July 22, 2024 • 39 mins
Christi sits down with Fruita Mayor Matthew Breman and City Manager Mike Bennett to talk about all the exciting things happening in Fruita, Colorado right now! They also talk about growth, city planning and more in this month's Full Circle Podcast.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Speaker 2 (00:06):
The Full Circle podcast, compelling interviews
and incredible tales fromColorado's Western Slope, from
the mountains to the desert.
Christy Reese and her team herefrom the Movers Shakers, and
characters of the Grand Valleyand surrounding mountain towns
that make the Western slope theplace we all love. You'll
learn, you'll laugh, you'lllove with the full circle.
Hello everybody, and welcomeback to the Full Circle
(00:27):
Podcast. I'm your host, ChristyReese, and I am honored today
to have as our guest, MatthewBreman and Mike Bennett from
the city of Fruita . Matthew isthe mayor, Mike City Manager.
Gentlemen , thank you for beinghere.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Thanks for having us.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Yeah, thanks for
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Having us. We love Fruita . Yeah, we really do.
What a great , uh, town it is.
And , uh, it's a town or acity? City. It's a city of
Fruita . Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Just about 14,000 people. Mm-Hmm..
Speaker 2 (00:53):
And that encompasses what area?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Uh, 6.8 square miles, and we go from the south
side of the interstate, the cocapelli area , uh, a little
further east, and then all theway to, it's kind of jagged.
It's not a perfect square, but, uh, it's 16 road. And then
how far north do we go?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
About L Road.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
L Road. Okay. And then it's un unincorporated
Mayes County that's right abovethat. Yeah. Lots of development
going on in Fruita . Um, how doyou feel about development ,
uh, north? It's something weneed, we need more housing. Um,
it's , is it a , a double-edgedsword or what's what's your
thoughts on
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Development? I , I have my own thoughts. I'll let
you go first though.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah. I would say that the development that's,
that is occurring right now isall within a , a planned , uh,
area. Mm-Hmm . ,that's called either within the
city limits or within thecity's future growth area . So
we've spent a lot of yearsplanning and , uh, in 2019, we
engaged over 4,000 of ourresidents to update our
(02:01):
comprehensive plan that led tohow we grow, where we grow.
Mm-Hmm . andrevisiting the previous decade
old , uh, comprehensive plan.
And so we're seeing, we've madespecific changes related to the
feedback from the community.
That's wonderful. And we'reseeing the fruits of those ,
uh, code changes immediatelyfrom apartments in the downtown
(02:23):
area. Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
That's super exciting. Uh ,
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Yeah . We have, you know, affordable or workforce
housing , uh, near the newelementary school, and we have
single family homes , singlefamily attached detached. So ,
um, it's all been planned. Theinfrastructure is planned for
that growth to fill in to thoseareas. So I always often say
it's like a coloring book, andit's zoned for certain types of
(02:47):
development, and we're seeingit happen. But we grew from
2008 to , um, or , uh, let'ssee, we , we grew from 98 to
2008 and like double digit ,uh, percentage growth rates
year over year. And we'veaveraged 1% for about 10 years.
And we're hovering in that 2%right now.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
2% growth in your population every year.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
But there's 1200 homes , uh, on paper under
development. So it can take 5,7, 10 years to build out. But
to answer your question, is ita double-edged sword? Yes. We
need the housing, we needworkforce housing, we need all
of that. Um, but we also wannamaintain kind of a small city
feel the hometown feel.
(03:31):
Everybody gets to know theneighbors, and trying to
balance that growth with thefeel of fruita and still
respect the agricultural rootsthat are there, but yet
understand the needs of ourgrowth. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
. I ,
I think every municipality
struggles with that to someextent. Right. Keeping the
character of the town and notlosing that charm , uh, but
providing for the people thatwanna live there. 'cause lots
of people wanna live in Fruita.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
It's a cool place to live.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
It's a cool place.
And it's not just mountainbiking, right? No. What do you
love about Fruita ?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Um, love the music.
A lot of live music going on infuta. Um , Thursday night
concerts are my favorite.
Mm-Hmm . lovegoing down there. You get to
see your neighbors. That's kindof what I consider more
hyper-local events. Mm-Hmm .
, you get to seea lot of people, you know,
that's probably my favorite.
Uh, I am starting to get intothe biking scene more. I've
(04:26):
kind of drug my feet gettinginto it, but I , I , I just
bought a new bike the other dayand jumping into that one.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Right . Does it cost more than your car?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
No.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
. Okay. Good
. They say
Speaker 3 (04:37):
A trend , but you're asking the wrong question ,
which is the cost of the car,cost of the bike. .
That , that's probably myfavorite. Um, you know, I love,
you know , going to the grocerystore and you go to get one
thing and you know , it can be45 minutes. Mm-Hmm .
. 'cause you justrun into people, you know, and
you have all those sideconversations and you find out
(04:57):
how people are doing. And Imean, that's the joy of it.
Mm-Hmm. ,
Speaker 2 (05:01):
What do you think, Mike? What's your favorite
things about Fruita ? Yeah. I,
Speaker 4 (05:04):
I love the people.
Uh , the people are sopositive. Love the area I
lived, my dad was in the Army,so I grew up all over the
country. And I, it was, it wassuch a welcoming community, and
I felt that for the last 10years. Um, obviously the access
to the outdoors is so easy.
It's, it's so easy toincorporate in , into your life
(05:26):
and not have to plan a trip.
You know, you can get out andhike. I love to hike. Um , we
love to camp. My family and I ,uh, we love to mountain bike.
Uh , there's a lot of wateropportunities now, even more
than there used to be. Um, butI , I'm with Matthew. I love
the Thursday night concerts. Uh, it's a , it , it's just, and
we've added other hyper-localevents, like the movie nights
(05:47):
in the, in the park in the falland things like that, because
it's just, it's fun to be withpeople. You always see people,
you know. Uh, and it's, it'sreally positive, positive. Of
course, we have, you know, the,the tough things we have to
work through as a community.
But , uh, people have a lot oflove for living in Fruita , and
that's a lot of fun to be apart of, not only working, but
(06:08):
living in the community.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
And I will say, as you know, we have an office in
downtown Fruita . The businesscommunity is so welcoming. I
mean, like, roll out the redcarpet. It was, it's been
really wonderful. Um, speakingof business is the commercial ,
uh, center , uh, andinfrastructure and, and the
businesses that are therekeeping up with the , uh,
(06:29):
growth in the population.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Yeah ,
Speaker 3 (06:33):
They are. And , uh, there's been a lot of new
growth that's happened. Thefarm, I don't know if you've
been out there. Yes . The fruitof arts. Yeah . Um, that's
great. The kind of along thatline, the old powder coating
building that's being redone,that will become a commercial
space. We're getting more andmore of that coming in. Uh, and
(06:54):
I do think it is keeping up.
Mm-Hmm. .
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Awesome. I wanna , um, go back a little bit and
talk about your personaljourney to Fruita and the Grand
Valley. So let's start with youMatthew. Um, when was the first
time you came to the GrandValley?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Probably , uh, 2003.
Mm-Hmm . . Uh , Iremember that. 'cause my son
turned one when he was here,and it was our first visit.
Uhhuh
Speaker 2 (07:19):
. You
had relatives in the area?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yes. My dad , uh, moved out here. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
. And
what'd you think? You were just
visiting, you weren't lookingto move at the time?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
This is horrible to say out loud. Um, for us, it
was kind of like sushi. So,which is the first time
somebody says, oh, let's gohave sushi. You're like,
really? Yeah . , whywould anybody wanna eat raw
fish ? Eat this. So you go, andthen you're like, oh , okay.
Second time, they're like, doyou wanna go have sushi? And
you're like, yeah, sure. I getit. Like, okay, I'll do it. And
the third time you're like, Iwould love some sushi. And it
(07:49):
was really our third visithere, which my wife and I were
looking for a change of life ,uh, style. We never lived and
worked in the same city and allthat sort of stuff. And it was
just like, yeah, this is it.
Yeah . Uh , it was maybe abottle or two of wine and some
conversation at lunch, andwe're like, yeah, let's make
this happen.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I've talked to a lot of people, you know, being in
real estate , uh, talking tothem about their first
impression of town. And a lotof people who came here without
having been here before tothink about moving, say they
fly in and they're out there inthe North desert where it's
kind of dry. They're looking atthe landscape and thinking, Hmm
, I don't know. And I say, youjust gotta spend a little time
(08:30):
here and you'll figure it out.
Let me tell you .
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Yeah. And Mike talked about it. It's just part
of when we decided to move itwas we wanted a community where
we could get involved. And notevery community is like that .
And here it was, oh, you wantto get involved and willing to
roll up your sleeves? Like,come on in. Like, it was very,
very welcoming, unlike anyplace I'd ever been.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
And you worked in Florida for a long time in ,
uh, about 20 years. Nickelodeonand Disney. Really? Mm-Hmm .
