![OUR SAY: Showpiece's rejuvenation provides a slice of old normality OUR SAY: Showpiece's rejuvenation provides a slice of old normality](/web/20240910233655im_/https://www.bordermail.com.au/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/zTpV5j6X6iLmSh5SbcmSaP/30ea85f4-6fdf-407e-989d-2a8613a2b38e.jpg/r0_271_4513_2818_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
It has been roundly condemned, even with a few months to go, as one of the worst years in living memory.
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Many simply wish 2020 would go away, with good reason.
It began with our summer of disastrous bushfires and a hint on the horizon of a worrying new virus.
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By March, the federal government had closed our international borders and the fight against COVID-19 had begun.
It is, of course, a fight from which we haven't yet escaped.
Even with one of the best records so far in the world, the fact is Australia and every other nation won't truly be confident of ridding ourselves of the pandemic until an effective vaccine is available.
In the meantime, we are continuing to face this invisible enemy and the flow-on impacts to our communities that even now can change markedly from one day to the next.
We haven't been cursed with the spread of the virus on the Border, but this hasn't left the region any less exhausted.
The truth is, we are doing both extremely well and, because of restricted cross-border movements, continuing to struggle through.
It's what makes the revelation of a date for the opening of the re-developed Lavington Sports Ground a deservedly positive note to round-off the year.
And that's because it provides a glimpse of the everyday to which we all want to return.
The project hasn't been without its hiccups, but that shouldn't take anything away from what promises to be a considerable asset.
For many years, from when the site was first developed in the 1970s, the ground has been a stand-out amongst the region's first-class sporting facilities.
But for too long now it has shown its shortcomings compared with stadiums in other large regional centres.
Come November 27 though and all that will be easily forgotten as the fruits of the $19.6 million project are revealed.
It all promises a vibrant future for sport in our community, both for local competition and in attracting those big headline events to the Border.