For the last twenty-five years, citizens of the town of Kellogg have scratched and fought to improve economic conditions here after the Bunker Hill Company shut down in 1982.
Economic renewal of a sort has seized Kellogg. Condos are popping up all over town. A championship golf course, Galena Ridge, is under construction. Improvements continue at Silver Mountain. New restaurants are appearing. The Superfund project continues.
Now I read in the paper and hear from people I talk with complaints about the rich tourists coming to Kellogg and the developers erecting the new projects.
I thought this was what people wanted.
I don't see how new life could be pumped into this town without the infusion of development and capital from elsewhere.
The town's landscape had to be improved.
If the town is going to change, infrastructural changes have to occur, too. These cost money.
Right now I don't understand the complaints. What Kellogg longed for is happening. It's happening at a cost to the look of the town and who is coming to vacation and live.
Isn't that how change, and maybe even improvement, inevitably happens?
I'm going to spend more time trying to understand this quandary.
3 comments:
the visitors don't see kellogg as home.
it's their playground, a distraction.
most of the visitors make more $ than the people who live in the silver valley.
silver valley is renting out its home. it does't feel right.
Last time I was in Kellogg I heard a common complaint from merchants that CDA busses in groups of people to ski and then bus them back to CDA and they don't shop or spend any money in town.
Change can be painful. I think Silver Valley folks are happy about the development, but wish they were more a part of it.
In times past the wealth came from the soil, and everyone had a part in extracting it from the earth and making the valley come alive. Now they rely on strangers to share their wealth to make Kellogg viable. It isn't "home grown" change.
Since Valley-ites don't have the money to create the development themselves, they could at least embrace those who are bringing wealth to the area. Make new friends, share their own ideas, become a part of what is happening instead of standing on the sidelines with a "We vs. Them" mentality.
Those of us who have left the valley for education and jobs see the value in what is happening. Those who have always lived there feel like they are being overrun by strangers. Someone has to bring the two parties together. . .
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