News

• Prohaska, Wisor Cleared from Ethics Violation in Mountain Village Investigation
• Mars Sucks, According to Craig Childs
• The Box of Anxiety

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Prohaska, Wisor Cleared from Ethics Violation in Mountain Village Investigation

An independent investigation into the conversations and actions surrounding an offer to purchase a portion of the Telluride Ski Resort by former Mountain Village Mayor Marti Prohaska and former Telluride Town Councilmember Meehan Fee, with support from former Mountain Village Town Manager Paul Wisor, found that neither Prohaska nor Wisor violated local, state or federal ethics codes in their actions.

The Town of Telluride hired an independent law firm to conduct its own investigation of Fee. That report is expected to be released within the next week.

Prohaska, Wisor and Fee resigned from their respective positions at various points during the ongoing investigation.

Nick Boeving, a partner at Denver-based law firm Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell, is the lead investigator for the Mountain Village report, which was released Tuesday, June 2.

“The main conclusions we were asked to look at, at least in this report, was whether or not any officer or employee of Mountain Village essentially violated the Town Code of Ethics,” Boeving said. “At bottom our conclusion was, based on the conduct we identified, neither Marti or Paul violated the code of ethics. That was the bottom-line conclusion. We understand the optics may not be ideal, but at bottom, they didn’t violate the Town Ethics Code.”

In addition to a determination on Prohaska and Wisor’s conduct, the report also concluded no other town officials or staff knew of the offer to purchase before it was leaked to the public in mid-January.

Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell’s investigation encompasses more than 300 pages and paints a picture of the events that took place beginning in early December 2025. Those events ultimately culminated in Prohaska and Fee taking a trip to California to speak with Telski owner Chuck Horning, a proposition to purchase a majority portion of the ski resort and the fallout that ensued.

The report stitches together interviews from more than 20 individuals, including Mountain Village and Telluride town councilmembers and staff, San Miguel County commissioners and staff, and individuals close to Horning.

Prohaska, Fee and Wisor all participated in the investigation.

Despite cooperation from dozens of individuals, Boeving noted there were also key players who did not participate. He acknowledged that missing information from those individuals creates a deficit in the full picture.

“Because we don’t have information from them, we weren’t able to weave it in,” Boeving said. “They may have a completely different perspective, or a completely different relocation of what happened. But based on the information we got, I believe our investigation is very accurate.”

Telski owner Chuck Horning, his son Chad Horning, and Chuck Horning’s counsel, Lupe Mendoza, declined to participate. While their personal experiences are not shared, their participation in events is detailed through text messages, emails and accounts from those interviewed.

The report provides historical context to what have become known as the “California Meetings,” including the strained relationship between Telski and the local community and governments, and prior efforts by individuals and groups to purchase the ski resort.

The report discusses a Dec. 5, 2025, meeting with representatives from Mountain Village, Telluride, San Miguel County and Chad Horning, which investigators describe as the “primary event” that ultimately led to the meetings in California and the offer to purchase the resort.

It continues in detail through the four days Prohaska and Fee spent in California meeting with Horning and his staff, the push and pull of negotiations, and the urgency of making a deal as the Telluride Ski Patrol Union strike and resort closure continued to impact the region.

The report spends several pages exploring “Exhibit B,” a portion of the purchase offer that was leaked to the public. The exhibit included a number of promises should the purchase go through, including efforts to broker an agreement with the Telluride Ski Patrol Union, keeping water rates for snowmaking at a set level for the remainder of the season, working to create more employee housing and additional flights to Telluride, investment in capital upgrades at the resort, and an understanding that Wisor would step down from his position as town manager.

The report goes into detail as to why Exhibit B does not constitute improper conduct, describing the promises as vague and noting that neither Prohaska, Fee nor Wisor could guarantee their outcome. As such, the report states, they hold little weight.

In addition, the report notes that because the purchase offer never went through, the outcome of any promise is a moot point.

