Deferred maintenance on our county infrastructure is catching up with us just as environmental stresses are increasing and long-term strategies for this work are not in place. At the same time, people are always more important than buildings or equipment and people require a healthful environment to thrive. So: people, environment and infrastructure are my greatest concerns, in that order.

Our changing population means that our people need more services (not fewer) and we need to increase our attractiveness to the next generation of residents (and, not incidentally, service providers.) Neither of those needs is cheap and our county is not rich. So, we need to consider new ways of generating resources rather than just cutting our way into a death spiral. The incoming county board needs to think outside the old boxes on this issue.

Drought, heat challenges and water quality, 1,2,3. As we enter the driest spring following the warmest winter recorded in the last 130 years, we need to recognize how this alters and even endangers our lives and livelihoods. Drought puts pressures on our farmers, increases chances of forest fires and requires multi-year plans and policies. Heat is the deadliest of all weather challenges and brings with it year-round tick populations, increasing incidences of tick-born diseases. Neither our people nor our livestock, nor our forests and crops are acclimated for extreme heat and we need to have plans in place for rapid response to all three. And both drought and heat put pressure on the water supplies that we do have. We should be protecting and conserving water now for when we need it later -- and making sure that it is clean and free of pollutants.

Our highways, bridges, culverts and the equipment to maintain them are increasingly expensive and eat up enormous amounts of our budgets. Some of those costs may actually already be beyond the capacity of our county to afford. We may need to re-imagine and re-define exactly what parts of our infrastructure are used for what and where they fit in with our other priorities. We may need to acknowledge that in order to address these priorities, we need our state and federal officials to advocate for larger institutions to accept some of the responsibility for these needs. And, we may need to make some hard choices between new buildings or functional roads. We just might not be able to have everything.

Truly, despite the wonders of new communications -- and the need for them in the media desert that Lincoln County has become! -- the best form of communication for local officials is the oldest: get out and meet people, answer your phone or return phone calls, hold listening sessions in which you actually listen to people instead of repeating canned party talking points and be as authentic as possible. All the websites and media accounts in the world are not worth much if you are not honest and authentic with the people who contact you.