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As Roaring Spring continues moving past its paper-making history, mixed emotions nonetheless will remain firmly entrenched in the community -- indefinitely.
On the one hand, there will be cautious optimism about what a proposed recreational complex on the former Appvion paper mill site will mean eventually for the borough's future. On the other, residents and others living nearby will continue to lament the jobs and $38 million in annual payroll lost when the mill was shuttered in early 2021.
Now, with razing of the plant having begun, a new sense of finality must be acknowledged, and it has become increasingly important that the community as a whole, as well as its environs, ramp up attention to developments forthcoming in the months ahead.
Attendance at borough council meetings should be on residents' to-do lists, and residents should feel compelled to interact with community leaders as much as possible about whatever ideas and questions they might be harboring.
Although a redevelopment concept has begun taking shape, the fact that the borough is living with perhaps a year or more of plant demolition provides a window for other opportunities to come forth and be given due consideration, even with planning for current ideas being allowed to move forward.
The borough is close to Interstate 99, making it ideal for a new industrial or business opportunity to present itself, even if for just a part of the 300-acre Appvion site.
The community already understands that the recreational-complex proposal "on the table" won't bring the number of good-paying jobs that Appvion provided, but the demolition underway means that the borough will not be saddled with a rusting and otherwise deteriorating hulk that will undermine it rather than enhance it.
If the K-12 recreational/athletic complex plan is accomplished as envisioned, followed by a proposed public amphitheater, the result will be a newness asset of exciting proportion for what is a pleasant community.
Still, many residents will cling to the memories of close-to-home employment that was provided by the paper operation, even if the mill, by necessity, was not sparkling from a visual or environmental perspective.
It was unfortunate that the property-reuse challenge necessitated admitting from the start that there probably were too many site constraints to assume reasonably that a big industry or business could be found quickly enough for the land in question.
Nobody likes seeing an important business close or relocate.
Looking at the total Appvion picture, what is important regarding the site is that the plant closing and its sale were not met with total perplexity by local officials over how to react and respond. The theory that seemed to evolve quickly was "we cannot change what is about to happen but we can make the most of the situation and, despite the initial setback, turn this into an opportunity to make our community better."
For some people, amid such circumstances, there always is the temptation to predict the community's demise -- that the community most certainly is destined to become a ghost town.
Despite the loss of Appvion and its plant, such a fate does not await Roaring Spring.
"Patience" seems to be the right word for the town and its people at this time, not despair.
As part of that, the borough needs to have conversations with -- and seek guidance and support from -- this region's legislative representatives in Harrisburg.