It is time for tough choices I empathize with Shannon Metty. To be at the center of such controversy must be extremely difficult. It’s unfortunate the Sunshine Act forces such a…
Category: Editorials
From the Sunny Side: “Squeaky shoe”
Rick Patrick Columnist Those of you who have seen me out and about at any point in time over the last few years may have noticed that I wear a brace on…
From the Sunny Side: A new year
Rick Patrick Columnist I recently saw something funny. Two aliens were talking and one said to the other, “They are celebrating their planet making another circle around their star; I told you…
From the Sunny Side: New Year
Rick Patrick Columnist Well, how about that. Here we are, about to replace the calendars on the wall already. It seems like only a month ago that I flipped the calendar to…
From the Sunny Side: Let the music play
Rick Patrick ECB Publishing, Inc. I have never been one to pay much attention to what others say I should do in terms of when I should begin my annual yuletide celebration….
Keep the thanks in Thanksgiving
Mickey Starling ECB Publishing, Inc. It’s the time of year to start planning your Thanksgiving menu and make an escape plan if any irritating relatives show up to interrupt your football game…
Childhood reflections with a touch of grace: Are you truly thankful?
Mickey Starling ECB Publishing, Inc. It’s that sweet time of the year when the leaves begin to transform into a variety of bright colors that oddly signify their end until the spring…
From the Sunny Side: Thinking out loud
Rick Patrick Columnist At an early age, I developed a practice of thinking out loud. Some folks called it “talking to myself.” For some reason, this habit caused some concern among my…
Letter to the Editor
Note: Letters to the Editor are typed word for word, comma for comma, as sent to this newspaper: Please keep letter to 600 words or less. Florida is set to have a…
From the Sunny Side: Ringtones
Rick Patrick Columnist I’m old enough to remember the days when phones would ring with a rather peculiar sound. They would actually ring. There was an actual bell inside the phone and…
NOTICE OF PROPOSED TAX INCREASE
NOTICE OF PROPOSED TAX INCREASE_2025-26 Budget Summary Ad_2025-26 new
Thoughts from the past and present: Something is better than nothing
Hailey Heseltine Columnist I’m sure many of us know how difficult it can be to find the motivation to improve. Whether it’s a hobby that needs practicing, a new exercise schedule, healthier…
Re-zoning, who pays?
I am writing this letter as a concerned neighbor about the proposed rezoning of 370 S. Jefferson St. as requested by Ms. Evelyn Hagan owner of Hagan Funeral Service. The land in question…
The Beatles come to Monticello! (sort of)
Laura Young Columnist It was truly “a hard day’s night” when I settled into my vintage seat upstairs at the Monticello Opera House on Thursday night for “Britishmania.” I had been “working…
Thank you, Shirley Washington
Shirley A. Washington, a former School Board Member, continues to support students education by giving high school students her academic scholarship, known as the “SHIRLEY A. WASHINGTON FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP”. Ms. Washington still…
Ponderings…The marks we leave
Heather Ainsley Columnist I’ve been thinking a lot about the impacts people make on the world, those small marks they leave behind that become the only evidence that they were ever here…
From the Sunny Side: Kindergarten
Rick Patrick Columnist In my old home town of Perry, Fla. almost everyone fell into one of two categories. You were either an alum of Kiddie College or Happytime kindergarten. I was…
Thoughts from the past and present: A sincere thanks to the Holliers
Hailey Heseltine Columnist At the Florida Media Conference’s annual weekly newspaper awards luncheon on Aug. 1, we (the family of ECB Publishing, Greene Publishing, and the Riverbend News, which are all owned…
From the Sunny Side: Brain pills
Rick Patrick Columnist The more trips I take around that big yellow ball of gas in the sky, the more I feel I can relate to the people I once thought of…
National Security Matters: Paul Tibbets
Joe Boyles Guest Columnist Today is the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the nuclear age. An atom bomb, dropped from a single B-29 (the Enola Gay, named after the pilot’s mother),…