, interestingbackground. How do you think
that that background has helpedyou , uh, in your leadership
role in Fruita Now?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Uh , that's not where I thought you were gonna
go with that question.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I , um, the great thing about the entertainment
industry is it creates, youhave to be both business-minded
and creative all at the sametime, and be able to deal with
when the roof caves in, how doyou make it work? Like, okay,
(09:30):
there's gonna be lots ofchallenges, and you just kind
of learn that this the normalpace of things, and you just
roll up your sleeves and youget things done. But it's that
balance of, you know, how do webe creative about how we solve
these business problems? Imean, that was part of what I,
my job was at Disney was, hereare very real business
problems. Be creative in termsof how you solve it, and it
(09:52):
kind of dovetails really well.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
And you have a marketing background as well.
Yes. Which I know helps in allforms of government. I mean,
just thinking creatively aboutyour town and how we can
promote it.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yes. Always thinking about that, the communication
that needs to happen. It feelslike half of the job of what we
do is making sure wecommunicate. And Mike has a
phenomenal team. Uh , Sierraout there does an amazing job
of getting that communicationout. But it's always part of
that thought process. If we'regonna do this, how do we make
(10:25):
sure that the publicunderstands? How do we
communicate it effectively? Um,and minimize, you can't get rid
of it, but minimize theopportunity for
misunderstanding. Mm-Hmm.
.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Mm-Hmm.
, same questionfor you, Mike. How did you get
to the Grand Valley and toFruita specifically?
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Yeah, the , uh, I went, my undergrad was in , uh,
journalism and public relationsand marketing, and then later I
did a Master of PublicAdministration. And after grad
school, I was moving to NorthCarolina for my first job with
, uh, uh, city of Hickory,North Carolina out there. And I
remember driving through theValley, and I remember coming
(11:01):
down through seeing, you know,Palisade and seeing those
orchards and just kind ofseeing the vistas and, and
thought, this is, this isbeautiful in a different way
than a lot of places. I had leI lived. And then that was
that. Right? Then I worked inNorth Carolina. I was there
almost nine years, had a, had areally fun career with , uh, or
time period with , uh, the citythere and learned a lot. And
(11:25):
then got to a point where wewere debating if we stay in
North Carolina or if we comeback west and we wanted to be
in Colorado. I I went to highschool in Cheyenne, Wyoming and
fell in love with Fort Collinsand Colorado while I lived
there. And we decided , uh, wewould look in Colorado and we
were visiting some family outwest when I saw the posting for
(11:46):
Fruita and just felt like Ishould look into it more. And
the more I looked into Fruita ,the more excited I got. Mm-Hmm
. . And the moreI looked into the whole area,
the more excited I've I got.
And it, it worked out. Andwe've , uh, my family and I, we
have three kids and we just, welove it. We , we don't wanna
leave the area. We love this,this place. And , uh, it's just
been a wonderful , uh, career.
(12:07):
It's been a , it's been great.
Uh, as far as work goes , um,what I really love about the
fact of, like we talked aboutearlier of the , the people and
, and people wanting to , uh,continue to fill this small
town atmosphere is when weengage with them, we really
dove deep into what does thatmean? Because all, all of us
(12:29):
could answer that questiondifferently. And the values
that came out of the communityfeedback is something that we
deliberately focus on when wemake decisions. And it's fun to
be part of that because there'sa, there's a real purpose and
there's a deliberate approachto when we look at economic
development, when we look athousing, when we look at , um,
(12:50):
marketing the area, those areat the forefront. So that as we
grow, we're, we're onlybuilding upon that value.
Mm-Hmm . that ,uh, those values that mean the
most to the community that the
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Residents have expressed to you. Right ?
Mm-Hmm.. That'sawesome. Um, how, how often do
you work together? I mean, asmayor and city manager, what's
your , uh, daily relationshiplike? What's your communication
like?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
We have a standing one-on-one every Thursday,
which was scheduled for anhour. I don't think we've ever
made it less than an hour and45 minutes. So , uh, we
have that as a standingmeeting. And then , um, I'm
very guilty of sending emailsout at odd hours , uh,
and a lot of it kind of goesback and forth that way. And
(13:38):
then it's a lot of texts. Youknow, yesterday something came
up, I'm like, Hey, Mike, can Igive you a shout? And he is
like, yep . And that was, youknow, half hour phone calls .
So we talk probably daily.
Mm-Hmm. ,
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Because you are seeing, I'm guessing you're
seeing the , the issues arisingquickly. They come there ,
things are coming into youroffice and you're disseminating
information to the mayor andthe the other government
officials. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Yeah. A big part of my role as city manager is to
make sure that the mayor andthe city council are informed
about , um, that they'reinformed that they have the
information they need to makepolicy decisions. And then that
I'm making sure that we as ateam of all the employees at
the City of Fruit areimplementing the policy and
then overseeing all theoperations. So it's a, it's a
(14:27):
full-time job for me, and it'sa part-time for the mayor, but
it takes a lot of time. I don'tthink people realize how much ,
uh, time is volunteered by citycouncil members and especially
a , a , a mayor. And it's a lotof fun to work with Matthew.
Um, I, I think because we'reboth super passionate about it
and we just enjoy it and have alot of fun. And so , um,
Speaker 3 (14:49):
We also have similar management styles. True. Yeah.
Uh, and that , uh, I'm soappreciative of Mike. 'cause
I'm like, I'll send him aspreadsheet. 'cause that's part
of how I process. And I'm like,Hey, I have a stupid idea,
, and send him aspreadsheet. And I'm like, what
do you think? And I'll be like,help walk me through this.
Okay. I see where you're goingwith this, not how I took it.
And then we just kind of havethis ability to take each
(15:12):
other's ideas and just buildupon them. Mm-Hmm.
.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Mm-Hmm.
. Mike, what doyou think are the biggest
changes that you've seen inyour tenure with City of Fruita
?
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Yeah. Well , some of the exciting changes have been
just building the team. We haveoverqualified exceptional
people that work at the city ofFruita . And it's, it's so much
fun to work with them. And Iremember , uh, I remember
starting the job about 10 yearsago. October will be 10 years.
And there were great peoplethat worked there, but there
(15:44):
weren't a lot of people thatworked there. And we haven't
added a ton of positions. Butas we've grown and tried to
meet the demands of thecommunity, we've been able to
recruit some really talentedpeople. People that could, that
can do my job, that can do manyjobs at the city. And that
creativity , uh, that's been abig change. I mean, we're able
to do a lot more than maybe we, uh, could do earlier. And we
(16:07):
were, we were doing a good job.
I, I feel like we've taken itto , um, from Good to Great.
And , uh, I, the other would bein the community. We've
definitely seen a major changewith housing. I'm sure I don't,
you know, you , you're veryaware of that. Um, but the cost
of housing and, and that's notFruita alone, but that's
(16:28):
definitely something we'veexperienced. And that was at a
rapid rate. Um, you know, wealso came from a time of maybe
one type of product. And yeah ,so we're meeting that , uh,
demand of multiple types ofproducts. But the, but the
prices are high. And that,that's a challenge for those
that wanna live in Fruita ,where once it was a community
(16:49):
that you would get that first,maybe that first house. Um, and
a lot of young families didthat and moved into Fruita .
And now it can be a little morechallenging , uh, price wise ,
depending on, depending oncircumstances. Uh, so we're
working really hard on that.
Um, I would say , uh, those areprobably two big changes that
(17:10):
I've seen. Um, and thenotherwise we've, we've been
able to add a lot of amenitiesand a lot of , uh, more
localized events , uh, tocompliment , you know, what,
what people wanted to ex wantto experience that lived there.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
And it , it's such a nice compliment to the, to
Palisade and Grand Junction andwhat they're doing. It's, I
mean, you can go find somethingfun to do any day of the week
in the Valley. It's so great.
Um, Matthew, what do you thinkare the biggest challenges ,
uh, facing the city of Fruitaright now?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Uh, managing the growth , uh, is always gonna be
a challenge. It's a goodchallenge to have. I'd rather
have that than the opposite.
Um, and once again, trying tokeep up , uh, the feeling, the
kind of vibe, the funkiness offruita and making sure that
continues as we continue togrow. Uh, that keeps me up at
(18:05):
night. And so does looking at ,uh, you know, how do we pay for
things? What are the capitalprojects? What do you know, we
need to try to stay ahead of ,um, you know , how do we, you
know , make sure that ourinfrastructure stays up to date
, how , and it keeps up withthe growth, and how do we, you
know, not get so far behindthat now it's like 10 times the
(18:29):
cost to try to get it up tospeed. That, and then
continuing with economicdevelopment, as we grow, we're
gonna need that to expand. Uh ,and how do we create those
opportunities for people tocome in and start their
business or grow their businessin Fruita ?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
'cause you have a business park out there. Yes.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah. And
Speaker 2 (18:48):
We do, like on the river, close to the river , um,
I mean, everywhere is close tothe river in Fruita , right?
Yes.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
And we also have , um, uh, it's the working title
is the launch. I don't know ifyou're aware of this. It's the
Old Lagoon property. Yes. Wherewe now have 41.25 acres there
that we're just starting tofigure out now that we've
acquired it, what to do withit, and you know, how to grow
that and how to have thatdeveloped in a way that fits
(19:18):
our community, that allows, youknow, the riverfront access and
maybe access to Yeah , actuallylike a boat ramp and possible
concerts, but also how do youmix that residential and
commercial, and how do you workthrough that? So that continues
to grow, build outopportunities for businesses
and residents. Mm-Hmm .
