Lori grew up in Fruita as a third generation member of the community. She moved back in 2001 and at the time downtown was very quiet and mountain biking was gaining ground. There was definitely a mountain biker versus everyone else mentality. The local hospital has been helpful in bridging this divide by running ads showing people falling off a mountain bike and a horse and regardless of which it is they are there to help. Their population doubled from 2000-2008. As they grew what helped was having a great land use code in place and they could show people on a map how things were intended to play out. Today people no longer have to drive to Grand Junction to shop and can see the correlation between growth and the amenities that come with it.
She said it was critical to identify community champions like the owners of bike shops and restaurants and then asking them what to you need and what is the community lacking. It is also really important to turn over rocks, get out in the community and speak with people. She said that it has never worked when the city pushed for something-things have to happen organically. A good example is that it was residents rather than the city who pushed for a community center. The city helped them with a feasibility study. It was a dead tie the first time around but the second time they were able to get some of the biggest opponents to come around and they were able to build a 11.8 million dollar facility.
She also shared that sending out a quarterly 2 fold publication to anyone who gets a utility bill has been the best way to keep people informed. When they surveyed the public people indicated that the publication was their number 1 source of information. It has pictures and numbers for council and asks the questions of what do you see? and what can we do better?
Her final thought was having a council who supports the city manager is critical.