Letter from the editor

Time flies, so this must be fun

At a wedding reception in Missoula this weekend I was explaining what it is that I do here at the Bigfork Eagle to a mildly intoxicated relative of the bride when he asked how long I had worked here. A few quick mental calculations revealed that this week in Bigfork marks one year for me at the Eagle.

At a small newspaper like this where relatively high employee turnover is a fact of life, institutional memory is a valuable and scarce commodity. Having seen the last 52 weeks go by on the north end of Flathead Lake, I'm now an old timer.

Besides being a familiar face at the grocery store's deli counter, rounding the calendar now means that I can at last relax a little when it comes to events. I have lived in fear of receiving a Monday morning call from Donna Lawson or some other event organizer wondering why I hadn't shown up for an annual event that was a fixture in the village. And though we haven't caught them all, I feel that I can confidently say that every major parade/festival/activity in Bigfork has found a spot in our pages.

None of that guarantees that I won't forget Tamarack Time this year, but it at least means that it won't sneak up on me and I won't have an excuse.

With a year gone, I hope you'll permit me the liberty of setting forth some goals for the coming 12 months:

? The Eagle will continue to provide second-to-none prep sports coverage of the Vikings and Valkyries as well as coverage of other sports in the area that you can't get anywhere else.

? The paper's involvement with the staff of the Norse Code student newspaper at BHS will increase and the student-produced section in the Eagle, "Decoding BHS" will continue to be a feature each month.

? Our presentation and content will continue to improve, making the paper more accessible and reader-friendly as well as more accurate and comprehensive.

? Our opinion pages will expand and become a clearinghouse for ideas and opinions fom people who live here. It is our goal that discussions about the future of Bigfork can take place in part as robust (yet civil) debates in the form of guest commentary and letters to the editor.

For this last part, the onus lies in part on you, dear reader. Anyone familiar with this column knows that this is not the first time the Eagle has called on the community to be more vocal in our opinion pages.

This small place has no shortage of opinions, and rather than bending your neighbors ear, take the Eagle up on its offer and bend the village's ear with a well-reasoned and impassioned argument for your side.

The Eagle will publish all letters and guest columns that meet our criteria (reasonable length, nothing that can get us sued, civil, etc.) from people who live in the area. These submissions must be signed and have contact information included for verification purposes.

Thanks for a good year, Bigfork. I look forward to hearing from you.

—Alex Strickland