Mayor Greg Mikolai - City of Palisade - Full Circle with The Christi Reece Group

Christi sits down with the Mayor of Palisade, Greg Mikolai. Hear how tourism impacts this small Colorado town, the exciting things to do there, and how they are looking to the future.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):


Speaker 2 (00:06):
The Full Circle podcast, compelling interviews
and incredible tales fromColorado's Western Slope, from
the mountains to the desert.
Christy Reese and her team herefrom the Movers Shakers, and
characters of the Grand Valleyand surrounding mountain towns
that make the Western slope theplace we all love. You'll
learn, you'll laugh, you'lllove with the full circle.
Welcome everyone to the FullCircle podcast. I'm your host,

(00:28):
Kristy Reese, and today I amreally excited to have as our
guest, the mayor of Palisade,Colorado, Mr. Greg McLay .
Greg, thanks for being with us.
Yeah , thanks

Speaker 3 (00:36):
For having me here, Kristy .

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah . Um, so tell us about how you got to the
Grand Valley. When did youfirst come here?

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Well, I originally , uh, I was , um, born and raised
in Minnesota. Uh, graduated ,uh, from the now University of
St . Thomas back then. Collegeof St . Thomas. Uh, worked in
the Twin Cities , um, uh, upuntil , uh, 1994. And then ,
uh, job opportunity came uphere in the Grand Valley with

(01:04):
KJCT , uh, um,

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Our wonderful local stations.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yes, I , um, worked there. Uh , originally , uh,
thought that I was gonna usethis as kind of a stepping
stone to, you know, some other, um, larger television market.
But ended up , uh, meeting mywife Kelly , um, fell in love
with her, fell in love with theGrand Valley. We got married,

(01:29):
had two kids, and then I've, soI've made this my home for 30
years. Mm-Hmm.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
. And your background in the film and
television was in the, on theproduction side, correct?
Right. Not in front of the

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Camera. Uh , not usually on this side of the
camera. That's correct.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
. Well, I think you could be on this side
of the camera. Um, and , um,and when did your tenure at CMU
start , because you are now ,uh, a , a professor at CMU for
film and television, correct?

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Well, I , um, in , in 1999, I started working for
Rocky Mountain, PBS , uh, KRMJTV here in Grand Junction as,
again, as a, a producer. Um,and then , uh, there was a very
close association between RockyMountain, PBS and CMU. And so
we moved our studios from WCCCat the time, now CMU Tech , uh,

(02:20):
we moved it from WCCC to themain campus , uh, in , uh,
2011. And that's when TimFoster asked me to start
teaching the video productionclasses for the Mass
Communications Department.
Mm-Hmm . . So Itransferred over from being a
producer to being an instructorand video producer, still for

(02:40):
CMU. I do production work forthem from time to time. And ,
uh, been doing that now since,since 2011. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
So I was actually a film major in school. Uh, it's
been a long time since I'veused any of that, but, you
know, I did , uh, one of myclasses was editing. We were
actually editing tape, youknow, with a splicer and
everything. So that was prettyfun. I loved doing that. But,
you know, back then not everyschool had a film department or
a media department, and now youpretty much have to, don't you,

(03:09):
I mean, video is so pervasivein our society.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Well, there's, there's varying degrees of, you
know, what some , um, programswill incorporate or try to, you
know, have as far as their ,uh, you know, video production
slash whatever, you know , uh,audio production type , uh,
programs , uh, depending uponthe size and and breadth of, of
what they're trying to do. Um,some can be very , um, I , you

(03:38):
know , very straightforward interms of they're just doing
production slashpre-production. In other words,
go out and shoot footage, bringit back and edit. Um , we
actually have a little bit morecomprehensive program in that,
you know, we do the fieldproduction and editing , uh,
but we also have full, youknow, multi , um, camera tv,
studio production, you know,live edit Mm-Hmm .

(03:58):
as some peoplerefer to it. And so, yeah,
we're, we're a little bit more, uh, broad in our, our aspect
of what we can teach at CMU.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
That's great. I love that we have the program there.
Mm-Hmm. . So ,um, that's your full-time job,

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
and , uh, mayor is also a full-time job.
Correct.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
, it seems like it at sometimes .

Speaker 2 (04:19):
How do you balance the two?

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Well, it's actually, you know, being mayor of
Palisade actually doesn'trequire, you know, too much of
my time. Um , you know, as acommunity of 2,500 , uh, people
, um, you know, it's not likeI'm the mayor of Denver or
something like that. Uh, also,we, you know, we have a very
good staff. I mean, between,you know, Janet Hawkinson as
our town manager, and thenthose , uh, people that work,

(04:44):
you know, directly, you know,to, you know, answer to her.
Um, I , I think we have a greatstaff. And so, you know, they,
they bear most of the burdenof, of town operations. Mm-Hmm.
, my job isprimarily to help the board set
policy set direction, you know,and then , um, you know, as
mayor, I guess I'm kind of thefront person Yeah . For the

(05:06):
town.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
And when you first came to the Grand Valley, did
you start living in Palisade ordid you migrate that way? And
how did you come to love thatcommunity so much?

Speaker 3 (05:15):
Well, my , uh, you know, I, I first moved here and
lived in Clifton. And then, youknow, I met my wife, you know,
who , uh, later to be my wife ,um, Kelly , uh, and she was
living in Palisade. And sothat's just where we set up our
home. Mm-Hmm. .

