A Summer of Change

During a day off from work yesterday, I traveled out to my parents home in the hometown I grew up. It's a community where things often remain the same for years. The only thing that changes tends to be the people that come and go. Well lately, this summer in particular, there's a lot going on within the hometown. And during yesterday's visit home, I really gained a sense in that.

Road construction has been aplenty within the village. The Michigan Department of Transportation began a project earlier in the summer to replace curbing and gutters, along with replacing the pavement within the village. During the previous few summers, the village has been replacing a lot of sidewalk within the downtown area, and that continues along with the DOT's project. It's really helping to give new life to a community that hasn't had this kind of work done in quite awhile (even though the highway running through town was last resurfaced in 2003). When the homecoming and county fair takes place in early August, the community will look as good as new. It really has been nice to see, even though road construction can always be a bit of a headache to deal with.

Another dramatic change to the west side of town is the demolition of an old sawmill building. The sawmill industry had been a big part of the village's history, dating back to the founding of the community. However, a sawmill has not been in operation within the village since the mid-1990's. This particular sawmill went out of business in the late 1980's and early '90's, and all of the buildings were left behind and never kept up. Two out of the three buildings had begun caving in and thus had become a liability if someone happened to sneak in there and more of the building caved in on them. Plus, they were an eyesore to look at when driving by and made the village look shabby. So finally, after 20+ years of not being in use, one of the buildings is coming down and there's hope that the entire property will be cleaned up. Work is about finished on the demolition of the first building, so we shall see progress continues on the remaining others.

I know these two particular changes do not seem all that dramatic when compared to more populated areas, but to a community that only has a population of roughly 200 people, it's a pretty big deal. It signifies a new look to the village, making things look cleaned up and fresh. Nobody wants to see streets with a ton of potholes and buildings partially collapsed. What kind of statement does that say about a village when visitors pass through? 2011 has been a great summer of change to the village and one that has been a long time coming.