Our View: City needs Futures

“Downtown is dying.”

Those aren’t our words, but the words of a businessman who operated on Flaming Gorge Way, Green River’s main street, and left it. It isn’t hard to see why someone would come to that conclusion, with vacant storefronts and little business traffic. Many of the shop owners still there agree business is hard because people don’t often stop along Flaming Gorge Way. It isn’t just business owners noticing it either. While campaigning for his city council seat, Councilman Ted Barney spoke about wanting to focus on economic development because he noticed then how badly the city’s business climate is.

Recent efforts to showcase downtown businesses by Green River Main Street is encouraging and shows the organization is making strides towards becoming a very active and unified group. However, Main Street can only do so much and Green River absolutely needs a presence geared toward bringing new and unique businesses to the city. In short, it needs Green River Futures.

We understand some readers may have reservations about reviving Green River Futures, especially considering the political drama that unfolded with the Tomahawk Building years ago. However, we believe the important thing to note is Futures, as an organization, still exists.  It owns the Tomahawk Building and continues to work towards improving it. We believe it’s time to revive Green River Futures because the city needs an economic development organization to represent it.

With some funding, it could hire a director to start recruiting businesses into the city. The land where the Hampton Inn sits could see renewed interest from restaurateurs looking to build on property that has sat vacant since the hotel’s completion. Smaller businesses could get help through seed programs to both diversify what local businesses are offering to Green River’s residents, especially downtown. Downtown Green River is very important because of its proximity to the interstate and if more is done to help replace vacant store fronts along Flaming Gorge Way, others may be interested to invest in locations throughout Green River. We, along with many others, see downtown Green River as the city’s front door and increased business activity there will make the city more attractive as a whole.

Funding the program is a difficult challenge, considering budgetary concerns in the state legislature, coupled with the city’s challenges due to decreasing revenue.

With the right people in place, we believe this funding would be an investment in the city. It wouldn’t be an investment for just economic development, but other areas including population growth as well.

We need Green River Futures. It’s an organization that can help turn the downward slide many have seen Green River experience. It wouldn’t be an overnight, magic bullet to cure all the economic problems the city faces, but with it and others working together toward the shared goal of helping Green River, it can become the kind of city it should be.