, but stillkeeping it funky. Fruita .
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
This is so great.
Um, before the recession, therewere a lot of plans for
businesses on the Southcommercial , uh, sites, and
that slowly started to fill in,but there's still some space
over there too, correct?
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I don't know if there's much space left. Uh,
family Health West has takenover a lot of that. My
understanding is all the MPlots have been purchased, so
none of those are currently ,uh, I don't think are for sale.
Um, and the owners of those arejust waiting for the time, but
there's not that much spaceleft over there.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Yeah. I think there's only maybe one small,
very small retail space, butall the rest is purchased
waiting for various development.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Yeah. Awesome. Um, we talk a lot , um, in the, you
know, the conferences andeverything that we have on the
economy , uh, and the GrandValley about the collaboration
between the municipalities andbetween the chambers and
everything. But it , it'sreally evident , uh, in the
last couple of years thateverybody's working together.
(20:38):
How do you see that benefitingfruita and what are some of the
better collaborations that youfeel that you have that have
been just a , a , a big benefitto Fruita ?
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Yeah. Collaborations are a huge part of our success.
We often credit the fact thatmost of the, the
accomplishments that we've madehave been through some
partnership of some sort. Imean, the project that
Matthew's talking about alongthe river, super exciting , uh,
public private partnership andthe way we're going about it,
it's a true partnership with a, with a private developer.
(21:08):
And, and we really, we'rereally excited about that. Um,
we do work very closely withall the government entities in
, in the Valley. Uh, one of thenice things about local
government work is you shareinformation regularly. I mean,
for one, it's, it's already ,uh, public. Um, but it's, but
we learn from each other.
There's, there's really not,it, it shouldn't be looked at
(21:31):
as a competition in any waybecause it's, it's more of a
collaboration. I love the wayyou, you worded that because,
you know, grand Junction'sthis, this hub, and , uh, it's
definitely the retail hub and,you know, the airport and the ,
the university and all thesethings that benefit all of our
communities. And then eachcommunity has, you know, our
own individual charactercharacter. Um , and it
(21:54):
compliments everything. Uh,we've had some good
collaborations with, with, Iwould say each of 'em , we've,
we've coordinated a lot with ,uh, grand Junction's , uh,
planning development departmentwith, as we've gone through a ,
a comprehensive plan and landuse code update. They've been
going through those and, andcomparing and learning from
each other how we address ADUsand , um, so many different
(22:16):
things like that. The listcould just keep going on. We
work with the county, theirservices, the county provides ,
uh, all of the communities. Andyou know, there's , so there ,
there's, there , there reallyare a ton of partnerships. We
do a lot of marketing withPalisade. Yeah . Um, yeah .
Speaker 3 (22:32):
The Chambers work really well together. Chambers
, they do , uh, you know ,joint membership, joint events,
that's been great. But in termsof working across the Valley,
there's never, like, nobody'strying to get that gotcha
moment. Yeah. And it's, youknow, those conversations
happen when they'reappropriate. Like, you know,
just so you're aware this iswhat's going on and this is
what's gonna happen and, youknow, let's, can we sit down
(22:54):
and can we talk about thisissue that's coming up that we
have to figure out? Mm-Hmm .
. Yeah . Which isnice to be able to pick up a
phone and call somebody and geta call back . And it's very
much like, how can we help you?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah. There isn't a feeling of competitiveness
among the communities here,which is really nice. It's
like, wow, if you have a greatthing happen in Palisade or
Fruita or Grand Junction,everybody else is happy about
it. For
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Sure. Well ,
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Speaker 4 (23:19):
I would say the most
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Part. For the most part. Yeah. I mean, there's
times I'm like, you know, wejust had a community survey and
I was like, did uh , junctiontake the same survey? How'd
they do ? Like , youknow .
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Right. And how does the university , uh, affect
things in Fruita ? Um, do youhave a relationship with them?
Are there any, any ties toFrida or any , um, offsite
collaborations with theuniversity?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
There's not, at least from my point of view,
there's not a directcollaboration. But the
university worked closely with, uh, the business entities,
the Chamber, in terms ofworkforce development. They
work closely with , uh, liketheir handshake program for
internships. I know from thecity, you know, that we work
closely with them. Mm-Hmm .
. Um, and I doknow, you know, there's a lot
(24:09):
of people within the communitywork at the university,
volunteer at the university aswell. I mean, it is still a big
part of what we do. And thenwhen you, you know , on the
weekends, there's certainly aCMU presence uhhuh there in
terms of the student bodies.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Yeah . Yeah. I had the op , I have the opportunity
to teach an intro introductionto public administration class
at CMU. And so, just in a smallway, it's been fun because
we've had interns , uh, thatwe've met through, we just had,
we had one in the last time Itaught that class , uh, that
did communications. And it wasthrough , uh, the Workforce
(24:45):
Center and the Chambers programand CMU program where , uh, and
it , and it worked out great.
And so having the , so we have,we have a lot of small
connections, definitelypersonal connections with, with
a lot of the people that workat the , at CMU. And I hope to
see more and more of that. I,but they provide a , just
having that in our area is, is,is a massive , uh, uh, benefit
(25:09):
for workforce. It's a ma Imean, it , there's so much
energy that comes from a campusand from a university and a
community. It's so exciting.
We're fortunate to have that.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
I've been at chamber meetings where CMU is there,
and it's a workforcediscussion. It's like, all
right , how can we get, youknow, our students plugged in
more to what's happening here?
Mm-Hmm . andmaking sure that those
connections and thecommunication continues.
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
, I
think they , they do such a
good job as well of, offiguring, of creating programs
or adjusting programs for theneeds of the workforce. And not
even the current workworkforce, but looking ahead at
, uh, you know, what types ofjobs we see coming to the area.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
You have to do some projections. And I do think
there, there's creativeleadership at the university
that does think about the wholecounty and not just Grand
Junction. Definitely.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Which I appreciate.
I agree. Yeah .
Speaker 2 (26:01):
What do you think are some underutilized
resources in the fruit areathat you would like to see?
Have more of a role?
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Wow .
Speaker 4 (26:10):
That's a good one.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
That's one gonna be gotcha .
Speaker 2 (26:13):
There's, there's so many, but there's so many
things about fruit . I mean,you've got great hiking. You've
got the Colorado River thatruns right through , um, you've
got mountain biking, you havedinosaur bones , uh, so many
things. Is there somethingthat, that needs a little more
promotion or attention? Or doyou feel it's pretty well
balanced? I
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Think it's pretty well balanced. I don't know if
people realize that how muchmusic we have going on. Uh ,
there's almost, there's livemusic almost every night in
Fruita . You know, we're knownfor, we're known for great
stuff, mountain biking, pizza,beer. Mm-Hmm . ,
like, you know, a little bitmore. I wish , you know, people
were a little bit more aware ofsome of the local music that
(26:53):
happens in Fruita . Um, yeah .
I , I can't really think ofanything that's like, so
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Where do people find out about what's going on?
Where's the best place to findout about the music going on in
Fuda for people listening andwatching?
Speaker 3 (27:09):
There is, the Chamber does a pretty good job,
promot promoting, but , uh, thecity website's got stuff. But
look at , uh, the Copper Clubbase camp . They always have
stuff going on as well. Yeah .
Speaker 4 (27:21):
I would say a lot of the social media sides of the
businesses and definitely ofthe city. Uh, there's a lot
that's shared for that. I, Ithink , uh, one of the things
that's , uh, that , that couldbe underutilized , um, is, oh
my gosh, now I just did it. Itotally, totally went blank on
(27:43):
. I'll think of it later. So ,okay. ,
Speaker 3 (27:48):
The Bark Park, the museum trying to go through? No
, we have
Speaker 4 (27:52):
A ,
Speaker 3 (27:52):
We have a new bark park . Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
A new Bark Park .
Talk about that. Tell us aboutthe new Bark Park .
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Um , I guess it was two years ago. There's land
next to the, a museum outthere, the dinosaur museum. And
I don't remember whose idea itwas, it may have been mark's,
but people wanted a dog park inFruita for a long time. And we
had this land and theopportunity came up and it was
within the budget, and thenkind of started small, so to
(28:19):
build it out, and then nowwe're adding to it. But yeah,
now we have our own bark park .
It's very cool. There's a smallpark, small dog park, a large
dog, dog park. And , uh, we useit quite a bit. And it's great
because I meet probably halfthe people aren't local. Oh ,
they're coming in from the Utaharea. They have dogs with them,
(28:40):
and they stop there. Theyutilize the park. And you have
some great conversations. Uhhuh .
