By VERNON ROBISON
This week’s edition marks the beginning of the tenth year of full color in the Moapa Valley PROGRESS. Our first edition which featured vivid full color was distributed on December 22, 2004. Each year, this edition has become something of a personal landmark for me because it came about two months after I first took over management of the publication.
A lot has happened in the Moapa Valley since that time. Running a small town newspaper is never boring. There is always something new popping up involving community members and their activities.
Perhaps the most widely felt, change that has taken place since the PROGRESS put out its first color edition has been the economic well-being of the community. Back in 2004, Moapa Valley was enjoying an economic boom. Businesses were prospering. New businesses were popping up everywhere. Tourism was strong and healthy. Developers were pounding down the doors at our Town Advisory Boards with opportunities for growth.
What a difference a few years make! A drive through the commercial district of Overton today reveals a completely different economic landscape. Businesses that were once here and thriving have failed and gone. Commercial buildings lie empty and abandoned. Tourism in the community has all but dried up and blown away. And, instead of development and growth, we have seen an exodus of residents from the community, bringing a sharp net loss in sales to the local merchants who have managed to stay in business.
Of course, all this has taken its toll on the PROGRESS’ bottom line as well. Covering the Moapa Valley’s news doesn’t come easily or cheaply. The costs of producing our content, printing it and distributing it through the mail every week is staggering; and always on the rise. Being a free publication, none of these costs are paid for by our readership. Rather the cost of the weekly news coverage in the Moapa Valley has always been wholly borne by our advertisers.
So we would just like to, once again, pay tribute to these advertisers. We would like to give credit where credit is due. Comparing that first color holiday edition to the current one reveals something interesting. Many of the businesses appearing in the advertising back in 2004 are the same ones as appear here today. At its core, we are talking about the same group of loyal, local business owners that have appeared in the paper week after week, year after year.
Of course, the primary reason that these folks choose to advertise in our pages is to convince and cajole local shoppers to shop locally. But their choice to advertise locally also brings a benefit to the community. In advertising here, these business owners have made the larger work of the PROGRESS possible. They have made it possible for this newspaper to cover the community in our pages like no one else would if the PROGRESS were absent. These advertisers are the ones that put the PROGRESS in your mailbox every week. They each deserve to be recognized and appreciated for it.
So we would conclude by urging our readers to look closely at this special holiday edition of the PROGRESS. Take a little of your time-off from work this week and look closely at the holiday greetings and messages offered to the community here by the local business owners in this edition. Pay attention to them, take note of who they are and take their messages to heart.
After all, these businesses are truly the lifeblood of the community. These are the folks that are approached repeatedly, and often throughout the year, to help fund a wide range of the most beloved community traditions and activities. Time and time again, they have come through for this community, despite their struggling through nearly five years now of economic turmoil and a challenging business climate. Now isn’t it time that the community pulls through for them?
In the coming New Year, we urge our readers to resolve to give the local merchants the support they deserve. Shop Locally in 2014.
Finally we wish a Merry Christmas to all of our local readers. We hope that your lives are blessed on this festive day and throughout the coming New Year.
