“Hey Landfill, you malignant festering heap of methane-spewing, planet-warming garbage, Recycle and Compost just ate your leftover lunch!” This summer’s concert series was Ridgway’s first ever zero- w...

Dear Editor: We were getting ready for bed the evening of June 27 when our power went out. Shortly after we received the evacuation alert on our phone. At this point we were unaware of the fire. We lo...

Two weeks ago, the southwest monsoon arrived, bringing relief to these parched landscapes and their residents. Most afternoons since then, Ouray has had measurable rain. But the condition of these mou...

I'm not a Jeep enthusiast or an off-highway vehicle user, but I am a hiker and photographer who cares deeply about our high-country environment. After recent discussions at county commissioners' meeti...

Dear Editor: A word of gratitude: These last days since the Gold Mountain Fire started on June 27 have been hard for us, individually and as a community. During times of strife and difficulty a wise m...

Dear Editor: Thank you is a simple phrase most of us use every day. However, now "thank you" just doesn’t seem adequate for our firefighters and first responders. Thank you for saving our town, our ho...

Dear Editor: On the evening of June 27 my wife, Lori, and I evacuated our home in unincorporated Ouray County and drove to Montrose due to the Gold Mountain Fire. All afternoon we watched from my fron...

Dear Editor: I would like to clarify some points made in the Plaindealer's article, “Following outcry, Ouray seeks gym solutions," from the July 9 edition. First, it was “acknowledged that the city di...

By some stroke of luck or simple habit of missing the moment, I’ve had a knack for dodging disasters around here. A decade ago, I rolled into Silverton for a seasonal job nearly a year after the Gold ...

Dear Editor: While I appreciate the prairie dog problem at the Ouray County Fairgrounds getting attention, it’s a short-sighted view. There are plenty more prairie dogs that will migrate and repopulat...

Dear Editor: I recently wrote to the Ouray City Council asking them to consider an alternative to our traditional Fourth of July fireworks display this year given the significant wildfire risk we are ...

Ouray County remains in serious drought, as it was last month. Most of Colorado’s mountains are in extreme/ exceptional drought; the northern San Juans remain in the severe category. (U.S. Drought Mon...

When I called to inquire about purchasing refurbished newspaper racks, the gal seemed a bit surprised. "We don't sell many newspaper racks," she said. "Most of the calls we get are people wanting to k...

Dear Editor, Before moving to Ouray five and a half years ago, my only experience with a small town newspaper was the one in my husband's home town, population 2,500. If I wanted to know who lunched w...

Dear Editor, Recently a section of U.S. Highway 550 in Ouray County became available for adoption through the Colorado Department of Transportation's Adopt a Highway program. The program relies on vol...

Dear Editor: A huge thank you to our incredible Ouray County Emergency Medical Services and our volunteer Ouray Mountain Rescue Team for taking such good care of me when I took a bad fall last Thursda...

Dear Editor: I was pleased to see an article in the Plaindealer about people exercising their right as American citizens to address their representatives via letters to City Council. It is obvious tha...

We used to be able to say, “Seeing is believing.” Now we’re learning to be more discerning about images and videos we see posted online. We’re counting people's fingers in photos, looking for clues ti...

Dear Editor: I found last week’s article about the letter-writing campaign that influenced Ouray city councilors to block Tamara Gulde from returning to the council after she lost her race for mayor t...

Dear Editor: Two current local controversies are similar and could benefit from consideration of basic behavioral science principles. Both issues involve protection of people and public places from in...