Yesterday was a day like all days; only we were there and watched it unfold before us. We could see the demise of the train coming. After huffing through mountains high and valleys low, straining and failing on many levels, it arrived and blew its whistle one last time still claiming all was right when it wasn’t.

Like others before, the train we had hoped would carry us forward with wisdom and purpose for our town did not. It took our little town elsewhere, where our efforts to thrive and fair well our families and businesses seemed stymied and denied for no reason.

There will be new tracks now and, once again, a new beginning, a new chance to set a more certain future for our town. This time we will take more certain care not to let the old rail bed guide our newly determined city down another path to where the word progress cannot be spoken and economic growth is not understood.

There will be new destinations and ways to get there fraught not with the unneeded and discouraging detours and delays purposely laid that we have suffered. We must be determined about this. We will maintain control of our next train. And we will do that by careful choice of our new engineer with clear and certain direction as to where we want to go and when we want to get there. 

We will not be denied ever again by misguided politics or patronage of a view of failure, or any such non-productive distractions that only serve to deny our town the more promising future it can most certainly achieve and deserves.

We were there when the train arrived and blew its last whistle. Let us move forward this day with renewed energy and be ever mindful of how far we can go working together for the same dreams and how exciting it will be.