The report concludes that Prohaska did not “technically” violate the Town Ethics Code, but notes she likely should have disclosed her actions to town leadership, adding that her conduct “did not promote public confidence in the Town government.”

At the same time, the report states it is “more than likely” that Prohaska’s goal of finding a new owner for the ski resort would have been viewed by many in the region as “in the broader public interest.”

Similarly, the report finds Wisor did not violate any ethics code, but likewise should have disclosed his involvement in the matter.

Boeving said he hopes the report gives the community a clearer understanding of what happened and provides a timeline of events.

“I hope the public gains knowledge form our report,” Boeving said. “I hope it’s a fair report. We did our best to be as even handed as we could, based on the information we had. We weren’t trying to draw credibility determinations, or say we believe this version of events, or that one. We just wanted to give the public the information that we had, and we hope it is helpful to the public, and the town can move forward well.”

With the report now public, Prohaska said she remains saddened that the community had to go through the investigation and lost dedicated public servants in the process, but hopes the community can move on.

“I hope we can, as a community, recognize that all the drama and conspiracy theorizing doesn’t lead us anywhere,” Prohaska said. “Those of us that have been in the community a long time, I think, all have our hearts in the right place. I have the utmost gratitude for the outpouring of support I’ve received leading up to now. I’m hopeful that others can begin to rebuild their lives after this, because it’s been really difficult.”

Prohaska said the conversation she and Fee began needed to be had. Where that conversation goes from here remains uncertain.

“I hope that we can continue to work collaboratively towards investing in the ski resort, and investing in our community because we deserve that, and our community really deserves it,” Prohaska said.

Wisor was not available for further comment.

Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell will provide two more reports to Mountain Village on the matter. The second report will publicly share recommendations on improvements the town can make to policies and procedures. The third report will be confidential to Town Council and discuss potential liability the town could face.

Mountain Village will hold a work session to discuss the report and its findings June 17. Boeving will be available during the meeting to answer questions from the community.

The full investigation report is available at townofmountainvillage.com.

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Mars Sucks, According to Craig Childs

KOTO News isn’t here to play favorites when it comes to planetary objects, but …

“Mars sucks. It’s cold. It’s hot. The soil is poisonous. It doesn’t have an electromagnetic sphere to protect it from the sun. I come back and look at Earth and go, ‘Hmm. This is a sweet spot. We are well protected here. We are taken care of,’” said Craig Childs.

Childs is “an interplanetary traveler who looks for craters and canyons and water on this planet and on others”. This week, he will bring the show Mars Sucks! to the Palm Theatre as part of Telluride Theatre’s Fringe Project.

“It’s based on a journey of mine; this is what I do. I go off and have journeys and come back and tell the story,” Childs said. “This is a journey to Mars. Obviously, I haven’t been to Mars — that we know of — but I look for landscapes on Earth that are analogue to Mars. They’re called Mars analogue landscapes. They are physically similar to what you’d experience on Mars. I’ve been traveling in these landscapes for a long time. I look for desolate places, hard places, dry, complicated to get around — I don’t know why, I was dropped on my head as a kid and this is what I do.”

Born from a trip Childs took through Utah, Mars Sucks! is what Childs calls “live cinema” — a narrative journey blending music from musician Beth Quist, storytelling, photos and video.

A writer by trade, Childs said this form of performance allows for a more distilled form of experience.

“I love writing. I love doing it by words, but there are times where I go, ‘I wish you could just see it’ or ‘I wish you could just hear it,’” Childs said. “I want it to pop out in a way that I can’t do it while writing, so I do this. I go up on stage. It’s not 3D, it’s 4 or 5D — I’m not sure how many dimensions there are to it. It’s like watching a movie, except the whole crew is there. The score is being performed in front of you, the narrator is live and improvising with it. It’s different every night. The show kind of creates itself.”

