Longmont, Colorado


Longmont is a Home Rule Municipality in Boulder and Weld counties of the U.S. state of Colorado. Longmont is located northeast of the county seat of Boulder and north-northwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver.
Longmont's population was 86,270 at the time of the 2010 U.S. Census. Longmont is the 13th most populous city in the state of Colorado.
The word "Longmont" comes from Longs Peak, a prominent mountain named for explorer Stephen H. Long that is clearly visible from Longmont, and "mont", from the French word "montagne" for mountain.

History

Longmont was founded in 1871 by a group of people from Chicago, Illinois. Originally called the Chicago-Colorado Colony, the men sold memberships in the town and with the proceeds purchased the land necessary for the town hall. As the first planned community in Boulder County, the city streets were laid out in a grid plan in a square mile. The city began to flourish as an agricultural community after the building of the Colorado Central Railroad line arrived northward from Boulder in 1877. During the 1940s, Longmont began to grow beyond these original limits.
In 1925, the Ku Klux Klan gained control of Longmont 's City Council in an election. They began construction of a large pork-barrel project, Chimney Rock Dam, above Lyons and marched up and down Main Street in their costumes. In the 1927 election they were voted out of office, and their influence soon declined. Work on Chimney Rock Dam was abandoned as unfeasible, and its foundations are still visible in the St. Vrain River.
During the 1960s the federal government built an air route traffic control center in Longmont, and IBM built a manufacturing and development campus near Longmont. As agriculture waned, more high technology has come to the city, including companies like Seagate and Amgen; Amgen closed its Longmont campus in 2015. In April 2009, the GE Energy Company relocated its control solutions business to the area.
The downtown along Main Street, once nearly dead during the 1980s, has seen a vibrant revival in the 1990s and into the 21st century. During the mid-1990s, the southern edge of Longmont became the location of the first New Urbanist project in Colorado, called Prospect New Town, designed by the architects Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk.
Longmont was the site of Colorado's first library though it didn't last more than a year before its collection of 300 books was lost. Following this, Longmont also was the site of one of Carnegie's libraries with the single-story structure being opened in 1913. It remained open until August 7, 1972 when, due to overcrowding with approx. 22,000 books within the space, it was closed just a week before the new library that had been constructed next door was opened.
The Longmont City Council in May 2013 voted to finance and build out its own municipal gigabit data fiber-optic network to every house and business over a three-year period starting in late 2013.

Geography

Longmont is located in northeastern Boulder County at. The city extends eastward into western Weld County. U.S. Highway 287 runs through the center of the city, leading north to Loveland and south to downtown Denver. State Highway 119 passes through the city south of downtown and leads southwest to Boulder and east to Interstate 25.
The elevation at City Hall is above sea level. St. Vrain Creek, a tributary of the South Platte River, flows through the city just south of the city center.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Longmont has a total area of, of which is land and, or 5.30%, is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2010, there were 86,270 people living in the city. The population density was 3,294 people per square mile. There were 35,008 housing units. The racial makeup of the city was:
There were 33,551 households out of which 36.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.6% were married couples living together, 10.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.8% were non-families. 23.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.64 and the average family size was 3.15.
In the city, the population was spread out with 28.6% under the age of 20, 6.3% from 20 to 24, 27.6% from 25 to 44, 26.2% from 45 to 64, and 11.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years.
The median income for a household in the city was $58,698, and the median income for a family was $70,864. Males had a median income of $51,993 versus $41,025 for females. The per capita income for the city was $29,209. About 11.1% of families and 14.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 21.4% of those under age 18 and 8.2% of those age 65 or over.
In 2011 Longmont was rated the 2nd safest city in Colorado.

Education

Longmont is home to the Boulder County Campus of Front Range Community College, the St. Vrain Valley School District, and to a number of private schools. Longmont is also home to the Master Instructor Continuing Education Program a voluntary accreditation program for aviation educators.
There is also a municipal public library. there was deliberation over whether to establish a library district and to have the library publish news. That year the library's director stated, in the words of Corey Hutchins of the Columbia Journalism Review, " lacks resources and hasn’t kept up with the city’s growth".

