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Couple Realizes Fargo's Where They Want To Be, After All Originally published in U Magazine June 1998 Web publishing with the permission of the Fargo/Cass Economic Development Corporation "Man-did we really make the right decision?" It wasn't too long after moving from Fargo to Colorado Springs that Bruce and Stacy Wright started posing that question to each other. It had seemed ideal: a fast-growing community in a gorgeous, postcard setting that immediately attracted the Fargo couple. They were looking for a place with good jobs, more entertainment, less severe winters. With a job opening for Bruce in computer network sales, Colorado Springs seemed like the right place. After a few months, though-when the job didn't work out as well as Bruce had hoped, and he and his wife continued talking about starting a family-the Wrights reconsidered. "On vacation, it looked like heaven," says Bruce. "But the experience taught me you should look at more." Growing at an even faster rate than Fargo, Colorado Springs seemed to be having a hard time keeping up in terms of services. Although the Wrights' wages were a bit higher than in Fargo, the cost of living was substantially higher as well, and the lower net pay affected their standard of living. Both Bruce's and Stacy's parents were far away, in Fargo-and the distance seemed greater after Stacy's father passed away and her mother was living alone. And when the Wrights asked each other if the city-with growing crime and gang-related problems on the news every night-was where they wanted to raise children, they agreed: "No way." So the couple moved back to Fargo-and Bruce was right back working with Corporate Technologies, where he'd worked for eight years before what Bruce now terms their "one-year sabbatical" in Colorado. "Fortunately, the word from here was, 'If you're interested in coming back, let us know,'" recalls Bruce, a Moorhead native, now a Corporate Technologies technical consultant, assisting staff and customers with network design and analysis. Stacy works at State Bank of Fargo, as an administrative assistant to the executive vice president and commercial loan officers. Since the birth of Karly-now 14 months old-the Wrights have had few regrets about returning home to Fargo. "I'm not saying we'd never live anywhere else, but we're really happy we came back," says Bruce. "We bought a house eight blocks from one set of grandparents, and about a mile from Stacy's mother. Karly sees a lot of her grandparents, and we wanted them to be an important part of raising her." Fargo's excellent educational system will be an important factor for Karly down the road. And the city's growth, Bruce points out, seems to be well thought out. He speaks from experience. "We really take for granted that services and traffic will grow with the city," he observes. "I think the city management and commissioners here do such a good job of anticipating growth and growing with it, so you usually don't even notice the growing pains." U
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