1. Profile ;,~~ ,
City Manager Values Fruita's Individuality
Ithen center of Fruita's
[Colorado] Circle Park stands a
big, bright green concrete
dinosaur that looks as if it walked
off the pages of an old bedtime
storybook Less than a mile south is the
Devils Canyon Science and Learning
Center, home to high-tech robotic
dinosaurs built to scale,
Like its dinosaur displays so clearly
from such different eras, Fruita-the
western gateway to the Grand Valley
and Colorado National Monument-might
also be well on its way to an
eclectic marriage of old ways and new
ways with leadership from Fruita City
Manager John Schneiger,
Devils Canyon, a joint project
between the city and Dinamation
International Society, has spurred $7
million to $8 million in commercial
development around the Fruita exit on
Interstate 70, Schneiger said from his
office, which offers a view of the name-sake
canyon,
With an eye on the future and
respect for the past, Schneiger is work-ing
to take Fruita into the 21st century.
He tries to be sensitive to those who
love it as he looks at the 1950s-style
roadside attraction that dominates
Circle Park "I think it's a little hokey,
especially given the state-of-the-art
dinosaurs across the road, but I realize
it's symbolic," he said with a shrug.
Recreation is becoming more impor-tant
in Fruita's economic mix. Fruita
officials are working on plans with the
U.S. Bureau of Land Management to
develop additional mountain biking
opportunities. For the second year,
Fruita [hosted] the Fat Tire Festival
during the last week of April.
"Mountain bikers are just part of the
economy," Schneiger said.
Overall, Schneiger is pleased with the
progress his adopted town has made
since he took the job of city manager
almost five years ago: the Devils
Canyon Science and Learning Center;
the visitors' center; the new signs telling
visitors where to find them both; the
planning efforts that he believes have
put Fruita at the head of the class. "We
were the first ones in the 1990s to
John Schneiger, City Manager, Fruita, Colorado
upgrade our community development
plan," Schneiger said.
With such projects as the Colorado
Riverfront Trail and park development
and downtown improvement, the
future looks bright for Fruita. Thanks to
the forward-looking efforts of the city,
Fruita is emerging from the shadow of
its bigger neighbor, Grand Junction.
"The hardest thing here has been how
hard we've all had to work because
we've had inadequate resources to do
what we need to do," Schneiger said.
"A big part of my job has been
fundraising. Bringing dollars in has
been one of the most important things,
and that means your job is a little dif-ferent
from the run-of-the-mill city
manager."
In the. inid-l'.780~l Fruita had 37 fuli-time
employees, but that dropped to 20
when Schneiger came on board in
1992. Today, there are 29, including a
recently hired, full-time city engineer.
"It's a slow process when you've been in
a not-very-good economic situation. It
takes time," he said. "What's been criti-cal
here is hard work by a lot of people
and a lot of persistence. Here in Fruita,
we take an entrepreneurial perspective
on how we do things. We try to operate
the city as much like a business as we
can but knowing you can't take that
analogy to 100 percent."
As Schneiger looks to the future, he
sees three main arenas in which he
expects to put his efforts-economic
development, smart planning, and
building partnerships within the com-munity
and among the Grand Valley
communities.
One of these [partnerships] is the
interim intergovernmental agreements
signed by officials from Palisade,
Fruita, Grand Junction, and Mesa
County to try to prevent the three
municipalities from losing their indi-vidual
identities as housing and com-mercial
developments replace
agricultural lands between the commu-nities.
"We really need to work together
on that," Schneiger said. "It might be
the most important thing we have."
Schneiger, 41, has two master's
degrees, the first in urban and regional
planning from the University of
Wisconsin at Madison and the second in
business administration from Colorado
State University. Or igiuaily from
Milwaukee, Schneiger has a resume that
includes three years as Granby town
manager and work in planning, eco-nomic
development, and engineering.
Schneiger, his wife, Kaye, and 10-
year-old son, Taylor, are spending more
time enjoying outdoor recreational
interests than they were at this time last
year. "We have a few more (city
employees) to spread the work around,
and that helps," Schneiger said.
-Dana Nunn and Paul Lloyd-Davies
Staff Writers
The Daily Sentinel
Grand Junction, Colorado
Reprinted with permission from the
March 23, 1997, issue of The Daily
Sentinel, Grand Junction, Colorado,
18 AUGUST 1997