Before I moved to the US I had always read and watched movies about small towns in America. I listened to John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen sing about life in small towns. Our family vacations were always spent up and down the east coast. Small towns like Wildwood NJ, Ocean City MD, Myrtle Beach SC and even Saranac Lake in upstate New York. We would rent a home or stay in small motels for a couple of weeks and just enjoy the slowness and closeness of life in a small town.
When I moved to Wheat Ridge and shared my excitement about the town and Colorado itself, I was very quickly warned “not to tell anyone about this”. “This”, being an amazing secret with incredible weather and mountains that went on forever. “This” turned out to be the worst kept secret. The world was listening and soon enough Colorado was one of the top destinations for relocating Americans.
Many residents here in Wheat Ridge believe the population has exploded in our little town. In fact, since its inception (1969), the city of Wheat Ridge has fluctuated between 29,000 and 32,000 residents. As far as “we’re not a small-town anymore” comments that I heard at our Gazette booth at the Carnation Festival, look around and see who else has a 56 year town fair that brings in 30,000 people over 3 days, a 66 float parade lead by our Mayor down Main Street right on 38th Ave. All organized by a group of volunteers, headed by a local business owner. This is as small-town as you get.
“But Guy, the money that’s being spent is not small town money.” Now there are definitely some symptoms of a big city. The long traffic lines, the 17 million dollar budget for a new Anderson pool and another 82 million dollars for a new city hall. If that doesn’t scream BIG I don’t what does, but it’s not all bad. These are big numbers indeed, but they simply don’t represent who we are. It’s not about serving more people but in fact providing more services to about the same number. Our aging population needs more services and so do growing families and essentially the additional amenities that include a park service, rec centers, storm drains, etc. need more money than ever to staff, update and maintain the type of lives we lead right here in Wheat Ridge. Don’t get me wrong, we absolutely need a new Anderson Pool, it is, and has been an essential ingredient to our amazing community, but 17 million dollars for a swimming pool is absurd.
It’s a small town when people get riled up over a petition or a self serving diversity committee, candidates that still knock on your door for a conversation and perhaps your signature to support their run for council or the mayorship. It’s a small town where neighbors still talk face to face and even raise chickens, although I hear that we should be tucking our roosters out of sight with the city considering poultry gender banning within city limits. But that’s for next month. Right now we are Wheat Ridge, small town, big hearts!
As always, thanks for reading.