Speaker 2 (05:30):
And when did you decide that getting into
politics might be a good movefor you?

Speaker 3 (05:35):
I don't know if it was a good move, . It
was, well,

Speaker 2 (05:38):
We think it is . We think

Speaker 3 (05:40):
It's, I don't know if it was a good move. Um, what
ended up happening in , in ,um, this is always an kind of
an interesting, 'cause I gotinto it almost in, in a , in a
by mistake or, or almostaccidentally in some ways. Uh,
so in 2009 , um, the GrandJunction Daily Sentinel ran a ,

(06:01):
a article stating that , uh,there weren't any candidates
for District E for the , uh,school board. Now, I knew about
the school board, and I'd hadfriends and other, you know,
involvement with people who hadbeen on the school board over
the years. Uh , but I'd neverthought about running for it
for myself. Well, district D isPalisade and, and , uh, quite a

(06:22):
bit of Clifton. But anyway,there weren't any candidates.
Mm-Hmm. , um, atthe time, Leslie Keesler and
Harry Butler were runningunopposed and their districts,
and I think those would've beenthen C and and D. But there
wasn't anybody running an E.
And I said, okay . I talked toKelly and said, you know, our

(06:44):
sons are in school, you know ,uh, one would've been in still
, uh, elementary, the other onewas in middle school. You know,
we , you know, we , we want toset an example for them that,
you know, if you want things tochange or be better, you need
to get involved. Mm-Hmm .
. And so withthat in mind , uh, I threw my
hat into the ring. You know, wetalked it over and said, yeah,

(07:04):
okay, I'll, I'll run for theschool board. Uh, so we went
from zero candidates to threebecause of the article. So
there ended up being two othercandidates, but I prevailed in
2009, was elected to the board, uh, was reelected in 2013. I
did serve as the school boardpresident for four of those
eight years. Mm-Hmm .

(07:24):
. And then whenMike was term limited in 2017,
a good friend of mine inPalisade, Rick Fox, talked me
into running for the townboard. And so I ran for the
town board in 2018. And then ,uh, my good friend Roger
Granite, who was , at the timemayor, was term limited, so he

(07:45):
talked me into running formayor. So I keep getting kind
of talked into some of this . Uh , however, I did
get even with Rick Fox, 'causeI talked him into running for
the town board this year, andhe was, he was elected as a
board of trustees member.
Perfect.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
Well , did you, when you were on the school board,
did you find it more work thanyou expected or about what you
expected? I mean, I , you know,I think it's a, it's a huge
commitment to get on , uh, aboard like that.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
There was

Speaker 2 (08:11):
A lot of consequences.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
There was, you know, it's interesting because it
was, it was , uh, the, the ,the involvement tended to be in
clumps. So, you know, my time,you know , uh, tended to be in
clumps in terms of, of how muchtime I had to put into being a
board member. Um, come June andJuly, you wouldn't even know

(08:33):
there was a school board,hardly anything was going on.
Then of course, school was out.
Um, then you'd start gettinginto some of the budgeting
issues. And that took some time, uh, as we would go in in
October and November. Um, thenonce you hit January and
February, there wasn't muchgoing on. And then you'd start
getting into the MVAnegotiations portion. Mm-Hmm .

(08:54):
of the year. Andso, yeah. You know, you're ,
you , your time involvement hada lot of , you know, kind of
hills and valleys of it. So,

Speaker 2 (09:04):
And, and how did that differ once you became a
town trustee?

Speaker 3 (09:10):
Um, again , uh, the involvement as a , as a trustee
member or as mayor, again,tends to be fairly, you know,
up and down. Uh , uh, right nowwe're in the budget process,
so, you know, there's a littlebit more involvement at this
point. But again, I think oncewe get into, you know, December
and January it begins , it dipsoff quite a bit, and the summer

(09:34):
months tend to be a littleslower. So I'm not nearly as ,
um, called upon to, to spend mytime doing town business.
Mm-Hmm.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
with , for those people that think
they might want to get into ,uh, a government position , uh,
what do you think makes a goodtown trustee? What do you think
the qualities are that somebodyneeds to be thinking about?

Speaker 3 (09:56):
I think the first thing is to , is to, you know,
really evaluate your own reasonwhy you want to be a board of,
you know , a trustee oractually , you know, to serve
on any board Mm-Hmm.
, whether it beschool board, whether it's a
city council or a , you know,board of trustees, anything
like that. A county commission,planning commission, any of
that. What is your motivation?

(10:18):
If your motivation isself-serving, then you're not
gonna be a good board member.
Mm-Hmm. , youknow, if you're doing it
because you're trying to getsomething out of it for
yourself, whether , um, it'syou're basically just trying to
stroke your own ego, or maybeyou have some agenda that's
going to benefit youpersonally, you're not gonna be
a good board member. Yeah. Andyou're gonna find that the ,

(10:39):
you're gonna have a lot offrustration and conflict. And
so that's the first thing. Ithink anybody considering
getting into some type of, in ,you know, municipal involvement
or municipal government orgovernance , um, they really
do, they need to, to firstreally sit down and evaluate,
why am I doing this? Agree . Ifyou can say, I am doing this

(11:00):
for the betterment of thecommunity , uh, the betterment
of the people that I live with, organization. Yeah . Mm-Hmm.
, then yes, youshould get involved , uh, if
you've got it, because, well, Iwant to change the zoning codes
so that I can get a differenthouse built or, or, you know,
my piece of real estate mightbecome more valuable, then

(11:21):
you're not, you're not gonna bea good board member, and you're
gonna, you're gonna end up inconflict.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
I agree. I think that's true. Um, so as you're
in your second term as mayornow, correct. What , uh, what
do you think are the biggestchallenges facing Palisade now?
And we'll talk about successestoo, but what do , what are you
facing right now , uh, thatyou're working on?

