Columnist: Shortsighted motorists learn the hard way about the wisdom of preventive auto maintenance; such maintenance almost always pays off in the long run  Our usually shortsighted city council should be praised for using similar wisdom when they hired a long-term economic development adviser  In hiring this adviser, the council made an investment that is likely to have a big payoff in several years
Other cities in this region that have devoted resources to economic development planning have earned large returns on such an investment
Qualified economic development advisers generally demand higher salaries than many city councils are willing to spend.