Forum Editorial: Looking back, looking ahead

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As we begin a new year, it’s natural to both look back at the year we left behind and ahead to the one that awaits us. The month itself, of course, is even named for the Roman god Janus, the two-faced god who could see into the past and the future.

Northwest Missouri can look into both directions with pride, having completed an ambitious 2022 in many respects and in anticipation of an exciting and productive 2023.

Fewer and fewer people live in rural America, and keeping communities like ours thriving has perhaps never been a more challenging task. All over the country and all over our state, communities like ours are all facing similar obstacles: how to make our home one where families can prosper from beginning to end.

We can be proud that we are doing better than most.

With a massive infusion of federal dollars over the past few years, 2022 saw yet more significant sums spent on investments in our future. Police officers in Maryville are now paid more in line with their colleagues around the state, dozens of property owners have taken advantage of a city program to complete needed exterior repairs and improvements, and the South Main Corridor Improvement Project — the single largest infrastructure investment in our city’s history — remains on schedule.

This year, we can look forward not only to the completion of Phase I of that project, but to the start of Phase II.

All across our region, similar stories abound as our rural communities make investments in their futures through programs and initiatives great and small. Water infrastructure, especially, is something we can look forward to seeing improved all across northwest Missouri in 2023 and in the years afterward.

And we continue to be home to Missouri’s renewable energy future as one of the largest solar farms in the state is penciled in to break ground next year in Nodaway County.

Yes, 2022 was a difficult year, they usually are. But, its through our difficulties and struggles we push forward for a better year ahead. We’re sure 2023 will have its share of difficulties as well.

But looking both back and forward, we believe we had a pretty good 2022, all things considered. And we’re looking forward to an even better 2023.

Happy New Year.