With a mix of purely practical projects and a healthy dose of long-range hope for our county’s quality of life and attractions — the penny projects list is on its way to the last vote before it meets the electorate. And all in all, we’re pleased with how the list turned out, and hope the voters are too.

County leaders, sometimes in the face of howls of protest, set up the proposal process to nail down as best as possible the true costs of any potential project this time around. That pragmatic approach seems to have continued.

Even some of the very localized projects that made the cut have great potential to benefit a large number of citizens in Newberry County, both directly and indirectly.

Piedmont Technical College appears to be the star of this penny projects lists, coming in at the top, both in cost and in order. The campus relocation and expansion could do several things for the area. For one, it would open up instructional capabilities. More space equals room for more programs, and room for more total students at the local campus. More programs and more education can easily translate into more jobs and higher wages, thus higher tax collections, in our county. And speaking of higher tax collections, just think of what moving a college campus to that end of Wilson Road will do for location, location, location. Restaurants, retail, gas stations: everyone should benefit from the increased traffic on what was becoming a slightly less travelled corridor, at least for money spending.

Second on the list is a major water line project for the City of Newberry, keep in mind, one-third of the county’s citizens reside within in the city limits. And the proposal the city brought forward for the penny projects list is only a portion of the cost of building a parallel water main to supply the city’s drinking water. The third project, water plant upgrades for the Water and Sewer Authority, has a similarly broad reach, touching the lives of many county residents.

But big projects are not the only ones that could have far-reaching effects. Two of the smaller (cost-wise) projects on the list, the Little Mountain Rocky Branch Creek trailhead and the Prosperity Depot, have great potential for opening up a lot of Newberry County’s natural beauty to residents and visitors alike. The trailhead will help make accessible the large tract of land resting against Little Mountain that has naturalists going gaga over the ecological diversity and beauty. Likewise, The Prosperity Depot already has one tenant lined up after renovation. The historic little board building could be a real building block for eco-tourism in our county. With the Palmetto Conservation Foundation set to occupy 30 percent of the building as its Midlands outdoor center, leading tours of the Midlands natural features from that area, the sky, and the rivers, and the woods are the limit.

More fire substations, more work on the Mid-Carolina Commerce Park, an expansion to the Council on Aging Senior Center, Whitmire Town Annex renovations, sewer work for Prosperity, upkeep repair for the Newberry Opera House: this list says we are ready to plan for the future, and committed to the projects of our past.