For those of you in mailing addresses for Bridgeport, Chico, Alvord, Paradise, Boyd, Rhome or Newark, you’ve probably noticed a new insert once a month in All Around Wise for your community called “Community Focus.” It’s our newest product, one designed at highlighting the people, accomplishments and events that take place in your community. It is designed to do just what then name implies: focus on the community.

We do our best to find stories and photos for this section, but we are relying on you to submit your information and photos as well. You’ve probably seen a few of our submitted photos under the heading of “Your Life in Focus,” or maybe even on the cover of the section.

We know it will take some time for readers to get into the habit of sending in information, but we have started to receive a few submissions. Sometimes, those submissions even make us smile. I’m not sure if the photo above was sent to us to get a chuckle, but it did when we saw this little dog in the photo. We’re running another photo of the home in this week’s Boyd/Paradise edition.

You can e-mail submissions to focus@wcmessenger.com or click on the above link.

And let us know what you think of this new product.

There were lots of activities in Wise County over the weekend, and photographer Joe Duty did his best to get to a lot of them. You can check out his images here.

I headed over to Paradise Saturday morning for the Paradise Main Street Festival to see the dedication of the new Paradise Veterans Memorial Park. Other than a bit of a breeze causing a few of the flags to topple over a couple of times, the ceremony went off without a hitch. I was really impressed with the amount of people who attended the dedication and the festival. Events like these really help you gain a sense of “community” that you don’t always see as much as you used to. For some very amateurish video of the festival shot by yours truly, click here.

Joe was in Paradise, at the Wise Regional Health System Harvest Health Fair, the Decatur Chamber of Commerce auction, the 4-H Explosion and Sunday’s benefit concert.

We’ve got another big weekend coming up. Bridgeport is having its annual Coal Miner’s Heritage Festival, and there are plenty of events scheduled throughout the day. The final Cruise Night on the Decatur Square is also Saturday.

Is moving one of the most demanding things we do as humans that is self-inflicted?

I cannot think of another activity that we plan and often look forward to that is more draining physically, mentally and emotionally.

Having just completed such a move, I can speak with authority. Returning to Decatur has been wonderful, but the actual process of relocating our material goods, and ultimately our lives, takes a tremendous toll.

It requires many days of physical exhaustion as well as mental gymnastics trying to make sure you keep track of essential items and take care of the important stuff like turning utilities off and on or change all those addresses.

Since we left the comfortable confines of Wise County in 1991, we have done this to ourselves five times, the last time eight years ago when we moved across town to one of Henrietta’s neatest houses, a ‘50s ranch style with some interesting features.

Leaving it behind was a bit emotional, and now we start over with a mostly vacant lot upon which to recreate a place to call home.

Starting from scratch, we can do it like we want, but we left behind a lot of toil in establishing a peaceful yard in which to sit and watch the world go by.

We won’t miss the commute, and we relish the challenges of modern-day newspapering. And hopefully a few months down the road when last box will be unpacked it will truly feel like home again.

For three weeks the Mess has been a mess.
Decatur’s downtown improvement project has deterred visitors and detoured drivers around our building as construction closed the block of Trinity south of the courthouse square so that a decorative brick walkway could be placed across the street connecting our southwest corner and the visitor center. As well electrical lines were laid under the street, which will eventually connect a couple of period lights, like those already installed around the square.
Similar projects have been ongoing around the square for a few months, rotating in a clockwise basis. The crews moved on to the west this week.
Last week’s rains, while a blessing, were also a curse, because they helped stretch a project slated for two weeks into three, pushing the closure right up to a critical time for us, selling school supplies.
We made it known that the street had to be reopened by the first of August, and when the barricades went down late Friday afternoon, we were just a little giddy.
The inconvenience to customers is one thing. Jack hammering and other pounding, vibrating and disruptions right outside the window is another.
We’re glad to be rid of both. Come see us.

Top night for the 2009 Wise County Old Settlers Reunion?
Judging by Decatur Lions Club receipts in the parking lot, it was Friday, with1,098 vehicles. Friday has taken over from Saturday in recent years as the busiest night.
In the past attendance built each night Monday through Saturday. But the past few years the Friday crowd has been a little larger – by 177 cars this year and 140 last year.
Overall attendance was up quite a bit this year, as Lions parked more cars on each night for a total of 3,839, compared to 3,464 a year ago. Record attendance in 2007 was 3,859.
Gas prices likely had a negative impact a year ago, and with the cost down about 40 percent in 12 months, and people taking trips closer to home, interest in the event improved.
Why Friday has overtaken Saturday is anybody’s guess. Used to be folks who couldn’t make it during the week would come in for Saturday’s event. But this year it could have been the entertainment or the fact that there were several other organized events Saturday – something that didn’t happen in years past. Scheduling something opposite the Reunion was somewhat akin to having something on Wednesday night. You just didn’t do it.
Manning the parking lot has always been a challenge for Lions, sort of like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The lot is not a uniform shape and has some trees.
And drivers are not always completely tuned in to the directions Lions are trying to give non-verbally.
We always have a blast doing it and plenty of chuckles wondering how some folks can so badly misinterpret our wild arm-waving.
And seeing what some folks will do when left to their own devices makes you wonder how they ever got a drivers license.

There’s been quite a bit of debate on the topic of turf fields for local sports stadiums. Of particular note are claims and counter claims that artificial surfaces will or won’t pay for themselves over time compared to the cost of maintaining natural turf.

