By Will Collins

There has been a lot of buzz around town the past few weeks as candidates file for their chosen positions within our city and county.

Many express changes they want to see made within our local government as well as to promote progress for our community.

I, for one, would love to see such actions come to fruition, for we have reached a point where positive change needs to be made as we move into the future. The very thing we need from those that may become city and county leaders is vision — an idea that I’ve talked about often in my column.

I can give nothing but kudos to our state lawmakers from Clark County. Rep. Donna Mayfield and Sen. Ralph Alvarado are constantly working for our state with our community in mind. They have tackled the issues that are most important for us, especially with bringing resolution to our state’s pension crisis. It’s great to see vision in our state capital.

In our local government, we need to seriously look at the future and prepare for it accordingly. I mentioned a few weeks ago our road systems and how they can no longer support our growing population.

I spoke of a “vision” of having overpasses built in several locations on our bypass — an idea I’ve seen many cities accomplish to make travel much more passable.

Someone spoke to me about that idea and said it was nearly impossible because it would cause major delays in traffic while construction was being performed. They went on to say it was something that should have been done 10 years ago.

Now, let me ask this: Wouldn’t we be saying the same thing 10 or 20 years from now? Of course we would, and that mindset goes against leading with vision.

We hear the slogan, “the future is now,” and unfortunately it’s the absolute truth. We can’t keep pushing things to the future, when we are already there.

In fact, we have several traffic light systems in our community that are outdated based on our growth. For example, the left turn signal leaving Fulton Drive onto the Bypass lasts just long enough for maybe three cars to make the turn before it turns yellow and red. The problem is, this street has a significantly higher amount of traffic, causing several cars to have to wait for another change of the signal to get out.

I also have a vision of Clark County having a lower crime rate and that too will be solved with looking at the future. We can no longer be soft on crime only to have citizens victimized by the same criminals. This starts with getting illegal drugs off the streets and bringing more counseling to help those affected.

It boils down to this: We are sitting on a gold mine, my friends.

We have the opportunity and means to take our community forward and see these dreams come true. All it takes is initiative and vision. I say we do exactly that.

I love this quote from Roy T. Bennett: “Good leaders have vision and inspire others to help them turn vision into reality. Great leaders create more leaders, not followers. Great leaders have vision, share vision, and inspire others to create their own.”

Any community would serve well to follow such wisdom.

Political enthusiast Will Collins is a lifelong resident of Kentucky and has called Winchester home for the past 20 years. Hecan be reached at wrcollins70@gmail.com