Another year older…but wiser?

I was taught early in my life that you never take a good thing for granted. And I have never taken one minute of the last 10 years for granted.

This edition begins our tenth year of publication.

And I’ve had a whole lot of fun.

I went back and looked at some of the old editions recently, and it’s amazing how long any single issue can drag out in Monroe County.

Ten years ago, we were covering stories about the fight to electrify No Name Key. Last week, we ran a story about the fight to electrify No Name Key.

Ten years ago, we were writing about the continuing de facto building moratorium on Big Pine Key as the state awaited the finalization of several permitting issues to widen US 1 through the business district of the island. Bids to build the final phase of that widening project are supposed to be on the streets by now with completion still a year or better away.

Ten years ago, we were writing stories about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s rather unhappy response to a community assist visit where they found that our elected leadership had been turning a blind eye to a proliferation of below-base-flood-elevation enclosures. Just last week we ran a story about how our elected leadership plans to ask FEMA to end an enclosure inspection program.

Ten years ago we were writing sporadically about the few advances being made in developing advanced wastewater throughout unincorporated Monroe County. Today, we are still writing about the snails-pace of advancement in developing advanced wastewater treatment in Monroe County.

Ten years ago, we were writing stories about the need to develop alternatives to Big Pine and No Name Key for the health and growth of the endangered Key Deer herd. Recently, we ran a story about plans to continue to translocate deer and possibly use contraceptives in high-density areas.

The Liveable Communi-Keys plan for Big Pine had started and was headed toward the finish line ten years ago, although not finished until actually 2004. The LCP for the remainder of the northern half of the Lower Keys, Sugarloaf though Little Torch Keys, was supposed to happen on the heels of that approval.

We’re told that the next phase of that project, which is a review of a dormant phase of the project, might start this summer.

Marathon residents were freshly incorporated and happy about it, only to become unhappy about it, then happy about it again.

Lower Keys residents soundly defeated incorporation efforts, just to suggest that perhaps it should be tried again.

Though the details have changed in most instances, the overriding issues are still on the radar screen.

What else hasn’t changed in the last 10 years is the loyalty of our readers and our advertisers. The support of those who allow us to get the information to you has been nothing short of astounding.

We appreciate all those who have supported us over the years, and all those who have welcomed us into their community, once a week into their lives, for the last decade.

You may have gotten tired of reading about the slow pace of progress in the Monroe County, and sometimes we become exasperated writing about the slow pace of progress, but we are still together after all these years.

Thanks for that.

You have been witness to our lives over the last 10 years, suffering our pains, rejoicing at our good tidings, ridiculing our mistakes, joining in our causes.

We have made you a part of our lives and have welcomed the opportunity to be a part of yours.

We have had many good employees come and go through the doors over the last decade, and some good friends walk into and out of our lives during the same time.

We have made new friends, we have lost old friends. We have found new causes. We have continued to follow old causes.

We have praised and aided our community when help was needed and we all responded, be it grabbing a chain saw and helping the neighbor cut up fallen trees after a storm or attending the latest benefit to spend a few bucks and help someone currently in need.

This is a truly fabulous community.

Thanks for that.

And for every person who faithfully picks up a newspaper every week, and for every advertiser who faithfully gives us their information every week, and for every bird that dive bombs our pages at the bottom of the cage, and for every fish that found its final resting place nestled in our newsprint…thanks for that.

No Comments »