The old adage that you “learned everything you need to know for life in kindergarten” may have a lot of truth to it.

Ironton officials may be drawing on this inspiration because they understand that economic development is a process — much like a child’s building blocks — where the individual components create something greater than the sum of the parts.

The ongoing work to re-line the city’s 100-year old sewer system is a key “block” in that process and helps strengthen the infrastructure that will be vital when it comes to any future development.

Add this to ongoing work to separate the combined sewer and stormwater system for which the EPA has long rapped the city and also the efforts to create marketable locations along Third and Ninth streets and it is clear that progress is being made.

Unfortunately, repairing systems of this magnitude doesn’t happen overnight and takes lots of money — something the city doesn’t have lots of excess.

But with a combination of state, federal and local funding, the city has undertaken its largest infrastructure project in decades. These projects are designed to strengthen the city and improve quality of life now and for generations to come.

Infrastructure could be compared to a skeleton inside the human body — the bones of a city. If this isn’t strong, everything around it will suffer and deteriorate.

Most residents may not see a direct improvement from the sewer repair and other projects but each of these are blocks that are building toward Ironton’s — and Lawrence County’s — future.