Speaker 3 (11:44):
Well, as I think with any municipality,
especially, you know, dependingon, on, on size, you know, it's
always gonna face the issues of, um, infrastructure. Mm-Hmm.
, you know, I , Iwas speaking with somebody here
the other day, and I , youknow, I , I stated quite
clearly that , um, you know,the, the main function of a
municipality, town, city,whatever it is , is to provide

(12:07):
services to its, you know , uh,citizens. And that is streets,
water, sewer, those are thefirst three mm-Hmm .
, you know , thatshould be at the top of the
list and should always be apriority. Um, with that in
mind, that costs money.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
So, you know, there's, the, the , uh, I
always think of the , uh,mercury seven astronauts, when
I think about some of this withthe Mercury seven astronauts,
in terms of what was going onwith the space program in the
late fifties, early sixties,you know, had the philosophy
that no bucks , no Buck Rogers,they understood that as , um,

(12:43):
you know, they weren't justpilots, they were also
promoters. They needed topromote the program so that
they could get the funding toput these spaceships up and
into the atmosphere or beyondthe atmosphere into outer
space. Um, so with that inmind, I think in, in some ways,
what we have to do as a boardis that we have to look for

(13:07):
ways to promote , uh, economicdiversity, economic development
within the town of Palisade sothat we can expand our tax
base, our, our revenue base toprovide those basic services to
our citizens. Mm-Hmm.
,

Speaker 2 (13:23):
Uh , it's a pretty small community, as you
mentioned, 2,500 people.
Mm-Hmm. . Um ,you've got a lot of small
acreage properties around, andyou've recently , um, made some
decisions about density andlarger density projects.
Mm-Hmm. in thePalisade region. Can you talk
about that a little bit?

Speaker 3 (13:38):
Well, we, we , um, went through and , and redid
our comprehensive plan,finished that up about a year
ago. Uh, we had not had areevaluation of our
comprehensive plan since 2007.
So it was, you know, well timedto , to look at that and see
what the community wanted us todo. And so obviously we did the

(13:58):
whole thing of communityoutreach and engagement,
getting people,

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Did you get good participation?

Speaker 3 (14:03):
I think , I think we had very good participation.
Mm-Hmm. . And oneof the things that you , that
came out that was, you know, Ithink, you know, front and
center of the whole thing waswe do not want high density
development in the town ofPalisade. And so we just went
through and we did change ourzoning codes to basically knock
down some of our high density ,um, zoning prior to this was,

(14:26):
was pretty, I think, I thinkoverly large, especially for
communities such as ours. So Ithink it was well timed that
we, we looked at thatreevaluated and , and , uh, got
the density into, into the, youknow, to the realm that the,
the , the town wanted. Mm-Hmm.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
, because a lot of people felt
that those kind of high density, um, projects might change the
character of your community.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
And that's part , that's what really came out
within the comprehensive plan,was just how important it was
to maintain and preserve thepersonality and , and character
of the town of Palisade. Uh, weare a small town and we want to
remain a small town. Um, we,you know, obviously we , we
like our festivals. Werecognize at times that

(15:12):
sometimes the festivals can bea burden, but they are an
economic driver for whathappens in the town. Uh, we are
, uh, most of our economic ,uh, you know , uh, progress.
I'll say our , our , our , our, you know, what we, we, where
we derive a lot of our , uh,revenue for infrastructure is

(15:32):
from tourism. Mm-Hmm .
. Whether it'ssomebody coming in for the
festivals, whether it'ssomebody coming in for , uh,
the fruit , uh, you know,coming in for peaches, whether
they're coming in for thewineries. Yeah . Whether, you
know, whether they're coming infor some kind of , uh, you
know, outdoor activity,palisade plunge or something
like that. Or just, you know,enjoying the river or enjoying

(15:53):
just the area. They do tend to,they, you know, a lot of that ,
uh, the revenue that we derivethrough our sales tax is from
an outside source and fromtourism. Mm-Hmm.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
. And how do you continue to grow
economically in such a smalltown when you don't have a lot
of development potential? I, Idid read that you were thinking
about some light industrialopportunities for the region.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
Well, I think the one thing that I, I've been
trying to, you know, stress,you know, from my own opinion,
I will say that, you know, andagain, this is something when
you're working with a board ofseven people, you know, I am
just one board member, youknow, one opinion out of seven.
Um, you know, we need to cometo a consensus of what , of
what we think is best for thetown of Palisade. And, you

(16:44):
know, in my own opinion, Ithink we need a little bit more
economic diversity. Mm-Hmm.
. Um, I, I thinkwe're a little too dependent on
tourism. You know, what ends uphappening is about , you know,
you get into end of November,beginning of December, and all
of a sudden your business isjust dies off. Mm-Hmm.
, you know, andthen if we talk to the
restaurant owners, you know,and again, I try to keep in

