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Hi. I am somewhat lost on this site, but trying to post about questions I have regarding a possible move to Sterling. If someone can help me get where I need to be, please help. Otherwise, if anyone has thoughts or information please post it.
My husband and I are a couple of years from 40 with a 16 year old son and 13 year old daughter. My husband has worked as a laborer moving buildings and as a laborer building a coal burning power plant. Obviously we worry there won't be work for him.
We are conservative, but not religious, with strong family values. We enjoy going to the movies, being outside and basically being laid back at home.
Our kids are both into sports. Our son plays basketball/baseball and our daughter plays volleyball and is a cheerleader (she takes this very seriously )
We are originally from WA state, but have lived in the shadow of Phoenix for 8 years now. We want OUT! My daughter was offered to buy heroin and prescription drugs at school. Last year my son had a classmate (8th grade) arrested for pushing meth on the younger kids. Ahh!
My son visited a friend in Sterling last summer who made this move we are considering. He really enjoyed himself and liked the small town feel and what he considered friendly people. I don't mind small town at all, (we both grew up in a small town) but do worry there may not be anything to do. When kids get bored~ trouble brews. I have been reading anything I can find on Sterling and the surrounding area, but there's nothing like getting a locals opinion of what is really going on. I don't mind giving up amenities, but don't want to give that up if I'm only trading one set of problems in for another.
Here are a few of my questions:
What type of work is there or within a 30 minutes drive?
Is there a drug/alcohol/prescription drug problem with teens?
Are there things to do socially that aren't centered around drinking and taverns/bars/clubs?
Are there decent homes for rent and if so, where can I find them? (having very little luck)
Is this community very welcoming to newcomers?
Can someone please list actual names of stores/restaurants so we might recognize something we have heard of?
I appreciate any input anyone might have. If I am in the wrong place..PLEASE give me specific instructions on how to post where this belongs. Thank you!
wow. Why Sterling? I think you'd be better off in Colorado Springs (a conservative and clean city). I've never been to Sterling but looking at the map I see it's a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Definitely boring.
Actually if you're wanting to move to a nice place, I would think Provo, Utah is even nicer than Colorado Springs. Crime in Provo is practically non existent. It's an incredibly nice, well kept town of 200,000 population.
wow. Why Sterling? I think you'd be better off in Colorado Springs (a conservative and clean city). I've never been to Sterling but looking at the map I see it's a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Definitely boring.
Actually if you're wanting to move to a nice place, I would think Provo, Utah is even nicer than Colorado Springs. Crime in Provo is practically non existent. It's an incredibly nice, well kept town of 200,000 population.
So, why opine about Sterling if you've never been there?????????????
I have been there--numerous times. Have friends who have lived there and friends from there. So--the Sterling economy basically centers on agriculture and a correctional facility there. It is 125 miles from Denver--Sterling is the biggest town in the area from Brush to the Colorado state line. If you don't have to be close to the mountains to be happy, it is one of Colorado's nicer small communities, in my opinion. If you're looking for big city amenities and entertainment, it's not there. Housing is more affordable there than many places in Colorado, but jobs will be relatively scarce and wages lower than many places--pretty much typical of farm communities all over the country.
A lot of people get this romantic notion about living in small communities--friendly people, low crime, affordable housing, etc. That can all be true (absolutely NOT true in most Colorado resort and mountain communities, though), but the tradeoff is job scarcity, low wages, and the absence of a lot of amenities that spoiled suburban brats (young and old) expect. If a person can live with those tradeoffs, small town living in a town like Sterling can be great. If one can't live with the tradeoffs, the place will seem confining, boring, and insufferable real quick. I've lived in both major metro areas and small towns--I'll take a small town in a heartbeat, but I don't need or want all of the "amenities" that a metro area offers, especially if one has to put up with all of the metro bull**** along with the amenities.
So, why opine about Sterling if you've never been there?????????????
Here's why:
Because I've been all over the West. Including the Cheyenne area which is close to Sterling. I've been through countless tiny towns in the middle of the Plains and Desert. Guess what: they're all THE SAME.
Quote:
So--the Sterling economy basically centers on agriculture and a correctional facility there.
What exactly is wrong with living in a town that has an economy based on agriculture????
I have been to Sterling to get more of a idea of the these towns on the plains. I have been in numerous towns, stopping here and there, just to try to understand the complexities of the Great Plains. To say that these small towns are the same is a very myopic view. To infer that they cannot offer a quality of life is a narrow idea of what life can offer.
Again, we come back to the same old tired issue that Colorado should become cartoon towns that cater to the whims of the easily bored spoiled denizens of the media saturated population. We want Vails, Aspens and Beaver Creeks; and resist recognizing the importance and livability of the Burlingtons, Sterlings, Fort Morgans, Brushes, Lamars. We want immediate gratifications to our insatiable wants; fail to understand what is a basic need; and that simplicity can also be satisfying.
Because I've been all over the West. Including the Cheyenne area which is close to Sterling. I've been through countless tiny towns in the middle of the Plains and Desert. Guess what: they're all THE SAME.
