Anyone have info on Rigby, Idaho??

[boucinaround]

Rigby is a good little town. I was born in Idaho Falls and grew up in Rigby, so I know it pretty well. If you have a problem with the mormon religion this town is not for you.They are everywhere. Like all of eastern Idaho. There is a grocery store called Broulims right in Rigby if you dont want to make the drive to Idaho Falls. There is also bars, 2 video shops, 3 gas stations, car lots, an antique shop and a little lake. There is plenty more too. It has just enough of what you need. But it is growing considerably! Alot of fields have now turned into housing developments where all the damn housing looks the same and they all have the garage right up front. I hate that! But it still has its small town charm!

[mc2010]

We moved to Rigby from the Boise/Meridian area in 1974. Needless to say, this area has changed a great deal in that time - most of the change has occurred since 2000 when the housing bubble started. There are many subdivisions around us now. We live in the county in what used to be mainly farm land. There is more traffic. The crime is still low, mostly pesty vandalism. The people are friendly and we are not members of the Mormon religion, but are accepted in the community - so I do not think that is a problem - but that is me. Our son is now married and lives back over in the Boise valley area. He did not care for this part of the state. I miss the country feeling and would like to move to a quiet small town area, but that may be difficult to do anymore. So, I would move but my spouse wishes to stay -we have the place paid off.The taxes are low as is the cost of living. The winters are harsh and driving can be a white knuckle experience when the snow flies. I guess it is all relative and this area is better than a metro area, but I would prefer to look elsewhere because it lacks the advantages and services of a metro area and yet has lost the quiet and open spaces of a truly rural area. At this time, housing sales seem very slow.

If I were to rate Rigby from 1 to 10 - I would rate it a 5.

[khurley]

I grew up in Rigby and now live in Idaho Falls. Rigby is a nice, little town. Ofcourse, for those of us who grew up there it's grown by leaps and bounds in the last little while (there's actually more than one stoplight ). My husband's from southern CA, which is where we lived for 5 years after we were married. When we moved back to Idaho, we bought a house in Rigby since it's where I was from. I loved it, but my husband had a hard time living there because he got tired of having to drive to Idaho Falls if he wanted to do something simple like go to McDonalds. A town with a population of around 3,000 was just too much of a change for someone who grew up in L.A.. He does fine with Idaho Falls, though.

[odoyle rules]

im new in the area, if you have kids in school dont bring em here. schools are behind most big cities. if your kids want to play some sort of sports in school, dont bring em here either. its not about playing as a team its about how good one person looks or wants to look. at least for the jr high. high school may be a different story. sure there are some great teachers here. also you dont have to pass jr high to get into high school, so the motivation is not really there. too bad. on the other hand i have met some very nice people here as well as some mean sucks. just like most places. the outdoor life is great if you love to fish and hunt. bottom line, it would be ok if you dont have kids.

[spiritsinthesky]

When the comment very, very, very morman is made, it is correct. I have lived in Rigby for quite a few years and am not morman. My kids have had some unfortunate experiences at school with not being morman. However, there are more non mormans moving in than when I did and it is getting better. Also there are many natives that have chosen not to do the religion so fanatically. All my neighbors (but 1 husband) are morman and we are very blessed that they are so wonderful. The town grocery store (Broulim's) is closed on Sunday's, but we have grocery stores in Idaho Falls and Rexburg that are open on Sunday's. I think the more diversity Rigby can get, the better. It seems, as a non morman, there is a lot of opinion built on what ward are you in (the group that meets at certain church buildings) and who your bishop (leader in church) is. We have had a few families choose to not let their kids play with our kids based on us not being morman, but it is their loss. For the most part, at least in my subdivision, everyone is kind and wonderful to have around. I work in Idaho Falls and the commute is not bad at all. It is a 30 min drive to work which is 13.8 miles away. Good Luck!!

[banjomike]

I came on this thread quite late, but I think spirit's comments are the most pertinent now. Rigby has changed a lot since 2006 when this topic started.
It's still a small Idaho town, but as was mentioned, lots of new folks moved in over the past 5 years, and growth brings change. Change brings new attitudes and new leisure and cultural stuff.

A good friend of mine who was a music teacher in the schools here in I.F. and later in Rigby, told me that Rigby is developing a very good school music program, and the program is being highly supported by the school patrons. At the same time, the music programs in the I.F. schools has drastically declined to a shadow of what it once was. While this is not an indicator of the overall quality of Rigby schools, it does show a level of sophistication (by Idaho standards) that once simply wasn't there to me.

Although Rigby is very close to Idaho Falls, and I.F. is a much larger city, Rigby has always had it's own identity, and seems to be doing pretty well, compared to a lot of other S. Idaho towns it's size. Many are slowly and steadily losing population and businesses. The housing boom there is over for sure, but the town and the area are still growing, albeit at a much slower pace than in 2006.

I've always liked Rigby. To me, it's still much the old-style rowdy Idaho small town, and that's my style... I fit right in with the folks there. I like how Idaho's ways and spirit have largely kept to the same ways our pioneers had, even though we are all 100 years past the frontier.

Moving slowly into the 21st century is not necessarily worse than jumping quickly into the great social changes going on elsewhere- for sure, we're going to get there, but we'll do it our way and in our own sweet time. That's Idaho's independent, self-sufficient spirit. I'm glad we still have plenty of it!