2023 is almost in the rearview mirror, but there are many things in our community, as in many other places, that will spill over into the new year. Solutions to problems are rarely achieved quickly.
Most of the people who sign up to run for elected office in communities such as ours think that they can do a better job than those who currently serve in those positions. They honestly assume that the people in office are just there and are not trying to bring about the promise of change they ran on.
Things take time. I have seen projects start 10 years ago under one group of officials, only to be told they have to pass this or that resolution, or they must seek approval from this or that agency in order to get to the next step, only to incur setbacks that make a project everyone thought would be simple, very complicated. After understanding how the government works, we all should know that there is no such thing as simple.
In 2005, we were told that if we pass a one cent sales tax, every road in town would be done in ten years. It’s 2023, almost 2024, and we are not even halfway there. In fact, the first road that was done under the project in the new town area of Lake Providence needs a touch up itself.
This is not the fault of any mayor or public official. It’s a reality that things that are proposed one year, often will take years to get accomplished, if success is to be had.
When the road project was passed under former Mayor Fields, it was estimated that the cost to build a mile of road was around $200,000. That amount began to soar over the few years.
It is now estimated that the cost to build a mile of road is around $650,000. There is no way that Mayor Fields or anyone else could have foreseen this back in 2005. Currently, the work on Hamlet and Hudson is the latest phase of the road project, and perhaps one day, we will see every road completed.
If you expect things to occur quickly, perhaps rethink pursuing public office, because that is rarely how it goes.
We have a beautiful multi-million dollar complex that is now Lakeshore Family Homes. There are 45 multi-family units that sit on a site once home to a dilapidated trailer factory that hadn’t been open in years.
The government does not go by a calendar year. Or an election cycle. The town tried to work out a deal to get the housing development for seven years and were denied over and over. Finally, in 2017, they were told that if they turned the project over to the police jury, they could qualify because the police jury had a section 8 program already in operation and could oversee the voucher component of this new deal.
Shortly after the town turned it over, the deal was approved. Two years later, we were standing outside at a ceremony where, soon after, there were 45 beautiful new units standing ready for local families to move in.
I’m glad to see progress on the work dealing with the weir. I am happy that Oswalt Road has been constructed just as the police jury kept telling us it would be. I was excited to see the playground equipment being delivered to the local parks as part of the outdoor recreation project.
These are successes to end this year celebrating. They all took hard work and a lot of time to get done. If you are ever thinking about running for office, regardless of how small of a job you may think it is, trust me when I tell you that every idea you have in your head that could be done, if it was as simple as it appears to be in your head, then it would already have been done.
Success can be ours, but not always as quickly as we like or think it should. Let’s see what can be accomplished in 2024.
But, hey, that’s just my opinion!
