Phil Castle, The Business Times The Mesa County unemployment rate has resumed its downward trend, but still has a ways to go to match lower state and national rates. At 8.3 percent, the seasonally unadjusted jobless rate in Mesa County in July was seven-tenths of a point lower than June and 1.3 points lower than […]
Phil Castle, The Business Times After years of fretting over scary stories about impending financial disaster, investors should enjoy a far happier tale in a return to normal conditions and the prospect for continued stock market gains. In sum, Doug May offers this advice: “Don’t worry, be happy.” May, president and chief investment officer of […]
Phil Castle, The Business Times Leave it to members of a university entrepreneurship club to come up with a creative way to not only raise money, but also promote connections between businesses and students. The Entrepreneurship Club at Colorado Mesa University once again will host Business on the Quad, an event set for 10 a.m. […]
Phil Castle, The Business Times What goes on inside Mesa County public schools is increasingly powered by what goes on outside those schools — the sun shining down on rooftop solar systems. The installation of systems at four more schools is expected to increase to 18 percent the proportion of electricity used by Mesa County […]
Lodging tax collections in Grand Junction have increased on a year-over-year basis for the first time in seven months, although year-to-date collections continue to lag behind 2012. According to the Grand Junction Visitor & Convention Bureau report for July, $140,567 in lodging taxes were collected. That total was not only the largest so far this […]
Phil Castle, The Business Times Sales tax collections in the City of Grand Junction and Mesa County have increased for two straight months. But given what was previously a long downward trend, government administrators hope only that collections in 2013 match those in 2012 by the end of this year. “We’re hoping for flat,” said […]
Phil Castle, The Business Times Doug Simons Jr. and Jim Simons grew up in the family candy business. As children, the brothers boxed products and waited on customers. And when they had the opportunity, they’d invite their friends to join in a sweet binge. But now that they’re older, the brothers have assumed far more […]
Doug Simons can do the math. While hundreds of thousands of people taste the almond toffee and other confections his Grand Junction company manufactures in a given year, that number remains a slim fraction of a potential market counted in the hundreds of millions. So it only makes sense to the president and co-owner of […]
Phil Castle, The Business Times Jon Labrum recalls fond memories of time spent with friends roller skating and bowling — not only as a child, but also an adult. It’s the same kind of memories Labrum hopes to create at a new family entertainment center in Grand Junction with which he’s involved. In fact, Labrum […]
Phil Castle, The Business Times A monster month for real estate activity has improved prospects for continued recovery in the Mesa County market. Large year-over-year gains were reported in July for both transactions and dollar volume, pushing year-to-date numbers for 2013 well past those for 2012. What’s more, the latest numbers reflect declining property foreclosure […]