During Rifle city council’s regular meeting on Sept. 18, the Ute Theater had an economic impact study done by Jeff Engells, a regional specialist from Colorado State University. 

The study was conducted due to rumors and problems that Helen Rogers, the president of the Ute Theater Society, had heard about the theater not making money or the theater not being viable. 

“We needed to validate our concerns,” Rogers said. “That’s why we contacted CSU.”

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The study didn’t look into how much money the Ute Theater makes, but whether or not the Theater is part of the economy in Rifle and if that impact is positive. 

Data collection for this study included theater operations, such as ticket sales, credit card transactions, a survey collection and economic modeling software that helped put all this data together to see if the theater impacts the county, over 16 months of data.

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Part of the impact the Ute Theater could have is through people coming to the theater for an event and then those people going out to get a meal at a nearby restaurant in Rifle. 

The total economic impact the Ute Theater had in those 16 months was $657,070,000 throughout the county. 

“We asked people if they’d be likely, extremely likely, somewhat likely to attend if there were more events,” Engells reported. “60% of people in the affirmative that they would be extremely likely, not just likely, but extremely likely to attend more events if there were more events organized.”

The study, overall, revealed that the Ute Theater was a cultural and economic attraction, that it fosters community, it’s an asset for economic diversity and there are future growth opportunities. 

“I don’t think we’ve ever been negative on the Ute Theater,” said councilor Joe Carpenter. 

Even though the Ute Theater might not be making a profit, the council has never considered closing it and still isn’t. 

“Just from CSU’s perspective, we’re really thankful for these opportunities to work in these communities and when these communities welcome us in, in the same way Rifle has,” Engells said. “The gentleman who conducted most of this research, I don’t believe he’d ever been west of the Loveland ski area, so the fact that he felt welcomed by the community…I can’t say how important that is to us as a University.”

One of the biggest concerns about the Theater that the Ute Theater board has is wondering how to get information about events out to people, as they received answers that said, ‘I would’ve gone if I’d known about it’.

The council spoke about collaborating more with the Ute Theater and supporting them. 

“That’s the interaction part that maybe we can improve upon for sure,” said councilor Clint Hostettler. 

After the Ute Theater presentation, the council was presented with a supplemental appropriations request for the 2025 budget.

“In the general fund, we’re requesting an additional $275,000 for the snowplow freightliner. This was purchased with ARPA money and probably two and a half years ago and just finally was delivered about a month ago,” said Scott Rust, the financial director for the city. “I carried it forward in three budgets and somehow I missed it this last year.”

The second request was about waiving fees related to the Rifle Apartments, where Rifle is moving money, an amount of $788,350, from the General Fund to reimburse other funds, like Parks and Rec, Street Improvement, Water and Wastewater.

These fees, in turn, will get an 80% reimbursement from the state in the form of the Strong Communities Infrastructure Grant. 

“It’s the first time they’ve ever offered this through a grant program,” said Patrick Waller, city manager of Rifle. 

This was approved by the council. 

Last to be approved by the council was an amendment to the municipal code to be in compliance with the state’s code. 

“What they have done is restrict municipalities from regulating unrelated persons in a household,” said Geir Sverdrup, senior planner for the city. “We figure by striking our definition of family, it will bring us in compliance with the house bill.”

Sverdrup said this wasn’t a code they were actively enforcing anyway, because it’s hard to prove that the people living in a home are not meeting the city’s definition of a family.

Carpenter and Hostettler voted no on this code change. 

Rifle also officially welcomed another police officer to the community. Alexx Rice, the newest officer for the Rifle Police Department, was also sworn in during the meeting, after completing his training on Sept. 15 of this year. 

His father, Lance Rice, pinned Officer Rice’s badge. His niece was also wondering why they were not on stage during the pinning.