News : Thank You

This is the last day of our publication on the current website. After six years and millions of pages of information served to readers I think we can say it exceeded our expectations. Starting Tuesday, if everything goes well, Vinton Today will have a new look and new features, so it seems like a good time to say some thank-you’s.

First, I would like to thank Dean and Val for all their hard work. We started this “partnership” six years ago without a clue as to whether, or how well, it might work. The deal was simple; we would maintain the website, Dean would cover the news, Val would do the ads, and we would see if together we could bring in enough in advertising to pay for the web servers and enough groceries to keep Dean covering the news.

Not only have the two of them kept the wheels on but Dean has covered the news in a way I think the community can be proud of. Even though the web is the fastest way to get information out, Vinton Today isn’t always the fastest. Some stories are more complicated than others and require more research and consideration. Some stories are more tragic and require more consideration of how the news might affect everyone involved. Whether it’s a controversy involving flags, allegations of wrongdoing, or an accident, when time is needed time is taken.

A website isn’t just a way of communicating our local news; it’s also the way the world learns about our community. We have all tried to be mindful of that in everything we do.

The Vinton Today website was designed by Wesley McElwee while he was an employee of Monkeytown. Wes moved on to another employer three years ago but has continued to provide troubleshooting and assistance whenever we needed it. I think Wes helped us out whenever we needed because he was proud of the work he’d done, and proud of the way this little website provided news and information to the community, especially during times of natural disaster or other difficulties.

Wesley, thank you, and congratulations on the new little one in your household!

I also want to thank Kathy and Steven Lariviere of Three Rivers Promotions. Kathy lives near Urbana and her son Steven lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Between the two of them they do great work.

We know it’s going to take time for everyone to get comfortable with the new site, but we’re very excited about it and very appreciative of the time and attention to detail given by both Kathy and Steven.

There are so many new and exciting features to this redesign. Thanks to the extra effort of the Larivieres we have been able to install a system assisting the visually impaired. The system removes all the ads and anything that would get in the way of a computer reading the news. It’s even great for those who have a visual impairment but are able to read for themselves. It seemed only appropriate that, given Vinton’s relationship with the visually impaired, and the many years of generous support by Mike and Carolyn Hibbs, that we would make an extra effort to make the site accessible to everyone.

We’ve also added pages for the areas served by the four school districts surrounding Vinton. In time we hope the website will become a way for the entire area to communicate local news quickly and easily. If that happens then all of Benton County will be able to share information of interest to all our citizens rather than having the news carved-up by city, and in a way that often excludes our smallest communities.

There are many more features to be excited about, but we’ll let you find them for yourself.

Finally, we want to thank the many donors and advertisers who made this redesign possible. Vinton Today is a loosey-goosey shoe-string operation if ever there was one. Everything’s on a handshake, no one’s putting money in the bank from the effort, but there always seems to be enough to keep wheels on and the web servers humming…..thanks to you.