A once-in-a-century pandemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. A gloomy economic outlook. Mass protests and a bitterly divisive election season.

It takes a little searching to come up with good news these days. But a glance at the Eagle during the past few days proves that it’s out there — even if it’s in small doses at the moment.

A multistop tour led by Butler County officials that welcomed Vincent Valzes, the new executive director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, included stops at a number of county sites, including construction work on the Route 228 corridor and Cranberry Township’s UPMC Sports Complex, the practice site for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Mark Gordon, the county’s chief of economic development and planning, said the tour showcased the county’s economic development, which U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, noted proved the area was in an “expansion mode.”

Valdes told Kelly, Gordon and the county commissioners during the event that he was impressed with what he saw.

On the Eagle’s front page was the latest in our series on the Connoquenessing Creek, which included a piece of good news — the waterway has gone from being the nation’s second-most polluted 20 years ago to showing significant improvement following a change in AK Steel’s pickling process.

While the creek still needs improvement in some areas — such as siltation caused by urban runoff and storm sewer discharge — the waterway, which was listed in 2010 on the Department of Environmental Protection’s Impaired Water List, is likely looking at a cleaner future.

And in today’s paper, it was announced that 45 county businesses were among more than 4,900 across the state to receive small business grants.

The grants — which range from $5,000 to $50,000 — are aimed to assist small businesses that were affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Although the state should continue to find ways to help small business owners who have suffered through no fault of their own during COVID-19 and the ensuing statewide shutdowns, it’s good to see struggling business owners in the county get some assistance.

So, while we don’t know if 2020 will throw any more curve balls at us, there’s still good news taking place in our community to counter the bad — and some things to celebrate.

— NCD