Airport area activity

To help pad the numbers for usage of the airport, I took this picture of an airplane within a mile of the airport.
Of course, it is just a styrofoam toy airplane, but with some of the usage figures that have been put out there, the government folks must be using sightings like this in their statistics.

Friday Night Lights (quarter by quarter style)

I won't be able to do the touchdown by touchdown coverage of last week, but I'll try to get scores posted by the quarter.

Theater demand - Reader forum

"WCHS108" asks:
Why would 9 people vote to NEVER go to a movie in the event a theatre was built in Washington?

Beasley trouble - Reader forum

"WCHS108" comments:
Beasley just as guilty, finally, the truth comes out. Why wasn't he kicked out of the rookie symposium the same time as Chalmers and Arthur...and Beasley fined $50K while the other 2 fined $25K, must have been his pot!

Future of schools - Reader forum

"WCHS108" asks:
Not a new subject...but since all schools are 1 month into the year, the future of all the schools in the county; any possible merger ideas, and if so, which school should consider and with whom?

Another record

The Backroads Newsroom blog set another readership record! There were 323 pages loads yesterday which surpassed the previous record (from two Thursdays ago) by three loads.
Yesterday also tied the record for unique readers at 120.
So things are going well and I believe that when I get the new blog/web site going, things will pick up even more.
The Washington County News is one of the few weeklies in Kansas with an active blog. I've been talking to a journalism professor at Wichita State University about the Backroads Newsroom blog and what it has added to my news dispersal efforts. I strongly believe we'll see a transformation in news distribution over the next decade. How long will a hardcopy printed newspaper continue? I don't know, but the digital edition will take over eventually.
I won't be the first to discontinue a printed product, but I won't be the last either. It will be interesting when it happens and if advertising can continue in some form, it will be nice to save the thousands of dollars I spend on printing each month!

Reader forum

This is your chance to choose your topic of discussion. Please leave a comment about a topic you'd like to discuss and I will post it so other readers can comment on your topic. Items of local interest are preferred.

Reader forum idea

Okay. So Backroads Newsroom readers would like to choose some of their own topics of discussion on this blog. Great!
There really isn't a way this program allows readers to start a new thread, but instead, here is what you can do.
Each Wednesday or Thursday, I will write a post with the headline "Reader forum" and I will give the following instructions:
This is your chance to choose your topic of discussion. Please leave a comment about a topic you'd like to discuss and I will post it so other readers can comment on your topic. Items of local interest are preferred.
All reader-generated posts will include the words "Reader forum" in the headline along with the subject of their post.
You can post any topic of discussion, but I would urge you to stick to topics of interest to Washington Countians.
So after finishing this post, I will then start the Reader forum post.

No touchdown by touchdown coverage

I will not be doing the Friday Night Lights updates tomorrow night for the area's high school football games like I did last week. It is my son Noah's first birthday so I will be spending time with him rather than with the phone. I enjoyed doing it last week... kinda. It was quite hectic at times. At one point I had three calls coming in at the same time. I might do it at some other point during the season, but probably no time soon.

Experimenting with different blog format

I am in the process of constructing a different Backroads Newsroom blog with a different blogging company. Check it out at:

http://backroadsnewsroom.wordpress.com/

This prospective new blog will also allow me to post content from the print edition of the Washington County News in a more user friendly manner. On the left side of the new blog will be WC News content and on the right will be the blog element of the site.
I'm still trying to figure this out, so until I do, I will keep this Backroads Newsroom site going.

You can just click on this entry's headline to go to the new experimental site.

Palin-Clinton speech

If you didn't catch the "Palin-Clinton" speech on Saturday Night Life, check it out on nbc.com. It was pulled off of youtube. It's hilarious. The rest of the show with Michael Phelps was kind of boring, but the Palin-Clinton bit was awesome. We spent five minutes here at the News office checking it out as a staff.

Morrowville investigation

The Washington County News received a statement today that the Washington County Sheriff's Department and the State Attorney General office that they are involved in an ongoing investigation involving the City of Morrowville. Read this week's Washington County News for the full story by Tom Parker.
The News requested the last seven months of city council minutes for the City of Morrowville and found several items pointing to financial problems in the city. No charges have been filed.
• The May and June minutes are missing.
• In July the city's bank account was closed at First National Bank of Washington and a new account was opened. Lori Huber was appointed as the new Morrowville City Clerk affective July 17.
• During three meetings in August, A financial advisor was invited to a special council meeting and explained that capital improvement financing could be obtained to pay for improvements made during hte last few years. Later, a new budget was printed recommending a ~25 mill increase.
• On Sept. 8, several community members attended the meeting to discuss the budget, financial options, GO bonds and restitution. Sheriff Bill Overbeck was also present and gave an update. A letter of resignation was received from council member Craig Fencl and the Mayor presented information on getting a bond for the future city clerks.

New hospital fundraiser assistant

Haely (Rettig) Ordoyne recently took the job as the new Washington County Hospital fundraising assistant. Haely and her husband Raleigh, both originally from Linn, recently moved back to the county from McPherson. I'm sure I'll have something in the print edition soon.

Cafe to re-open in Greenleaf

Updated:
The cafe in Greenleaf will open again on Oct. 1 as R&J's Cafe. Janis Bryant and Ruth Nye are opening the establishment for breakfast, lunch and dinner and it will also have a bar.