Speaker 2 (28:44):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
I would say that the effort to promote the variety
is, is there and worked onregularly. Um, we will, whether
we promote it or not, we willalways get a lot of attention
for mountain biking. And sosometimes people think we
promote that only , uh, but wepromote the full variety in ,
in all the efforts we do , uh,especially on the tourism
(29:08):
front. And , uh, but we get aton of attention for that
because we are really known forthat across all, across the
world. And , uh, and so it'sbeen a benefit. But you're
right, there's so many thingsto do. And I think the more we
more people discover the factthat within two to three hours,
you can be at so many reallycool places. The fact that you
(29:31):
can enjoy, you know, thesesunny , uh, winter days in the
thirties that you can go hikeor ride your bike. But if you
want to go up to Powderhorn andski, I mean, those things are s
it's so awesome , youknow, to live here and
experience that. Um, I, I thinkwe
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Almost don't wanna share it, right ? It like
Speaker 4 (29:49):
I know we almost,
Speaker 2 (29:50):
We love it here.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
And Mike is famous different. Mike , Mike, the hit
US Chicken Uhhuh isfamous around the world.
.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yeah. He gets some pretty good press.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
It , it's literally, my wife was in Florida and they
did a whole article while shewas down there about Mike, the
headless chicken festival in St. Pete. . I mean, it's
unbelievable his popularity not to take away from
you. No, but ,
Speaker 4 (30:14):
Uh , but to your comment, Christie , I think we,
we've put a lot of effort overthe years in promoting , uh,
promoting both the variety, butalso, you know, how to take
care of the, the , theenvironment that we enjoy. And
we've, we've put a lot of fundsinto actually creating ways to
(30:34):
maintain trails and to buildtrails in a more sustain ,
sustainable manner. And in away that those of us that live
here still have this experience, um, that you can have on a
weekday or a weekend. Andsometimes those weekends get a
little busy. And, and so wewant to, when we look at what
(30:56):
we're prioritizing, we look atcommunity first and then
tourism second. And that's ,that's a value that came from
our community. And so we feelreally good about the fact that
we started early in thoseefforts, in those messages,
especially watching othercommunities that kind of got so
far. And then they were tryingto step back really quickly and
(31:18):
say, whoa, whoa , whoa , now weneed to think about this, this,
and this. And we have too manypeople. And , uh, so we've,
we've tried to, we've tried to,with within the influence we
have, we've tried to workreally hard on that.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
So when you talk about that , um, community
first I'm envisioning like, and, uh, you have some money to do
something with, think about theconnecting trails in town
before you go put a bunch moremoney into mountain bike trails
or whatever. Right? Like makingsure you're , your core is
really , um, communityfriendly. Right.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
I just had a conversation with somebody two
weeks ago that had just movedto Fruita and was amazed at how
she could bike anywhere in townbecause of the trail system
within the , the community. Andthat for her was just a win.
Mm-Hmm..
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Awesome. Um, so what are you most excited about for
the future of Fruita ? Arethere some projects that you
see down the road or somethings that you're shooting for
long term that get you excited?
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Definitely. I'm really excited about the
riverfront , uh, property thatwas mentioned earlier .
Earlier. We have a , uh, we arefinalizing our agreement with
our private , uh, uh, partner ,uh, to Forex Ventures. And
we've had some public meetingsabout, you know , uh, a
everything we're talking aboutnow. Um, and it's exciting
because we're looking at thislarge open space area that is
(32:40):
in the floodplain reworking,the, the bank , uh, rerouting
the trail that already goes ,uh, through this property to
the state park, and , uh,connects to north the north
side of Frida and then goes allout to Loma or, you know, it's
the , it's part of theRiverfront trail system. And ,
uh, so we're really excitedabout that. Uh , there's also a
(33:00):
, a huge commercial piece toit. And , um, and then some
residential and just, it'll beour first time to connect to
the river. I mean, this isbeautiful when you, when you
connect your community to theriver. And, and , uh, we we're
working with really good , um,uh, contracted , uh, experts
(33:21):
on, you know, the river and theembankment , uh, and those
types of things. So that's,that's exciting because that'll
be , uh, that'll be anadditional space that
compliments the communitydoesn't take away from other
areas. We've, we've been reallydeliberate about the timing of
when that, when that wouldwork. We, we looked into it
pretty heavily years ago, andit , it , it didn't work at
that time. And, and now the ,the market's where it's at,
(33:43):
where I , I think we've filledin, in the downtown , uh,
we've, we're filling in and onthe south side and a lot of
these areas. So it's, it's,it's good timing for that. And
, uh, it's, it's a project thatour community's been pretty
excited about. Um, another oneis Matthew mentioned is , uh,
on South Mulberry. Uh , thecity purchased property that
(34:04):
used to be , uh, powdercoating. It was kind of a
non-conforming , uh,grandfathered use. And then
they expanded out to the, thebusiness park. And , uh, we
purchased the property and thenwe, and then we sold it to a
private , uh, owner who withtied to a parking agreement and
a real, and a , uh, economicdevelopment agreement. So , um,
(34:28):
there are, there are pieces inthere where they are working
quickly right now to redevelopthe, the building, and then it
creates more , uh, more retailspace , uh, that they're, that
they're working hard to, tofill in. And so we're excited
to see that, 'cause it's rightin the core of the city. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
That's a win-win. Um , yeah . Getting them out to
the business park too. Amazing.
Yeah. Anything you wanna add towhat you're excited about
Matthew? Um,
Speaker 3 (34:53):
You know , right now, fruit isn't a great spot.
We're very, very fortunate.
And, you know, we got here fromwork that was done five to 10
years ago, and the effort that,you know, people that came
before me, that they put in theforesight they had, and that
got us to where we are today.
So what I'm excited about isthe ability to say, okay, we're
here now and we're in a goodspot that we can, we have the
(35:15):
opportunity to look down theroad five to 10 years, and what
can we do now to make sure wekind of keep this special? I
mean, fruit is kind of special,and how do we keep this going
down the road? So I'm superexcited about that. Mm-Hmm.
,
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Can I, can I see your water bottle for a second?
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Uh, oh .
Speaker 2 (35:37):
And I just , uh, I wanna wrap up with , um, a
great marketing campaign , um,where you were involved in
this, in , in , when you werecity manager, when this came
about. This came
Speaker 4 (35:49):
About just before.
Just before I started. Yeah .
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah. Um, it's a big, it's a big leap. You have
to be really brave to dosomething like that. Right. And
it's worked out great.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Yeah. And Steve and Denise, he who are in the
copyright, right, there are,you know, some of our
historians in the, in thecommunity. And , um, you know,
they, they did that , uh,copyright. And then the Chamber
actually did the promotion ofthe WTF. And then on the other
side is the , uh, uh, the , thecity's logo city logo,
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Which is great. A
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Cool story. Business cards. Yeah. A cool story about
that, that most not a lot ofpeople realize is that our
downtown advisory board that wehad , uh, in 2000, somewhere in
the 2012 timeframe, theycreated that logo for the
downtown advisory board, andthey took a sprocket from , uh,
farming and ranching equipment.
And that's where the gearactually came from. Oh . So it
(36:46):
, it gets related to bikesbecause it, it , it works well
with that. Mm-Hmm .
. But , you know,if you talk to someone like Tim
Fry used to give a hard timeabout, do you wanna see what a
real , like bite ? And I said,I know, but it's from farming
and ranching from ranch . Andthen we ,
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Which there's a very long history of that in the
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Area. There is. And we, we love it because it , it
kind of ties everythingtogether. It's forward motion.
When you look at our , uh,strategic priority areas, you
see why we exist as we toprovide core services. And it's
a gear in the middle. And whenthat gear is humming along
really well, what do we want tohave a , a positive impact on?
And then, and , and then yousee those, those strategic
(37:22):
areas and other gears, and ofcourse they're all gonna be
moving forward. And it, itjust, it, it takes every bit of
fruita in such a simple logo.
We hope that will last a longtime. And so it's kind of a fun
story of where it comes from.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
It is , and I don't know if I said to those people
that might be watching thatdon't know. This is, it's
welcome to Fruita. It'simportant. It is important.
Yes. And, and Fruita doeswelcome everybody. We want
everybody to come visit Fruita. It is a great place to visit,
a great place to live, greatplace to have a business,
wonderful community. Thanks forall that you two do to make it
(37:58):
a wonderful place to live.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
Well, thank you for having us. This has been fun.
Yeah,
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Thank you. Anything else you wanna share?
Speaker 4 (38:05):
Anything you can think of? No,
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Not off the top of my head. All right . You've
covered quite a bit. Yeah ,
Speaker 2 (38:09):
We did. Yeah . Okay.
Um, well thank you to MatthewBreman and Mike Bennett from
the City of Fruita . Uh, makesure you , um, go to their
website. Um, make sure youcheck out the music scene. Uh,
there's so much to do outthere. Yeah . We want people to
go and enjoy that music and seethe beauty of Fruita . It's
(38:32):
just great. So , um, you don'thave any volunteer
opportunities we need to talkabout?
Speaker 4 (38:37):
Oh, you know, we always have, we tend to have
some openings on our boards andcommissions, and we have
numerous boards andcommissions, and we have really
active boards and commissionsthat, that honestly do a lot of
work and benefit for thecommunity. Um, so those are
great opportunities. I willsay, too , uh, one thing to add
is that we put a lot ofinformation out that not
(38:59):
everybody's aware of, but , um,as part of my job, I, I send an
update to the city councilevery week, but it's public. So
there's, we have a lot ofpeople that are signed up to
receive kind of as anewsletter. They receive that
every Friday. It's on thewebsite. You can go back to,
not that you might want to goback and read all those, but
you can, you can start and you, and it's a really easy,
Speaker 2 (39:20):
And you can sign
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Up, you can sign up , uh, right on fruit.org , and
it's a weekly update, and it'sjust, it hits the highlights
really quick, and it's wherethose events are and things
like that. Um, it's, it's a , areally good way to keep
Speaker 3 (39:33):
Up . There's a question of the week, which,
you know , people are asking.
