EDITORIAL: Week of activity should lead to optimism

Talk about it

This past week was a significant one in terms of the future of this community. Few stretches of time have packed in so much important New Richmond news as the past seven days.

First came word that Congress had approved a bill that will allow for the eventual construction of a new bridge over the St. Croix River at Stillwater, Minn.

While the bridge won’t be anywhere near New Richmond when it’s constructed, the span will ultimately have a huge impact on this region. Economic development experts expect that a four-lane highway link between this community and the Twin Cities metropolitan area can only help draw more businesses and new residents to this area.

On Saturday, New Richmond hired a new city administrator and utilities manager. The chosen candidate, Mike Darrow, will help lead New Richmond for the coming years, and those years could be some dynamic ones. With the prospect of a new bridge, and ongoing efforts to create jobs in the community, the city and its staff have their work cut out for them. It seems like the city is poised to accept whatever the future might bring, now it’s up to elected officials and city staff to make it happen. There’s reason for optimism that the local economy will grow in the not too distant future.

Also over the weekend, the New Richmond Police Department moved into new office space in the Business and Technical Park, just off South Knowles.

The space is beautiful, and came at a pretty decent price, thanks to a favorable real estate market. Now the department, which was bursting at the seams, has the elbow room it needs to serve the community well.

Back at the civic center, now extra space is available to meet the needs of other city services and the utilities department. The city now seems to be set for office space for years to come, and the community didn’t have to significantly increase its debt load to expand its available space.

With so much gloom and doom being reported nationwide, it’s encouraging to be living in a place where such positive news is commonplace.

Tags: opinion, editorials