The Economy...

Grand County (where Granby is located) is have some serious economic hard times. I know we all THINK we are having economic hard times b/c our retirement funds aren't worth as much, etc. But in Grand County, which is so dependent on tourism and development, things are bad. I just heard from a friend last night that our City Market (grocery store) had a part-time shelf stocking position open and they got over 100 applicants. I think that number is shocking in itself, until you realize that Granby only has 1,500 residents. My one friend is a Speech and Language Pathologist (currently staying at home with her kids) and she didn't even get an INTERVIEW when she applied to clean the library at night (and I felt bad about Starbucks!). We are feeling incredibly blessed that we were able to get out of there, without even a house to deal with, and that Lance seems to have a stable job that he is enjoying.

On the flip side, for all the complaining that you hear about the economic stimulus package, Lance and I have found it fascinating that we are seeing the direct effects of it in Grand County. For example, Lance's mom is managing the units at The Inn... They rely on seasonal workers in the winter (they are the employee housing for SolVista and Winter Park) and contractors in the spring/fall and partially in the summer. First this winter all the kids got laid off from the ski resorts and tried to skip out without paying rent. Then, because all the major builders in the area have gone bankrupt, we had virtually nobody for the spring, with bleak prospects for the summer. Then all the sudden, our area heard that government contractors were coming in to complete two major projects in our area - one a big water project for transporting water to Denver, and the other one is a "beetle mitigation" project where they are spraying all our trees (our trees are all dying due to a beetle that has thrived b/c of global warming - another interesting story). Anyway, they are bringing jobs to the area and lots of extra people (and since my MIL is such a go-getter, they are all staying in our units at the INN!). And then those people shop at our City Market, eat at our restaurants, etc. No matter your political viewpoints, it is remarkable when something you hear about in theory becomes a reality, especially for a town like ours that really needs it!