(17:06):
touch with them or try to talkabout how things are going.
They'll let you , they'll tellyou that, you know, January and
February, there's hardlyanything going on. Mm-Hmm.
. And then , uh,you know, things start picking
up again. Starting somewheremiddle of March, maybe
beginning of April, things willstart picking back up again.
Well, that means that for atleast 25% of your year, you

(17:27):
don't have a very strongeconomic base. Um, and so I
think I've been trying to see,or, you know , hopefully, you
know, get some , uh,opportunities for a little bit
more economic diversity. Um, wedo have some places where , uh,
light industrial or some othertype of , um, nont tourism type

(17:51):
, um, businesses could, youknow, exist in the town of
Palisade. It's, you know, and ,uh, I would hope that , uh,
maybe at some point we candevelop that idea so that , uh,
again, we don't have thiscomplete downturn in our , um,
our tax base for, for , for 25%of the year.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Palisades such unique community , uh,
geographically, as you comeout, you know, down the
Colorado River and the Canyonopens up and you've got the
great , um, growing , um,season, all the crops that you
grow out there, it's alsoconsidered quite an artist
community. Mm-Hmm.
. What's yourkind of, your elevator pitch?

(18:33):
Like when, when you go placesand people say, tell me about
Palisade. How do you describeit? What do you love about it?

Speaker 3 (18:41):
Um, I love the , you know, I , I do love the
character and , and , andpersonality of Palisade. I love
that it was, that it is a smalltown. Um, but it's a, it's a
small town with bigopportunities. You know, the ,
you know, I grew up in a , in a, a small town in southern

(19:01):
Minnesota that a small farmingcommunity and same size, 2,500
people. And, you know, youwould go into my hometown on a
Friday night, and basicallythey've rolled up the streets
and it didn't matter what timeof year, , you know,
there was, I think we had a onerestaurant that was

(19:21):
sporadically open, I'll put itthat way. Mm-Hmm .
. Um, you did nothave the distilleries or the
wineries or the brew pubs likewe have in Palisade. So, you
know, it's interesting for meto see kind of that , um, that
difference that Palisadepresents in that , um, you
know, we've got , um, some verygood restaurants. Yes.

(19:44):
Excellent. In Palisade. I mean,you know, and again, I'll
probably get, somebody's gonnaget mad at me for not , they're
gonna think I'm skipping 'em ,but I'm gonna try , you know,
so you have Pesh. Yeah . Youknow, Fidel's. Yeah . 3, 5, 7.
Fantastic. 13 bricks. Yep . Um,and I , somebody's gonna get
mad 'cause I'm probablyforgetting somebody as far as
the

Speaker 2 (20:02):
Wine Country Inn,

Speaker 3 (20:03):
You've got the wine country Carolyn's at Wine
Country Inn , uh,

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Great , great pies right there around the corner.
And pies up in East OrchardMason, east

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Orchard, Mesa . Um , you know , and , and again,
you've got a slice of life.
Yeah . , slice of life, such a good bakery. That's
with Yeah. Mary Lincoln. With,with that. She does , you know,
she's been doing that for aslong as I've been there, and
she does a great job. Um, sothey're , they're , um, oh,
that , that Berry cup that theyhave Oh, yeah. Which is really

(20:31):
good. And , uh, you know, andalong with that, yes, you have
the Brew Pub , um, theDistillery, which is like a
nationally, you know,award-winning, you know,
distillery with their, withtheir brandy and , and their,
their vodka. You , um, have,again, the wineries, I mean, so
you have all of this activityand all, you know, all of this,

(20:54):
the , this, these interesting ,uh, uh, aspects of Palisade
for, for a town of 2,500 is,is, you know, very quite
remarkable. Mm-Hmm .
. And yet we'renot, you know , you look at
something like a ure , youknow, and how Ure economy works
and what, you know, 'causethey're extremely tourism

(21:15):
driven

Speaker 2 (21:16):
And fairly seasonable seasonal, although
the , um, the Ice Park hasgiven them a pretty decent
winter season.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
It , uh, yes. But, you know, I remember going into
UA on I , like on New Year'sEve for one time, my, my wife
and I went, well, we're gonnago to URE and stay there for
New Year's Eve , uh, one time.
And and you would've thoughtthat there was, there was only
six people in the entire town.
Yeah. You know, and , andagain, it's interesting how
things like that work. Uh,whereas, you know, Palisade,

(21:45):
you know, even though we dohave a down season , uh,
because of some of theattractions of the restaurants,
I mean, people come in fromfruit in Grand Junction to go
to Yeah . You know, some ofthese restaurants or to come
out to the pub.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
It's, it's , um, it's a unique situation in
Colorado because many of oursmall towns are so remote and
Palisade retains that smalltown feel. And yet you have a
pretty big population to drawfrom. Oh , I love to go out
there for a meal or just anafternoon or the farmer's
market. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
Oh , yeah. And of course, yeah, we're in the
midst of Farmer's Market. Uh, Iwas just there yesterday and I
think there must have been atleast close to 3000 people ,
uh, I bet out there . So outcourse , you know, the peaches
are, are now available. And soI think you have just people
showing up from all over thestate or even, you know, Utah,
whatever, and they're coming into buy peaches. And so we had

