Bright spot in the gloom? (02/14/2009)

Ronald Reagan used to tell the old story about the boy who wanted a pony for Christmas but received a pile of manure instead. Instead of being distraught, the boy dug through the pile, saying, "There's a pony in there somewhere."

Given the manure-like state of much of the international economy at the moment, maybe it's time to remind ourselves that, "There's a pony in there somewhere."

In this case, the pony may come in the form of construction bids for the expanded Jay County Jail.

For the past several years, every time county officials estimated what fixing the jail problem would cost the numbers went up. Even as recently as a year ago, the consensus was that construction costs were going to soar.

But the current climate is a very different story.

Construction companies are hungry. Contractors need jobs. And our guess is that when the jail project is put out for bids, it will attract far more bidders than it would have just 12 months ago.

And those bidders are likely to have sharpened their pencils to get the work.

As ponies go, that may not be much of a prize. But at the moment, it still looks like a winner. - J.R.[[In-content Ad]]