This week's edition of The Millbrook Independent marks the 520th publication. This week completes our tenth year of being in business and serving the Millbrook area.

By This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

My first words are "Thank You" to all of the readers and especially the advertisers that have supported us in a decade of work. There are quite a few advertisers that have been with us every single week since the beginning and many that have advertised the majority of those 520 weeks. Without them the newspaper is not possible.

Others have contributed to the newspaper. The people that always find time to help us secure a local story, the members of local organizations that always remember to take a picture when we can't make an event, and those that provide information we may not otherwise garner. A salute to the coaches of the many school and youth sports teams that have gone beyond the call of duty to make sure we have information to promote our kids on the field. A special thanks to the teachers in our schools that have taken the extra step to promote our schools and children-something that builds a better community and makes parents and grandparents proud. And thanks to the churches that have been supportive and contributed with good stories about the events at their local house of worship. And, a special thanks for their prayers.

As much as I bash, smash and shake up government for things they fail to do or do wrong, I must thank them all, especially the City of Millbrook, for cooperating with us. To tell you the truth, I don't know how they put up with Hodge and me, so a second salute is in order to those in government.

Since my time began in Millbrook many wonderful things have taken place. I promise you the good in our community far outweighs the bad. If I had to remember everything I would forget a majority of the good things simply because there have been so many positives. All of those good things come from the citizens, in one way or another. Good things happen when the citizens, organizations, churches, schools and the government work together, voluntarily, to achieve common goals.

Enclosed in this week's edition is our Annual Home and Garden Supplement. Of all the "extras" we do, this supplemental publication is our largest and, by measuring the response from the public, our most popular. It has really been a labor of love of my wife, Christine. She loves producing the Home and Garden supplement and she has always done a wonderful job. There have been a couple of times that she held the Indy together also. One time was when I had a heart attack and she learned how to construct a news paper with sophisticated software almost overnight-when she wasn't at the hospital with me. And there have been other times she has saved the day and I appreciated her for being a great partner in this endeavor.

Of course many thanks go to Brian Hodge, our rather unique character that jets about town going from a school, to a church to City Hall, to a burning house to whatever else is happening. Hodge was truly made to be a "newspaper man" in a small town. He loves what he does for a living and he has a good time with it as well. And thanks to our publisher, and my good friend, Bob Martin. With Bob we have a committed publisher and without him we never would have had a paper.

Next week we begin our second decade and I really hope I will be around to see it through. I hope Hodge is here for the duration too, because he will probably be in charge by then. But as we embark on the quest to complete another decade please accept my thanks from the bottom of my heart. It has been a wonderful journey with all of you, and we will do it all again with God's help.