Saying Goodbye

It's time to say goodbye to someone you've gotten to know over the last six months. Saline and Milan reporter Krystle Dunham's last day is Dec. 30. Please join me in wishing her good luck in her future pursuits and thanking her for her contributions.

Krystle succeeded reporter Sue G. Collins, who moved out of state. She had been an intern with us and a freelancer.

In her absence, we will be assigning freelance writers to cover meetings and write feature articles. You may be hearing from April Scarlett, Art Aisner, Sheila Pursglove, Sarah Rigg, Sara Waisanen and Ellie Falaris Ganelin, as well as intern Carrie Kennedy, over the next several weeks and reading their contributions on a larger scale than usual. In addition, Belleville staff reporter Gerald LaVaute and Ypsilanti staff reporter Jeremy Allen, who used to write freelance articles for Saline and Milan, will be helping out.

As always, we welcome your story leads, press releases and photo submissions via e-mail at editor@salinereporter.com or editor@milannews.com. Your contributions over the next several weeks will help us enhance our local focus and we surely appreciate it.

Online Poll Results

If you follow our online polls and are wondering the final results, here they are for the last five weeks. Weeks prior are on previous blogs.

Have you scaled back your holiday shopping by
50 percent or less (59 percent agreed)
None (19 percent agreed)
25 percent or less (15 percent agreed)
10 percent or less (7 percent agreed)
73 votes cast

Which types of Web sites do you frequent the most
News (66 percent)
Sports (18 percent)
Entertainment (8 percent)
Shopping (8 percent)
65 votes cast

What do you like to watch on television
Dramas (34 percent)
News (29 percent)
Reality Shows (20 percent)
Sitcoms (18 percent)
80 votes cast

What are you thankful for
Family and friends (57 percent)
Employment (30 percent)
Good health (11 percent)
Community (2 percent)
44 votes cast

What's your Christmas wish
Cure for cancer (37 percent)
Healthy and happiness (27 percent)
World peace (24 percent)
End to poverty (13 percent)
63 votes cast

Santa Comes to Milan

Milan's annual Christmas Parade attracted a large crowd this evening as people lined Main Street waiting for Santa to arrive and accept the key to the city from Mayor Kym Muckler. Here are some photos from the annual event, which is sponsored by the Milan Area Chamber of Commerce, and included photos of Santa and local children at the Old Fire Barn.

Avery Young, 4, of Milan had her photo taken with Santa Saturday at the Old Fire Barn in Milan. Santa arrived in Milan on the Boogie-Woogie Choo-Choo during the Christmas Parade. View video of the parade at www.heritage.com

Courtney Bussell, 12, of Milan tells Santa her Christmas wish list Saturday when he stopped by the Old Fire Barn in Milan as part of the Milan Area Chamber of Commerce Christmas Parade. View video of the parade at www.heritage.com

Jalen Hartmann, 4, of Milan shares his holiday wish list with Santa Saturday at the Old Fire Barn in Milan. Santa arrived in Milan on the Boogie-Woogie Choo-Choo during the Christmas Parade through the downtown. View video of the parade at www.heritage.com

Sisters Leah, 7, and Gabriella Burgess, 3, of Milan visit with Santa Saturday after the Christmas Parade in Milan. Old St. Nick arrived on the Boogie-Woogie Choo-Choo and was given the key to the city by Mayor Kym Muckler. View video of the parade at www.heritage.com


Misty Riggs, 13, of Dundee shares her holiday wish list with Santa Saturday at the Old Fire Barn in Milan after the Milan Area Chamber of Commerce Christmas Parade. View video of the parade at www.heritage.com

Santa arrived in Milan on the Boogie-Woogie Choo-Choo during the Christmas Parade. He was given the key to the city by Mayor Kym Muckler before meeting with children in the Old Fire Barn, home to the Milan Area Chamber of Commerce. View video of the parade at www.heritage.com

Trisa Hubel, 1 1/2, of Milan met with Santa Saturday after the Christmas Parade in Milan. The event was sponsored by the Milan Area Chamber of Commerce. View video of the parade at www.heritage.com

Staff Changes at Heritage Newspapers

Heritage Newspapers-West, which includes newspapers in Saline, Milan, Ann Arbor, Chelsea, Dexter, Manchester, Ypsilanti and Belleville, will see some changes next week as we switch some staff around to better utilize their talents.

Deputy Managing Editor Terry Jacoby has been named sports editor for all eight newspapers and will cover high school sports in Chelsea and Dexter. In turn, Don Richter, who has held the sports editor position for Chelsea and Dexter for the last nine years, will move to Saline and Milan, covering the Hornets and Big Reds. Jana Miller, sports reporter for The Saline Reporter and Milan News-Leader, heads over to Manchester to write news, serve as copy editor and special sections coordinator. Daniel Lai, who has held the copy editor and reporter position at The Manchester Enterprise since spring 2007, will serve as copy editor and reporter for The Chelsea Standard and Dexter Leader.

All press releases and photos submitted to the editor@ e-mail addresses will be forwarded to the new person in charge beginning Dec. 10 as Jana will design and paginate the Manchester paper and Daniel will do the same for the Chelsea and Dexter papers. Each also may be contacted through their personal e-mail addresses through the newspapers, jmiller@heritage.com and dlai@heritage.com. Terry can be reached at tjacoby@heritage.com and Don at drichter@heritage.com.

Terry began implementing some new design and feature components as part of our expanded sports sections in the fall and plans to take that further as he leads the sports department in the new year.

Please join me in congratulating everyone on their new positions and please feel free to e-mail them your thoughts, suggestions, press releases and photographs.