Everything begins with a dream….

We’ve all been there.  You turn a corner and suddenly there is a fork in the road ahead.  One path seems a little wider, smoother, promising a gentler rise as it crests the horizon and its allure of relative ease beckons the weary traveler.

But there is always that other one that softly whispers, “Come see what could be.”  Less traveled, overgrown, even foreboding, it offers few promises of an easy journey.  Some even say if you listen closely you can hear a restless dragon somewhere deep in the wood just waiting to test your resolve should you dare enter.  Yet you do.

You understand the challenges ahead will be many and detractors will heckle from the other path, but the reward of newly discovered colors and sounds they can only imagine gives you courage.   Yes, you will stumble.  You will doubt, pray and get up again…many times.  But with every step into the unknown you realize that path is becoming a familiar comfort and a friend.  Each struggle gives you strength so the next one is less fearsome.   Soon you recognize the sounds are actually music and dreams that seemed so far away are just up ahead. 

There is no guarantee of success when you test yourself, but there is the surety of failing if you never try.  The city took a step along a much less traveled road nearly ten years ago by believing we had a future when all the signs said, “Surrender.”  It has made all the difference.

Remember 2000…How can a town survive losing its largest employer?  Or 2002…$200 million in lost property value with just one owner?  2004…65% of a school budget vanished overnight?  2006…How can a community overcome the taxes of passing two school referenda in a single year when others cities can’t absorb one?  2007…How will you ever get new employers, investors or residents to choose Zion?

By showing them that this path offers the rewards that only come with taking risk.  Today our EAV has recovered, even in spite of the national economy.  We have growth and development when pundits will tell you that is impossible.   Zion has such untapped potential yet to discover and with every project we are raising the expectations and resolve that we will not only survive, but flourish. 

So when someone doubts your hometown or questions, “Why Zion for a new ballpark or hotel or hospital expansion?  Why Zion for the largest decommissioning project in the nation?  Why Zion for an industrial business park or retail reinvestment growth?”  Take a deep breath, believe in yourself and say, “Why not Zion?”