Now that the quadrennial catharsis we Americans refer to as the presidential election is behind us and we can settle back into a world where conflict, mendacity and combativeness do not regularly invade our days, it may be time to take a breath and look at some issues hanging fire here in our own backyards.
We're not talking about piles of leaves or stacking firewood.
Since we are close to closing out a year and about to embark on a new one, a brief mention of the issues that have come and gone over these past several months may be in order.
The Warren County School District appears poised to entrench itself in a facilities plan that consolidates some schools and closes some schools while guaranteeing the existence of four high schools well into the future. The dust storm of debate over its Master Facilities Plan and the subsequent proposal to create a charter middle/high school in the northern attendance area have settled into the collective memory, and not necessarily a pretty one.
The district has for the past few months taken the definitive and methodical steps to convert Eisenhower Middle/High School to a K-12 facility, start the preliminary planning to do the same for Sheffield Middle/High, and make significant renovations to Beaty-Warren Middle School.
We have endured the suspicions and the angst over a failed community development project in the heart of the downtown and anticipate either a report or indictments in the new year from a state grand jury looking into the failure. Until that information is available it's difficult to say how it will affect city government.
As far as Warren County is concerned, the road ahead is littered with very few boulders of controversy. Though, since it is Warren County, we're confident some will turn up eventually.