50 years and counting

Jeff Green | Dec 15, 2021

We had some big ideas, they never quite got to the point of becoming plans, to mark 2021 as the 50th year of the Frontenac News.

But as with everything this year, the weeks just kept rolling along in a COVID vacuum, and it was as much as we could do to keep covering the News each week, so our anniversary passed quietly.

It has been a year when each day just slipping into the next day un-noticed, while under the surface, some pretty big changes were taking place.

The sudden jump in real estate values has had a ripple effect on our local economies. It spurred on a record construction year, created come instant wealth for people, and created opportunities for people in a variety of trades. On the flip side, it is making it impossible to find rental properties, even at prices that most people cannot afford. This is making life difficult for families that have been living in our communities for generations, people who not only do not want to move but also have less ability to pick up and go than others do.

At the Frontenac News it has been a second year when, in spite of working the phones more than riding the roads, there has been no lack of interesting and important “stuff” to cover. More often than not, we have been trimming content in order to fit everything in the paper.

I need to thank Sarah Hannon (ad sales and social media) and Jesse Mills (website and IT) for keeping everything moving this; Craig Bakay and Wilma Kenny for keeping tabs on the local councils; and David Bates and Doug Napier for getting the papers where they need to go.

Scott Cox is my long-suffering ad and page layout designer, who has put up with me for 19 and a half years now.

And finally, my partner Martina, who keeps me from making a fool of myself when she can by correcting typos (the articles that are full of them are ones that I don’t send to her before publishing, like this one) She is not always patient with me, but I’m not that easy to put up with either.

Next year will be an election year. The candidates are all in place for a provincial election in June, when our riding will have a higher profile than it has ever had before. And in October, there is a municipal election coming up.

The first edition of The Frontenac News second half century will be out on January 6.

Happy Christmas and New Years to all of our readers.