Jerome’s new town manager and clerk, Brett Klein, is still settling in.
The married father of four recently relocated to Cornville from Iowa, and has been getting his kids settled into school and familiarizing himself with the needs of Jerome.
Klein is no stranger to Arizona.
“I have family and friends in the Phoenix area and Flagstaff — I’ve been coming here for years,” he said.
The family discussed moving to a new area, when his kids were old enough, farther away from the “sub zero temperatures of the Midwest.”
“We started looking about a year ago,” he said. “We targeted this area” he said because it’s less congested and hot than Phoenix “and we love outdoor recreation activities and there’s just an abundance of those here.”
So far, Klein said he’s been enjoying the time exploring the Verde Valley and its “amazing restaurants,” and is looking forward to visiting Grand Canyon National Park soon.
Additionally, Klein has been getting acquainted with some of the town’s more challenging issues, which center around infrastructure and tourism.
While Jerome’s year-round population is under 500, the town has seen steadily increasing tourism over the past several years, which is now estimated to be at around 1 million visitors per year.
“The numbers show and we’re just starting to get some counters to try to extrapolate some data and see, based on certain times; but we do know there’s peaks and lows throughout the year,” Klein said. “But it’s been [increasing] for the last five to 10 years and overall keeps going up, even through COVID-19.”
Klein said that as far as he is aware, the town did not engage in any marketing campaigns to increase tourism, and that it likely occurred through word-of-mouth.
“When you hear there’s such artistry and offerings, and the stores are just amazing; some communities have that one spot, but we have so many spots,” Klein said. “Jerome has so many artists, restaurants and recreational activities [the] word’s just getting out.”
Currently, the town is working on several infrastructure projects to accommodate the higher numbers.
“We’re embarking on a wastewater treatment plan upgrade,” Klein said. “That’s a $6 million project.”
At the last regular town meeting on July 12, council planned on discussing and potentially approving an agreement with PACE Engineering for the design of the improvements, however, the agreement was tabled.
“It was tabled because of a couple of little formalities, but it’ll be happening,” Klein said.
Additionally, the town is working on improving drainage to avoid wash-outs, and is looking at ways to improve roads.
“If you look around town, we need a lot of road reconstruction, repairs and we’re working on fixing ADA accessibility, which is a challenge because of our topography,” Klein said.
Because Jerome is such a small town, it receives “very little” HURF [Highway User Revenue Fund] monies because those amounts are based on population.
“But that doesn’t take into effect the million plus people that come and utilize the roads,” Klein said. “Our proportion of residents to visitors is so drastic that we’re trying to work on getting more funding.”
When it comes to housing, Klein said “The residents are happy with the amount of residents here. We get maybe, one building permit a year for a new construction home, because of the unique complexities of trying to build; but of course Jerome was once inhabited by 10,000 to 15,000 people when it was a mining community.”
Though mining officially ended in 1953, remnants of the former “Wickedest Town in the West” still linger on. Old mining machinery, ruins and rubble pepper the steep hills of the town, whose history of fires and other tragic events contributed to its “ghost town” status.
History is never in short supply as many of the shops in town maintain Jerome’s colorful history of mining, prostitution and other illicit activities.
While Jerome certainly embraces the past, it is also known to have developed a bit of a progressive streak, as various artists and entrepreneurs have brought a new flavor to the town in recent years.
In a show of solidarity to some of its residents as well as visitors, the town recently began exploring the possibility of painting its lone crosswalk in LGBT Pride colors.
“[The crosswalk] is on a state highway, and we’re in the process of meeting with our ADOT representative to see what can be done with that,” Klein said.
Additionally, the town just approved a resolution “Declaring Mayor and Council’s opposition to the overturning of Roe V. Wade, denouncing Senate Bill 1164 and other provisions of Arizona law criminalizing abortion, and supporting the constitutional rights of pregnant persons including their access to reproductive health care and abortions.”
“[The council] were unified and [the resolution] passed four to nothing,” Klein said.
Parking Harassment
While the town may be unafraid to rock the proverbial boat on certain fronts, it has been making some less than flattering waves in news headlines over the past few weeks, with multiple major news outlets including Associated Press, The Washington Post and others reporting on residents “yelling at tourists” over parking.
Klein said “I think it was mostly blown out of proportion. The police department just put out a post saying keep the peace essentially; but it’s certainly gained some traction. I haven’t seen any hostility toward anybody in a marked, designated parking area. I think that it all came about from really, one incident.”
Klein did not elaborate on the incident but alluded to potential parking issues that mainly relate to short-term rentals.
“We’ve had a lot of those pop up overnight; if two families come with three or four cars, it can be an issue.”
Klein also pointed out that occasionally, tourists may forego utilizing the town’s free upper level parking lot and shuttle service in order to explore Jerome’s historic residential areas.
“We do have a parking issue of course; this is a community on a hillside on a mountain and the topography doesn’t lend itself to building a big parking lot” he said. “People like to see the historic areas of Jerome and when you’re in those areas, there’s just no parking; you really can’t park and get out. If [tourists] are parking, they’re parking in somebody else’s parking spot.”
“Most of our visitors are law-abiding; and we get our non-law abiding like any other community does,” he said. “My family and I have walked [around town] and haven’t seen any hostility. From what I hear, there’s wide support for tourism. I was shocked that the AP picked up the story.”
