Winton Road: Investing in Infrastructure to Grow Our Economy

While it won't grab as many headlines as the latest crime or political scandal, an important story ran in today's Enquirer that I hope we'll see a lot of in 2009.

It was a description of the County's $5.6 million project to upgrade Winton Road, which will take place over much of 2009. And the article helps explain why this kind of infrastructure investment and improvement is so important. For when the government commits to improve and beautify the portion of a community that it controls (the public infrastructure), the private sector, seeing that commitment, usually follows close behind.

This case is a perfect example, where the private sector has invested millions of additional dollars as the County Engineer has implemented the public infrastructure portion of improvements along Winton Rd. And the article explains nicely how a similar project in Colerain Township several years back brought up to $100 million in overall investment.

So projects like these not only lead directly to the jobs needed to implement them, but if done right, they stimulate for more work, economic development and job creation from the private side--and those jobs last long after the project is done.

In 2009, look for a real focus on this kind of infrastructure improvement from County government.

Thanks to the Engineer for his hard work on this important project.