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Looking for fertile ground
Nature has a wondrous way of renewing itself.
Wind, animals, fire, rain all spread seeds. Some fall on ground that will nurture them. Others do not. There are enough seeds that fall on fertile soil to grow, blossom and spread their seeds to other fertile soil.
Take my dandelion-infested front yard, for instance. Somebody, please, take my front yard. My back is killing me after a day of cutting out those yellow-flowered so-and-sos.
Farmers often follow the same practice of sowing their crop. Winter wheat seed is often planted in the fall and sprouts before a killing freeze. It then lies dormant over the winter, often protected by a covering of snow. When the soil warms in the spring, the wheat grows. But it needs the cold of winter to complete its growth cycle.
It takes faith to plant something in the fall and wait until spring some six months later to see if it will grow.
Stay with me here. I’m about (finally, often says the wife) to make my point.
Cities often do the same thing.
They’ll buy a large tract of land, run water and sewer to it and wait — often years. During that wait there is plenty of grumbling.
Taxpayers, as is their right, want to see some benefit, some service for their dollars. I wish I could use some of my tax dollars every time I go through the grocery checkout or stand at the gas pump.
Folks in Brookville, for instance, six years ago saw the city annex 81-plus acres and run water and sewer to it. That wasn’t cheap.
Now there is a huge warehouse about finished with another planned. That’s 400 new jobs coming soon.
Likewise, Trotwood dropped $2 million in 2000 into buying land for an industrial park. For seven years, most of the land lay fallow. Last year, the city landed a $32 million auto parts warehouse set to open in August.
That’s another 300 to 400 new jobs for a city recovering from the loss of the Salem Mall.
It hasn’t been easy, this waiting. That’s money that could have been spent elsewhere. But city councils decided the seeds needed sown.
It’s picking the fertile ground that’s the trick.
There aren’t many dandelions in our world economy that can flourish in any soil. If my front yard were an industrial park, I’d be a wealthy man.
The Salem Mall area, now known as the Landmark project, will someday blossom. As will the Village of North Clayton.
Trotwood spent $3.5 million to buy the defunct mall property in 2004. Since then, the city has attempted to secure enough retail leases to make the mixed-use plan feasible. They’ve come close, but not close enough.
With the economy down throughout the region, it’s a tough row to hoe when you add to the mix the city’s financial condition.
Just like you and me, the city isn’t seeing its income growing at the same time the costs of everything is going up.
Clayton is in a somewhat better shape. The plan to develop north of Interstate 70 required water and sewer to the site at National and Hoke. The city got a great deal from Dayton on water and the state on sewer.
Current costs are around $200,000 annually. Those will decrease as development takes root and impact fees come in.
We need the patience of the farmer who sows his winter wheat and has to wait six months to see it flourish.
We’re in an economic winter. Spring will come.
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