The Chamber is ALL about our mountain community. We all live here, recreate here, and bring friends and family in from out of town to experience Evergreen. I know many of you do too!

To help us all, The Evergreen Chamber is developing a community app that you can download from your cell phone app store. It will be called “Everything Evergreen” and should be available in early July. Not only will this help those who come into our community learn about all that it has to offer, there will be businesses in virtually every category, so you no longer must post on Facebook asking for suggestions!

Do you need someone to help you get into your car because you locked your key inside? No worries, the app will have the business name, phone number and all the contact information you need. Have you recently been told by your insurance provider that you are going to be dropped because you live in the foothills? No worries. All the local insurance offices with all their information will be in the palm of your hands. Looking to go for a hike with some friends who are in town? All the trail maps will be accessible from your cell phone.

We are so excited about the possibilities this app will provide to residents and visitors alike including the details for upcoming events and the ability of your favorite restaurants and shops to send you coupons and special event notices. And because we do not want the excitement to end there, we are going to kick off the promotion of this new app with a raffle that will highlight “Everything Evergreen.” Look for prize packages that will combine so many of our amazing local businesses including a package for Girls Day Out, a Family Stay-Cation package, a “Christmas Made Easy” bundle (this will finish your Christmas shopping list before you even get started!), and a “Romance is in the Air” to warm anyone’s heart. Look for more details on this next month.

I know everyone’s calendars are filling up quickly now that our beautiful weather has arrived, so please mark your calendar for Taste of Evergreen to be held at the Evergreen Lake House on Tuesday, September 20. This will be a fun evening of enjoying tastes and sips from all our awesome restaurants, food trucks, pubs and more while enjoying music and visiting with neighbors and friends, all while surrounded by the beauty of the Lake House. Look for tickets to go on sale in August.

Since we cannot talk too much about wildfire mitigation, I want to highly recommend that as you do mitigation on your property to make yourself aware of Colorado’s Income 65: Wildfire Mitigation Measures Subtraction which allows individuals, estates and trusts to claim a subtraction on their Colorado income tax return for certain costs incurred in performing wildfire mitigation measures on their property in a wildland-urban interface area within Colorado. The subtraction is equal to either 50% or 100% (depending on the tax year) of the qualifying costs for performing wildfire mitigation measures. The total subtraction a taxpayer can claim per tax year is limited to $2,500. For more details on this program, please visit: https://tax.colorado.gov/sites/tax/files/Income65.pdf

At the Evergreen Chamber, we are deeply saddened by the passing of Colin Kerr, owner of the Wildflower Cafe in downtown Evergreen. Wildflower Cafe is a member of the Evergreen Chamber and Colin served on the Board of Directors for our Chamber. His passion for this community will be greatly missed.