What is community pride and how do we achieve it?
Wed, 04/05/2017 - 9:26am
admin
By:
Rylee Metzger
Just put each other’s needs before your own.” -McNaughton
This article is brought to you courtesy of the Murdo Chamber of Commerce. The following interviews are intended to reflect the opinions and perspectives of Murdo citizens concerning “community pride” and how we might bring it into effect. While you take note of the following different points of view please consider personal approaches that could contribute to building community pride as an active element of our town and home.
Fourth grader Izzy McNaughton is studying as a first year student of Jones County Elementary School. Izzy is proud to be a Jones County Coyote and member of the basketball team.
What do you like most about Murdo?
“It is a fun and safe place to be and I have lots of kind friends here. People work together on the basketball team.” -McNaughton
Do you see community pride in Murdo?
“Yes. I’m proud of Murdo and it is a good place to be.” -McNaughton
How might we improve?
“Just put each other’s needs before your own.” -McNaughton
*********
Jacob Birkeland is a sophomore at Jones County High School. Birkeland participates in activities including 4-H, The National Youth Leadership Council, shooting sports, basketball and many others.
What does community pride mean to you?
“Community pride to me, means that you help others, support your local teams and care about how the community looks. This can be seen in a variety of ways from picking up trash to holding fundraisers.” -Birkeland
Do you see community pride in Murdo?
“Yes, I do see a ton of community pride in Murdo. Participating in all the events that I am in I am able to witness that whether it’s support at a ball game or donations to charities and businesses. Murdo’s businesses are very good at supporting our youth at which I am very thankful.” -Birkeland
How might we improve?
“I don’t know how we could improve because I already see a lot of community pride here.” -Birkeland
***********
Kyle Venard is a graduate of Jones County High School. After graduating from college Venard moved home to Murdo where he started his own business, Venard Powersports.
What does community pride mean to you?
“To me, community pride means doing something you’re passionate about or doing what you can to help make the community better. I had the opportunity to start my own business here in Murdo, so I felt that was one way I could help out my community by providing a service we didn’t have yet and keeping business local.” -Venard
Do you see community pride in Murdo?
“I feel like I see community pride in Murdo all the time. We are a small community, so many of the organizations and events are made up of volunteers. Events like prom, the ranch rodeo, Lions Club clean up day and delivering meals are all volunteer efforts that people are doing to help make our community a better place. Also, organizations like the fire department and ambulance rely on volunteers to operate.” -Venard
How might we improve?
“I think the best way to want to improve our community is to volunteer in something you’re passionate about towards helping others.” -Venard
************
Carole Benda is a graduate of Jones County High School and is currently a new business owner in Murdo.
What does community pride mean to you?
“Community pride means going above and beyond to make your community stand out from the rest.” -Benda
Do you see community pride in Murdo?
“Yes, I do feel that Murdo has community pride.” -Benda
How might we improve?
“Murdo could improve its community pride by offering more activities for the youth.” -Benda
************
Olivia Saunders received her associate of arts degree at Laramie County Community College and her bachelor’s degree in English education at Black Hill State University. Saunders now lives in Draper and teaches English at Jones County High School.
What does community pride mean to you?
“Community pride certainly means supporting local, especially independent, businesses, donating and participating in local fundraisers, and supporting community members that need it. I wasn’t raised in a small town, but I grew up visiting Vivian and loved the small-town community and pride, which is part of what brought me to the area. I love Murdo especially because it is a community that supports itself—it seems self-sufficient because we have a lot of necessities that other small towns sometimes miss out on, like a good grocery store, banks, multiple restaurants, a hair salon, a dentist, etc.” -Saunders
Do you see community pride in Murdo?
“I think that the people of Murdo are great at supporting each other and the businesses. I also love seeing the support for all the young people!” -Saunders
How might we improve?
“I think in the future that Murdo needs to just keep supporting local, independent and diverse businesses—especially those that will help bring the young people back to the community to keep it growing!” -Saunders
************
Don Hieb is a long time Jones County resident. He provides various trade work to the community including screen printing and construction/handy work. Hieb also runs a firework stand in the summertime.
What does community pride mean to you?
“Supporting local businesses and individuals especially when people are having a hard time. Keeping up and maintaining the community.” -Hieb
Do you see community pride in Murdo?
“Yes. The businesses we have are nice businesses. It would be nice if we had a little more. It would be nice to get some type of industry in town and a few more families. I think we do a good job supporting each other and the businesses. I think we could do better working together in some ways such as groups working better together for the betterment of the entire community. Ambulance districts could work better together. Community development, city council, county commissioners and chamber could all work better together.” -Hieb
How might we improve?
