It's time to get back to work again

Let’s go.

We’ve had a couple of days to be depressed about Thursday’s announcement that the Jay! Region was not selected as this year’s Stellar Communities designee.

We deserved a few days to wallow. A lot of work went into the application, so it hurt not to be chosen.

But now it’s time to get to work. So let’s go.

As we move on from this year’s Stellar program, we have two initial steps to take:

•Figure out how we can move forward on some of the proposed Stellar projects without the designation.

•Talk about the possibility of reapplying for Stellar next year, if it’s worthwhile, who should be involved and how the process should move forward.

The first step is important for multiple reasons.

One, we have to continue to find ways to improve our community even without help from the state. We have done that in the past and must do so in the future.

Two, an important part of applying for the Stellar designation is showing that your community is already making progress.

So, what can we do?

Some projects will be more difficult to get started, but there are certainly options, such as the brick alley renovation in Portland, improvements to Redkey Morgan Park, expanding Pennville Community Garden and continuing work on the Dunkirk mural and improvements at the depot building.

As for the possibility of applying again for the Stellar designation, it seems like a no-brainer. This community has done so much work on Stellar, from Portland’s initial application in 2011 to Dunkirk’s finalist effort in 2015 to the county-wide push this year that it seems silly to not try again.

After all, we’re talking about $38 million here. (We’re also in the unique position of having a large chunk of the required local match money available in the form of the $1.65 million in economic development funds from Bitter Ridge Wind Farm.)

So, let’s get to work.

Start thinking about what we could have done better. What projects should continue to be included? Are there projects that are better off being jettisoned? What can our Stellar team do to become even stronger? How can we go about continuing to gather the community input that is part of the process?

There are a lot of questions to consider as we await the state’s expected January announcement of details about the 2020 Stellar process.

But whether or not we can put together a successful Stellar application is not one of them.

We absolutely can.

Let’s go. — R.C.