The municipality of Broomfield was incorporated in 1961 in the southeastern corner of Boulder County. It received its name from the broomcorn grown in the area. Over the next three decades, the city grew through annexations, many of which crossed the county line into three adjacent counties: Adams, Jefferson and Weld. In the 1990s, city leaders began to push for the creation of a separate county to avoid the inefficiencies of dealing with four separate court districts, four different county seats (each a considerable distance away), and four separate county sales tax bases. It also had longstanding political differences with Boulder County, which impelled it to separate. Broomfield reasoned that it could provide services more responsively under its own county government, and sought an amendment to the Colorado State Constitution to create a new county. The amendment was passed in 1998, after which a three-year transition period followed. On November 15, 2001, Broomfield County became the 64th, newest and smallest county of Colorado.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 27.5 square miles (71.2 km2), of which 27.1 square miles (70.2 km2) is land and 0.3 square miles (0.8 km2) (1.24 percent) is water.
At the 2000 census,[9] there were 38,272 people, 13,842 households and 10,270 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,411.6 per square mile (545.1/km²). There were 14,322 housing units at an average density of 528.2 per square mile (204.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 88.62 percent White, 0.92 percent African American, 0.61 percent Native American, 4.14 percent Asian, 0.04 percent Pacific Islander, 3.21 percent from other races, and 2.45 percent from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9.07 percent of the population.
There were 13,842 households of which 41.2 percent had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.8 percent were married couples living together, 8.2 percent had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.8 percent were non-families. 19.3 percent of all households were made up of individuals and 4.2 percent had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.76 people, and the average family size was 3.19 people.
Age distribution was 29.3 percent under the age of 18, 7.7 percent from 18 to 24, 36.3 percent from 25 to 44, 20.1 percent from 45 to 64, and 6.6 percent who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 101.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.2 males.
The median household income was $69,419 and the median family income was $82,106 in a 2007 estimate.[10] Males had a median income of $49,732 versus $31,864 for females. The per capita income for the city was $26,488. About 2.1 percent of families and 4.2 percent of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.3 percent of those under age 18 and 6.3 percent of those age 65 or over.
In the 1990s, Broomfield and other area suburbs experienced tremendous economic growth, much of it focused in technology. According to the Broomfield Economic Development Corporation website,[11] Broomfield's top three employers are IBM with 3,400 employees, Ball Corp. with 3,100 employees and Level 3 Communications with 2,089 employees. Seagate Technology and Oracle Corporation (formerly Sun Microsystems) are also notable technology companies with a presence in Broomfield.
Broomfield has an extensive trail system that connects the various lakes and parks. A scenic trail connects the Stearns Lake and the Josh's Pond on the west side of town. Broomfield also has a 9/11 memorial containing a piece of a steel beam from one of the towers.
Broomfield is home to many youth sports programs including Broomfield Blitz Youth Football, a non-profit 501c organization dedicated to providing exercise and athletic development.
Broomfield also has a skate park with many different features such as bowls, a large half pipe and several "street" obstacles.
Since Broomfield used to be divided among four counties, students living in the city were serviced by the appropriate school for their county. Even though the city is now united within one county, students attend the same schools they would have attended if county boundaries had remained the same.
Broomfield features two large public high schools (Broomfield High School, currently being remodeled, and Legacy High), two public middle schools and eight public elementary schools. There are three private schools: Broomfield Academy, with an academic preschool, an elementary school and a middle school for ages 3–14; Holy Family, a Catholic high school; and Nativity of Our Lord Parish, a Catholic elementary school. Broomfield also contains a K-12 charter school, Front Range Academy, which has two Broomfield campuses.
This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Broomfield, Colorado. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.