Fall has only just arrived but it looks like the proverbial snowballs are starting to roll downhill in Ironton. Hopefully, the full-scale avalanche will follow.

No, "Old Man Winter" has not come to town yet. The snowball effect we are talking about started with a few jobs and we hope the momentum continues.

In the past year, lots of positive things have started to happen across Lawrence County that could be the sign that the local economy has turned the corner. We believe the future looks bright.

While some skeptics will look at the glass as half-empty, an optimist would see that the glass is filling a little bit at a time.

No, the community has not had any monumental announcements that will make huge headlines but the progress shows things are heading in the right direction.

A variety of companies have already opened for business or plan to do so including Empire Metal Recycling Inc, Tri-America Contractors Inc., Aluminastic LLC, several new businesses in the Westview Plaza, Engines Inc. of Ohio, Prestige Delivery Systems Inc, Patriot Emergency Medical Service, American Health Centers and Southern Ohio Books & More, just to name a few.

Just this week, Community Safety - a Minneapolis-based fund-raising company - announced plans to open an Ironton office that could create as many as 75 jobs. Plus, Rumpke Consolidated Companies Inc. is moving ahead with its plans for solid waste transfer and recycling station that would relocate 10 jobs to the area and create 30 new jobs.

While none of these businesses will immediately replace the hundreds of jobs Ironton and other communities have lost in recent years, each announcement is another building block that will make a strong foundation for the future.

To borrow a sports analogy, all these steps are moving the city down the field a few yards at a time. Though the city has not been able to make the big play, all the 5-yard gains have put the "endzone" in sight.

But, more work remains. The entire community must work together to make Lawrence County a good, clean place to live - a place that will be inviting to businesses.

The more snowballs we start rolling, the more likely it will be that we create an avalanche of jobs and prosperity.