Town, schools can help each other out

Let’s stretch some tax dollars.

Redkey’s Town Council has been focusing on the need for improvements at Morgan Park.

The cabin is in need of a new roof and a number of other improvements, and the council has developed specs to get the work done.

At the same time, the council would like to make some upgrades in the park’s playground. It’s not bad now, but the town would like to make it better for another generation of Redkey kids.

Meanwhile, in the same little area we know as Jay County, the school corporation is in the uncomfortable and unhappy position of closing elementary schools.

Consolidation makes sense. The numbers are impossible to argue effectively against.

But consolidation is also complicated.

It leaves old buildings behind.

And it leaves old playground equipment behind.

With Pennville Elementary School and Judge Haynes Elementary School already closed and with further consolidation affecting the current Westlawn and General Shanks buildings as well, the moment is ripe for some smart thinking and some smart communication.

It would be just short of tragic for spiffy, recently upgraded playground equipment at closed elementary schools not to be made available to communities like Redkey.

In other words, this is one of those times when it’s important for the right hand to know what the left hand is up to.

If those hands join together, some smart — and economical — things can happen. — J.R.