A performance of journey and discovery, Mars Sucks! includes science, but Childs said he ultimately wants audiences to understand the value of Earth in a different way.

“You’re going to come away knowing a lot more about Mars, and come away knowing a lot more about Earth,” Childs said. “In a way it’s more about Earth than Mars. It’s a way of using Mars as a lens to look at our own planet.”

Mars Sucks! will take place at the Palm Theatre on Thursday, June 4, and Friday, June 5, at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at telluridetheatre.org.

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The Box of Anxiety

For years, Wendy Robbins built a successful career as an attorney while quietly struggling with anxiety. Eventually, the pressure became too much, and she left the legal profession and wrote the book The Box: An Invitation to Freedom from Anxiety. She now helps others facing similar challenges.

Next week, Robbins will speak at the Wilkinson Public Library in a presentation titled The Box: How Anxiety, Perfectionism, and People-Pleasing Kept Me Trapped — and the Steps That Set Me Free.

The event will take place at the Wilkinson Public Library on Monday, June 8 at 5:30 p.m.

The session will include storytelling, help people identify their own box, and offer actionable tools.

Rocky Mountain Community Radio’s Maeve Conran spoke with Robbins about the presentation.

Story begins at 11:40.

Maeve Conran (MC): Wendy, tell us about your own origin story around this. How did you come to be interested in this idea of being boxed in by anxiety?

Wendy Robbins (WR): It started really at a very young age. the box was not just a metaphor, but it started with me really hiding in this cardboard box that I started to play in.

then I realized, looking back, it was really more about finding protection, because I was living in my household at the time was volatile at times, and that’s really when my anxiety and my panic attacks started.

once that box was thrown away, I started building these mental constructs that again, metaphorically became this box that over time, really limited my life in many ways, even though at the beginning they had, in terms of perfectionism and people pleasing and overachieving, they had really catapulted me into a very successful life.

what looked very perfect or like I said, successful or high achieving on the outside, was very different than my experience on the inside, which was panic attacks and debilitating anxiety and OCD and depression and even suicide ideation at times, and over drinking and disordered eating to use as coping mechanisms.

this is where the book came from. This is where my new profession essentially started from.

MC: On the outside, it did look like you had it all. You were a graduate from an Ivy League college, you were a successful college athlete, you were a successful attorney. But as you said on the inside, you were battling all of these different issues. what was it that actually brought all of this to a point where you gave up your legal career and entered this space where you’re not just tackling your own anxiety, but helping other people tackle theirs?

WR: It wasn’t even the book.

The book was sort of the starting point where I really revealed myself in an authentic way to bring the world, my clients, my law firm at the time, even my family and friends.

But it was really when I got a stage 2 colon cancer diagnosis the year following the book’s release, that stopped me in my tracks. I had to take that year off to go through surgeries and treatment.

it sounds like the worst possible way to find a turning point in life, right? But it was actually a real gift.

It gave me permission to stop and really consider what my life had looked like up until that point and to really stop pretending and stop performing. really, I think it’s when you’re faced with mortality in this existential crisis that living in any way inauthentically or misaligned with your values, it just doesn’t make sense anymore.

I remember Thinking, and it was even in my book, but it hit harder the next year that my fear of never fully living became far greater than my fear of dying.

that’s when I left my legal practice and really dedicated my life to this mission, to removing the stigma around the mental health conversation and to really start helping people that were struggling in the same ways that I did.

MC: Let’s talk a little bit about this, because on the outside, as we said, it looked like you were achieving everything. these are the metrics of success that are lauded in our society, Successful career, You were a graduate from an Ivy League college, and yet on the inside, you were really struggling. How common is that? what are you hearing from people who’ve read your book, who’ve come to hear you talk? When we as a society celebrate those metrics of success, and yet at the same time, we have these barriers to having real conversations about what the mental health issues are?

WR: It’s extremely common.

