Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Editorial

Too often we get caught in the past and keeping things the way they were or are. Then again, we also are guilty of blindly jumping into change and the future.

What is the right balance of that fine line between past, present and future? Or is there a balance at all?

It’s an interesting question to pose, especially as each city in Shelby County tries to keep up with the move toward the future and away from the past.

It has been a particularly intense argument for the city of Chelsea and other areas of the 280 corridor lately with recent announcements.

What many may not realize about Chelsea, is that it is a much longer battle than meets the surface.

Residents that have been there for 20-plus years are being met with a flood of new families in one of the fastest-growing cities in the state.

What comes with new families and young kids, a need for more amenities throughout the city, which leads to change. It also brings in a more modern mind and way of thinking.

Join that with the growth of the city and the potential of a new school system, and you have some wanting new, new, new, and others wanting to keep it the same and avoid the inevitable.

The same is being said about the recent announcement of the recent announcement for the former TreeTop Family Adventure property in unincorporated Shelby County just outside of Chelsea.

It was announced this past weekend that the new owners would be building a new family-style entertainment area featuring Rodney Scott’s BBQ, Little Donkey and Hero Doughnuts.

For many, “It’s more of the same o’l stuff already out there.”

And for others, “It’s an exciting and transformative project for the area.”

It all depends on personal views and how each of us looks at it.

There has to be a middle ground where we can all meet. Where we can agree, at the very least, to disagree.

Instead, far too often, we think our way is right and there is no other way.

When it comes to our local communities moving forward, it is inevitable. We’re already living one of the largest counties in the state, and we’re also in one of the fastest-growing with Chelsea and Calera two of the cities growing at the fastest rate in the state.

With that said, growing and moving forward has to come with responsibility.

It can’t come with one side blindly ignoring what is going to happen and trying to bully others into keeping everything the way it is, but it also can’t come from the other side thinking everything they want is the right way.

These are challenges we will continue to face, but it is up to each of us to make the choice to find that middle ground and move forward responsibly.