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Going with the flow Page 1 of 2 C F The Pueblo Chieftain Online Select file then print to print this article. Publish Date: March 24, 2002 ..v ytt, Chieftain photo/File The Arkansas River as it flows through Pueblo near the West Fourth Street bridge. Going with the flow — We need to preserve the Arkansas River through town L � Tom Rorczak Some of my fondest childhood memories involved playing with my brother and friends by the Rahway River a few blocks from home. Warned almost daily not to go down to the river by caring parents, my brother and I still somehow managed to come home most every summer day with muddy shoes. Down by that river, in the coolness among the trees, with the river always moving and the muskrats playing, a child's dreams could soar, and we enjoyed our escape from the concrete and asphalt, the traffic, the noise and the glare of an otherwise typical urban New Jersey town. We were lucky kids. As a transplant to Pueblo 26 years ago, I discovered a unique and special place. Warned to expect only a gritty steel town, I found that, yes, it had a steel mill. But I found it to be a clean city, with abundant parks and a diverse community. Pueblo's people are warm and friendly, and the only grit I found was in the spirit and determination of its people to pull together and do what was necessary when times got tough. I found culture and art, without pretension. I found the rich history of exploration by the Spanish and French, early settlement, the railroad and smelting days, the great flood of 1921 and beyond. I found recreational activities that let everyone play. It is not Utopia or anything like it, but a real place with its own identity, not like anywhere else. The Arkansas River figures prominently in Pueblo's history, development and the collective identity.-It's why the smelters came here. It's why the Slovenians, the Italians, the Mexicans, the Irish and all of the other ethnie'gsoups came here to work and to play. It all started with the Arkansas. River. And it's a part of every one of us. These days, we tend to make decisions fast. Faxes, e- mails, Fed Ex delivery and voice -mail messaging keeps it all moving. We fight and win wars, or think we do, in months. Our mindset is to get it done, make the decision, solve today's problem. Some decisions, even made for good reason at the time, shape a community's destiny forever. It happened to Pueblo after the 1921 flood. At that time, Pueblo was a hub of rail transit in the West, with more than 4,400 men directly employed by railroads in Pueblo, and thousands of others in related industry and commerce. To build the levees to prevent another devastating flood, Pueblo's leaders felt they http:/ /www.chieftain.com/print/archive /2002 /mar /24 /edi2.htm 03/25/2002