Rural & Small Communities

The Biden administration is kicking off a barrage of visits to promote federal spending packages like the Inflation Reduction Act – and the rural Mountain West is a big part of the itinerary.

The four cannabis stores, which opened after the passage of a 2016 ballot measure, have changed the fortunes of a town that made repeated losing bets on other commodities before finally hitting the jackpot with marijuana.

Eight Colorado communities will receive free e-bikes. Fort Morgan is hopeful the bikes can benefit its low-income residents.

FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program is in its third year of operation. Montana-based Headwaters Economics recently did an analysis of the most recent round of funded projects and found the “geographic distribution was very uneven.” With some exceptions, many Western states missed out on substantial funding.

A draft report from Colorado’s EMS Sustainability Task Force found that emergency medical services are at risk of disappearing in many parts of the state. They’re facing a lack of funding, staffing shortages and declining volunteerism.

Entrepreneurship is thriving in the rural Mountain West, according to a new index released by the e-commerce company Shopify. The data comes as new business applications are on the rise nationwide.

More and more people are visiting and moving to cities and towns around the Mountain West, drawn by access to public lands and other natural amenities. That brings economic growth – and also growing pains. A new report aims to help communities address the challenges.

As natural disasters strike the Mountain West, rural communities face some barriers to recovery. But they can’t always get their hands on climate resilience funding.

Small towns in the Mountain West are leading the pack when it comes to economic success, according to a recent report by Heartland Forward.

Policymakers in Colorado envision a future with close to a million electric cars on the road by 2030. But before all those electric cars can hit the roadways, we’ll need a way to charge them. That includes in rural areas, not typically electric vehicle hotbeds.