Community's downtown is filled with potential

Looking back at my childhood, some of my favorite memories were the weekends I would spend with my Uncle Brad, Aunt Nancy, and their three kids in Green River.

It was always an adventure as me and my cousin Brad would hunt snakes, lizards, and sand puppies. We would also get fireworks and blow up army men, climb a little bit too high on Mansface, and many other things that would drive my aunt so crazy that she probably went gray about 20 years to early.

As a kid, there was a huge difference between Rock Springs where I lived and Green River. I love Rock Springs, the two places are just and have always been different.

My hometown seemed like a lot bigger. It was not necessarily the amount of people, it’s just how spread out the town is. Driving from where I lived to my grandparents took probably longer than driving from Rock Springs to Green River.

Running around with my cousin, it just seemed like there were two parts of Green River. The old part of town and the new part. It was easy to navigate and never took very long to get from his house to the older part of town where we could go to the drug store and get candy so we could make Nancy’s hair gray.

There were so many times we would make the short walk to City Market or Pamida. It seemed like Green River had it all. It was small, but what seemed to be a steady amount of businesses. There were even two grocery stores.

Years later I had the opportunity to work in Green River at the Star, and I was excited to be spending a lot of my time here.

After my family moved, I didn’t spend a lot of time in Green River so I really didn’t know a lot about what was going on here.

Upon my return, the first thing I noticed is that Green River is still an amazing place. It’s still a great place to raise a family. The people are friendly and the town is just the right size. Not big enough to cause a lot of havoc, but not small enough that everyone in the world knows your business.

I once lived in a town of about 500 and you couldn’t even pass gas without someone knowing about it. It’s pretty brutal.

What I also noticed was the second grocery store was gone. The handful of smaller businesses was dwindling. There were some great little businesses working hard to make a living, but it just wasn’t the same.

That makes me sad. The downtown area in Green River has so much potential. I’m not necessarily saying I want the town to grow to the size of Rock Springs, I just want to see it reach its maximum potential.

There is a classic downtown area for businesses and it would be great to see it filled with shops and people. I really am not sure how to get this going again, but the city council, Green River Main Street and the community need to get together to figure it out.

Of course there is Wal-Mart just a few miles away, but that doesn’t mean that Green River can’t try to find some sort of grocery store to come in.

Instead of looking at another huge corporation like Kroger, maybe a smaller mom and pop operation that only has a few stores would work.

Keeping the people in Green River is key. A thriving downtown could be the catalyst to a few more restaurants and a positive economy that benefits everyone.

There have been some positive strides with places like the Maverick and the area by the Pizza Hut, but the downtown area is the most important piece in the puzzle.

There will always be things that Rock Springs has that Green River doesn’t. And it certainly doesn’t hurt the county economy to go there. It’s just that Green River has so much potential. Let’s get this figured out.

Go Wolves.

 

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