There's all the development. Ifpeople wanna know what's being
built, where that's all inthere.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Great. Great resource fruita.org . Okay.
Thanks everybody for joiningus. This is Christy Reese.
We'll see you next time on theFull Circle podcast. Thanks for
listening. This is ChristieReese signing out from the Full
Circle Podcast .
Speaker 2 (00:06):
The Full Circle podcast, compelling interviews
and incredible tales fromColorado's Western Slope, from
the mountains to the desert.
Christy Reese and her team herefrom the Movers Shakers, and
characters of the Grand Valleyand surrounding mountain towns
that make the Western slope theplace we all love. You'll
learn, you'll laugh, you'lllove with the full circle.
Hello everybody, and welcomeback to the Full Circle
(00:27):
Podcast. I'm your host, ChristyReese, and I am honored today
to have as our guest, MatthewBreman and Mike Bennett from
the city of Fruita . Matthew isthe mayor, Mike City Manager.
Gentlemen , thank you for beinghere.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Thanks for having us.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Yeah, thanks for
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Having us. We love Fruita . Yeah, we really do.
What a great , uh, town it is.
And , uh, it's a town or acity? City. It's a city of
Fruita . Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Just about 14,000 people. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
And that encompasses what area?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Uh, 6.8 square miles, and we go from the south
side of the interstate, the cocapelli area , uh, a little
further east, and then all theway to, it's kind of jagged.
It's not a perfect square, but, uh, it's 16 road. And then
how far north do we go?
Speaker 4 (01:16):
About L Road.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
L Road. Okay. And then it's un unincorporated
Mayes County that's right abovethat. Yeah. Lots of development
going on in Fruita . Um, how doyou feel about development ,
uh, north? It's something weneed, we need more housing. Um,
it's , is it a , a double-edgedsword or what's what's your
thoughts on
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Development? I , I have my own thoughts. I'll let
you go first though.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Yeah. I would say that the development that's,
that is occurring right now isall within a , a planned , uh,
area. Mm-Hmm .
city limits or within thecity's future growth area . So
we've spent a lot of yearsplanning and , uh, in 2019, we
engaged over 4,000 of ourresidents to update our
(02:01):
comprehensive plan that led tohow we grow, where we grow.
Mm-Hmm .
old , uh, comprehensive plan.
And so we're seeing, we've madespecific changes related to the
feedback from the community.
That's wonderful. And we'reseeing the fruits of those ,
uh, code changes immediatelyfrom apartments in the downtown
(02:23):
area. Yes.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
That's super exciting. Uh ,
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Yeah . We have, you know, affordable or workforce
housing , uh, near the newelementary school, and we have
single family homes , singlefamily attached detached. So ,
um, it's all been planned. Theinfrastructure is planned for
that growth to fill in to thoseareas. So I always often say
it's like a coloring book, andit's zoned for certain types of
(02:47):
development, and we're seeingit happen. But we grew from
2008 to , um, or , uh, let'ssee, we , we grew from 98 to
2008 and like double digit ,uh, percentage growth rates
year over year. And we'veaveraged 1% for about 10 years.
And we're hovering in that 2%right now.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
2% growth in your population every year.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
But there's 1200 homes , uh, on paper under
development. So it can take 5,7, 10 years to build out. But
to answer your question, is ita double-edged sword? Yes. We
need the housing, we needworkforce housing, we need all
of that. Um, but we also wannamaintain kind of a small city
feel the hometown feel.
(03:31):
Everybody gets to know theneighbors, and trying to
balance that growth with thefeel of fruita and still
respect the agricultural rootsthat are there, but yet
understand the needs of ourgrowth. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
struggles with that to someextent. Right. Keeping the
character of the town and notlosing that charm , uh, but
providing for the people thatwanna live there. 'cause lots
of people wanna live in Fruita.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
It's a cool place to live.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
It's a cool place.
And it's not just mountainbiking, right? No. What do you
love about Fruita ?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Um, love the music.
A lot of live music going on infuta. Um , Thursday night
concerts are my favorite.
Mm-Hmm .
see your neighbors. That's kindof what I consider more
hyper-local events. Mm-Hmm .
that's probably my favorite.
Uh, I am starting to get intothe biking scene more. I've
(04:26):
kind of drug my feet gettinginto it, but I , I , I just
bought a new bike the other dayand jumping into that one.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Right . Does it cost more than your car?
Speaker 3 (04:35):
No.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Speaker 3 (04:37):
A trend , but you're asking the wrong question ,
which is the cost of the car,cost of the bike.
That , that's probably myfavorite. Um, you know, I love,
you know , going to the grocerystore and you go to get one
thing and you know , it can be45 minutes. Mm-Hmm .
you have all those sideconversations and you find out
(04:57):
how people are doing. And Imean, that's the joy of it.
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
What do you think, Mike? What's your favorite
things about Fruita ? Yeah. I,
Speaker 4 (05:04):
I love the people.
Uh , the people are sopositive. Love the area I
lived, my dad was in the Army,so I grew up all over the
country. And I, it was, it wassuch a welcoming community, and
I felt that for the last 10years. Um, obviously the access
to the outdoors is so easy.
It's, it's so easy toincorporate in , into your life
(05:26):
and not have to plan a trip.
You know, you can get out andhike. I love to hike. Um , we
love to camp. My family and I ,uh, we love to mountain bike.
Uh , there's a lot of wateropportunities now, even more
than there used to be. Um, butI , I'm with Matthew. I love
the Thursday night concerts. Uh, it's a , it , it's just, and
we've added other hyper-localevents, like the movie nights
(05:47):
in the, in the park in the falland things like that, because
it's just, it's fun to be withpeople. You always see people,
you know. Uh, and it's, it'sreally positive, positive. Of
course, we have, you know, the,the tough things we have to
work through as a community.
But , uh, people have a lot oflove for living in Fruita , and
that's a lot of fun to be apart of, not only working, but
(06:08):
living in the community.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
And I will say, as you know, we have an office in
downtown Fruita . The businesscommunity is so welcoming. I
mean, like, roll out the redcarpet. It was, it's been
really wonderful. Um, speakingof business is the commercial ,
uh, center , uh, andinfrastructure and, and the
businesses that are therekeeping up with the , uh,
(06:29):
growth in the population.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Yeah ,
Speaker 3 (06:33):
They are. And , uh, there's been a lot of new
growth that's happened. Thefarm, I don't know if you've
been out there. Yes . The fruitof arts. Yeah . Um, that's
great. The kind of along thatline, the old powder coating
building that's being redone,that will become a commercial
space. We're getting more andmore of that coming in. Uh, and
(06:54):
I do think it is keeping up.
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Awesome. I wanna , um, go back a little bit and
talk about your personaljourney to Fruita and the Grand
Valley. So let's start with youMatthew. Um, when was the first
time you came to the GrandValley?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Probably , uh, 2003.
Mm-Hmm .
turned one when he was here,and it was our first visit.
Uhhuh
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yes. My dad , uh, moved out here. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
visiting, you weren't lookingto move at the time?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
This is horrible to say out loud. Um, for us, it
was kind of like sushi. So,which is the first time
somebody says, oh, let's gohave sushi. You're like,
really? Yeah .
fish ? Eat this. So you go, andthen you're like, oh , okay.
Second time, they're like, doyou wanna go have sushi? And
you're like, yeah, sure. I getit. Like, okay, I'll do it. And
the third time you're like, Iwould love some sushi. And it
(07:49):
was really our third visithere, which my wife and I were
looking for a change of life ,uh, style. We never lived and
worked in the same city and allthat sort of stuff. And it was
just like, yeah, this is it.
Yeah . Uh , it was maybe abottle or two of wine and some
conversation at lunch, andwe're like, yeah, let's make
this happen.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
I've talked to a lot of people, you know, being in
real estate , uh, talking tothem about their first
impression of town. And a lotof people who came here without
having been here before tothink about moving, say they
fly in and they're out there inthe North desert where it's
kind of dry. They're looking atthe landscape and thinking, Hmm
, I don't know. And I say, youjust gotta spend a little time
(08:30):
here and you'll figure it out.
Let me tell you .
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Yeah. And Mike talked about it. It's just part
of when we decided to move itwas we wanted a community where
we could get involved. And notevery community is like that .
And here it was, oh, you wantto get involved and willing to
roll up your sleeves? Like,come on in. Like, it was very,
very welcoming, unlike anyplace I'd ever been.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
And you worked in Florida for a long time in ,
uh, about 20 years. Nickelodeonand Disney. Really? Mm-Hmm .
that that background has helpedyou , uh, in your leadership
role in Fruita Now?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Uh , that's not where I thought you were gonna
go with that question.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I , um, the great thing about the entertainment
industry is it creates, youhave to be both business-minded
and creative all at the sametime, and be able to deal with
when the roof caves in, how doyou make it work? Like, okay,
(09:30):
there's gonna be lots ofchallenges, and you just kind
of learn that this the normalpace of things, and you just
roll up your sleeves and youget things done. But it's that
balance of, you know, how do webe creative about how we solve
these business problems? Imean, that was part of what I,
my job was at Disney was, hereare very real business
problems. Be creative in termsof how you solve it, and it
(09:52):
kind of dovetails really well.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
And you have a marketing background as well.