(22:36):
just a very large throng Mm-Hmm.
barely , uh, moved there on, onMain Street and third at times,
because just the number ofpeople that were coming in and
enjoying the , the farmer'smarket, you know, the other ,
the and the fact that thatFarmer's Market is , um, has
has consistently rated in likethe top 10 nationally.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
How's it really? Oh , I didn't realize that.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
Oh, yes. We've actually , uh, like USA today
poll, there's one time wefinished third, another time we
finished seventh. Uh, there's acouple other , um, polls that
where we've finished in the top10. So, you know, and then of
course, we've got the best ofthe West coming up, and we are
nomina, you know, we're, we'replacing, you know, how that
goes with, you know, they ,they, okay, yes. You're gonna

(23:22):
get at least third place. SoMm-Hmm . And we've done, that's
been consistent for years nowwith Best

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Of the West, well deserved. I mean, when I go out
there, I, I get some kettlecorn , and some
tomatoes, and some berries andsome earrings and some clothes.
I mean, you can get a littlebit of everything. That's
really wonderful.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Well, Sarah Fina does a great job , uh, you
know, with that. I mean, shehas it very well organized,
very well , um, set up so thatpeople just have a very good
experience with the wholething. And, and I can't say
enough about how, how wellshe's done. And again, that
gets back to, you know, it's,it's easy sometimes being the
mayor of Palisade because staffis doing all the work and

Speaker 2 (24:01):
People are just patting you on the back.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
Yeah. They , they , they , they want to credit me
with it. But, you know, it'sreally, it's , it is people
like Sarafina or with our, youknow, with our festivals and
what Troy Ward does in terms ofsetting up River Bend Park, so
that those festivals canreally, you know, thrive. And
so yeah, we have, we just havegreat staff out there . And so
again, it's, it's easy to to ,to do.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
Well, that's what it takes is a , a good team behind
you, but a good leader as well.
. Um, so we , we saidwe're gonna talk about some
successes. So obviously yourfestivals. You have Peach
Festival Wine Festival,bluegrass Festival,

Speaker 3 (24:39):
Lavender Festival, lavender Festival , uh,
honeybee Festival. Mm-Hmm .
, um, you know,yeah, we have a , you know, we
do the , uh, uh, old, you know,old fashioned Christmas, we do
that, you know, come, you know,in , in beginning of December.
Um, so, you know, we have a lotof, of different activities
like that. But again, we try tomake sure that we balance that
out so that the localpopulation doesn't feel like

(25:01):
they're overwhelmed withfestivals all the time. I , you
can get a little burned out onit and you can burn out your
staff. So, you know, severalyears ago we made an effort to
really look at the calendar andsay, okay, these are weekends
when we know we're not gonna doa festival. We are , we're not
gonna have anything going on.
Keep

Speaker 2 (25:19):
It open, ,

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Keep, you know, keep, these are, you know, we
like blackout dates, I guessyou would call it. So we went
through and said, okay, we'reno festival this weekends and
that type of thing to really,you know, make sure that A, we
don't burn out the citizens,and b we don't burn out the
staff. Mm-Hmm.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
, I know I talked to Matthew Breman
from , uh, who's the mayor inFruita , and we talked about
something similar and, and thatit was really important to
address the needs of thecitizens first, and then the
tourists makes you , if nobodywants to live there,
, what kind ofcommunity do you have?

Speaker 3 (25:50):
Well, you know, and again, it is, you , you have to
strike a balance with it, youknow , you know, we have to
recognize that, you know, thefestivals are important to us
because they are an economicdriver. And without that
economic driver, we wouldn't beable to provide the services to
the citizens who live thereyear round . Mm-Hmm .
. So, you know,again , you , you , you try to
strike that balance so that,you know, we can, we can have

(26:13):
the revenue that we need forinfrastructure and yet not
overwhelm our population with afestival every other weekend or
whatever it would be.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Mm-Hmm.
, does Palisadehave enough lodging rooms to ,
uh, satisfy the needs duringall of your festivals?

Speaker 3 (26:27):
No.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
. Is that a concern? I know you , um,
, I mean, obviouslypeople don't have to go too far
to get to Grand Junction orClifton , uh, to get a room. Uh
, but you also have a , um, astr a pretty strict policy on
Airbnb, correct. And overnight.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
Oh, yeah. I , so, you know, we do have a limit of
20 , um, you know, vrbo, youknow, only 20 should be our ,
our license are permitted tooperate within the town limits.
Um, you know, we, obviously, wehave Wine Country Inn and
Spoken Vine. Mm-Hmm.
. And those aregreat, you know. Oh, wonderful.
Wonderful. You know , um,motels and, and hotels. Um, but

(27:04):
again, I think we could usemore rooms. But again, I, I
would like to see it in, youknow , terms of like a boutique
Yeah . Motel or slash hotel.
Um, something that isn't , uh,you know, like one or two
people, but something that canaccommodate maybe more like 15
to 16 rooms. Mm-Hmm .
. And there's acouple of locations that, that
could be viable, that wouldwork really well for that. It's

(27:26):
just somebody who needs , uh,to uh , just take a look at it
and say, yeah, this will be avery good business opportunity.
Mm-Hmm. to comein and, and build something
like this. There's a couple oflocations up at the interchange
of 42, exit 42. Uh, there's acouple of other ones out on the
highway, just out, you know,just on the outskirts of, of
town. I think there's a lot ofopportunity in those lines. Um,

(27:49):
just somebody has to pull thetrigger on it and , and , uh,
you know , decide to do theinvestment. Okay.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
Listeners, viewers , .

