Yesterday's News

Editor's Note: Historian Anne Dyni wrote a series of articles for the Left Hand Valley Courier. The series will be reprinted from time to time.

Left Hand Men's Club

First published February 2005

In 1960, Niwot was functioning much as it had for decades, except that the town newspaper had ceased publication and the train no longer stopped for passengers and freight. Real estate activity was slow, however, and the few businesses remaining in town were barely getting by. Niwot was still very much an agricultural town, even though Boulder County had officially lost its ranking as an agricultural county. Was Niwot ready for the changes that were coming?

Details of a proposed new Diagonal Highway between Boulder and Longmont were circulating among the locals, and work had already begun on Niwot's new water district. In addition, rumor had it that IBM was finally going to build on the 604 acres it had purchased northeast of Boulder.

When IBM did arrive in 1965, the effects were felt throughout the Left Hand Valley. New families were arriving almost weekly, and business activity in Niwot was on the rise.

As the population grew, an informal group of local businessmen and farmers began monthly dinner meetings at Nita's Café on Second Avenue. They called themselves the Left Hand Men's Club, and Bill Anderson from IBM was its first president. What began as a social club, however, soon took on a more important role. According to Dick Hicks and Mike Holubec, "We decided that it was a pretty good little group, and maybe we could do some things for the community."

One of their first projects was to organize a Little League baseball program. "There were kids that needed to play baseball," Holubec recalled. Community volunteers coached and organized games with neighboring towns for a year or two. But they realized the need for more expertise and joined forces with a University of Colorado work-study program.

Their second project came about because Second Avenue was still dirt and gravel when the club organized. Members successfully approached county officials about sharing the cost of street paving. The only objection came from Francis Curtis who operated an auto repair shop and confectionary shop next to the Tribune building. Curtis was out-numbered, however, and paving continued until the project was completed – well, almost. "Half of the street in front of his place was still gravel," Hicks chuckled. "And that's the way it was for quite a while."

Perhaps the most important Men's Club project occurred in 1968, when a special meeting was called to organize a volunteer fire department. Of the twenty-five men present, almost everyone signed up to volunteer. Most had little experience, if any, except for Mike Holubec and Pete Plantiga, who were volunteer firemen before moving with IBM to Colorado.

The Left Hand Men's Club gradually faded from existence, as did the Niwot Commercial Club back in 1912. But like the current Niwot Business Association, which was organized in 1992, each has contributed to the growth and stability of the greater Niwot community.