FALSE! That just means that you've only looked at them superficially. To use your example, Cheyenne and Sterling are grossly different in their climate, demography, geography, employment, and economy. To be sure, they are more similar than, say, Denver and Ordway, but that's not saying much. Maybe things look similar to you at 75 mph on the Interstate, but slow down and LOOK, and you'll see the differences.
Your kids will HATE it there. You will get tired of driving them far so they can go and do something. At their age they want to do things and be social, a trampoline in the backyard and a swing set just does not cut it anymore.
We moved from Thornton a town/city I still like and go to often and moved to acreage 9 miles from a small town. But the time my son was 15 he was bored and constantly asking if I could take him here or there. Thankfully a rec center is 15 mins away, friends about the same distance ( if they live in town) so alot of picking up and dropping off became a way of life. But Sterling is way out there. Also in some small out of the way towns the kids drink and do drugs alot due to boredom. Funny how small towns can have one restaurant and one gas station but 2 liquor stores and 3 bars.
I know people who live out in Sterling and drive all the way here to do things, go shopping, to sell their livestock and etc.
There are lots of small towns up and down Highway 85, out on 76, around the Springs and such that would not be so far from things for your kids to do.
LiveC are you serious? Ag based jobs are not easy nor are they money making at this time. So many dairy people around me have given up and sadly sell their cows to these large idiot companies who slaughter the cows getting rid of the competition. Keeping their bigger, better ( maybe hormone injected) girls in the milk string and not the home raised, well taken care of girls who are loaded and killed.
Want to farm the land then you better have a ton of start up cash. Getting loans at this stage is not very likely and let's face it farming aint where the green that counts comes from. I am having trouble selling livestock this year due to the economy and have sold for less than I am happy with but it is less mouths to feed. Feed prices up and livestock sales down. Visiting is not living and getting the actual experience.
Besides her husband seems to be construction/laborer and I doubt there are tons of those types of jobs in Sterling.
Your kids will HATE it there. You will get tired of driving them far so they can go and do something. At their age they want to do things and be social, a trampoline in the backyard and a swing set just does not cut it anymore.
You hit it on the nail. I personally think it should be a crime to raise kids in places like Meeker, CO, or Price, Utah (sorry to the folks who live there!). Kids need to be sociable, have lots of friends and lots of things to do. Not just sit around throwing rocks at the cows.
Nothing wrong with ag land. I was referring more to the correctional facility with my comment.
As for jazz .... hey what can I say. Price, Utah is the same to me as Meeker, colorado: BORING. At least to live there. To visit, do outdoors stuff, hiking, fishing, etc. is fine. But I'd rather be unemployed in a big city than have a job and have to live in one of those places.
You hit it on the nail. I personally think it should be a crime to raise kids in places like Meeker, CO, or Price, Utah (sorry to the folks who live there!). Kids need to be sociable, have lots of friends and lots of things to do. Not just sit around throwing rocks at the cows.
Better start prosecuting mine and my wife's parents then. While you may disagree, there's absolutely _nothing_ wrong with small town America. When I lived in Wisconsin we lived out in the country, 7 miles outside of town. The nearest kid my age was 3 miles away. My older sister and I hung out with the "neighbor" kid a half mile away. My younger brother and I would ride our bikes on the roads and through the woods, go down to the creek, climb trees, and play with the cows in the farmer's pasture behind the house. When we weren't outside we were in the playroom in the basement playing.
When my family moved to Colorado we had more amenities but by-and-large it was still us kids hanging out together.
Here's where I get curmudgeonly - we didn't need video games, the mall, cruising, etc, to have a good time. We did so together, as a family, something that as I've gotten older I've grown to believe would do this country a lot of good. Nowadays we dump our kids off at the rec center, pool, mall, etc. The social problems this country is facing wouldn't be as prevalent if families were closer together. Revolutionary, I know.
You hit it on the nail. I personally think it should be a crime to raise kids in places like Meeker, CO, or Price, Utah (sorry to the folks who live there!). Kids need to be sociable, have lots of friends and lots of things to do. Not just sit around throwing rocks at the cows.
Nothing wrong with ag land. I was referring more to the correctional facility with my comment.
As for jazz .... hey what can I say. Price, Utah is the same to me as Meeker, colorado: BORING. At least to live there. To visit, do outdoors stuff, hiking, fishing, etc. is fine. But I'd rather be unemployed in a big city than have a job and have to live in one of those places.
In case you hadn't noticed, a lot of those "bored" kids from small towns are the ones who grow into the business and governmental leaders in this country--in higher percentages than one would expect from the rural-living population. Just maybe it might be because those kids learned how to interact with each other in their community instead of playing video games or being mall rats. Just maybe not having all kinds of passive entertainment surrounding them made them a little more inquisitive and studious. Just maybe being in a small community where adults besides their parents took an interest in their proper upbringing and well-being might have had some positive influence. You know, most small towns are not filled with a bunch of sweathogs who just want to drink, do drugs, and fight. As a percentage of the population, there are far more of those knuckleheads in the metro areas and resort towns. When somebody tells me they're "bored"--no matter where they are--I think it's because they are either too stupid or lazy to even look at the world around them.
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