By SEAN WOLFE

Why did you choose to live in McCook or the surrounding area?  What factors keep you here as opposed to taking a chance on moving to another location? 

There can be many reasons: you or your spouse grew up here, you have family or friends close by, you have a job that brought you or keeps you here, you are settled and moving would be a lot of work, or you are connected to the culture of the people here and you feel at home.

Most people know about the nationwide census that takes place every decade. But once a year, the U.S. Census Bureau puts out a report card as to how we are doing at attracting and retaining people to our communities.  The fact that our region’s population has been aging and declining should not be news to anyone; these trends have been happening for decades. 

The 2025 data for Red Willow County showed that we lost 98 people during the year. This number accounts for 116 births, 141 deaths, and a net out-migration of 73 people. 

This is a trend we have seen as we pass the half-way point of this decade. In the first half of this decade, our county has lost a total of 396 people, coming from 614 births, 773 deaths, and net out-migration of 237 people.

The question we have as a community is how can we make our community attractive enough to slow this decline by both attracting people to live here and retaining those already here?  For years we have focused on developing good job opportunities, creating a good housing stock, and providing competitive amenities. All of these are critically important; few people would want to move to a community that lacks jobs, housing, and basic community amenities. But they alone do not make us stand out; every town of our size is offering a similar set of basic community amenities.

Some locations also have natural competitive advantages, such as beaches, mountains, great weather, or easy access to a larger city.  We may love the beauty of the rolling plains, but if we are honest with ourselves, we lack any significant geographic advantages that make us stand out from thousands of other towns across the Midwest.

Every year hundreds of people decide to move here or to leave, and the rest of us choose to stay.  There is one key ingredient to attracting and retaining people that requires little or no direct funding, no bond issue or donation drive, and no tax credits or incentives.  That ingredient is culture; specifically, a culture that is friendly and welcoming in which a person can feel like they belong here.   

How do we cultivate a culture that is friendly and welcoming in which people quickly feel that they belong here? Successfully answering that question is the most important long-term challenge of our community.

In my opinion, developing and curating a welcoming and engaging culture is one of the only ways we can make our community stand out from the countless other towns that are competing for talented people to both stay in or move to their community.   

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With a keen eye and love of numbers, Sean Wolfe serves as the treasurer for the McCook Community Foundation Fund, as well as numerous McCook organizations in addition to his day-job as CFO for Community Hospital.