New census estimates show West Fargo, Moorhead and Dilworth all grew by double digits so far this decade, while Fargo’s population growth remains relatively flat in comparison. In U.S. Census Bureau numbers released Tuesday, West Fargo grew by 58.7 percent between 2000 and 2008, while Dilworth saw a 22.5 percent jump and Moorhead’s population increased 11.9 percent to top 36,000 residents for the first time in 2008. Fargo grew by 3.2 percent from 2000 to 2008, from 90,599 to 93,531 residents. “Fargo is actually starting to get hemmed in, they’re losing space,” said Richard Rathge, director of the North Dakota State Data Center. West Fargo went from 14,940 residents to 23,708 this decade, while Moorhead’s population climbed from 32,177 to 36,012, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates. In addition to West Fargo, other cities ringing Fargo saw strong expansion in the past eight years, according to Rathge. Horace grew 92 percent between 2000 and 2008, going from 915 residents to 1,757. Harwood grew by approximately 15.5 percent, going from 607 denizens to 701. Although West Fargo’s growth was strong over the past eight years, much of that came early in this decade. “The (recent) growth has been moderated, relative to the previous years,” said Rathge, adding that West Fargo’s population grew by 681 people between 2007 and 2008, a 3 percent increase. On the Minnesota side of the Red River, Dilworth’s population went from 3,001 in 2000 to 3,677 by 2008, a 22.5 percent increase, according to estimates released Tuesday. Between 2007 and 2008, Dilworth grew by 89 residents, a 2.5 percent increase. Moorhead’s population grew by 882 between 2007 and 2008, also a 2.5 percent increase. The city’s expansion hasn’t been by accident, according to Moorhead Mayor Mark Voxland. He said the city made a concerted effort to increase the number of subdivisions it has to offer. “In the ’90s, we only had two or three subdivisions going at any one time and they were all kind of in the same price bracket,” he said. “Now, you can buy lots anywhere from low-end to high-end,” said Voxland, adding that the mix has been good for overall growth. “As people build new houses, they move out of older homes. It has opened up a lot of first time home buying opportunity,” he said.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Dave Olson at (701) 241-5555

The new feature on our homepage allows us to showcase the writings, photos, videos and audio of anyone or any group that wants to get their message out to our ever-growing online audience.

Essentially it makes everyone a journalist, or at least gives them the means to reach a large audience like one.

It’s also bound to leverage the expertise and interests of people in our community and allows those experts or interests to reach a much larger audience than they otherwise could.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.

For years, The Forum’s parent company has operated a Web site called Area Voices, found at areavoices.com. More than 1,000 community members now use the site to write and post photos about anything they’d like. Topics include, but are not limited to: sports, entertainment, media, technology, family, farming, politics, religion, heath, business and movies.

What we’re really doing now is giving some of those community content generators a more highly exposed area on our Web site. We think this will do two things: It will showcase some really interesting material from people or groups within our community, and it should connect like-minded folks online.

For instance, a youth hockey team or group could start an online newsletter and, rather than just having those who know about it see it, thousands upon thousands of others might run across it on inforum.com, exposing that group and its news to a much wider audience.

Or, a local green thumb may want to share her secrets for planting a good herb garden. Now, using Area Voices and having her material showcased on The Forum’s Web site, she’s bringing local gardeners into the conversation.

The possibilities for content are only limited by what community members can imagine.
But how can this gardener make sure her content is seen by an interested audience? Well, community content providers can now tag their offerings, just like we at the newspaper do for the material we produce. By tagging content with key words – in this case, maybe “home and garden” – computer robots are able to categorize the content under certain sections. And those content sections, like “home and garden,” now contain an Area Voices tab that allows people to view material community members contribute as well as the material produced by professional journalists.

Essentially, there is Our Voices (journalists) and Area Voices (community journalists).
Of course, turning over part of our Web site to every Tom, Dick and Harry comes with some potential pitfalls.

For that reason, we’ll still control the keys that allow select community voices to be featured on our home page and we’ll still monitor these postings to make sure they meet a community standard.

It won’t be Mayberry all the time. Nothing is when you open up dialogue in a large online community. People have different standards and tastes. But it should be exciting and interesting to see what our community shares online.

We think as more people see the possibilities of being able to publish to a wide audience, the dialogue will only grow, creating a robust community of thoughts and expressions.

Ready to try it? Surely you must have something to offer. Log on to areavoices.com and click on the “sign up today” button in the top left corner of the page. It’s your space. Do with it what you want. Then watch for more information in coming weeks on how to become a featured community content provider. It should be a fun and interesting ride.

Von Pinnon is editor of The Forum. Reach him at (701) 241-5579