Times have never been tougher, at least not since the Great Depression. But bolts of good fortune have now struck Yamhill County twice in quick succession, and through a most unlikely source — the oft-maligned Oregon Legislature.

First it was a $192 million appropriation for the Newberg-Dundee Bypass, an amazing turnaround for a 50-year-old project that many had all but given up for dead. Then it was a $6 million appropriation to complete a new Chemeketa Community College campus in McMinnville, a dream of less duration but not with much brighter immediate prospects.

What makes the double-dose of legislative largesse seem all the more unlikely is the makeup of our local delegation. It consists of relative rookies from Republican ranks, toiling in a body dominated by veteran Democrats.

The gods of good fortune must truly be smiling upon us, perhaps deserved in light of our soaring unemployment rate. In reality, though, two pools of dedicated state funding found Yamhill County with projects that topped their respective statewide priority lists.

It is the wholly unexpected college breakthrough that we rise to applaud today.

John Plett, Ron Pittman, Bob Emrick and other local friends of the college worked tirelessly behind the scenes, unwilling to give up hope. And they have been richly rewarded.

When voters in Chemeketa’s five-county service area passed a $92 million bond issue in the primary election of May 2008, we thought the deal had been sealed. We thought our turn had finally come.

The plan was to combine $13 million from the bond issue with $6 million from this year’s legislative appropriation for capital construction in the state’s community college system. That would be enough to erect two handsome new buildings on the former Tanger Outlet Mall site across from the hospital, one housing largely academic programs and the other mostly voc-tech programs.

Then the economy tanked, both locally and nationally. That prompted the governor to draft a budget with no capital allocation for community colleges.

Chemeketa responded by adopting a phased approach for replacement of McMinnville’s aging, cramped, remote and ill-equipped Hill Road campus, where enrollment has been soaring despite its manifest inadequacies. We would get only one building; the other would have to wait.

Thankfully, we’re now back on track because of a $71 million legislative appropriation for community college construction around the state. If we don’t get both built in time for the opening of classes in the fall of 2011, the second won’t be far behind.

It’s a most welcome development — one that promises to pay dividends for decades to come.