Keith and Jean Merilatt are active seniors in the Commerce City Adult Senior Center. They both sing with the Music Makers, are members of the Creative Writing Class and were in this year's melodrama. Keith drives the senior van for trips.

Keith Merilatt was born in Marion Kansas. He had one sister and one brother. He attended grade school in Herrington, Kansas and went to high school in Wichita, Kansas.

In 1944, while Keith was in the Army Air Force, his parents, P.G. and Ethel Merilatt moved to Derby with his brother, Lowell. In early December of 1945 Keith was discharged from the Air Force and came to Derby to live with his folks.

"I remember Derby with its greatest fame being the town that was next to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal at that time," Keith says. "Black's Garage was a full service garage. You could get your car fixed, get a tire repaired and buy gasoline all at one place."

Keith recalls the only grocery store in Derby. "In 1945 there was only one place to buy groceries," he continued. "That was the Derby Market, owned and operated by Floyd Templeton. He was also the Postmaster. The Post Office was a small cubicle in one corner of the market. There was one employee. The market had a very good meat department run by Charlie Williams. In late 1945, meat rationing was still in effect, so everyone needed ration stamps to buy certain cuts of meat. The building that housed the Derby Market and the Post Office still stands. It has a pawn shop in it now."

Keith remembers the skating rink. "The only outlet for young kids at that time was the Derby Skating Rink in the building where the auction house is now," he says. "I don't know how many kids it could hold, but on a Saturday night it was full to overflowing with kids of all ages. It was run by an elderly couple and until the day it shut down I never remember any trouble associated with the kids at the rink."

Keith is a skilled carpenter. He has built many things at the Commerce City Recreation Senior Center. "Derby had a lumber yard also, Derby Lumber," Keith says. "It is still there. It is called Younger Brothers Lumber Company now."

Keith worked as an aircraft machinist, and machinist at Quickway Truck Shovel, in the excavation business, was a machinist at Rocky Flats and a supervisor for Dow Chemical. He built and operated a sand and gravel plant, built an automated sacking plant, a church and was an estimator for an excavation company.

Keith was married for 45 years, his wife is deceased. "After I was married," Keith says, "and started my excavation business in 1947, myself and two other gentlemen could see we had a real need for street signs in the community."

Harold Stevens, the Manager of the Hazeltine Exchange, Vernon Sullivan, a local truck owner and Keith Merilatt formed a committee to get street signs. The telephone company and Public Service Company donated most of the money to buy the signs. Adams County installed them.

"In the 1950s with growth and the use of septic systems for sewers, we could see that a great many wells were becoming contaminated," Keith recalls. "A movement started to get a bond issue passed to put in a water system. South Adams County Water and Sanitation District was born. My father served several years on the first board. Later the sewer lines and plant were added. After water and sewer became available, the growth mushroomed. The area became Commerce Town. Later the name was changed to Commerce City and it developed into the thriving community you now know."