FAQs

The Public Works Department encourages citizens to fill out the on-line FIX IT Form or to call the office at 858-9558 during regular working hours (7:00 a.m to 3:30 p.m.) to report potholes. The Road Maintenance Division will investigate the location and schedule the patch crew to fix it. Pothole reporting is greatly appreciated, and helps the Road Maintenance staff keep up with the problem. During the winter months, hot asphalt is not available and potholes are patched using cold asphalt; this sometimes results in the pothole reoccurring. When the local asphalt plants open in the spring, the potholes are repatched using hot asphalt or are scheduled for larger repairs of the asphalt in that area.

At the onset of the pandemic in early March 2020, the City immediately implemented its emergency operation plan, strategically cut expenses, and issued a Declaration of Local Disaster Emergency. The City anticipated decreases in revenues due to the pandemic. The City relies most heavily on sales tax revenue to provide cores services. Since 2017, each year has been a record year for the City regarding highest City sales tax collections due to the success of local businesses. Even during the pandemic, it turns out 2020 is trending 28.49% above 2019 through July collections. This does not mean every business is doing better, but many are. The categories of restaurants and lodging saw the largest decreases in revenues. The Fruita Community Center and recreation programs also saw a significant decline due to forced closures and restrictions. Fortunately, the City entered the pandemic with healthy reserves and fund balances, and a great start to 2020. Combined with the targeted cuts to expenses and healthy local economy, the City is in sound financial shape. This enabled the City to look beyond eligible operational expenses and to economic, educational and community assistance.  You can view the monthly financial reports on this webpage.

As this is temporary and new, rules may be adjusted as necessary, but so far, they are: 

Enjoy Fruita’s Outdoor Dining Space 

Hours of Operation: 7am – 10pm 

Dont’s  

• Bring Glass – It’ll Break and Cause a Mess  
• Smoke 
• Bring Booze – unless it’s from One of Our Local Businesses that Sells it TOGO  
• Drink Alcohol Anywhere Else but in the Fenced Area 

Do’s:  

• Be Considerate of Others and Have Fun  
• Leave Your Furry Friends at Home 
• Drink Responsibly and Don’t Drive if Drinking 
• Ride Your Bike – It’s the Fruita-Way! 
• Space Out – to Stop the Spread, what’d you think we meant
• Clean up After Yourself – No One Wants a Mess 
• Shop Local as in Shop Fruita 
• Spread Cheer, Not Germs 

Yes. The Public Works Department removes snow from streets based on four priorities:

The first priority is the major arterials, schools, bridges and the business districts, traveling north/south and east/west. The second priority is major residential streets leading to arterial streets. Priority three includes at least one major residential street through a residential subdivision. The fourth priority is side streets within residential subdivisions inside the City.

See the Snow Operations page for a Snow Plow Map. 

Yes, you will notice standing post heaters in the spaces for those colder temperatures.  

Yes, these are public spaces, so anyone is welcome who is following the rules and the law. The City strongly encourages people using the space to shop local as the purpose of the spaces is to provide additional areas for people to safely enjoy the City and be customers to Fruita businesses.  

Why Fruita? Fruita is a community of choice. People from all over the world choose Fruita for a variety of reasons. Living in Fruita means your menu of things to do is packed with a variety of flavors. Ride your road bike across the Colorado National Monument and discover amazing views of monoliths, big horn sheep, and the entire valley. Walk where dinosaurs once roamed and see their tracks and bones. Hike in the second highest concentration of arches outside of Arches National Park. Saddle your horse and enjoy the peace of miles of trails among wild desert flowers and old mines. Ride your cruiser bike downtown and take in a Thursday night concert in the park or shop fresh, local grown produce at the Farmer’s Market. Demo the top new mountain bikes all weekend long during Fat Tire Festival. Ride your mountain bike on world-famous single-track trails only minutes away from your home before work, during lunch or after work—access these trails via a paved riverfront trail or by car if you are in a hurry. Discover an endless array of landscape to trail run. Experience Mike the Headless Chicken Festival—you must be there to understand, or any of the 30+ events each year. Push yourself in a cycling, total body or yoga class at the recreation center and come back later for a swim all year long. Children love the rock-climbing wall, lazy river or zero entry swim/play area. Take in 300 days of sun each year. Choose from multiple music venues every week while having a local craft beer and/or specialty food at a local eatery. Spend an evening at the Rim Rock Rodeo or another outdoor concert at Fruita’s James M. Robb State Park. Step back in time while your kids walk or ride their bikes to excellent schools on the paved trail system connecting neighborhoods and schools. Wakeboard the Rocky Mountain West’s only full-service cable wakeboard park. SUP or fish at Snooks Bottom Lake. Raft the Colorado River. Golf at Adobe Creek National Golf Course or throw a disc at one of two local disc golf courses. Pump the track at the Fruita Bike Park. Choices are in abundance in Fruita and the list goes on. Fruita quality of life is unique, authentic and off the charts.  

Why Fruita? Most of all it’s the familiar faces you will see while watching your kids in youth sports or shopping for groceries, who make you feel right at home and part of a real community. Evening walks amidst the laughter of children playing and neighbors chatting while the sun sets amidst the backdrop of the Bookcliffs or National Monument. When you choose Fruita, you will love where you live.  

