If you remember what Lebanon was like 25 years ago, hearing that it might be the site of Oregon's second medical school is sort of like hearing that a friend who struggled back from a long illness now is training for the Olympics.

It's not quite a done deal, but Samaritan Health Services and Western University of Health Sciences of Pomona, Calif. are planning a new college of osteopathic medicine in 51 acres across from Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, at the city's northern gate.

It's fitting that the new construction will be near the sign that reads, "Welcome to Lebanon The Town That Friendliness Built."

Actually, it was mostly big timber, and the lumber mills that followed, that built Lebanon. Its last big boom time was in the latter part of the 19th century. Back then, the downtown featured a fancy hotel and movie houses and a fine academy where the monied of Oregon sent their children. That lumber-based economy thrived through the middle of the 20th century.

But by the early 1980s, the last of the mills was either shutting down, scaling back or otherwise moving away. With their departure went a way of life, with only uncertainty and empty storefronts the town's daily reality. There even was talk after one of the last mills closed of canceling the Strawberry Festival. But Lebanon decided it would not go the way of other mill towns.

Wisely, patiently and with few missteps, the city has reinvented its economy.

The new medical school - which would include a hotel and conference center - would change its culture and perhaps its outmoded reputation as a quaint backwater where people buy gasoline and soda on their way to The Cascades or Bend.

It would change life most, however, for residents throughout the mid-valley. This region is in dire need of more doctors and surgeons - a need that will grow. We are confident that many medical students will recognize the appeal of living in this area, however, and remain.

Larry Mullins, the president and CEO of Samaritan Health Services, deserves much credit for having the vision about 18 months ago, when he heard that Western was looking for sites in the Pacific Northwest, to realize that Lebanon is well suited to such a development.

Who knows? Medical school today … Olympics … 2108?