If We Build It, Will They Stay?

“If you build it, they will come.”

That’s how most of us remember the famous line from Field of Dreams. While misquoted, the popularized version makes a compelling promise: build something worth coming for, and people will show up.

Kevin Costner’s character buys into that promise. He carves a baseball diamond out of his Iowa cornfield, sacrificing productive acreage for a vision nobody else understands. Shoeless Joe Jackson appears. Other players follow. Meanwhile, the bills keep coming, and his family risks losing the farm.

By the final scene, headlights stretch for miles toward his ball field. “They” were coming.

Watching the movie the other day, I thought about Watertown. We’re building, too. At Lake Area Tech, Harmony Hill, and downtown, we’re investing in what this community could become.

But the movie’s most touching moment isn’t the arrival of patrons. It’s a son getting another chance to play catch with his dad.

That’s the part that gives the movie its staying power. The baseball field matters because it restores a connection that seemed lost. The things we build can give people a reason to return, gather, and imagine a future together.

That’s what’s at stake for Watertown.

A community’s future depends on more than new buildings or successful projects. It depends on whether people see enough opportunity, belonging, and possibility to put down roots here.

What should we build?

Imagine a Lake Area Tech graduate accepting a job at a Watertown manufacturer. For the college and the employer, that is a success. For the graduate, it is the beginning of a much longer calculation.

Can I afford a place of my own? If I get married, will my spouse find work here? Where does this job lead in five years? If it doesn’t work out, do I change employers or do I change ZIP codes?

In Watertown, those questions are closely connected to three major industries: manufacturing, education, and healthcare. A factory paycheck helps cover a mortgage. A school position provides another household’s income. A healthcare career gives someone a reason to settle here. The strength of these institutions reaches into the businesses, churches, and neighborhoods throughout our community.

But they are changing.

Our graduate might enter a factory where new technology allows a smaller crew to produce more. That could keep the plant competitive and create better technical jobs. It could also mean the work that supported one generation requires fewer people in the next. 

Education faces its own pressures. Public schools support jobs and community life, but fewer students and alternatives like homeschooling, private schools, and online learning challenge that role. Families have more choices. A school system that once drew families here must keep giving them reasons to stay.

Healthcare offers another path, though belonging to a larger system changes the setting in which decisions are made. Sanford’s consolidation of our local healthcare providers raises a practical question: which services and careers will grow here, and which functions might be handled elsewhere? Greater scale could bring new capabilities. It does not guarantee that every opportunity will remain local.

These are possibilities to prepare for, not predictions that our employers will fail. Their success matters enormously. So does whether a young household has options when technology, enrollment, or business priorities change.

A young person might move for one good job. Building a life somewhere requires confidence that there will be another if the first doesn’t work out. 

That is what I hope we mean when we talk about building Watertown’s future: giving each of our children room to advance, adapt, and eventually build something of their own.

Who decides what to build?

Businesses must make their own investment decisions. Public leaders cannot promise everyone a good life. But each can take responsibility for the opportunities their decisions help create.

For employers, that means paths toward greater skill, responsibility, and pay. For established business owners, it means preparing someone younger to take over. For public leaders, it means showing how commitments of public resources translate into benefits residents actually experience. Not just ribbon cuttings. 

Housing, classrooms, and gathering places can support all of that. Their value becomes real when someone can afford the home, use the training, or meet the person who helps them take their next step.

The Bottom Line

Some of our children will leave. They should be free to explore and discover where they belong. I left, too. A community does not fail every time someone moves away.

But I want staying, or coming back, to be a choice each of our children can one day make with confidence. And that means making the right choices now. 

If we build it well, will they stay?

Invitation to Connect: Did this column spark a thought, question, or critique? I want to hear it! Send your inquiry to thekobatcorner@gmail.com