Speaker 3 (27:56):
Yeah. There's a business opportunity there. So,

Speaker 2 (27:59):
Other successes. How about your, your state of your
healthcare , uh, facilities inPalisade?

Speaker 3 (28:05):
Well, we're very proud of the clinic that we,
you know, completed , uh, abouta year and a half ago. Um, that
was a great partnership betweencommunity hospital and the town
of Palisade. Um, the, How thatcame about is, you know, I ,
I've known Chris Thomas andworked with him on, on many

(28:25):
things over the years, and hegives me a call and says, Hey
Greg, now that you're mayor,you know, this might be a good
opportunity to talk abouttrying to start a clinic up.
'cause we had not had directmedical services in the town of
Palisade since about 2002. Wow. And Dr. Hoisington , uh,
closed up his clinic inPalisade, moved his operation

(28:46):
into Clifton, and then fromthere he moved it from Clifton
to , uh, the clinics on 28 anda half or quarter row . So, you
know, it'd been, you know, 20years. And Chris Thomas saw an
opportunity to benefit thecommunity and benefit Community
Hospital by starting a clinic.
And so we kind of drove aroundand we had the old high school,

(29:12):
Palisade High School was there.
And he, he said, well , whatwould it take to tear that
thing down? I said, well , youthink about remodeling. And he
said, no, I think we'd want totear it down and try to use
that property.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Was it occupied at all at that time? No.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
The only thing that was ever in used was the
gymnasium. Mm-Hmm .
. So the storybehind that, and it's always
kind of interesting how thingscan come back to bite you . One
of the first things thathappened in 2009 was I was ,
uh, elected to the school boardwas , um, Steve Schultz, and
I'll blame him for this. Thesuperintendent at the time, he

(29:47):
came up to me and said, Hey,Greg, you know , uh, the school
district is thinking of sellingthe high school , uh, in
Palisade, the old high schoolto the town. And I said, for
how much? And he said, for adollar. And I said, we are
getting the best out of that uh , knowing the state
of that pa , you know, theuhhuh of that old

Speaker 2 (30:05):
Asbestos,

Speaker 3 (30:05):
I'm sure. And the building, everything and
everything that was going on.
It was interesting. 'cause mystepson , um, actually utilized
that as a middle school at onepoint. He went to sixth grade.
They, they had , they were socrowded in Mount Garfield
Middle School, they had to findanother location. So what they
did is they had sixth gradersgoing to the high school. Wow .

(30:25):
And it was, yeah . Veryinteresting. He just had to go
across the street to go , uh,go to school every day .
Anyway, so, you know, we sellthe , the high school to the
town. The town a couple ofyears later invested close to a
million dollars to renovate thegymnasium. Beautiful
renovation. But of course,there was the other parts of
the building that you justcouldn't use. We had actually,

(30:48):
it was walled off, so youcouldn't even hardly access 'em
. So when this came up withChris, we looked at it what it
would take, and it cost us like$1.8 million to tear down and
remediate the asbestos of whatwe kind of called the 24 Wing
and then the 48 wing. Mm-Hmm .
. 'cause thoseparts of the, the original wing

(31:09):
was built in 1924, and then inthe thirties , um, part of the
WPA and CCC programs, that'swhen they built the gymnasium.
And then later on in , in 1948is when they built the , the
part of the high school thatborder , or that paralleled
seventh Street. Mm-Hmm.
. So we, you know,looked at it, and it did, it

(31:32):
cost 1.8 million, but wefortunately we, to build the
actual clinic , uh, we received, um, a million dollars from
the , um, I guess it would bepart of that build back better
program. Um, Senator , uh,Bennett put that in as part of
a , you know, the targetedspending or I can't remember

(31:52):
the phrase they actually used.
Yeah . And so Senator Bennett ,um, was able to procure a
million dollars for us forthat, for the building. And
then the county was able to ,um, procure a million and a
half . So we built it for twoand a half , and then now we
lease it to community hospital.
And it's been a very, you know,it's, it's a , a productive use

(32:13):
of a site that we just didn'tknow for years Yeah . We , we
were ever gonna do with it. Andso it , it has really turned
out to be a great, greatopportunity and a great, you
know, benefit to the Town ofPolicy . And wonderful. Chris
Thomas. Uh , he updates meevery now and again on how
things are going. And he saysthings are going great. Good.
He loves having that clinic outthere. And

Speaker 2 (32:32):
It's a good looking building. I haven't had the
chance to go inside, but itsure looks nice.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
It does a very, it is very nice. In fact, I just
had a doctor's appointmentthere recently. It's beautiful.
Inside and out.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
Um, another great success , uh, under your tenure
has been , uh, bringing fiberto Palisade. Correct.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
How

Speaker 2 (32:51):
Did you get that accomplished?

