proposed a ...

Ouray County Commissioner Lynn Padgett voted against a minor change to the county's new cost-savings policy, citing unclear language as the reason she canceled her attendance at a statewide conference...

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to accurately reflect the county's disaster fund balance heading into 2026. Ouray County commissioners approved the county's 2026 budget during their regul...

The Ouray School District is looking at calendar options for the next two years, and officials are considering feedback from a survey of parents, staff, students and the community to help its decision...

Ridgway is ready to adopt its largest budget ever for 2026, after its council decided how much funding it will grant to 20 community organizations. During a Dec. 3 budget workshop, town councilors agr...

Ouray County commissioners agreed to grant Wolf Cattle and Land Co. temporary access to plow snow on County Road 7 to complete a wildfire mitigation project. The ranch will receive a right-of-way encr...

Outgoing Ouray County Clerk and Recorder Cristy Lynn has issued a recommendation for her replacement when she leaves her role in January. Lynn sent a letter to county commissioners formally recommendi...

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. Since the Ridgway Fire Protection Dist...

Ouray County is performing triage on its 2026 budget as 2025 revenues are coming in lower than expected, placing even more pressure on the county’s general fund savings. County leaders have been worki...

Ouray city leaders swore in a new mayor and city councilor Monday night, then turned their attention to the council’s most pressing issue: Finding and appointing two more councilors to fill out the ra...

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...

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...

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 ...

The Colorado Department of Transportation plans to lower the speed limit for traffic along a half-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 550 north of Ridgway, near a section of road where the highest number of ...

A cautious Ouray City Council approved a $16.8 million budget for 2026 on Tuesday, leaving a handful of vacant jobs unfilled and slashing capital projects in anticipation of a potential economic downt...

Both Ridgway Secondary School and the Ouray School District have adopted guidelines for students to use artificial intelligence, joining the first wave of schools in the state to do so. Lining classro...

Anyone can become the victim of fraud. In Ouray County, one person lost $17,000 after being coerced into setting up a series of bank transfers. Property owners were duped by a home builder who created...

An article on Page 6 of the Nov. 20-26 edition incorrectly reported the Ridgway Town Council's votes on a new anti-idling ordinance. The ordinance was approved 5-1, with Councilor Michelle Montague vo...

An estimated 100% of potential firsttime homebuyers in Ridgway and 93% of those in Ouray County cannot afford to buy an average-priced home. Those are among the most striking findings in a housing nee...