EDITORIAL: City, county softball game success

Published 11:47 am Wednesday, March 20, 2019

There won’t be a victory parade but last weekend’s softball game between the city and county fire departments was certainly a win-win for the community. 

The first-ever event raised funds to benefit the joint Fire Explorers Program, which exposes local young people to opportunities for work in fire service careers as well as character development, mentorship and good citizenship. 

In addition to gate admission from the game, local businesses and industries also stepped up to contribute to the fundraising effort. 

Beyond that, however, this game was a good-faith effort to show the community the impact of local departments working together to get something accomplished across geographic and municipal lines. 

As negotiations continue on the city and county Service Delivery Agreement and the back-and-forth over the 1-cent sales tax continues, we could all use a simple reminder about what is important, what is really at stake, and why it all matters — the future of this community. 

We can only imagine what other local issues and concerns could be tackled if we saw more of this approach in action.

The final run tally on the scoreboard didn’t matter Sunday, but what did matter was that this was a unifying event that brought out city and county officials and members of the community to cheer these two teams on and share some good laughs for a good cause. Not to mention, this idea has also resulted in unifying the Fire Explorers program. No longer is there a city program and a county program but one unified effort to impact local young people in one program with the support of both fire departments. 

As Milledgeville Fire Chief William Collier said prior to the game: “We’re now one program. We’re talking about teenagers who are participating in the activities of firefighting, learning and being mentored. The intent is to bring both departments together to play in a friendly softball game.”

The end result was positive and that’s what matters most. We certainly hope this becomes an annual event. 

The recent game is proof positive that working together can be done. It just takes a desire to move beyond what’s keeping us apart with the understanding that the unifying goal is of too great an importance to let anything else stand in the way of getting it done.