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Well, you know, we had two of our board members
really, you know, kind of tookthe burden and really tried to
run with it. And that was EllenTurner. And Nicole Maxwell ,
uh, really wanted to kind oflead, you know, the efforts to
do that. And so they weremaking contacts at the state
level. They were going to , um,different conferences and
meeting people and finding out,you know, what, what was

(33:15):
available, how we could do itand , and what would be the
best way to do it for the townof Palisade. And so we have,
you know, through that, theirefforts. Uh, we started a , a ,
a partnership with Region 10,and Region 10 does the fiber
for Delta and Montrosecounties. And so they're , you
know, very, you know, efficientand, and proficient in the

(33:38):
fiber business. We were able toprocure some grants from dola,
department of Local Affairs.
Mm-Hmm. . Um, wewant to thank Dana for that one
. And so we were ableto , to get the money and, and
get the , uh, the , uh, effortsput together to install fiber
throughout the community.
Excuse me. Um, so with thegrant money in Region 10, we

(34:02):
were able to build our middlemile from the interstate , um,
through to our , uh, what'sthey call a carrier neutral
location. And , um, that isn'tlit up yet. We're actually, so
a deeply digital and clearnetwork. So deeply Digital did
the infrastructure of theMiddle Mile and some of the
other infrastructure. And thenkind of their sister company,

(34:24):
clear Networks finished thelast mile of the fiber in town.
Uh, right now they have a , uh,contract with a different
entity providing the internetservice. Uh , but once that ,
uh, fiber is lit up along theinterstate and connects in at
Exit 42, then we'll actually beusing C Dots fiber for our

(34:45):
internet services. Okay. And soit , it clear networks and ,
and deeply Digital did a greatjob and they put in that fiber
and they did it in a hurry. AndI've got it .

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Wonderful.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
And it's, I think we're the only one of two small
communities in Western Coloradothat's an eagle are the only
ones who have fiber. Mm-Hmm.
. So we're, welove it.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
That's

Speaker 3 (35:08):
Great. Great for business, and it's just great
for the citizens. Yes. It'sinteresting running for mayor
for my second term. You know ,when I ran the first term,
that's when Covid was there. SoI couldn't really get out and
canvas and do the electionnearing the way I would like
to. But this time around I wasable to get out, knock on
doors. I think I knocked on ,on just about every door in

(35:29):
Palisade running forreelection. And I, you know,
got to talk to people and learnwhat you know, you know, and
it's always nice to do that to, to get a , a better idea of
how the community is going. Andit was interesting how many
people actually were workingout of their homes. Mm-Hmm.
and reallyenjoyed, or really more
appreciative of that fibercoming in. 'cause with our, you

(35:52):
know, our economy today is sodependent upon communication
and being able to interface,you know, over vast di uh ,
distances and fiber helps out aton.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
Yeah. Amazing. Great job. So Greg, right now you're
working on improving the , um,bike ability if , if that's a
word of palisade and improvingsome bike lanes and things like
that.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
Yeah. Uh, again, one of the things that came out of
the comprehensive plan was, youknow, to have more multimodal,
you know, opportunities,pedestrian bike. Um, so right
now we're in the process ofacquiring the properties or
the, you know, the, the , thatnecessary to have a , uh,
continuous sidewalk multimodal, um, stretch on Highway six

(36:42):
from the high school to theriver. And so right now we
have, it's completed up toaround Lincoln or Logan. And
then once we get this lastaspect, then we'll be able to
complete it, you know , sowe'll have it, you know, all
the way up to the high school.
Mm-Hmm. , uh,we're also working on , um,

(37:02):
doing, you know, more a , anice multimodal , uh, pathways
from Exit 42 all the way downto the highway along Alberta.
Mm-Hmm. . Andthat'll be actually be on both
sides. So it'll be, it's a ,you know, it's a , it's a big
project. It's about a milliondollars, but it's well worth it
to, to, you know, give thoseopportunities. Again, that's

(37:23):
one of the main functions of amunicipality. Mm-Hmm.
is that type ofinfrastructure.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
And , um, any other projects that you're working on
right now on the , you've gottwo years left in your term, is
that right? Four. Oh, you juststarted That's

Speaker 3 (37:36):
Right. I just got it reelected here.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
That's right. 24.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
So three and a half, we'll say three and a half .
Um, you know , the , the , thebig thing that we're, we're
working on, and this has been,you know, a project that I was
introduced to , uh, uh, comingin as a board member in 2018,
and that was our , uh,wastewater hookup with Clifton
Sanitation District. Mm-Hmm.

(37:59):
due to , uh,C-D-P-H-E, you know,
requirements and restrictionsand , and regulations. Our open
lagoon system is no longerviable for treating wastewater.
So we, you know, I came in in2020 and I think that's really
about the only true agenda itemI had in 2020 is we have to

(38:22):
find a solution for ourwastewater treatment. We knew
that we would have todecommission 'em by 2027 the
best. And really the onlyviable option for us was to
create this pipeline of aboutfive and a half miles going
from the town of Palisade intoClifton Sanitation District.
It's a big project. We're inthe process there of design. I

(38:46):
think we're about 30 or 40% ofdesign. We are acquiring the
easements and right of waysthat we need Mm-Hmm .
and I myself hopethat by fall of 2025, we will
actually start construction onit and complete, depending on
which engineer you talk to, somewhere late 2026,

(39:08):
early 2027.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
That would be great.
I mean, obviously that's , um,it's not the the shiny thing,
but it's one of the mostimportant things, right?