Northwest ISD was the first around here to install an artificial surface on its former grass field. At Monday’s tour of the new Byron Nelson High School in Trophy Club, facilities director Dennis McCreary was outlining the multiple fields at BNHS which include natural and artificial surfaces so that players can experience both. He said that the district’s first experience with artificial turf (at the original Texans stadium) paid for itself in seven years. And that includes the cost of converting the stadium from grass to turf. When the first artificial turf is replaced, the cost will be even less since the only expense will be to replace the surface; no conversion costs such as modifying the drainage.

A few years back when the Henrietta ISD was talking about plans for an upcoming bond issue, that district’s grounds maintenance chief also ran the figures and concluded turf would pay for itself. Turf was not included in the bond package, since some doubted a package including turf wouldn’t win approval.

So there’s two opinions from folks in the know that artificial turf is a good investment. You can make many other credible arguments against turf. But cost apparently isn’t one of them.

Each month, I get a copy of the Wise County Historical Society’s newsletter. This month’s newsletter features news from the April 28, 1882, Paradise Messenger (which would later move to Alvord and then to Decatur where it has remained the Wise County Messenger ever since). Here’s a run down of some of the top stories:

Fresh cider at Gray’s store, only 5 cents.

Go to Lowry & Ramsdale for Knives and Forks.

Prof. Thomas says “school is doing scandously well.”

Don’t forget Shean and McAfee sell Doeskin Pants at bottom prices.

Mr. J.F. Fore and his family were the guests of one of our citizens Sunday. He talks of moving here to test our mineral water.

Mr. Cunningham, a leading butcher of Fort Worth and a brother-in-law of our neighbor, J.E. Stewart, has secured the contract for furnishing beef to the Jews of that city.

We understand a woman by the name of Mr. Inklebarger, living in the northeast part of Parker County, committed suicide by hanging herself sometime during last week.

Mr. George L. Ramsdale, a Texas Veteran, was in to see us on Tuesday. A little girl that he has in charge was bitten by a maddog on last Sunday morning. A madstone that belongs to Perry Collom was applied but did not stick. Is that thought that the teeth of the dog entered the flesh after passing through her clothes and that therefore the case is not dangerous. The dog was killed. Mr. Ramsdale and his wife had only just returned from the Veteran Reunion at Waco an account of which we have published elsewhere.

Mr. H.H. McNabb, of Ooltewah, Tenn., and Mr. John Monger of Chattanooga, have been the guests of our neighbor, Mr. B.N. Caruthers, for several days past. Mr. Caruthers and they were former acquaintances. We are always pleased to see progressive go-ahead men looking at our country, and we only wonder why it is that the best men always move west, and generally to Texas.

It makes me wonder what the writers would have thought of technology such as Twitter.

I’d like to get some reader feedback on the subject of columns. I’m considering changing up some of our columns we are running, but I want to know what columns people enjoy reading and maybe columns that people would rather not see in the paper (or would like to see less of).

Here is a list of regular columns we currently run, in no particular order, and where they are found in the paper:

Willis Webb (opinion)

Dave McNeely (opinion)

Multiple columnists from the Texas Public Policy Foundation (opinion)

Annette Bridges (lifestyle)

Neil Sperry (gardening column in All Around Wise)

Luke Clayton (outdoor column in All Around Wise)

Birds and Beyond (birding column by local author in All Around Wise)

Savvy Senior (All Around Wise)

Extension office columns (All Around Wise)

Others we have used recently:

Jim Hightower (opinion)

Pet Talk (All Around Wise)

Texas Health Matters (All Around Wise)

One new column that we have agreed to begin running this fall is from a Texan who will bike the perimeter of Texas. He will write a monthly column, and readers can also follow him from his blog. His column will most likely appear in All Around Wise.

In looking at possible syndicated columns, one idea that intrigues me is the idea of a “point-counterpoint” type of column where a conservative and a liberal give their spin on a certain topic. Another idea might be for us to come up with a sort of “question of the week” to give letter writers an opportunity to respond in the next issue - an idea that was sent to us by a reader.

We’re also thinking about changing up our political cartoon or possibly adding another political cartoonist.

Are there any other types of columns you would like to see (automotive, movie reviews, music reviews, book reviews, other)?

Any thoughts? You can comment here or e-mail me at news@wcmessenger.com.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, former Messenger reporter Brandon Evans is now once again current Messenger reporter Brandon Evans. He started Monday after moving back from Connecticut. Brandon was with us previously from the Spring of 2007 to Spring 2008.

So if you see Brandon out an about, be sure to give him a Wise County welcome.

Speaking of Wise County welcome, our annual visitors and newcomers guide Welcome to Wise is scheduled to be mailed out early next week. We’ve tried to make it as comprehensive yet most readable as possible. So be watching your mailboxes for that.

Your Wise County Messenger won sweepstakes again at the Texas Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest awards ceremony Saturday in Austin. That is the 10th time in the newspaper’s history and eighth in a row dating back to 2002.

The Messenger competes in the large semiweekly division.

It was truly a team effort. Photographer Joe Duty received first place awards for sports and feature photography and a third in news photography, reporter Mandy Bourgeois received first in feature writing, sports editor Robert Morgan received first place in sports coverage, reporter Travis Measley received third place in column writing, I received second place in editorials and headline writing, production manager Todd Griffith and paginator Keri Willerton received third place for page design, Griffith won first place for best web site and the advertising and production department won first in advertising. The Messenger also won second place in general excellence.

The 825 points we received toward the “sweepstakes” count was more than any other paper received, including the daily categories. The total is the third highest we’ve received in the eight years.

Publisher Phil Major’s previous paper, the Clay County Leader, also won sweepstakes in the medium weekly category, and he received a first place for news photo.

The awards are nice, but it doesn’t mean much if we aren’t providing our readers with the content they want. So always feel free to let us know if you like something or not or if you have any suggestions on how we can improve.