Yes. Which I know helps in allforms of government. I mean,
just thinking creatively aboutyour town and how we can
promote it.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Yes. Always thinking about that, the communication
that needs to happen. It feelslike half of the job of what we
do is making sure wecommunicate. And Mike has a
phenomenal team. Uh , Sierraout there does an amazing job
of getting that communicationout. But it's always part of
that thought process. If we'regonna do this, how do we make
(10:25):
sure that the publicunderstands? How do we
communicate it effectively? Um,and minimize, you can't get rid
of it, but minimize theopportunity for
misunderstanding. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Mm-Hmm.
to the Grand Valley and toFruita specifically?
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Yeah, the , uh, I went, my undergrad was in , uh,
journalism and public relationsand marketing, and then later I
did a Master of PublicAdministration. And after grad
school, I was moving to NorthCarolina for my first job with
, uh, uh, city of Hickory,North Carolina out there. And I
remember driving through theValley, and I remember coming
(11:01):
down through seeing, you know,Palisade and seeing those
orchards and just kind ofseeing the vistas and, and
thought, this is, this isbeautiful in a different way
than a lot of places. I had leI lived. And then that was
that. Right? Then I worked inNorth Carolina. I was there
almost nine years, had a, had areally fun career with , uh, or
time period with , uh, the citythere and learned a lot. And
(11:25):
then got to a point where wewere debating if we stay in
North Carolina or if we comeback west and we wanted to be
in Colorado. I I went to highschool in Cheyenne, Wyoming and
fell in love with Fort Collinsand Colorado while I lived
there. And we decided , uh, wewould look in Colorado and we
were visiting some family outwest when I saw the posting for
(11:46):
Fruita and just felt like Ishould look into it more. And
the more I looked into Fruita ,the more excited I got. Mm-Hmm
.
the more excited I've I got.
And it, it worked out. Andwe've , uh, my family and I, we
have three kids and we just, welove it. We , we don't wanna
leave the area. We love this,this place. And , uh, it's just
been a wonderful , uh, career.
(12:07):
It's been a , it's been great.
Uh, as far as work goes , um,what I really love about the
fact of, like we talked aboutearlier of the , the people and
, and people wanting to , uh,continue to fill this small
town atmosphere is when weengage with them, we really
dove deep into what does thatmean? Because all, all of us
(12:29):
could answer that questiondifferently. And the values
that came out of the communityfeedback is something that we
deliberately focus on when wemake decisions. And it's fun to
be part of that because there'sa, there's a real purpose and
there's a deliberate approachto when we look at economic
development, when we look athousing, when we look at , um,
(12:50):
marketing the area, those areat the forefront. So that as we
grow, we're, we're onlybuilding upon that value.
Mm-Hmm .
most to the community that the
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Residents have expressed to you. Right ?
Mm-Hmm.
you work together? I mean, asmayor and city manager, what's
your , uh, daily relationshiplike? What's your communication
like?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
We have a standing one-on-one every Thursday,
which was scheduled for anhour. I don't think we've ever
made it less than an hour and45 minutes
have that as a standingmeeting. And then , um, I'm
very guilty of sending emailsout at odd hours
and a lot of it kind of goesback and forth that way. And
(13:38):
then it's a lot of texts. Youknow, yesterday something came
up, I'm like, Hey, Mike, can Igive you a shout? And he is
like, yep . And that was, youknow, half hour phone calls .
So we talk probably daily.
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Because you are seeing, I'm guessing you're
seeing the , the issues arisingquickly. They come there ,
things are coming into youroffice and you're disseminating
information to the mayor andthe the other government
officials. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Yeah. A big part of my role as city manager is to
make sure that the mayor andthe city council are informed
about , um, that they'reinformed that they have the
information they need to makepolicy decisions. And then that
I'm making sure that we as ateam of all the employees at
the City of Fruit areimplementing the policy and
then overseeing all theoperations. So it's a, it's a
(14:27):
full-time job for me, and it'sa part-time for the mayor, but
it takes a lot of time. I don'tthink people realize how much ,
uh, time is volunteered by citycouncil members and especially
a , a , a mayor. And it's a lotof fun to work with Matthew.
Um, I, I think because we'reboth super passionate about it
and we just enjoy it and have alot of fun. And so , um,
Speaker 3 (14:49):
We also have similar management styles. True. Yeah.
Uh, and that , uh, I'm soappreciative of Mike. 'cause
I'm like, I'll send him aspreadsheet. 'cause that's part
of how I process. And I'm like,Hey, I have a stupid idea,
do you think? And I'll be like,help walk me through this.
Okay. I see where you're goingwith this, not how I took it.
And then we just kind of havethis ability to take each
(15:12):
other's ideas and just buildupon them. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Mm-Hmm.
changes that you've seen inyour tenure with City of Fruita
?
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Yeah. Well , some of the exciting changes have been
just building the team. We haveoverqualified exceptional
people that work at the city ofFruita . And it's, it's so much
fun to work with them. And Iremember , uh, I remember
starting the job about 10 yearsago. October will be 10 years.
And there were great peoplethat worked there, but there
(15:44):
weren't a lot of people thatworked there. And we haven't
added a ton of positions. Butas we've grown and tried to
meet the demands of thecommunity, we've been able to
recruit some really talentedpeople. People that could, that
can do my job, that can do manyjobs at the city. And that
creativity , uh, that's been abig change. I mean, we're able
to do a lot more than maybe we, uh, could do earlier. And we
(16:07):
were, we were doing a good job.
I, I feel like we've taken itto , um, from Good to Great.
And , uh, I, the other would bein the community. We've
definitely seen a major changewith housing. I'm sure I don't,
you know, you , you're veryaware of that. Um, but the cost
of housing and, and that's notFruita alone, but that's
(16:28):
definitely something we'veexperienced. And that was at a
rapid rate. Um, you know, wealso came from a time of maybe
one type of product. And yeah ,so we're meeting that , uh,
demand of multiple types ofproducts. But the, but the
prices are high. And that,that's a challenge for those
that wanna live in Fruita ,where once it was a community
(16:49):
that you would get that first,maybe that first house. Um, and
a lot of young families didthat and moved into Fruita .
And now it can be a little morechallenging , uh, price wise ,
depending on, depending oncircumstances. Uh, so we're
working really hard on that.
Um, I would say , uh, those areprobably two big changes that
(17:10):
I've seen. Um, and thenotherwise we've, we've been
able to add a lot of amenitiesand a lot of , uh, more
localized events , uh, tocompliment , you know, what,
what people wanted to ex wantto experience that lived there.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
And it , it's such a nice compliment to the, to
Palisade and Grand Junction andwhat they're doing. It's, I
mean, you can go find somethingfun to do any day of the week
in the Valley. It's so great.
Um, Matthew, what do you thinkare the biggest challenges ,
uh, facing the city of Fruitaright now?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Uh, managing the growth , uh, is always gonna be
a challenge. It's a goodchallenge to have. I'd rather
have that than the opposite.
Um, and once again, trying tokeep up , uh, the feeling, the
kind of vibe, the funkiness offruita and making sure that
continues as we continue togrow. Uh, that keeps me up at
(18:05):
night. And so does looking at ,uh, you know, how do we pay for
things? What are the capitalprojects? What do you know, we
need to try to stay ahead of ,um, you know , how do we, you
know , make sure that ourinfrastructure stays up to date
, how , and it keeps up withthe growth, and how do we, you
know, not get so far behindthat now it's like 10 times the
(18:29):
cost to try to get it up tospeed. That, and then
continuing with economicdevelopment, as we grow, we're
gonna need that to expand. Uh ,and how do we create those
opportunities for people tocome in and start their
business or grow their businessin Fruita ?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
'cause you have a business park out there. Yes.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah. And
Speaker 2 (18:48):
We do, like on the river, close to the river , um,
I mean, everywhere is close tothe river in Fruita , right?
Yes.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
And we also have , um, uh, it's the working title
is the launch. I don't know ifyou're aware of this. It's the
Old Lagoon property. Yes. Wherewe now have 41.25 acres there
that we're just starting tofigure out now that we've
acquired it, what to do withit, and you know, how to grow
that and how to have thatdeveloped in a way that fits
(19:18):
our community, that allows, youknow, the riverfront access and
maybe access to Yeah , actuallylike a boat ramp and possible
concerts, but also how do youmix that residential and
commercial, and how do you workthrough that? So that continues
to grow, build outopportunities for businesses
and residents. Mm-Hmm .
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
This is so great.
Um, before the recession, therewere a lot of plans for
businesses on the Southcommercial , uh, sites, and
that slowly started to fill in,but there's still some space
over there too, correct?
