Are we still an All-America City?

Written By Eric Bernsee
Maryland Times-Press, Ocean City, MD
June 29, 2001
Provided by Burrelle's Information Services

Could it really be 10 years since Greencastle basked in the glory of the All-America City competition at San Antonio? Since we rubbed elbows with President Bush in the Rose Garden? Since we came home with one of 10 All-America City designations for 1991?

Time flies, and 10 years have passed, even if there is still a George Bush presiding over the Rose Garden.

National Civic League officials told our contingent that once you've won its highest honor, you're forever an All-America City. Kind of like being a parent.

But our question today, is: Are we still worthy?

Back in 1991 we had what our All-America City Committee called The Story. A comeback tale no other town could touch. It was the saga of how a Nov. 11, 1986 announcement that IBM Corp. would do the unthinkable and close its Greencastle plant ended up changing forever our town.

But this wasn't Grovers Corners. It was a community that refused to die -- despite losing 20 percent of its local tax base, some 40 percent of all local jobs and more than 70 percent of the local industrial payroll -- literally overnight.

It was gloom, baby. National media outlets swooped in to write their "death of a corporate town" stories.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the funeral. This town refused to die. It pulled together and attracted seven new industries in the five years that followed.

It was a community driven to survive by a core of civic leaders, but -- in the fateful words of David Murray of the Development Center Board -- "it was a small army of people that got sucked into the vortex of this economic dislocation."

And it wasn't just an industrial rebirth. Programs like Opportunity Housing helped make homeownership a reality for those who feared the American dream had passed thern by. It was the vitality of organizations like Main Street Greencastle and the Putnarn County Foundation that spearheaded community involvement and pride.

It was The Story, all right, but it was local residents that made it all happen. As they like to say in Speak Out ... you know who you are.

And to this day I can hear former Mayor Mike Harmless methodically enunciating the repeated theme of his remarks to the All-America City panel: "People make the difference in my hometown."

Wal-Mart Distribution even adopted that very theme, putting the words on its exterior wall for all to see.

But in passing judgment on our All-America status, we're reminded of the community vision statement in the 12 page application that got Greencastle invited to finalist status at San Antonio 10 years ago: "Greencastle thinks of itself as a community that looks to the future, while treasuring its past and embracing its rural background."

It's safe to say that's still true.

To some people, community growth is reflected in a new Blockbuster video store or the prospect the latest trendy restaurant joining the local food chain. Or even falling prices for heaven's sake.

Growing as a community is more than that. That's why we need be reinvigorated. Recapture that spirit of 1991.

What do we have to show for the past 10 years? Expansions at all our major industrial facilities -- both new and old. A spiffy new City Hall. An ambitious residential development in Deer Field. A new school nearing completion. Ever-increasing recreational opportunities. Okay, Super Wal-Mart.

But for much of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, local residents first and foremost identified Greencastle as basically "a great place to raise a family."

It was like an old shoe -- easy to slip in and out of. In need of a little polish, perhaps. But all in all, very comfortable.

We're still that comfortable old shoe.

We just can't afford to be loafers.