You might not know it, but the City of Niles is knee deep in a winner-take all competition with 14 other municipalities for the title of “Coolest Small Town” in the United States.

Put on by Budget Travel, the contest asks people to vote for their favorite small town in America by visiting the contest page at BudgetTravel.com. They define a “cool small town” as any American town with a population less than 10,000 and a “certain something” that no other place has.

The editors of Budget Travel reviewed nominations from all over the country and recently trimmed the list of finalists down to 15.

The finalists are:

• Abingdon, Virginia

• Asbury Park, New Jersey

• Baker City, Oregon

• Bigfork, Montana

• Cambria, California

• Fairport, New York

• Grand Rivers, Kentucky

• Kidron, Ohio

• Niles, Michigan

• Ocean Springs, Missouri

• Pipestone, Minnesota

• Steamboat Springs, Colorado

• Sykesville, Maryland

• Taos, New Mexico

• Wauchula, Florida

Voting is open until the end of the day June 6 when one town will be crowned the coolest.

The top 10 towns will be celebrated in an online feature and an upcoming issue of Budget Travel.

We encourage everyone to go online and vote for Niles. Even if Niles doesn’t come out on top, making the top 10 will give the City of Four Flags some much-needed attention.

You can vote once every 24 hours, so make it part of your daily routine.

Go vote!

 

Opinions expressed are those of the editorial board consisting of Publisher Michael Caldwell and editors Ambrosia Neldon, Craig Haupert, Ted Yoakum and Scott Novak.