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I don't know if there's much space left. Uh,
family Health West has takenover a lot of that. My
understanding is all the MPlots have been purchased, so
none of those are currently ,uh, I don't think are for sale.
Um, and the owners of those arejust waiting for the time, but
there's not that much spaceleft over there.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Yeah. I think there's only maybe one small,
very small retail space, butall the rest is purchased
waiting for various development.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Yeah. Awesome. Um, we talk a lot , um, in the, you
know, the conferences andeverything that we have on the
economy , uh, and the GrandValley about the collaboration
between the municipalities andbetween the chambers and
everything. But it , it'sreally evident , uh, in the
last couple of years thateverybody's working together.
(20:38):
How do you see that benefitingfruita and what are some of the
better collaborations that youfeel that you have that have
been just a , a , a big benefitto Fruita ?
Speaker 4 (20:46):
Yeah. Collaborations are a huge part of our success.
We often credit the fact thatmost of the, the
accomplishments that we've madehave been through some
partnership of some sort. Imean, the project that
Matthew's talking about alongthe river, super exciting , uh,
public private partnership andthe way we're going about it,
it's a true partnership with a, with a private developer.
(21:08):
And, and we really, we'rereally excited about that. Um,
we do work very closely withall the government entities in
, in the Valley. Uh, one of thenice things about local
government work is you shareinformation regularly. I mean,
for one, it's, it's already ,uh, public. Um, but it's, but
we learn from each other.
There's, there's really not,it, it shouldn't be looked at
(21:31):
as a competition in any waybecause it's, it's more of a
collaboration. I love the wayyou, you worded that because,
you know, grand Junction'sthis, this hub, and , uh, it's
definitely the retail hub and,you know, the airport and the ,
the university and all thesethings that benefit all of our
communities. And then eachcommunity has, you know, our
own individual charactercharacter. Um , and it
(21:54):
compliments everything. Uh,we've had some good
collaborations with, with, Iwould say each of 'em , we've,
we've coordinated a lot with ,uh, grand Junction's , uh,
planning development departmentwith, as we've gone through a ,
a comprehensive plan and landuse code update. They've been
going through those and, andcomparing and learning from
each other how we address ADUsand , um, so many different
(22:16):
things like that. The listcould just keep going on. We
work with the county, theirservices, the county provides ,
uh, all of the communities. Andyou know, there's , so there ,
there's, there , there reallyare a ton of partnerships. We
do a lot of marketing withPalisade. Yeah . Um, yeah .
Speaker 3 (22:32):
The Chambers work really well together. Chambers
, they do , uh, you know ,joint membership, joint events,
that's been great. But in termsof working across the Valley,
there's never, like, nobody'strying to get that gotcha
moment. Yeah. And it's, youknow, those conversations
happen when they'reappropriate. Like, you know,
just so you're aware this iswhat's going on and this is
what's gonna happen and, youknow, let's, can we sit down
(22:54):
and can we talk about thisissue that's coming up that we
have to figure out? Mm-Hmm .
phone and call somebody and geta call back . And it's very
much like, how can we help you?
Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yeah. There isn't a feeling of competitiveness
among the communities here,which is really nice. It's
like, wow, if you have a greatthing happen in Palisade or
Fruita or Grand Junction,everybody else is happy about
it. For
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Sure. Well ,
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Speaker 4 (23:19):
I would say the most
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Part. For the most part. Yeah. I mean, there's
times I'm like, you know, wejust had a community survey and
I was like, did uh , junctiontake the same survey? How'd
they do
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Right. And how does the university , uh, affect
things in Fruita ? Um, do youhave a relationship with them?
Are there any, any ties toFrida or any , um, offsite
collaborations with theuniversity?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
There's not, at least from my point of view,
there's not a directcollaboration. But the
university worked closely with, uh, the business entities,
the Chamber, in terms ofworkforce development. They
work closely with , uh, liketheir handshake program for
internships. I know from thecity, you know, that we work
closely with them. Mm-Hmm .
(24:09):
of people within the communitywork at the university,
volunteer at the university aswell. I mean, it is still a big
part of what we do. And thenwhen you, you know , on the
weekends, there's certainly aCMU presence uhhuh there in
terms of the student bodies.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Yeah . Yeah. I had the op , I have the opportunity
to teach an intro introductionto public administration class
at CMU. And so, just in a smallway, it's been fun because
we've had interns , uh, thatwe've met through, we just had,
we had one in the last time Itaught that class , uh, that
did communications. And it wasthrough , uh, the Workforce
(24:45):
Center and the Chambers programand CMU program where , uh, and
it , and it worked out great.
And so having the , so we have,we have a lot of small
connections, definitelypersonal connections with, with
a lot of the people that workat the , at CMU. And I hope to
see more and more of that. I,but they provide a , just
having that in our area is, is,is a massive , uh, uh, benefit
(25:09):
for workforce. It's a ma Imean, it , there's so much
energy that comes from a campusand from a university and a
community. It's so exciting.
We're fortunate to have that.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
I've been at chamber meetings where CMU is there,
and it's a workforcediscussion. It's like, all
right , how can we get, youknow, our students plugged in
more to what's happening here?
Mm-Hmm .
connections and thecommunication continues.
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
good job as well of, offiguring, of creating programs
or adjusting programs for theneeds of the workforce. And not
even the current workworkforce, but looking ahead at
, uh, you know, what types ofjobs we see coming to the area.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
You have to do some projections. And I do think
there, there's creativeleadership at the university
that does think about the wholecounty and not just Grand
Junction. Definitely.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
Which I appreciate.
I agree. Yeah .
Speaker 2 (26:01):
What do you think are some underutilized
resources in the fruit areathat you would like to see?
Have more of a role?
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Wow .
Speaker 4 (26:10):
That's a good one.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
That's one gonna be gotcha .
Speaker 2 (26:13):
There's, there's so many, but there's so many
things about fruit . I mean,you've got great hiking. You've
got the Colorado River thatruns right through , um, you've
got mountain biking, you havedinosaur bones , uh, so many
things. Is there somethingthat, that needs a little more
promotion or attention? Or doyou feel it's pretty well
balanced? I
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Think it's pretty well balanced. I don't know if
people realize that how muchmusic we have going on. Uh ,
there's almost, there's livemusic almost every night in
Fruita . You know, we're knownfor, we're known for great
stuff, mountain biking, pizza,beer. Mm-Hmm .
like, you know, a little bitmore. I wish , you know, people
were a little bit more aware ofsome of the local music that
(26:53):
happens in Fruita . Um, yeah .
I , I can't really think ofanything that's like, so
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Where do people find out about what's going on?
Where's the best place to findout about the music going on in
Fuda for people listening andwatching?
Speaker 3 (27:09):
There is, the Chamber does a pretty good job,
promot promoting, but , uh, thecity website's got stuff. But
look at , uh, the Copper Clubbase camp . They always have
stuff going on as well. Yeah .
Speaker 4 (27:21):
I would say a lot of the social media sides of the
businesses and definitely ofthe city. Uh, there's a lot
that's shared for that. I, Ithink , uh, one of the things
that's , uh, that , that couldbe underutilized , um, is, oh
my gosh, now I just did it. Itotally, totally went blank on
(27:43):
. I'll think of it later. So ,okay.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
The Bark Park, the museum trying to go through? No
, we have
Speaker 4 (27:52):
A ,
Speaker 3 (27:52):
We have a new bark park . Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
A new Bark Park .
Talk about that. Tell us aboutthe new Bark Park .
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Um , I guess it was two years ago. There's land
next to the, a museum outthere, the dinosaur museum. And
I don't remember whose idea itwas, it may have been mark's,
but people wanted a dog park inFruita for a long time. And we
had this land and theopportunity came up and it was
within the budget, and thenkind of started small, so to
(28:19):
build it out, and then nowwe're adding to it. But yeah,
now we have our own bark park .
It's very cool. There's a smallpark, small dog park, a large
dog, dog park. And , uh, we useit quite a bit. And it's great
because I meet probably halfthe people aren't local. Oh ,
they're coming in from the Utaharea. They have dogs with them,
(28:40):
and they stop there. Theyutilize the park. And you have
some great conversations. Uhhuh
Speaker 2 (28:44):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
I would say that the effort to promote the variety
is, is there and worked onregularly. Um, we will, whether
we promote it or not, we willalways get a lot of attention
for mountain biking. And sosometimes people think we
promote that only , uh, but wepromote the full variety in ,
in all the efforts we do , uh,especially on the tourism
(29:08):
front. And , uh, but we get aton of attention for that
because we are really known forthat across all, across the
world. And , uh, and so it'sbeen a benefit. But you're
right, there's so many thingsto do. And I think the more we
more people discover the factthat within two to three hours,
you can be at so many reallycool places. The fact that you
(29:31):
can enjoy, you know, thesesunny , uh, winter days in the
thirties that you can go hikeor ride your bike. But if you
want to go up to Powderhorn andski, I mean, those things are s
it's so awesome
experience that. Um, I, I thinkwe
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Almost don't wanna share it, right ? It like
Speaker 4 (29:49):
I know we almost,
Speaker 2 (29:50):
We love it here.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
And Mike is famous different. Mike , Mike, the hit
US Chicken Uhhuh
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Yeah. He gets some pretty good press.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
It , it's literally, my wife was in Florida and they
did a whole article while shewas down there about Mike, the
headless chicken festival in St. Pete.
