The Bloomfield Democrat

In many respects, this hasn’t been a great year in Davis County and with the weather hampering the harvest, it hasn’t gotten a lot better lately either.

Let’s just forget all of that stuff for a couple of hours Friday night. Let’s band together in a show of community and school spirit and pride. Let’s overflow Mustang Stadium for the Davis County-Mid-Prairie football game.

It’s one of the most important football games the Mustangs have played in several years. It’s also your last opportunity to see this outstanding Davis County team play on its home field.

A huge, noisy crowd would give the Mustangs a boost when they take the field and throughout the game.

An added attraction here is the final home appearance of the Davis County High School Band, which did a great job in winning both the parade and field competition last Saturday at the Clarke County Festival of Bands in Kahoka, Mo. On Saturday, the band competes in the State Marching Band Contest. A big crowd Friday night would give them a rousing send off.

Make a point to be there and let’s have a fun time supporting these great kids.

If you’ve been following the debate on this site about the new high school building, you have found there are people who say: “We shouldn’t build a new high school.”

Change the subject and there will be people who would say, “We shouldn’t finish the hospital.” There are people who also say, “We shouldn’t do streetscape on the square.”  Or, “We shouldn’t build bike and walking/running trails,” or “We shouldn’t build a sports complex,” or “We shouldn’t pave streets,” or…

I’m sure there are many other things on various “shouldn’t” lists, which raise the question: What should we do?

Make a list, in order of priority, of five things this community ought to do in the next three years.

For what I think is the most thoughtful and useful list, I’ll buy that person a meal in the form of a $15 check.

If you listen to what some people say or read what they write, they seem to consider the school board as some sort of far off enemy or worse.

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Davis County needs ideas as to how to increase the number of businesses of any kind and the jobs available. Give us your ideas by submitting a comment to this blog.

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By Gary Spurgeon
Publisher

A comment added to the story on our online front page about the closing of American Welding and Tank wonders why we reported a few weeks ago that the plant and others in Bloomfield did not have employees laid off.

The commenter says there were people laid off at the time.

We reported there were no layoffs because that was the answer we received in telephone interviews with plant managers or high company officials.

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By Gary Spurgeon
Publisher 

In covering the Davis County-Pella Christian Regional Tournament girls’ basketball game, I got my first look in several years at Evans Junior High Gym in Ottumwa.

The gym was once the indoor athletic envy of southeast Iowa. It’s showing its age, probably about 50 years. There have been a lot of basketball games, wrestling meets and other events watched by thousands of people there.

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By Gary Spurgeon
Publisher

Those of us in the newspaper business don’t think or talk a lot about having our product stolen nor do we worry about it a lot. In more than 40 years of going to newspaper conventions and seminars, I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in a conversation that concerned shoplifting or petty theft losses.

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By Gary Spurgeon
Publisher

Welcome to our first attempt at a blog. Hopefully, it will get better as time goes by and the subjects will be interesting to at least a few. 

My hope is to be able to provide information, comment and, maybe, some humor and entertainment for readers.

Blogs in all forms have proliferated across the Internet. Just as important as the blog itself are the comments that readers often make. Comments from readers not only provide some valuable feedback, but also impart new information that others may not know. Comments often provide opinions that foster public discussion and debate.

I’m not promising that I’ll write something every day, but we’ll try to do it as often as possible. Keep checking back.