By Jon Huang
On Saturday, Aug. 10, the Friends of Falcon held their second meeting at JAKs Brewing Co. at 11860 Stapleton Road in Peyton. Refreshments included an assortment of baked goods, chips and chicken tenders.
Larry Sparks, secretary for the Eastern Plains Chamber of Commerce and a local commercial insurance agent, was the meeting’s featured guest speaker. A local resident since 2004, Sparks spoke about how the EPCC has existed to develop local businesses and benefit the local community.
One way the EPCC helps its members is through a partnership with the company, Chamber Nation, which assists member businesses with design and developing websites to increase their online presence, Sparks said. In addition, the EPCC has informed members on local county developments such as road and business developments through attending local planning commission meetings.
Sparks said that the EPCC has struggled to retain the membership of larger corporations such as Starbucks and King Soopers. Many join but do not renew beyond their first year because they do not see the added value of keeping their membership. He hopes that by growing participation from local businesses, it will help to attract these larger members.
The chamber is committed to civic engagement. The EPCC has worked with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department over the new substation and has invited county supervisors to speak at their monthly meetings. Recently, EPCC sponsored the National Civics Bee to encourage student knowledge in their local communities. In April, EPCC partnered with the Boy Scouts and the Fresh Start Center, a local food pantry, for a food drive.
“It’s that type of community activity involvement that made a lot of businesses join,” he said.
He also talked about EPCC’s efforts to bring together local business owners. In addition to their monthly meetings, EPCC regularly hosts a business after hours, an occasion for local business owners to network in an informal setting.
“As business owners … we want people to come here, become prosperous here, and develop lives here, not just spend the two years in the military and move on,” Sparks said. “We want to see businesses grow.”
FoF president Kevin Curry addressed questions raised at the previous meeting about demographics. Curry said that, according to 2020 census data from the Colorado Geodata site, the Falcon area had 10,900 homes and 33,000 people. Through the post office website, he found there were currently 12,655 homes in the 80831 zip code, which he was using as a rough estimate for the Falcon area. Based on the previous census data, this projected to a population of 38,000. He planned to use this data to attract new businesses to the area.
Curry asked those in attendance what other topics would be of interest for future meetings. Attendees brought up senior services and crime stats and what neighbors are doing to address the latter. A member from Falcon Senior Services mentioned that their organization is searching for a new building and asked if FoF could assist in helping promote their organization. Curry agreed to give them an opportunity to speak at a later meeting, also mentioning that at the next meeting FoF plans to have a representative speak from the Falcon Fire Protection District.
In acknowledging differing public opinions on development and its correlation to the needs of a community while preserving its existing character, Curry said the role of FoF is to inform, via email and its website, the community of upcoming new building developments so interested citizens can raise concerns with the appropriate planning commissions and boards. He also said that because of its prior experience with these types of organizations, FoF can assist citizens in formulating arguments.
“We do not want to become a megalopolis,” Curry said. “We like this mix of urban rural and small business and some other businesses. We like that. We want to try to preserve that identity, and we want to promote the Falcon area.”
Curry said that future meetings will be held regularly every two months, and FoF is now able to accept donations online via Zelle — information on how to do this will be posted on their website at https://thefriendsoffalcon.org.
