Sedgwick, a struggling town on the Colorado prairie, found salvation in legalized pot

SEDGWICK — Residents of this sleepy little town in far northeast Colorado smile optimistically when talking about the turn their municipality has taken over the past few years.

Town officials, local business owners and residents alike paint a picture of a wind-blown burg on the eastern plains that was on the brink of death in the early 2000s.

“It was turning into a ghost town,” said Rhonda Jones, Sedgwick’s town clerk and a lifelong Sedgwick County resident who graduated from nearby Julesburg High School.

One business owner said that when he arrived shortly before 2014 there “were literally weeds 3 feet tall growing in the gutters.” Gusts propelled tumbleweeds into thorny stacks. Buildings along Main Avenue — one of only a few streets in the hamlet of 150 people — were in disrepair.

Read more: http://gazette.com/state-of-marijuana/pot-on-the-plains