News

• The Bedrock Store Revival
• Telluride Talks the Future of the Transfer Warehouse

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The Bedrock Store Revival

Nestled where the Dolores River meets Paradox Valley, the town of Bedrock is home to just a few full-time residents — and some herds of cattle. A ranching and mining community since the 1800s, Bedrock’s centerpiece is its historic general store. The nearly 150-year-old building has served many roles, and now four new owners are bringing it into its next chapter.

“This is one of the first things we brought to this store. We picked up this piano on our drive down from an old Christian camp up near Salt Lake City. And yeah, we wanted to bring it out here as a symbol of the music we want to play at this place. Here’s our co-owner, Chris Blondeau, the old Henry Miller. You could tell it’s really in tune,” said co-owner Ethan Rainwater.

Along with piano player Chris Blondeau, Phil Allen and Anthony Nead, the store is seeing new life. Rainwater and his partners are from Oregon and have deep roots in New Orleans as touring jazz and dance musicians.

“Colorado is such a vibrant place for live music. It’s kind of like the Holy Grail for a touring band. You know, you can play Denver and all these mountain towns, you know, all over the place, and everybody really appreciates live music out here. So that’s, yeah, we wanted to have kind of a home base out here, on top of that, you know, just giving history a new life, you know, really preserving what’s here before it gets gentrified or taken away. We want to show people that that part of life that is really forgotten, you know,” Rainwater and Blondeau said.

Rainwater bought the store from longtime owner Anthony “Pi” Pisano, and says they purchased it exactly as it was.

“I mean, everything, you know, his notebooks and his reading glasses were still next to the cash register and various, yeah, very Yeah, this place was full of stuff, whatever they were selling. Plus, as you can see, there’s a ton of, like, historical inventory and artifacts from all the years this has been a store,” Rainwater said.

The building is a unique one — once a post office — with a small gas pump outside and room upstairs for an apartment.

“This is, like, almost a museum, or, you know, like, that’s the kind of attraction, historical scene. Back in here is a workshop he had set up. I guess somebody used to fix tires back in here. But this space is a pretty cool little scenario, you know? I think, yeah, serving outlaws since 1881 this was, this was like the speakeasy saloon space, yeah, kind of feel. This might be more of the vibe,” Rainwater and Blondeau said.

Upstairs, they’re in the process of finishing the apartment. Rainwater says they’ll reopen the general store and hope to establish an artist-in-residence program.

“we’ve got plenty of friends that are eager to get out of the city and, you know, step away from, you know, as musicians, we’ve realized the value of stepping outside of our normal reality, to just focus on our creativity, and so providing a space where, you know, people can come out and get some get some fresh air and open space and and, you know, focus on their art. You know, possibly run the store while they’re working on their crafts. You know, writing a book or, you know, working on a body of paintings. Yeah, that’s pretty exciting. And that makes it kind of an exchange with the cities where, you know, some creative persons coming out here, you know, to work on their thing, and bring something interesting into the community,” Rainwater said.

Rainwater says the neighbors have been welcoming, and he and his partners are mindful that they’re newcomers.

“And you know, coming into a community and coming into a piece of history that’s been here a long time and so we’re not like coming in with real preconceived notions of what we’re going to do, this thing that we think is the good, right idea. Like we’re, we’re coming here and listening to people, you know, we’re trying to let the people and the place and the building tell us what it wants to be. The general story is the heart of a small community, and to see this one just sitting here closed was was so sad. And yeah, we’re excited about, you know, the potential of bringing that, bringing that back to life, and making this a gathering space again,” he said.

Rainwater says they hope to have the store open again by next spring — and live music is definitely not off the table.

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Telluride Talks the Future of The Transfer Warehouse

The Telluride Transfer Warehouse may be changing hands.

“Under the existing Planned Unit Development (PUD) the current restoration requirements are scheduled to conclude in 2027. Based on current financial and project realities, Telluride Arts doesn’t see viable path to meeting the scope envisioned in the expanded restoration framework,” Jessica Galbo, executive director of Telluride Arts, told Town Council last week.

Roughly a decade ago, Telluride Arts took ownership of the Transfer Warehouse, dedicated to become an arts center. Since then, the Arts District has raised millions of dollars for the project, and the town has granted multiple fundraising and construction deadline extensions.

Now, the current PUD agreement is set to expire in October 2027, and Galbo says Telluride Arts won’t realistically meet that deadline.

“Unexpected subsurface and structural conditions required extensive engineering, significantly increasing costs and making the original plan financially unrealistic,” she said. “Given that reality this has prompted reconsideration of what type of project is viable, appropriate, aligned with community benefit.”

At last week’s Town Council meeting, Telluride Arts and the town held a frank discussion about what comes next.

