In 1999, I was a young mom with a three-year-old and two-year-old and third child on the way. I was writing news stories and a column for the Gazette on a regular basis. And I had lived in McCook for less than five years. 

All of those reasons probably led to why I was appointed to the city of McCook’s new swimming pool advisory committee. This was the group that needed to decide what to do with the then-relatively young 65 year old city pool. 

The pool was leaking water on a daily basis. There were no built-in amenities that young families were looking for to entertain their children at the pool. There was no zero-depth area for our littlest residents and for those with special needs to safely enter the water, like at a beach. And perhaps the biggest issue was the water leaking on a daily basis, which meant water was added constantly and which is what kept the water cold despite the warm summer sunshine. 

In the end, the committee voted to throw some money - a not insignificant $1 million - to put a band-aid on the problem. Yes, it bought another 20 years of use from the pool, but essentially the problem was just kicked down the road. 

Very few new features were added. Zero-depth was not incorporated. And ironically, the water leak was never solved, so the pool was still bone-chillingly cold throughout the summer. 

Looking back and even immediately after, I wish I had fought harder at that point for a new pool. 

I am so grateful that McCook is finally getting the new pool that our community deserves. But a generation of residents, including most of my kids, missed out on having a pool that they wanted to go to rather than a pool that was “good enough.” 

What would McCook look like if we had made the investment 20 years ago in a new pool? Would we have more residents now? Would we have more young families who saw that the community was willing to invest in itself and make it an appealing place to grow up in? Would we be known as a community on the move? 

We can’t change history but we can change how we move forward with our thinking and our choices.

Not everyone will use the new pool, but the new pool makes a statement. It says that we want to have nice - and yes, pretty - things for our community. It says that we need these things to invest the workers that we need for the jobs that our open at all our businesses. It says that our kids our worth making a financial sacrifice for. 

We are constantly making choices. But as we make these choices, are we thinking about how it will affect us tomorrow or five years from now? As we make decisions, we need to apply the statement: “This would be a different place if…”

Everywhere you look, there is evidence of things getting done to make our community a different place and also examples of things not getting done, leaving it the same as it was yesterday.

Imagine what McCook and Red Willow County would look like if Tom Kiplinger had decided not to invest in his community. Yes, we would still have a fairgrounds but it would look like a vastly different place. There wouldn’t be horse trailer after horse trailer streaming into town to take advantage of the facilities or events booked in the buildings every weekend. Instead, the decision was made to make the investment at the fairgrounds and today it is a different place. 

Conversely, imagine what McCook would look like if we had followed through on the 10-plus miles of walking trails around the community instead of just the 1.5 miles that are in place. Families would be walking around at night, pushing their toddlers in strollers. Kids would be biking to their friends house. Runners and walkers would be safely on trails rather than endangering themselves on the streets. Thankfully, there is movement to get the trails expanded and make this a different place. 

Imagine what McCook would look like if voters hadn’t approved the bond issue for the new swimming pool and ballparks. Yes, we would still have a pool at the YMCA and the ballfields would still be usable around the community, but it would be sending a vastly different message. We aren’t willing to invest or sacrifice for our future and for the next generation. Instead, we will have a new, bright, glistening pool in early July and hopefully new ballfields and green space for other sports in the near future and this will be a different place. 

Everywhere we look, we can see decisions made by the people who came before us. Some of those decisions made it better for us. Some of those decisions made it harder for us. As we move forward, we need to keep in mind what our decisions will do for the future generations. 

Maybe it is a simple as a well-placed sign to get visitors to the new pool. Or it is as big as renovating the entire downtown and burying electrical lines to create an inviting and welcoming atmosphere to hang out. 

Each and everyone one of us sets the tone for our community with our decisions. This could be a different place if we think about how our decisions and actions affect those coming after us. We are the ones who get to make our community a different place. Now, it is just deciding what that place looks like.This