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Can we just all admit that the STEPS project isn’t going to happen? It seems silly to go back and forth, fighting over something that we all know isn’t going to actually take place. Why? Look at their history. Is Madeline’s House open yet? No? They’re still waiting on state and federal funds for that one too, right? 

That seems to be a familiar song to sing. I remember last year, the first attempt at one of these apartment proposals. Boy, that seems like a while ago. So, not enough money to reopen Madeline’s House, enough to pitch this new idea, but gee if we don’t hear the same song one more time. In order to build this complex in Farmville, they would need, yup you guessed it, state and federal grants. And not just a couple dollars either. No, they’re looking for more than $20 million in grant money. All for a property, a piece of land they don’t even own yet. Now I’ve done a lot of stuff in my day, but if there’s one thing I learned from my daddy, it’s that you never talk up your plans for a car, a house or anything until you have the keys or deed in hand. Why go around bragging about what you’re going to do before you own the land it’ll happen on? As someone mentioned last week, all that’s gonna do is just drive the price right up. 

But c’mon, folks. Let’s stop all the back and forth and pearl clutching over something that seems like a good idea, a much needed idea, but one that just like every other idea we’ve heard lately, is likely to remain just a figment of someone’s imagination. I’d argue that we have much more important things to talk about. The grades in Prince Edward schools, for one. The unemployment rate doesn’t look too good either. And then there’s the disconnect somehow where we have folks looking for jobs, businesses looking to hire but the two can’t seem to meet up. Like I said, there’s a lot more here to sort out than the latest idea from STEPS. 

Thomas Babbage

Prince Edward