Published: October 28, 2009 10:09 pm      

Good news — and bad

Fayette County experienced both ends of the spectrum

The land deal is done and the Boy Scouts of America are moving forward on work to construct a new National Scouting Center on an 11,000-acre tract of land situated in the southeastern Fayette County and northern Raleigh County.

Fayette County Commission President Ken Eskew said the presence of the Boy Scouts facility ’is a huge opportunity for Fayette County, particularly’ and that he ’can see the economic footprint’ it will make ’over the upcoming years.’

We can see it as well. However, it’s too bad there weren’t more people thinking about how new and updated schools would have helped to expand upon that footprint.

The voters of Fayette County spoke clearly last weekend about how they want to proceed with their public school system by soundly defeating a bond call that would have provided funds for consolidating four high schools into one new, modern building, in addition to making badly needed repairs at other aging buildings and closing some others which border on being unacceptable learning environments.

We supported the bond call because we believed it was the best thing for the kids. We still feel that way.

But it must be pointed out, as an extension of this issue, the importance of that choice and how it will impact the speed of economic progress in the future.

Thanks to the BSA, Fayette County is going to experience some nice growth over the next decade and beyond ’ improved infrastructure, new jobs, establishment of supporting businesses and other things that come with a $100 million investment.

What really concerns us is that the pace of the spin-off businesses locating here could have been greatly accelerated had the bond call been approved.

You see, whether many want to believe it, there are lots of people who would love to bring businesses to our region but once they delve into the quality of the available educational system, they start looking elsewhere. It’s a fact which economic development officials will verify.

In time, schools in Fayette County will be updated and replaced. Whether the local school board actually gets the chance to do it or the state does it during a takeover of the system, it’s going to happen.

It just seems like the opportunity to demonstrate some vision was missed, and the size of the initial footprint is a 5 when it could have been at least a 10.