Ouray city, Ridgeway and county staff propose shared Localist calendar; cost split sought for 2026

City and town tourism officials and the Ridgeway Chamber presented a proposal on Aug. 5 for a single, filterable countywide events calendar and recommended the Localist platform, asking the Ouray County Board of Commissioners to consider sharing the first-year cost.

Kaylee Roten, tourism and destination marketing director for the City of Ouray, said the idea grew from regional partnership conversations and resident surveys that ranked a consistent community calendar as important (an average 4 on a 1–5 scale from 120 respondents). Roten said a consolidated calendar would make meetings, sports, arts and community events more discoverable and may help reduce scheduling conflicts between nearby towns.

Presenters said they researched eight platforms and tested three closely before selecting Localist. They told the commissioners Localist offers unlimited events and administrators, RSS ingestion so existing feeds can auto-populate the calendar, automated newsletter generation and marketing/SEO features that could increase visibility across the region. Localist’s first-year price in the proposal was $13,500 plus a $2,000 onboarding fee; presenters proposed splitting the annual cost among the City of Ouray, Town of Ridgeway and Ouray County (about $5,392 each for year one, dropping to roughly $4,500 per entity in subsequent years).

County commissioners and staff asked practical questions about billing, long-term sustainability and administration. Localist’s representative said the company typically bills annually but can consider quarterly or biannual payment schedules and draft contract terms that allow opt-out provisions. Commissioners discussed options to minimize county bookkeeping, including having one municipality serve as fiscal agent and using an intergovernmental agreement to document roles, or building the expense into the lodging-tax or tourism budget. The City of Ouray had already expressed support; the town of Ridgeway planned a separate presentation to its council.

No formal appropriation or contract award was made. Commissioners directed staff to work with the presenters to draft an approach for inclusion in the 2026 budget and to explore an intergovernmental agreement or fiscal-sponsorship arrangement that would minimize administrative burden and allow for cost-recovery through sponsorships or featured listings.