 | | Dick Larman, Executive Director |
From the Director
Summer has finally gotten serious about the clear skies and warmer temperatures. Summer and especially late summer always brings great memories of my youth. Memories of having time for swimming, fishing, hiking, visiting relatives and thinking about a host of interesting ideas. And, as mid-August slips up on us, one of the ideas that always crept into my mind was the idea of returning to school in a few short weeks. While I thoroughly enjoyed the summer activities (or lack of them) I always felt a sense of expectation and excitement about a new school year. New things to learn and ponder new teachers, and perhaps a few new students to meet. Those were my expectations. My parents, the teachers, the other students and my friends all had expectations of me that were different. My parents and teachers expected me to achieve and prove new learning had occurred as well as the unspoken need to be polite, respectful, honest and so forth. My friends and new acquaintances had different expectations that usually were dealt with on the playground or in the gymnasium. What then does this nice walk down memory lane have to do with our community and its economy? On the surface not much. However, if you peek just a little further behind the curtain, you'll notice that we as a nation and as a county are a bit anxious about our current economic expectations. The folks I interact with on a regular basis are concerned. Those concerns are born of uncertain expectations. The evening news is full of uncertainty about the world's economy and our local economy as well. All these messages day after day begin to affect our expectations. And, not in a positive way. Michael Jordan (of the Chicago Bulls basketball fame) once noted that "if you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you will never change the outcome". We should not let all we hear lower our expectations of the future of our business and industry or our schools and institutions and families. Mostly, we as individuals must hold to higher expectations, for if we hold blindly and intolerantly to the negative opinions we will softly and gently fall into the trap of low expectations and performance. Great expectations have always caused great invention and success and while there is always a birth-death cycle of all people and businesses, we expect replacement and innovation. Those expectations remain. Lewis County has a long and storied history of replacement and innovation; let's continue to expect no less. | 
The new
