Congratulations to the residents of Lecompton for taking an active role is shaping the community’s future.

“Pride goes before a fall,” the saying goes, but residents of Lecompton are trying to disprove that adage. They’re hoping their hometown pride will be the start of bigger and better things for Lecompton.

Situated halfway between Lawrence and Topeka, Lecompton’s location certainly puts it in line for future growth. The city’s rich history also should be a selling point for some would-be residents. A number of developers have expressed an interest in residential projects for the city, and local residents are mobilizing to try to pave the way for positive growth.

The city has undertaken some big projects, including the renovation of the former fire station for use as a new City Hall. Lecompton Fire & Rescue has moved to a new $205,000 station and purchased a new $108,000 pumper truck. But perhaps even more important are all the little projects being undertaken by individual residents.

A few blight notices from City Hall got people moving — moving old refrigerators from porches and junk metal from their yards. Some residents are expanding their homes or adding a new coat of paint. It all adds up to a town that looks like it’s headed somewhere rather than just hanging on.

Marci Penner has visited hundreds of small Kansas towns in her role as executive director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation. The mission of the foundation is to preserve rural culture in Kansas, and keeping small Kansas towns alive and vibrant is a key part of that goal.

Penner says that as she travels around Kansas she usually can sense which towns are going to make it. There’s a certain feel, a certain energy, she says, that indicates a town will survive and perhaps prosper.

Lecompton seems to have that kind of spirit. It has a proud past as the first capital of the Kansas Territory, and preserved historical structures like Constitution Hall and Lane University give it a lasting place in history.

Lecompton also is looking for a place in the future. That’s why city officials hope that sprucing up the town will help attract grants to finance expansion of the city water system and restoration of the city’s community building. If residential development brings more families to town, perhaps the Perry-Lecompton school district might consider restoring some schools to Lecompton, a key to survival for most small Kansas towns.

Some Lecompton residents may be apprehensive about growth, but others seem to accept it as the better of two alternatives. Fire Chief LeRoy Boucher summed it up this way: “You can do one of two things. You can sit idle and let the world pass you by, which Lecompton used to do for a long time. We used to have a high school, we used to have a junior high school and now we have four grades in a grade school; everything else is in Perry. You can let the world go by, and the next thing you know you have nothing.”

Lecompton is far from having nothing. It has some powerful new civic pride that could lead to a great future for the community.