All I want for Christmas is a dispatch center

It seems more than a little appropriate that after the news “leaked” just before Thanks-giving that DirecTV would be relocating a call center to Red Oak, those reports were officially confirmed just before Christmas.
While I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a Christmas miracle, 150 new jobs sure does make for one heck of a present.
Some may be surprised by this community’s good fortune to be adding jobs when so many others are losing them, but anyone who lives here isn’t the least bit shocked.
For starters, Red Oak was due for some good luck after the numerous closings the co-mmunity endured the last few years. It’s the law of averages. Or physics. Or gravity. What goes down, must come up. Or something like that.
But more importantly, this is a progressive community that isn’t going to sit around waiting for good things to come its way. You make your own good luck.
And that’s exactly what Red Oak just did.
Here’s a few more things I can wish for this Christmas season:
— That whomever replaces Joni Ernst in the auditor’s office is as professional and courteous as she is. I know the election is two weeks away, but I’m a realist before anything else, and can’t imagine a scenario in which Ruth Smith, who got 45 percent of the vote in the 2008 race, doing any better this time.
— The folks on Capitol Hill continue with the recent wave of bi-partisanship, that helped pass the tax credits most of us will enjoy in 2011, and the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. By giving a little to the right in pushing through the previous Bush-era tax cuts, and giving a little to the left with the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, President Obama may finally start enjoying a little revival in the court of public opinion.
— Some business/industry leases the other half of the CDS Global facility. While DirecTV has secured half of the building, half of it remains open, which means maybe another 150 jobs could be added. As great as this announcement is, Red Oak can’t sit on its laurels. You eat an elephant one bite at a time, and while 150 jobs is great, we still have lots more unemployed needing work. There is a lot of that elephant left to go.
— While dreaming big, I’m holding out hope Red Oak’s City Council revisits the mandatory trash issue. I know you are probably wondering “when is this knucklehead going to let this go?” I mention it again because I recall a few months ago looking at a house my wife and I considered renting. It was a nice house, with everything we could want. But next door was an apartment building with bags of trash in the yard. No thanks, we’ll look elsewhere. I know there are ordinances prohibiting trash outside. But while we have laws against reckless driving, we also have specific ones such as exceeding the speed limit. I don’t see a difference.
Anyway, have a Merry Christmas and stay safe.
Gregory Orear is the General Manager/Editor of the Red Oak Express, and can be contacted at publisher@redoakexpress.com.