unbelievable his popularity
you. No, but ,
Speaker 4 (30:14):
Uh , but to your comment, Christie , I think we,
we've put a lot of effort overthe years in promoting , uh,
promoting both the variety, butalso, you know, how to take
care of the, the , theenvironment that we enjoy. And
we've, we've put a lot of fundsinto actually creating ways to
(30:34):
maintain trails and to buildtrails in a more sustain ,
sustainable manner. And in away that those of us that live
here still have this experience, um, that you can have on a
weekday or a weekend. Andsometimes those weekends get a
little busy. And, and so wewant to, when we look at what
(30:56):
we're prioritizing, we look atcommunity first and then
tourism second. And that's ,that's a value that came from
our community. And so we feelreally good about the fact that
we started early in thoseefforts, in those messages,
especially watching othercommunities that kind of got so
far. And then they were tryingto step back really quickly and
(31:18):
say, whoa, whoa , whoa , now weneed to think about this, this,
and this. And we have too manypeople. And , uh, so we've,
we've tried to, we've tried to,with within the influence we
have, we've tried to workreally hard on that.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
So when you talk about that , um, community
first I'm envisioning like, and, uh, you have some money to do
something with, think about theconnecting trails in town
before you go put a bunch moremoney into mountain bike trails
or whatever. Right? Like makingsure you're , your core is
really , um, communityfriendly. Right.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
I just had a conversation with somebody two
weeks ago that had just movedto Fruita and was amazed at how
she could bike anywhere in townbecause of the trail system
within the , the community. Andthat for her was just a win.
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Awesome. Um, so what are you most excited about for
the future of Fruita ? Arethere some projects that you
see down the road or somethings that you're shooting for
long term that get you excited?
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Definitely. I'm really excited about the
riverfront , uh, property thatwas mentioned earlier .
Earlier. We have a , uh, we arefinalizing our agreement with
our private , uh, uh, partner ,uh, to Forex Ventures. And
we've had some public meetingsabout, you know , uh, a
everything we're talking aboutnow. Um, and it's exciting
because we're looking at thislarge open space area that is
(32:40):
in the floodplain reworking,the, the bank , uh, rerouting
the trail that already goes ,uh, through this property to
the state park, and , uh,connects to north the north
side of Frida and then goes allout to Loma or, you know, it's
the , it's part of theRiverfront trail system. And ,
uh, so we're really excitedabout that. Uh , there's also a
(33:00):
, a huge commercial piece toit. And , um, and then some
residential and just, it'll beour first time to connect to
the river. I mean, this isbeautiful when you, when you
connect your community to theriver. And, and , uh, we we're
working with really good , um,uh, contracted , uh, experts
(33:21):
on, you know, the river and theembankment , uh, and those
types of things. So that's,that's exciting because that'll
be , uh, that'll be anadditional space that
compliments the communitydoesn't take away from other
areas. We've, we've been reallydeliberate about the timing of
when that, when that wouldwork. We, we looked into it
pretty heavily years ago, andit , it , it didn't work at
that time. And, and now the ,the market's where it's at,
(33:43):
where I , I think we've filledin, in the downtown , uh,
we've, we're filling in and onthe south side and a lot of
these areas. So it's, it's,it's good timing for that. And
, uh, it's, it's a project thatour community's been pretty
excited about. Um, another oneis Matthew mentioned is , uh,
on South Mulberry. Uh , thecity purchased property that
(34:04):
used to be , uh, powdercoating. It was kind of a
non-conforming , uh,grandfathered use. And then
they expanded out to the, thebusiness park. And , uh, we
purchased the property and thenwe, and then we sold it to a
private , uh, owner who withtied to a parking agreement and
a real, and a , uh, economicdevelopment agreement. So , um,
(34:28):
there are, there are pieces inthere where they are working
quickly right now to redevelopthe, the building, and then it
creates more , uh, more retailspace , uh, that they're, that
they're working hard to, tofill in. And so we're excited
to see that, 'cause it's rightin the core of the city. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
That's a win-win. Um , yeah . Getting them out to
the business park too. Amazing.
Yeah. Anything you wanna add towhat you're excited about
Matthew? Um,
Speaker 3 (34:53):
You know , right now, fruit isn't a great spot.
We're very, very fortunate.
And, you know, we got here fromwork that was done five to 10
years ago, and the effort that,you know, people that came
before me, that they put in theforesight they had, and that
got us to where we are today.
So what I'm excited about isthe ability to say, okay, we're
here now and we're in a goodspot that we can, we have the
(35:15):
opportunity to look down theroad five to 10 years, and what
can we do now to make sure wekind of keep this special? I
mean, fruit is kind of special,and how do we keep this going
down the road? So I'm superexcited about that. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Can I, can I see your water bottle for a second?
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Uh, oh .
Speaker 2 (35:37):
And I just , uh, I wanna wrap up with , um, a
great marketing campaign , um,where you were involved in
this, in , in , when you werecity manager, when this came
about. This came
Speaker 4 (35:49):
About just before.
Just before I started. Yeah .
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah. Um, it's a big, it's a big leap. You have
to be really brave to dosomething like that. Right. And
it's worked out great.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
Yeah. And Steve and Denise, he who are in the
copyright, right, there are,you know, some of our
historians in the, in thecommunity. And , um, you know,
they, they did that , uh,copyright. And then the Chamber
actually did the promotion ofthe WTF. And then on the other
side is the , uh, uh, the , thecity's logo city logo,
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Which is great. A
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Cool story. Business cards. Yeah. A cool story about
that, that most not a lot ofpeople realize is that our
downtown advisory board that wehad , uh, in 2000, somewhere in
the 2012 timeframe, theycreated that logo for the
downtown advisory board, andthey took a sprocket from , uh,
farming and ranching equipment.
And that's where the gearactually came from. Oh . So it
(36:46):
, it gets related to bikesbecause it, it , it works well
with that. Mm-Hmm .
Fry used to give a hard timeabout, do you wanna see what a
real , like bite ? And I said,I know, but it's from farming
and ranching from ranch . Andthen we ,
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Which there's a very long history of that in the
Speaker 4 (37:01):
Area. There is. And we, we love it because it , it
kind of ties everythingtogether. It's forward motion.
When you look at our , uh,strategic priority areas, you
see why we exist as we toprovide core services. And it's
a gear in the middle. And whenthat gear is humming along
really well, what do we want tohave a , a positive impact on?
And then, and , and then yousee those, those strategic
(37:22):
areas and other gears, and ofcourse they're all gonna be
moving forward. And it, itjust, it, it takes every bit of
fruita in such a simple logo.
We hope that will last a longtime. And so it's kind of a fun
story of where it comes from.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
It is , and I don't know if I said to those people
that might be watching thatdon't know. This is, it's
welcome to Fruita
Yes. And, and Fruita doeswelcome everybody. We want
everybody to come visit Fruita. It is a great place to visit,
a great place to live, greatplace to have a business,
wonderful community. Thanks forall that you two do to make it
(37:58):
a wonderful place to live.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
Well, thank you for having us. This has been fun.
Yeah,
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Thank you. Anything else you wanna share?
Speaker 4 (38:05):
Anything you can think of? No,
Speaker 3 (38:06):
Not off the top of my head. All right . You've
covered quite a bit. Yeah ,
Speaker 2 (38:09):
We did. Yeah . Okay.
Um, well thank you to MatthewBreman and Mike Bennett from
the City of Fruita . Uh, makesure you , um, go to their
website. Um, make sure youcheck out the music scene. Uh,
there's so much to do outthere. Yeah . We want people to
go and enjoy that music and seethe beauty of Fruita . It's
(38:32):
just great. So , um, you don'thave any volunteer
opportunities we need to talkabout?
Speaker 4 (38:37):
Oh, you know, we always have, we tend to have
some openings on our boards andcommissions, and we have
numerous boards andcommissions, and we have really
active boards and commissionsthat, that honestly do a lot of
work and benefit for thecommunity. Um, so those are
great opportunities. I willsay, too , uh, one thing to add
is that we put a lot ofinformation out that not
(38:59):
everybody's aware of, but , um,as part of my job, I, I send an
update to the city councilevery week, but it's public. So
there's, we have a lot ofpeople that are signed up to
receive kind of as anewsletter. They receive that
every Friday. It's on thewebsite. You can go back to,
not that you might want to goback and read all those, but
you can, you can start and you, and it's a really easy,
Speaker 2 (39:20):
And you can sign
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Up, you can sign up , uh, right on fruit.org , and
it's a weekly update, and it'sjust, it hits the highlights
really quick, and it's wherethose events are and things
like that. Um, it's, it's a , areally good way to keep
Speaker 3 (39:33):
Up . There's a question of the week, which,
you know , people are asking.
There's all the development. Ifpeople wanna know what's being
built, where that's all inthere.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Great. Great resource fruita.org . Okay.
Thanks everybody for joiningus. This is Christy Reese.
We'll see you next time on theFull Circle podcast. Thanks for
listening. This is ChristieReese signing out from the Full
Circle Podcast .
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