Western Slope Round-Up: Raising Our Eyes and the Rent

“Up” is our theme this week in Western Colorado. We’ll take a glance at increased expenses, hot new ideas and overlooked details. Maybe the City of Trinidad will have their hopes raised by hitting the lottery, too. Please read on….Mesa County Decides to Salute Colorado
Let’s make some assumptions:

Mesa County Commissioners are patriotic. Check.

Mesa County Commissioners love Colorado. Check.

Mesa County Commissioners fly the flag of the great state of Colorado. Uncheck.

Apparently some Coloradan citizens noticed the missing Colorado state flag at the county building and asked the commissioners why.

From the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel:

At nearly all government buildings throughout the state the two fly together: The U.S. flag with the Colorado state flag below.

County commissioners said they never paid much mind to the flagpole at Sixth Street and Rood Avenue and were surprised to learn, when questioned about the flagpole, that the state flag was absent.

“In fact, I guess I’ve got to ask: Where is the flagpole?” Commissioner Steve Acquafresca said when asked why there is no Colorado flag. “Is there an American flag up there?”

Commissioner Janet Rowland also never noticed the flagpole, which is tucked behind some rather large trees on the southwest corner of the property between Grand Junction City Hall and the county courthouse.

“I don’t know why we don’t fly a Colorado flag,” Rowland said. “I love Colorado, and I love the Colorado flag, and I think we need one at the courthouse.”

Maybe the county government will start looking up in Mesa County.

Renting in Aspen: Priceless
In downtown Aspen at the Mill Street Commercial Center, it’s going to be a little more expensive to be a business owner — about 30 percent more expensive to rent a space for their store. And that’s on top of the $13,000 a month some businesses pay per month already.

That’s a lot of $2.99 “Harry Potter” videos to rent.

The Aspen Times explained:

Business owners have received notices that their new landlords are rais