By Diane Kortus
Don’t worry. This New Year’s column isn’t another preamble about setting goals and declaring resolutions.
Most of us have been around long enough to know we’ll be looking at the same resolutions next year and will be substituting our unrealistic goals with simpler ones by March.
Instead of putting away extra money every month, we’ll be happy if we can tack an extra $50 to a credit card payment. And we’ll happily enjoy that slice of cheesecake when we celebrate a special occasion without giving a single thought to those 20 pounds we promised to lose.
Although I no longer do the resolution thing, I do look at January differently. It stands apart from other months, which seem to blur together and slide into each other until suddenly it’s January again.
January is like the beginning of a new book. The first week is the table of contents —time to look at what’s ahead. And that’s what this week’s paper is all about.
We call this issue 2011 Ahead. It’s the sister publication to the edition we published last week — 2010 Again. Last week we gave you updates on our most telling stories of the year and this week we’re taking a look at issues and projects our communities will most likely face in 2011.
These ambitious year-end editions are a first for our company and quite an achievement for our small staff. There are only 15 of us putting out these papers every week — from selling and designing ads, to writing and editing stories, to putting ads and stories together on the page and sending them to our printer.
I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished. We’ve given you a good selection of stories written to entertain, educate or make your life a tad bit easier. Work on 2010 Again and 2011 Ahead started in early November when we began to sneak into our normal week the year-end interviews, extra stories and the selling and creating ads weeks in advance.
Compounding our challenge was the busy holiday season when folks did not have time to return calls and e-mails to reporters and sales reps. But, my staff’s perseverance and hard work got the job done.
Every employee was instrumental in the success of these issues, but a few stand out.
Leading the editorial staff was Associate Editor Joe Humphrey, who early on saw how 2010 Again and 2011 Ahead could complement each other. Customer Service Reps Carolyn Bennett and Gena Crowder sweet talked customers into getting their Christmas and New Years ad copy into them even before their Thanksgiving leftovers were gone. Our art team of Stefanie Burlingame and Matt Mistretta deserve kudos for working late many evenings so that ads were ready to proof the next day and pages designed in advance.
I want to thank my staff for their commitment to a job well done. And to our readers, we hope you find 2010 Again and 2011 Ahead an enjoyable way to remember life in your neighborhood and to reflect on what’s ahead in the new year.
