Sunshine, $100M are forecast for community

Published 12:00 am Saturday, March 27, 2010

I just checked the forecast for Wednesday: “Mostly sunny, with a high near 76.”

It’ll be a good day to feel good about where we live. Combine a bright sunny day with lots of positive stories in our annual Profile edition, and we should be on the proverbial Cloud 9.

This marks the first time that our Profile edition has appeared in magazine format. We hope you’ll find it worthy as a keepsake of the great things happening in community and that we’ll see it on coffee tables for weeks to come.

When we began making plans for this edition, we were pleased with the number of positive stories we could find to tell about our community.

So we chose as our theme Growing Season, and focused on those things. We also devoted considerable effort to sharing the stories of the next generation, and found youngsters who delighted and amazed us.

When we scheduled an interview with Mayor Earl Johnson, he said he wanted a little time to put together a list with dollar values of the infrastructure and expansion and construction projects that will be completed here within the next 24 months. When he came back with a list of public and private projects totaling $100 million, I have to admit, I double-checked his math.

In trying to capture just-the-right photograph of the SaeHaeSung project, I got so interested in watching the speed with which that project is coming along, as well as the construction of the new McDonalds, that I find myself driving by both sites almost daily.

“It’s like watching a bee hive,” Councilman Kennith Mount said when I mentioned my new “addiction” to him. “Those people never stop working.”

We interviewed a young woman who is legally blind, but still barrel races horses; a high school senior who juggles two sports and band despite suffering horrible headaches; and a middle school student who spends his weekends as a co-pilot.

From these stories, to an inspirational story of an oncologist who survived childhood cancer, and of local businessmen who have tapped in to an exciting new niche, we think you’ll feel good when you read these stories, too.

The forecast is sunny – and they’ll be poring concrete in the industrial park if you’d like to ride out and check the building project.