With this issue, we say farewell to 2011, one hell of a year for Windham County.
The year started with a big party in Brattleboro, then Montpelier, as the county sent Peter Shumlin of Putney to the Statehouse - the first governor from Windham County in nearly four decades.
It continued with the trauma of the Brooks House fire in April, flooding in Westminster West in May, the tumult of the Entergy v. Vermont lawsuit in June and September, the slayings of Melissa Barratt in July and Michael Martin in August, the disappearance of Marble Arvidson, and finally, Tropical Storm Irene, the worst natural disaster to hit Windham County since the Hurricane of 1938.
But we also saw Vermont take its first steps toward health care reform. We saw the reconstruction of Brattleboro's Main Street completed (although the traffic lights still need a little work).
And we celebrated Guilford's 250th anniversary. We saw the Occupy Wall Street movement find its voice in Brattleboro. We saw the Putney General Store rise from the ashes.
So the year wasn't all trauma and upheaval.
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We also - with great pride and humility -accepted three more awards from the New England Newspaper & Press Association for news writing and editorial writing.
Our paper is still a work in progress; we're barely 18 months into our life as a weekly. But we continue to grow, and we continue to devote our talents and resources to making The Commons a valued and important news source for Windham County.
After our first full year as a weekly, a year that was one of the newsiest we've experienced in quite some time, we are pleased that so many people not only read us each week, but offer their support and encouragement for the work we're doing.
And more of you - roughly 3,500 more of you - are reading the paper now compared to a year ago. Almost twice the number of visitors check out our website in a given month. Our advertising support has more than doubled in the past year.
That support makes this paper what it is, and it pushes all of us to make it better.
From all of us here, thank you for a great 2011, and best wishes for an even greater - and maybe a little less newsworthy - 2012.