Patience, perseverance will pay off

The renovation of the Norris Park bandshell has been a long time coming and completion of the project seems to remain just out of reach.

In fact, things are looking a little rough around the edges all around McCook this year, with the bandshell project, the extensive work on the McCook Community College Events Center, at Community Hospital and at the Army Reserve training center.

Transitions are tough. As with any renovation project or new building project, there comes a time when all anyone can see is the mess, the dream covered by debris.

However, the dust, dirt and noise in Norris Park will be long forgotten by late September, the newly refurbished bandshell providing a gleaming backdrop for the Heritage Days' festivities.

The MCC Events Center is scheduled to be completed by March of 2012, and if the city is successful in funding a new water slide in the 2011-12 budget, then Kelley Park, adjacent to the center and the swimming pool, will be teeming with swimmers, disc golfers and walkers on the park portion of the city's walking trail.

The progress at the hospital is revealed incrementally, the Phase 1 addition fully functional and asthetically pleasing. The proposed healing gardens will only enhance the view.

The training center for the National Guard and the Army Reserve is finished, with an open house planned sometime in late summer or early fall.

Growing pains are just that. Pains. But they eventually pass and in their wake we discover new vistas, renewed purpose and the satisfaction of jobs well done.