Town staff outlined four main options:

Option 1: Telluride Arts retains ownership under the existing PUD.
Option 2: Telluride Arts retains ownership and pursues a PUD amendment for an “Art Park.”
Option 3: The town takes full ownership, including programming, operations and maintenance.
Option 4: A hybrid ownership or shared stewardship model.

From the outset, council members favored the fourth option, under which the town would retake ownership of the building while Telluride Arts would likely operate the space and contribute to costs.

“The community needs to get to the finish line with this project,” Councilmember Elena Levin said. “I think the community will best be served by the hybrid ownership or shared stewardship model, some version of that.”

Councilmember Meehan Fee agreed, saying she wants to reopen the space to serve the community as it did during the pandemic.

“That space was the heart of community. That was a place for people to gather,” she said. “I think we can all work together to get it there quickly.”

Councilmember Ashley Von Spreecken said she wants to balance reopening quickly with meeting community needs.

“I want, obviously, the community to be able to use the space as soon as possible, but I want it to be the most useful to the community simultaneously,” she said.

Galbo said the Arts District is committed to continued collaboration.

“We’re motivated because we know this is a true gem of our community and can be of service of our entire community, and was,” she said. “I think a lot of us (everyone I’ve ever spoke to) really considers it as the beating heart of Telluride and how we can get that in service to our community.”

While discussions remain at the big-picture level, council members said they want to hear from the community about future design and use.

But regardless of direction, the project will come with a hefty price tag. Galbo said rough estimates put the original fully enclosed design at $40 million or more, any covered design at $17 million or more, and a scaled-down open-air design at $8 million to $10 million.

Telluride Town Manager Zoe Dohnal said that if the town takes ownership, the project would still require major investment from Telluride Arts.

“The town has no funding allocated for this resource, and looking into the future of our capital needs it would have to, most likely, be a re-shifting of priorities, should we take on any of these capital costs,” Dohnal said. “So, to the town’s benefit, whoever would be taking over the operations would most likely need to take a large part in the investment of finishing out that space to have it happen in a timely manner.”

Town Council directed staff to continue discussions with Telluride Arts about what a transfer of ownership and future partnership could look like. If the town takes over the space before a potential 2027 default, it would require Telluride Arts to willingly hand it over.

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Screenagers Film Screening to Explore Kids and Screen Time

For better or worse, young people today know how to navigate a screen.

The film Screenagers: Elementary School Edition dives into the risks of screens, discusses how tech time impacts children’s development, and offers solutions to parents and educators on how to help kids navigate the digital world and find balance.

This week, the Communities that Care Coalition, Bright Futures, and the Telluride Education Foundation will host a screening of the film so the community can learn more.

The showing of Screenagers will take place Wednesday, Dec. 3, at the Wilkinson Public Library. Food will be provided starting at 5 p.m., and the movie will begin at 5:30. Childcare will be available.

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Cristina Mittermeier Named Mountainfilm 2026 Guest Director

Cristina “Mitty” Mittermeier will be Mountainfilm’s 2026 Guest Director, the festival announced Monday.

Mittermeier, a Mexican-born fine art photographer, is also a marine biologist and conservationist. Her work explores the intersection between nature, culture, and human connection. She is the founder of the International League of Conservation Photographers and co-founder of SeaLegacy, an organization using storytelling to protect and rewild the ocean.

A two-time Emmy Award winner for her work on National Geographic and Disney+’s The Last Ice and Photographer, Mittermeier said being named guest director at Mountainfilm is “one of the greatest honors of my career.”

The festival noted that as guest director, Mittermeier will bring her “insight, creativity, and energy” to help shape the programming and conversations at the 2026 festival.

During the festival, Mittermeier’s photography will be featured in an exhibition at the Fringe Gallery, and she will participate in presentations and panel discussions throughout the weekend.

The 48th annual Mountainfilm festival will take place in Telluride May 21-25, 2026.

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Colorado Refuses Federal Request to Transfer Tina Peters

The Colorado Department of Corrections says it will not transfer former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters into federal custody, as requested by the Trump administration.

In a statement, the Department said transfer requests must come from the state, not an outside entity. The statement came hours after Colorado’s county clerks reiterated calls for Gov. Jared Polis to reject the request.

Polis has not said whether he supports or opposes a transfer. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and Secretary of State Jena Griswold have opposed moving Peters to federal prison.

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Colorado Climate Center Reports Warm, Dry Water Year

Colorado’s Climate Center recently released its latest water year in review, covering conditions from October 2024 through September 2025. As KUNC’s Scott Franz reports, the year was marked by warm and dry conditions.

Story begins at 12:45.

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Federal Judge Dismisses Tribes’ Online Sports Betting Lawsuit

In October, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Tribes against Gov. Jared Polis and the Colorado Division of Gaming over online sports betting.

The Tribes argued the state violated federal gaming law and damaged state-tribal relations. Clark Adomaitis reported on the ruling.

Story begins at 13:50.