Visitation at Colorado National Monument is calculated using numbers obtained from traffic counters located at east and west entrance, DS Road and 16.5 Road.  A multiplier rate (average people per vehicle) is determined from Denver Service Center multiplied by the actual traffic counter numbers.

Recreational visitor count is an estimate of people recreating or visiting in the park whereas non-recreational is those coming to and from Glade Park who are just driving thru and not visiting the monument.

2015 were estimates due to traffic counters not working for majority of the year and we believe were higher than actual numbers.  In 2016 new traffic counters were installed which are more efficient than in previous years. 

*A new counting method was introduced in 2017 which reflects more accurate counts.

Traffic Counts

Colorado Department of Transportation keeps updated traffic counts available  on the CDOT wesbite. This link will take you to a table that lists various locations in Mesa County. There are nine different locations measured in Fruita scattered throughout the table.

The City of Fruita provides core services to support the three pillars of our community including Economic Health, Quality of Place, and Lifestyle. Business recruitment and retention is a specific action to Fruita’s economic health. Fruita recognizes business recruitment and retention is achieved by creating a strong community with diverse housing choices, accommodating businesses, attracting and retaining talent, and strengthening the labor force with education and training. Diversifying the economy not only in Fruita but throughout Mesa County is a key variable in creating a strong economy in the Grand Valley. Surrounded by public lands, outdoor recreation has been an economic driver for Fruita and continues to be. With Fruita’s rooted community and growth in popularity as a tourist destination, Fruita’s economy is strengthened with a diversity of economic drivers. Over the past ten years, Fruita’s downtown area has been filled with local restaurants and businesses and has seen success with the support of locals and tourists. The Grand Valley, including Fruita’s Business Park, has also seen an increase in manufacturers and is expected to grow with outdoor and precision manufacturers. When it comes to quality of place and lifestyle, Fruita strives to enhance safety, increase the connection to parks, schools, neighborhoods, public lands, and facilities, and strengthen education and healthcare. Fruita is a family-friendly community that fosters a fun and funky ambiance where arts, farming, leisure opportunities, and family-friendly events are celebrated. Fruita is a place where people love where they live and visitors feel like locals.

• Quality of Place (QP) - The City of Fruita is a community where residents and visitors love where they are. The City strives to be a bike and pedestrian friendly community by providing a system of sidewalks, trails, and bike lanes that connect our parks, schools, neighborhoods, civic facilities, and commercial areas. We value safe neighborhoods, our geographic natural resources and landscapes, top tier education and healthcare, and we collaborate to provide quality essential infrastructure and services. We are an inclusive community of doers who enjoy active and healthy lifestyles.
• Economic Health (EH) - The City of Fruita strives to be financially sustainable by enabling a stable economy and supporting a diversity of businesses that offer well-paying jobs that attract educated employees. The City works to be fiscally responsible and continuously seeks ways to allocate resources to services and projects that have the highest impact on the City’s priorities. We are the innovative leader for economic development in the Grand Valley.
• Lifestyle (L) - The City of Fruita fosters a fun and funky ambiance by celebrating the local arts, farm and ranching history, unique leisure opportunities, and family-friendly events and activities. As a city, we encourage a diversity of cultural opportunities, businesses, and recreational activities. We continue to improve and enhance recreational offerings from traditional to outdoor adventure sports and youth to adult activities. We are a family-friendly community with diverse cultural opportunities, businesses and recreational amenities where visitors feel like locals and locals play like visitors.

• Fruita relies primarily on sales tax revenue when it comes to providing core services to residents and local businesses.
• The City of Fruita has seen 5 straight years of record-breaking sales tax collections.  Even despite the pandemic, this growth has continued.  2021 City sales tax collections were 14% over 2020. 
• The region continues to see increased economic activity as well, and County sales tax collections continue to increase year after year.  County sales tax collections for 2021 were 21% higher than 2020. 
• The local economy has transitioned from seasonal to year-round strength.
• Recreational activities such as horseback riding, dinosaur bone digging, cable wakeboarding, and rafting or SUPing Ruby-Horsethief Canyon of the Colorado River continue to increase in popularity.
• New business growth is steady with 50 new businesses in 2021; 44 new businesses in 2020; and 39 new businesses in 2019.  
  • Fruita relies heavily on and appreciates its small businesses of all industries and realizes that the outdoor lifestyle is a major incentive to residents, visitors and businesses alike. To view more businesses in the area, visit the Fruita Area Chamber of Commerce.

Residents of Fruita love living in Fruita, enjoy its small-town feel, and preserving these special qualities are important. These values are the foundation of all plans, goals, and policies in Fruita. The Fruita community identified a set of community values which can be found by visiting the Fruita in Motion: Plan Like a Local webpage. Based on the community’s values, the following is the vision for Fruita.

“The City of Fruita values quality of place. It’s an inclusive city, with a small-town feel and vibrant downtown, surrounded by public lands. People love to live, work, and play in Fruita because the City facilitates community, safe neighborhoods, family-friendly events, and walking and biking. The City governs in a way that’s responsive to its citizens and prioritizes high-impact services and projects. Fruita fosters a fun and funky ambiance around the arts, agriculture, and recreation.”