Speaker 3 (39:18):
Yeah . And again, it's , it's about service .
It's , it's about, it'sproviding the basic services
that citizens need within amunicipality. Mm-Hmm.
water, sewerstreets . Mm-Hmm.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
. Well , uh, I think anybody that
lives in the Grand Valley feelsan affinity for Palisade,
whether you live out there ornot. I, my, both my kids went
to Palisade High School. Oh .
And I kind of feel like I, youknow, I'm a resident there in a
way. I , I loved going outthere all the time. And it's
just a beautiful place to live.
And I love , um, thecollaboration that the three

(39:50):
communities in our valleyyou're having. I think , uh,
you all have spoken about thata lot. How you, you all have
different personalities, butyou all collaborate so that
everyone's successful.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
Well, you know, one of the things that I'm actually
kind of been trying to promoteagain in terms of economic
development is I think we needto look at it as a whole and
not as the parts . Um, youknow, you have Fruita , you
have Grand Junction, you havePalisade, you have
unincorporated Mesa County.
Mm-Hmm. , you'vegot four elements here within

(40:20):
the Grand Valley. And so if welook at that as all like a
cohesive community and howsomething that benefits Fruita
also benefits Palisade. Yeah .
What benefits, Palisadebenefits Grand Junction, what
benefits, grand Junctionbenefits, Mesa County , all of
it, we're all intertwined. Weall kind of work here together.

(40:41):
And so I I, in some ways Idon't, like , I almost prefer
the phrase as opposed toPalisade or or I
almost prefer to use the phraseGrand Valley and that we are a
part of the Grand Valleycommunity. And it's, it's also
gets to that idea of economicdevelopment. And, you know,
when we look at where some ofour economic development occurs

(41:04):
within the Grand Valley, Ithink it's almost becoming a
little too centralized. And ifwe aren't careful about how
that works, at some point, thatperimeter around that
centralized, you know, economicdevelopment Yeah . Is going to
start to , um, suffer somedetrimental effects to its
infrastructures. And so, again,we have to realize that a lot

(41:27):
of the, like just the tourismalone, and if you talk to
anybody involved with, youknow, economic development and
economic wellbeing of this, theGrand Valley, we'll tell you
that tourism is a big part ofthat more and more all the
time, more and more all thetime. And that means Fruita and
Palisade quite extensively. Youknow, fruit has got the great
bike, you know, mountain bikingout there. Um, Palisade has got

(41:51):
the fruit, the wine, you know,we all have, you know, the ,
the river for all intents andpurposes begins outside of
Palisade and ends well nearLoma Uhhuh ,
we'll go to Loma ,we'll say that before it , you
know, hurries off to, to Utah.
So, you know, when you look atit, we are all part of that.
And if the infrastructure ofthat perimeter Fruita or

(42:16):
Palisade or you know, moreoutlying areas of
unincorporated Mesa County, ifthe , the infrastructure of
those, those parts of ouroverall community start to
deteriorate at that point, it'sgoing to start affecting
tourism. Because I, and I'llput it sometimes a little more
colorfully than I'll do here.
Nobody wants to visit a crapheap. I put it a different way.

(42:40):
, I'll let you fill inthat blank. Nobody wants to
visit a crap heap. Mm-Hmm.
. So with that inmind, I think we need to all
look together and, and worktogether in terms of economic
development. So that it's thewhole, in terms of how our
infrastructure looks for thecitizens and for those coming
into this valley,

Speaker 2 (43:00):
None of the communities is an island.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
No, no. I , I , you know, this, that's the other
fascinating thing about the ,the Grand Valley. I mean,
again, I, you know, I , Icompare it to where I grew up
in , uh, Southern Minnesota.
You had the little, my littletown of Wells, Minnesota, 2,500
people. And I grew up in a ,um, county called Faribault
County. And you had a lot oflittle, you know, communities,

(43:24):
farm communities around it ,Brion , blue Earth, keister,
interesting little town ,keister, Minnesota. Um ,
actually it was in a hemorrhoidcommercial , the town
was actually highlighted in a hemorrhoid
commercial. Perfect. And wewere all very separate, even
though we, I mean,geographically we're all fairly
close to each other, but weall, we're all very set , you

(43:47):
know, separate entities. BlueEarth was no further away from
my hometown of wells inPalisade is from Grand
Junction, or Fruita , in fact,in some ways was even closer.
And yet there was not thiscooperation effort or thinking
in terms of working togethercollaboratively. You know, so
the Grand Valley is a communityunto itself of 150,000 people.

(44:12):
It's a metropolitan area whenyou take in and , and
encompassed what encompassesall of this. And so, again, I,
I think we, we all need to worktogether to make sure that as
economic , uh, uh, developmentoccurs and economic
opportunities presentthemselves, that it reaches,
moves , reaches throughout theGrand Valley. Mm-Hmm.

(44:33):
. And it doesn'tbecome so centralized that it's
really only helping oraffecting, because at that
point, you'll start gettingthat weird decay that can occur
on the perimeters. Hmm .

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Interesting. Thank you for that perspective, Greg.
Appreciate it. Well , yeah,

Speaker 3 (44:50):
We'll see if actually anybody listens to
that one, .

Speaker 2 (44:53):
I think they will.
I'm always pleasantly surprisedhow many people tell me they're
listening and watching, so, oh,good. Um , really happy to have
you here today and talk aboutPalisade. It's a great place to
live. Great place to visit,great place for dinner,
shopping, everything. Lovegoing out there. And um, thanks
for your leadership.

Speaker 3 (45:10):
Alright , thank you Christie , for having me here
today. You

Speaker 2 (45:11):
Bet. Thanks to Greg Mlai , mayor of Palisade,
Colorado. This is Kristy Reeseand we'll see you next time on
the Full Circle podcast. Thanksfor listening. This is Kristy
Reese signing out from the FullCircle Podcast.