OUR TURN: City leaders’ work doesn’t stop 
with hospital’s groundbreaking

A new chapter in the history of Marble Falls and the Highland Lakes opened Wednesday, one that holds the promise of prosperity in the region for years to come.

Now it’s up to our local leaders to ensure that growth takes place.

On Wednesday, Scott & White Healthcare held the long-awaited groundbreaking for the Wayne & Eileen Hurd Regional Medical Center-Scott & White at U.S. 281 and Texas 71, a project years in the making. Officials say the medical center could someday bring 150-300 skilled jobs to Marble Falls and give the area a much-needed economic shot in the arm.

Major projects such as the hospital, which will have an estimated price tag of $200 million when finished in 2018, invariably attract ancillary businesses — shops, grocery stores, restaurants, cinemas, sports halls, bars, apartments, housing, paraprofessionals and so on.

Scott & White has done its part by bringing the hospital to the area. Now it’s up to local leaders to do their part by using the hospital project as a way to anchor new businesses in the area, creating economic good tidings for the community beyond the medical center.

The task isn’t all that difficult. All it takes are elected officials and business members who will work together today to forge a better tomorrow. And if good fortune is to smile in the days ahead, then these leaders must plant the seeds now.

They have a duty to answer their community’s challenge to plan sensibly and think beyond the immediate as they look down the road. They must take the long view, putting egos and dreams of personal legacies aside, understanding they might not even be around to see all their plans come to fruition.

It is up to these leaders to attract new businesses to the area, and as those economic fortunes rise, like a good tide all rise with them. But these businesses also must be a good match for the community. They must be owned or operated by people who will work to benefit the neighborhoods and towns around them. They must put dollars directly back into the Highland Lakes.

The community also wants to see responsible growth, not an ugly sprawl of low-rent strip centers around the 281/71 interchange. Whatever new companies come here must reflect the area’s Hill Country roots in architecture and attitude.

There is an air of expectation now, a feeling of renewed hope for a community that until recently saw Main Street in Marble Falls turn into ghost town and sales taxes evaporate.

And as the hospital south of Marble Falls takes shape, the city is already looking at new ways to attract visitors and pump up sales taxes. Projects as diverse as a regional sports complex are no longer just a notation on a wish list but a real possibility.

The hospital project is the catalyst for that bright future, but local leaders must not squander the golden opportunity they have been given.

This community has a real chance to get a jump-start on better days.

That’s a lot to put on the shoulders of local leaders.

But they can do it so long as they cooperate and always put the interests of the Highland Lakes first.