April was not cruel to Aspen retailers
Aspen retailers enjoyed a 21.4% surge in total April revenue over April 2018 by hauling in $36 million, according to the city’s most recent sales tax consumption report that was issued last week.
The city couched any enthusiasm about April in the report, noting that the month accounts for just over 4% of the year’s total sales tax collections.
April sales were broken down by the following industry segments:
• Accommodations — $6 million, up 39.3%
• Restaurants and bars — $5.9 million, up 18.8%
• Sports equipment/clothing — $1.9 million, up 11.1%
• Clothing — $2.1 million, up 33.5%
• Food and drug — $3.2 million, up 18.2%
• Liquor — $531,011, up 13.8%
• Miscellaneous — $3.4 million, up 19.3%
• Construction — $5.1 million, up 21.6%
• Luxury goods — $1.5 million, up 151.1%
• Utilities — $4.1 million, down 2.5%
• Automobile — $1.7 million, up 6.7%
• Marijuana — $714,279, up 18.1%
January through April resulted in $305.2 million in sales, up 7.8% over the first four months of 2018, according to the report. Industries gave the following performances for the first four months of 2019:
• Accommodations — $104.8 million, up 10.5%
• Restaurants and bars — $52.8 million, up 8.2%
• Sports equipment/clothing — $24.7 million, up 5.3%
• Clothing — $21.3 million, up 5.1%
• Food and drug — $19.6 million, up 7.7%
• Liquor — $3.7 million, up 4.5%
• Miscellaneous — $18 million, up 4.4%
• Construction — $18.4 million, up 1.6%
• Luxury goods — $12 million, up 31.3%
• Utilities — $18.6 million, up 0.8%
• Automobile — $6.3 million, down 1%
• Marijuana — $4.9 million, up 6.8%
Police took tremendous care to be thorough in investigation versus priest who eventually was cleared
Aspen Police this week released a redacted report detailing the 500 hours of investigation, including interviews of 86 witness and assistance from the FBI, of an ex-altar boy’s accusations from prison in 2021 of sexual abuse by a priest who had served at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in the mid-2000s.
