Getting Down to Business CO-Lab

It is Friday in our little towns in the Big Wet Mountain Valley. The farmers market is bustling and the Rotary Van is taking folks around the Cliffs to the Bluff and to their appointments. I was thinking about a story I read about other Main Street communities and how the communities used to have that same old bustle. And what one Mayor on the eastern plains is doing to face reality.

"We used to be a bustling town, now we are a crumbling town."

How did it happen? The folks died out, the businesses left, the farms were sold, and the kids moved away." Main Street is going for a song. $3500 of landmark buildings that need rehabilitation in the midst of inflation. "We need to start with a Laundromat," said the Mayor, who vowed to clean up and become a rebuilding town."

What can a town of 1200 do? The catch of the $3500 real estate deal is that the buildings need to be restored and in operation within 3 years. Or they revert back to town ownership. When you hit rock bottom, creativity happens. In Ordway, Colorado Home Economics, Work Ethic and Community are forged together with Main Street, Homestands, Farmstand markets and ecological sensibility. The Colorado Chapter of the Leadon Family Foundation and Create Daily are starting CO-Labs. A collaborative report between Home, Work and Community, mixed use restoration and finding grants in Community, Recreation, Arts, Transportation and Entrepreneurship. To find out more about our studies and TAG Teams in your community email Richardbeattie809@gmail.com.