“There are four ambulance boards. One in Draper doesn’t have a board, if they did they would have to pay bond and insurance. One opted out and doesn’t have enough to have a board they support (co-oped) with Midland. So we have a city board and county board and they each have to pay bond and insurance. If there was one board they would only have to pay one bond and insurance and have more money to help the ambulance.
There are many old houses and businesses that need something done with them. They are and have been empty for many years and no one is using them or living in them. Several properties are just falling apart.” -Hieb
***************
David Geisler currently serves as Mayor of the City of Murdo. The Geisler family owns several local businesses. David and his wife Ann also have three children who attend Jones County Schools.
What does community pride mean to you?
“Community pride to me is all encompassing. It means having pride in your home and the property you own. It means being proud of your school and the Jones County Coyote teams. It means trying your best to do as much business as you can locally. If we don’t support our local businesses we won’t have any left to support. It means helping a neighbor to help them and the neighborhood they live in. It means being involved in the community (Lions Club, youth group, city council, school board, church elder, PTO, booster club, chamber of commerce, book and thimble, golf course, county commissioner, etc.) We need our local leaders to lead. You can sit around the coffee shop and complain about what isn’t getting done or you can get involved and make a difference.” -Geisler
Do you see community pride in Murdo?
“I see a lot of community pride in Murdo. There are a lot of people who have taken a great deal of pride in their business and home. Many people have invested lots of time, money and sweat equity in trying to improve their property. Obviously when you drive around town there is room for improvement. We can do better.
I think the city council has done a great job in doing our part to help clean up the town. We have helped tear down dozens of old houses and buildings. We know that if someone has a lot with an old house on it that is unlivable, it’s not good for anyone. The old house becomes a fire hazard, a home for rodents, an eye sore and a thorn in the side of the neighborhood. It hurts the properly values of everyone around it. From a practical stand point, a property owner isn’t going to hire someone for $5,000 to tear down an old house when the lot is only going to be worth $5,000 when it is done. A potential buyer of the lot isn’t going to buy the lot for $5,000 when he or she know they will have to spend another $5,000 cleaning the up the properly. If you want a good example, just drive by and look at Mike and Tennille Miller’s house. The city tore down the eye sore that was there, they build a beautiful new house. They improved the city, the neighborhood and the tax base. Yes the city spent tax payer dollars to tear it down, but we will collect way more tax on the new house over the next 50 years plus. A win, win situation for everyone.
The city of Murdo is willing to help anyone who is willing to try and help themselves. We don’t want to spend our time writing letters, sending our police officer over for a visit our getting our city attorney involved. That is not a good use of our money or assets. We will however, continue to get after those who will not willingly abide by our city ordinances or need a little push in the right direction.
What are the benefits of cleaning up the town and having community pride. They are endless. If you support our local businesses they will pay taxes, stay in town, send their kids to our school, have enough money to buy more things locally. What if we support our local businesses and the business owner can buy a new car locally, or build a new house locally, or pay his/her employees more so they have more disposable money to shop locally. If you spend a dollar out of town it stays out of town. When you spend a dollar in town, not only does some of the sales tax stay in town but a lot of the actual dollar stays in town and gets spent locally. If you have a nice clean town people who visit will take notice. Not just the tourist. What about the people who come for a basketball game, visit a relative, break down, etc. What if someone is looking for a potential place to relocate their business or family. Will they pick Murdo after driving through it? A community that takes pride helps everyone. It helps tourism, it helps the other business community, it helps everyone’s properly values, it helps the overall sense of pride the entire community has.”-Geisler
How might we improve?
“We all need to do our part. As I sit here writing this I know I have one car that is not in compliance and a big building that I need to either fix up or tear down. When you are looking for a place to start, first look in the mirror.” -Geisler
**************
Susan Moreland is the familiar face at the Jones County Senior Center where she cooks meals for the elderly, along with running the Draper bus route for the Jones County School District.
What does community pride mean to you?
“People pulling together in tough times to take care of each other and helping to keep the town looking good. I am so blessed to be here to take care of the seniors. They are such loving people.” -Moreland
Do you see community pride in Murdo?
“Yes, every day in our small community. I feel very blessed to live in an area where everyone cares for each other and is so willing to help each other out. Keep up the great work!” -Moreland
How might we improve?
“Keep up the cleaning in the area of old buildings.” -Moreland
