Any progress is good involving construction jobs

No one expected a run on the Highlands County Building Department when impact fees were lifted on July 1. We all wanted to see improvement, though. We believe that still will happen.

As of Monday, 34 permits were active with three more pulled in Sebring. Of the 34 permits, 12 are commercial and 22 residential.

There's no denying that our county still is hit hard by the recession. Summer months always are slow, and this one has been painful. A lot of businesses are barely hanging on, and snowbirds are still a few months away from boosting coffers.

Any improvement in the construction business is good news for Highlands County. More people working and drawing paychecks helps everything around us do better.

We'd love to see construction heat up - or at least warm up - and start infusing the local economy with dollars. That's not happing fast enough, but we're seeing small improvements. Of course, there's no shortage of existing houses anyway, but there's still projects that will put people back to work.

The idea to temporarily drop impact fees still is a good one. More projects will come along. What do we have to lose? If there's no construction, there aren't any impact fees to help build infrastructure.

Hurricane Bill and his buddies aren't welcome here
Let's hope Hurricane Bill follows the path meteorologists think he's going to take. He looks mean and nasty out there, and the best place for him is up in the north Atlantic, where cooler waters can calm him down.

This is always the time of year we watch with trepidation as tropical storms spin out of the Caribbean. What track will they take? What strength will they build to?

We all want these storms to head out to sea and die. We don't need landfalls, damage and injuries. So sorry Bill. You and your buddies aren't welcome here.