A week ago we challenged you, our readers, to back up your expressed desire for civic improvement and economic development with a personal commitment to make a measurable impact on both of those things yourselves.
We suggested that the best thing you can do to truly support economic development is determine how much money you presently spend outside of Weston County, choose a defined and measurable amount by which you are going to decrease your out of town spending (i.e.- 20 percent, $50 per week, one less trip to Rapid City per month, etc.), track your spending carefully, and commit to meeting the goal you set at all costs.
How are you doing with that so far?
We don’t really anticipate that many— if any— of you seriously ran out and put our suggestion into action after last week’s editorial, but we’re repeating it again this week (and maybe next, and the next, etc.) to reinforce how serious we are about your ability to influence whether the city’s latest economic development effort will succeed or fail. In a nutshell, if enough of you personally commit to a measured increase in the percentage of dollars you spend here, economic development will succeed. If you don’t, economic development will fail.
It is probably a bit uncomfortable for you to hear two weeks in a row that the very future of our community rests entirely on your shoulders, but great things are seldom— if ever— accomplished by the comfortable. Along those lines, we would like to add to your discomfort a little more this week by reminding you that your actions will also determine whether any further civic improvement or beautification projects will take place here.
One of our page one stories this week talks a bit about recent improvements at the local golf course, and a story in last week’s paper announced that the newly re-opened County Event Center is available for use and even offers a rental kitchen. One of the letters below makes reference to another story that ran in the NLJ this month about the recently renovated baseball fields, and a local shooting range that has benefitted significantly from NRA grants began this week playing host to a statewide shooting competition that will go on through most of the summer.
So, as an addition to the spending challenge we issued a week ago, this week we are challenging you to commit to utilizing at least two of the four facilities referenced above— as a participant, organizer or even just spectator— at least once in the next two months. If we don’t commit to utilizing and appreciating the things we already have, we’ll be lucky just to keep those things (remember the bowling alley?), let alone have any hope for something new.
We know we’re putting a lot of pressure on our loyal readers, but that’s because we’ve always meant it when we’ve said you are this community’s best and most informed citizens, and we’re pretty confident in saying that economic development will certainly fail without you. So go out there in the next few weeks and prove us right. Make us proud and make our town something you can be even more proud of. Believe us, you’re the right men and women for the job, and we’re excited to see you get this done.