Next issue Stockbridge Updates will be one year old. I did not know what would happen when I began a year ago. SU may have fizzled. I was stunned and deeply grateful that it has been such a success. Some issues have more “opens” than the number of residents in Stockbridge. A year later SU is a part of the community.

If I had one goal from the start, it was to get information to the people and encourage them to demand answers to any questions left unanswered. Transparency is the soul of democracy. It is not just that ours is a government by consensus or that elected officials have an obligation to the electorate; it is that open and inclusive government is good government. Secrecy and backroom decisions by a privileged few are the enemies of fairness and optimum outcomes.

We have been through a great deal in this last year: disease and division; illness and suspicion. We came through and we are coming out of it. We are beginning to ask what is best for our village; not what are the motives of the “others”.

Let us continue. Gather as much information as possible; bring our best ideas to the table, and after articulating them, listen to the responses. In the coming year, Stockbridge Updates will continue to do all it can to facilitate those goals.

I thank every reader.

I thank all who helped make SU what it is — Copy Editors, Lenore Sundberg and Jack Trowill; Photographers, Joan Gallos, Jay Rhind, and Lionel Delevingne; all the marvelous contributors including but not limited to Rick Wilcox, Meryl Phair, Bruce Blair, Bob Jones, Marie Raftery, Bill Vogt, Gary Pitney, and Charles Kenny.

I thank my Editorial Board who was there to discuss every problem that arose and help shape our editorial posture and procedures.

Finally, thank you to all the readers who wrote to SU and made every issue more vibrant and relevant.

For many reasons, the news has shrunk as it appeared to expand. Although television and the Internet creates a constant stream of news, it tends to be national and international. The number of newspapers shrunk, and those remaining are in big cities. There is something tangible and comforting about a local — very local — newspaper. In the end SU gave Stockbridge something it wanted.

Next year? SU will continue to be a good neighbor, honest and giving, and there for you.