The “Current” of Change

I saw the perfect illustration of adjustment to change at Commissioners Court, Monday, when conversation turned to the new county offices in the Randle-Rather Building. One employee described several challenges – all which are to be expected after spending years in the old place which is nothing like the new one. Mentioned were issues like doorways (or lack thereof) and distances and it sounded like a hassle but we’ve all been there before. It took me 18 months to get accustomed to the coffee mugs on the left side of the sink after I bought my first home. It was aggravating.

That house didn’t cost anything near the expense of the new county annex. It wasn’t nearly as nice either. Two weeks ago, I gave myself a walking tour. Most everyone who worked for the county, I think, had been relocated but the building seemed very big and empty. And beautiful. It was a slow day. Everyone seemed to be getting their bearings. I remembered my formerly new kitchen and all those annoyances.

I’ll leave the wisdom of relocating county government to people who know much more about the costs and benefits. Standing on the third floor, all alone, overlooking the square, the change of it all was the thing on my mind. The newness and the challenge seemed emblematic of so much currently happening.

Nobody should be faulted for reluctantly suffering change. This county has had its share over the last three years. Each meeting I attend is at least partially driven by attempts to address that fact. The economy is different; the how much and where from aspects of revenue is different. And all the complaining in the world isn’t going to change the fact we live and work under very different circumstances because oil is trading at $45 a barrel but we still have $100 a barrel needs. It’s a difficult thing to accept. Somebody moved our coffee mugs.

Back in January, I sat down with Daisy Scheske-Freeman at the Gonzales Chamber of Commerce. She not only had seen how change affected that office but virtually every other office or business as well. She had some ideas. The first, as I recall, was to deal with the “now” of everything. Nobody ever succeeded by waiting on yesterday. She wanted to increase the focus on events that would attract attendees for multiple days. She wanted to build on the current schedule but knew to be a viable destination we had to target the right type of visitor. She wanted to work on attracting more groups to J.B. Wells. In fact, she had four or five good thoughts including reaching out to Shiner and pointing out we have all the motels its visitors need. It all sounded like incremental growth because what she was offering was, in fact, a model requiring patience and work. It was a model built on the reality of new surroundings. It addressed now.

The other model, the one the county worker’s complaints about her new office reminded me of, is more reactionary. It draws its “potential” at least partially on faith and austerity. We review the “days of oil” and realize most of that money is gone. We can’t invest. We need to ride it out and all we need is for the city and county to quit spending money. It sounds great but it has been tried a million times and it never works. The state of Kansas is the latest example of trying to starve the fever.

We can’t stop spending but we can’t afford to waste the money, either. Recently, the City of Gonzales made two substantial, salaried investments in a tourism director and a public works superintendent. While I think both ideas are tarnished by redundancy of effort (We have folks doing some of the same work in both areas.) it’s worth a measured attempt. It’s not a waste of money. In fact, I’d argue it’s worth an honest try. The county’s move is another example, albeit a bit bolder. The new annex will be worth it soon enough and the Randle-Rather Building needed the company of people. Buildings are funny things. If they aren’t used, they die. The choice was spending money on preservation and use; or ultimately demolition – which is by no means inexpensive. Sometimes, it’s not scrutiny we apply when we look at ideas and money. It’s reaction to something new and it’s not nearly as sexy or exciting as an oil boom. Normal economic metrics are boring and incremental. But necessary.

We live here now. If we’re patient, a quality almost antithetical in oil country, we’ll get accustomed to our new surroundings. It only requires accepting our new digs.