When I first released the book, either people came to me to talk about their own issues, or they had someone in their life who were struggling there.

There really wasn’t anybody who wasn’t touched by this type of conversation around mental health issues, anxiety in particular.

I think that it’s not only common, but it’s more visible now, which I think is actually progress.

I think that there was just generations of people, me included, who were trained to achieve their way out of discomfort, essentially to work harder, to accomplish more, to keep moving.

it works for a while because, as you said, our culture is really built around that, this external idea of someone else’s metrics for success.

people are really struggling with that internally because being misaligned with your values or abandoning what your needs are because you think other people’s needs come first, and your value and your worth come from external achievements, these things cause a lot of anxiety. They cause depression.

I think it was something like the pandemic. Another existential crisis where the pandemic doesn’t really care about your resume.

You may be quarantining in a better, more expensive home, but you’re still quarantined.

You’re still thinking about life or death questions.

And I think it was part of the reckoning that is really ‘okay, What is really important? What does success really look like? What are these feel I’m having inside that I can’t deal with without alcohol or some other coping mechanism?’

I think that it’s really opened up the conversation, or maybe even maybe this is the first time people have really looked at their own alignment in terms of their external world and their internal world in ways that they never would have before.

MC: what can people expect at the session?

WR: at the session, it’s going to be part story, part introspection, and part really leaving with sort of that constellation, that map, that personalized map that really reflects the work that I did.

it’s doing the work with you during those 60 minutes to look at your own box, to understand the walls that make up that box and some of the ways, some of the strategies, the mindset shifts that you can bring into your life immediately, to start really deconstructing those walls and what your life could look like on the other side.

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Balloon Fest Glows In Telluride

The 2026 Telluride Balloon Festival will take to the skies this weekend.

Weather permitting, balloons will launch from Town Park on Saturday and Sunday mornings beginning around 6:15 a.m.

The balloons will drift over Telluride in a colorful display.

For those not up early, the Balloon Glo is scheduled for Saturday evening, June 6, beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Main Street.

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Experts Warn Staffing Cuts Could Strain Wildfire Response in West

Fire danger is increasing across the West amid ongoing drought conditions following record-low snowpack, and some experts are raising concerns about the federal government’s ability to respond to wildfires.

Thousands of jobs at public lands management agencies were cut in 2025, including more than one-third of Bureau of Land Management staff and 20% of U.S. Forest Service staff in Colorado.

The Trump administration says it did not cut firefighters at the U.S. Forest Service or Department of the Interior agencies. However, fire experts say the reductions still affect response capacity.

Bobbie Scopa, a retired wildland firefighter and vice president of the nonprofit Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, said federal incident management teams that respond to the largest and most complex wildfires rely on support staff who may have been impacted by layoffs.

“They’re not firefighters, they’re not fighting the fire, but they’re people who come from the agencies who may be recreational folks. They may be timber folks, they may be biologists, financial. They come from all parts of the land management agencies, and they work on these large fires,” Scopa said.

Scopa said that with strain being placed on these teams, some smaller or less experienced firefighting crews could be forced to respond to incidents beyond their capabilities.

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Polis Marks Pride Month With New LGBTQ+ Protections

Gov. Jared Polis marked the first day of Pride Month on Monday with two new measures aimed at strengthening protections for LGBTQ+ Coloradans, according to Lucas Brady Woods with the Colorado Capitol News Alliance.

Both actions focus on conversion therapy, a widely discredited practice that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Polis signed a bill into law allowing victims of conversion therapy to sue mental health providers with no statute of limitations.

At the bill-signing ceremony, Nadine Bridges, executive director of One Colorado, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, said the practice can leave lasting harm.

“For too many LGBTQ people conversion therapy has left lasting scars that often takes years to understand and heal from,” Bridges said.

The new law comes in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against Colorado’s previous ban on conversion therapy in March.

Polis also signed an executive order directing state agencies to ensure no taxpayer money supports the practice.