There is no question that we are suffering from a general lack of quality leadership in Newton County at this time. Can that be turned around? We think so, but it is going to take our current leadership to be willing to communicate and cooperate with other community officials to start the process.

One of the programs that the leadership of the past started was a collaboration of local city, county and business leaders. This collaboration led to the creation of the Center — a think tank of community progress that started the county down the road to progressive growth.

After 2008, when the bottom fell out of our community because of the economic crash, we lost many of the folks who provided that positive leadership.

In the past year there was a major community push back on one item on the collaborative agenda — the 2050 plan.
Because we lacked the leadership that could have insured that the 2050 plan was changed to fit the community’s needs, this one issue was allowed to nearly destroy the hopes and plans of past leadership groups. It was like using an old adage “throwing the baby out with the bath water”

The mayors of our community realized that indeed we do need some kind of workable plan for our county to have a chance to have a progressive and organized future.

They have come together to form a plan called Newton Tomorrow. In addition to the mayors and chairman, other leading members of the community will serve in the new collaborative.

We are encouraged to see that all meetings planned by this group to discuss our future will be open to the public, so here is a chance for those who claimed that they knew nothing of the workings of the former collaborative to be invoved.
For full details and a video of this new planning group see Friday’s Digital Newspaper at covnewsdigital.com.
The well-respected Mayor of Oxford, Jerry Rosenberry and Covington Mayor Ronnie Johnston are to be commended for their vision in putting this collaborative together.

This new collaborative does not need to be nor should it be political in anyway.

We believe that group provides us a chance to drop the swords and bring out the plowshares and to use all of our good common senses to ensure that Newton County again becomes the model of growth and prosperity that it once was.