As the world continues to grow at an increasingly quickened pace, beautiful cities with the potential and value of Heyburn are getting harder to find! Heyburn Informer will always shy away from writing opinion pieces, but in our opinion there is no better place to live than Heyburn, Idaho. Growing up in our community taught us the value of working hard, taking care of your neighbor, and prioritizing family. These values are being lost and confused, in a world that is moving evermore self centered and entitled.

The growth in our population over the past ten years, is evidence our hidden gem of a community, is no longer hidden. As the world moves to a narcissistic arrogance, there is drought of value and people notice. People are drawn to cities like ours, thirsting after genuine character. Most people fleeing the mediocrity of big cities don’t even know what they are thirsting for, putting an elevated importance on protecting the values that make our city great.

We have an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of other cities around us like Boise, Twin Falls and Pocatello. A lesson to be learned from our neighbors, is growth is coming no matter how much it is resisted. From Pocatello to Boise there is no city laid out like ours. We have prime open freeway access, we are perfectly centered between Boise and Salt Lake, and we have the foundation of values. Resisting growth has left our neighbors with inadequate infrastructure and loss of their identity. As we manage our future growth, it’s important to hold on to our small town values, embrace our future neighbors and lead them to the values and character we’ve been blessed to grow up with.

That’s where you come in! If we don’t all get involved in our community we will lose our community. Your level of involvement will be unique to you and your circumstance. It may be attending community meetings and offering opinions. It may be mentoring local youth or neighbors. Maybe you will formally serve in a public office. There is no better way to get involved then to exercise our right to vote in every election! No matter your circumstance, your involvement is needed to lead Heyburn into the future that is coming–like it or not.