Planning is paying off
Back in l997, after taking a seat on City Council, the mayor and members of council took on the revitalization of the downtown, which included College Street, the Route 19 corridor and the lower part of South Main Street.
In addition to these projects, the park was added. These projects have been on the drawing board for years, and I was overjoyed to read the articles in the Observer-Reporter that these plans are coming together. I want to commend those who supported this project: Former state Sen. Barry Stout, who secured a substantial amount of funding for the city; Mayor Sonny Spossey, who had the vision and was a driving force to implement these plans, and realized the importance of establishing partnerships and did so by teaming up with Washington & Jefferson College and our neighbor, East Washington; My colleagues on City Council who voted for these projects; Bill McGowan and his team at the Washington County Redevelopment Authority; and Rich Cleveland and Lyn Galluze, the hardworking grant writers and planners.
I was on council for 12 years, and it took all of those years to see these projects come to light, but as I found out in government, things do not happen right away. It takes people working together. We met with a number of bumps in the road along the way, but all of the supporters of these projects were people who followed the 4 P’s: Planning, partnerships, patience and perseverance. It worked.
Virginia Ullom
Washington