How about a front door for McCook?

Summer vacation time is a great time to visit other places and gain a new perspective. Returning home, we have new energy and a new outlook toward every day routine tasks that we have given little thought for years.

Visiting a small town in Texas, we noticed the local chamber of commerce's office was in a downtown museum built in the home of one of the founding pioneers.

It struck us how natural the partnership was. First-time visitors got the message: "Here we are, this is our past, this is our present; you can help us build our future."

In one stop, we were able to obtain all of the essential information we needed about the community.

The community college campuses in McCook and North Platte have adopted the idea; building "welcome centers" for registration and recruitment of students.

McCook already does a great job making visitors feel welcome. Ask new arrivals, and they'll list "friendly people" as one of the most attractive features of our community.

But we'd like to see McCook establish a "welcome center" like the one in the Texas town, where visitors could find out about our past, present and potential for the future all in one stop.

It would take some out-of-the-box thinking, but why couldn't organizations like the historical society, chamber of commerce, economic development corporation, Main Street and others all have offices in one location, perhaps part of the High Plains Museum? If not there, perhaps a separate office could be established where historical McCook could be presented along with the social and economic opportunities available for the young single person, small family, retiree or entrepreneur looking for a place to establish or expand a business.

Besides presenting a united front, we can think of savings that might be possible by combining resources.

McCook is a great community in which to live and work, but we can do a better job of selling ourselves.