Business View Civil and Municipal | April/May 2022

43 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 3 options. We’re also a Gigabit city; high speed internet is available citywide at 1 gigabit per second. People can engage in both recreational and business opportunities at the same time.” The incredible outdoor lifestyle was what drew Lisa Kuczmarski, Director of Business & Tourism, to the area five years ago. She couldn’t pass up regularly fly fishing in an alpine lake or on the Uncompaghre River, only four minutes from downtown. She notes, “The community is also a regional hub on the western slope with great logistics between the municipalities of Durango and Grand Junction. It allows us to provide healthcare, business, and education opportunities to the smaller rural communities around us.” As the highest populated municipality in Montrose County, there are approximately 20,000 residents calling the city ‘home’, according to the U.S. census. However, Bell maintains, “In 2021, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development reported we gained 1,000 people. We have 21,000 in our city and another 10,000 living in the unincorporated county. So, our total residential population is about 31,000 but we also provide services to about 60,000 people.” Recently, the Colorado State Demographer presented at the Montrose Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) luncheon, predicting how the city’s growth will trend even higher over the next decade. Bell believes that people escaping large cities after COVID reinforced the possibility of working from home. Smaller cities equipped with broadband are much preferred. Montrose is particularly fortunate because it also offers additional local MONTROSE , COLORADO City Manager, William Bell