Transportation

Longmont is part of the RTD transit district that provides local and regional bus service to Denver and Boulder.
Outside of RTD, Longmont is connected to Fort Collins, Loveland, and Berthoud via a regional bus service.
In 2012, Longmont was recognized by the League of American Bicyclists as a silver-level bicycle-friendly community. Longmont is one of 38 communities in the United States to be recognized with this distinction. It is the only city in Colorado placed at the silver level that is not a major tourist center or a university city.

Media

The Longmont Leader is the local, daily newspaper.
The Longmont Times-Call while bearing the city's name is published from Boulder and is operated by Alden Global Capital of New York City.
Longmont's radio stations include KRCN, KGUD, and KKFN. Sports radio is broadcast on KKSE-FM from a tower about southeast of Longmont. Also located nearby is KDFD, a Fox News Radio affiliate with a conservative talk format. The KDFD transmitter site is about east of Boulder.
NPR programming can be heard on Colorado Public Radio stations KCFR from Denver, and KCFC in Boulder. The NPR affiliate KUNC from the Fort Collins-Greeley market can also be heard in Longmont.
Longmont is also served by Pacifica Radio affiliate KGNU, a non-commercial community radio station from Boulder.

Economy

According to the Longmont Area Economic Council, the top ten employers in Longmont are:
In addition, Longmont supports a thriving craft brewing industry as well as many recreational and travel-related businesses. Local breweries include two of the nation's largest craft brewers, Left Hand and Oskar Blues, as well as , , , , , , and . To service the transportation needs of brewery patrons, the local offers a hop-on-hop-off brewery tour for a fixed price. The trolley, which is actually just a motorized vehicle, not an actual trolley, returns to each brewery on its route approximately every hour during its operating hours on weekends. Longmont is known for its 'maker' community and includes businesses such as , , and . The Saturday Farmers Market is a must-do as well.
Due to its proximity to the Rocky Mountain National Park, Longmont is home to many hotels, restaurants, and other businesses that cater in part to the tourists visiting the park each year. One recreational business that calls Longmont home is Mile Hi Skydiving, which is one of the largest skydiving facilities in the state of Colorado. Longmont is also home to Saul, the , at , a custom sticker and label printing company on the city's east side. , the largest makerspace in the region, is located in Longmont. Other businesses support skiing and other snowsports, bicycling, and rock climbing.

Government

This is a list of mayors of Longmont.
at 402 Kimbark in Longmont
MayorTerm
L. H. Dickson1881–1885
George T. Dell1885–1887
Charles H. Baker1887–1888
John B. Thompson1888–1889
Ira L. Herron1889–1890
Frank Stickney1890–1892
John A. Buckley1892–1894
Neil C. Sullivan1894–1896
George W. Coffin1896–1897
Willis A. Warner1897–1898
Frank M. Downer1898–1899
Frank M. Miller1899–1901
John A. Donovan1901–1903
Samuel C. Morgan1903–1905
Charles A. Bradley1905–1909
Frank P. Secor1909–1911
Rae H. Kiteley1911–1921
James F. Hays1921–1927
Fred W. Flanders1927–1929
Earl T. Ludlow1929–1931
Ray Lanyon1931–1943
Fred C. Ferguson1943–1947
George A. Richart1947–1949
Otto F. Vliet1949–1957
Richard C. Troxell1957–1959
Albert Will1959–1961
Ralph R. Price1961–1969
Alexander Zlaten1969–1971 Pro Tem
Wade Gaddis1971–1973 Pro Tem
Austin P. Stonebreaker1973–1974
Alvin G. Perenyi1975–1977
George F. Chandler1977 Pro Tem
E. George Patterson Jr.1977–1979
Robert J. Askey1979–1981
William G. Swenson1981–1985
Larry Burkhardt1985–1987
Alvin E. Sweney1987–1989
Fred Wilson1989–1993
Leona Stoecker1993–2001
Julia Pirnack2001–2007
Roger Lange2007–2009
Bryan L. Baum2009–2011
Dennis L. Coombs2011–2017
Brian Bagley2017–Present

Notable people

Longmont is a sister city of these municipalities:

Chino, Nagano, Japan
Ciudad Guzmán, Jalisco, Mexico