Economic Vitality

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A strong economy should reflect the people who live and work here, not depend mostly on wealth that comes from somewhere else. In San Miguel County, that balance has slipped. Too many jobs do not pay enough to support a life here, and too many workers shoulder long commutes so the rest of the economy can function.

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Our economy has long leaned on tourism, second homes, and a small number of major employers. That brings opportunity, but it also brings risk. When so much hinges on a single season or a single industry, one disruption ripples quickly through the whole county. Resilience means more than one season and more than one way to make a living.

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Some of that work is already happening, and the county’s job is to help it along, not to take it over. Our shoulder seasons are long, and they do not have to be empty. Norwood is a certified International Dark Sky Community, part of a region with some of the darkest skies in Colorado, and dark sky tourism is growing fast across the West. That is the kind of asset that draws visitors precisely when our core seasons leave off, and it spreads the benefit to parts of the county that too often watch the economy happen somewhere else. We also have homegrown entrepreneurship worth backing.

 

Since 2013, the Telluride Venture Network has helped 120 companies, supporting roughly 350 jobs and bringing more than 55 million dollars into our regional economy. Those are livelihoods that do not rise and fall with the snowpack. The county does not need to run this work. It needs to be a real partner to it.

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The west end has already said what it needs. In the 2026 West End Vision Plan, residents of Norwood, alongside their neighbors in Nucla and Naturita across the Montrose County line, set out a shared economic future built on local ownership, year-round jobs, and the right to shape growth on their own terms. That plan deserves a county that listens to it and shows up for it. As commissioner, I will treat Norwood and Wright’s Mesa not as the edge of the county but as a full part of it.

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Build a year-round, resilient economy

    •    Support small businesses, the trades, and local employers as the backbone of the county.

    •    Promote a strong agricultural economy and protect the working lands and water that sustain it.

    •    Help fill the shoulder seasons by supporting assets like Norwood’s dark sky tourism that draw visitors when the core seasons leave off.

    •    Partner with the organizations already growing local businesses and year-round jobs, so good local ideas can find footing.

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Stand with the whole county, east end and west

    •    Honor the priorities the west end named in the West End Vision Plan, and align county decisions with them where the county has a role.

    •    Make sure growth driven elsewhere does not export its costs onto Norwood and the west end without sharing the benefits.

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Treat infrastructure as the foundation, not an amenity

    •    Invest in roads, transit, water and wastewater, healthcare, education, and broadband as the basis of a year-round economy.

    •    Conduct a county-wide infrastructure capacity study so growth follows where water, roads, and services can actually support it.

    •    Support backup power for critical facilities, because in a high-altitude rural county, staying running through an outage is economic survival.

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Make work pay and make the county reachable

    •    Adopt living-wage standards for county contracts and use the county’s voice to advocate for fair wages more broadly.

    •    Advocate for state investment in Highway 145 improvements and expanded public transit, because mobility is economic opportunity.