Choosing the top 10

What a year it has been!!!

I grant you it is not quite over yet, with just over two weeks left. Still, it is kind of amazing to look back over the previous year as one entity instead of a group of individual happenings to rank how well we are progressing. We have had a few setbacks during the last year, as everyone does with every year. It is no surprise to me to announce that Washington is still moving ahead. That is a lot more than many areas throughout the country can say.

As with every year, we are asking readers to select their top 10 stories of the year. For me, this is always a lot of fun to see what has gone on over the previous year. If for no other reason, there is a list of the top events of the year sitting in front of me and it gives me a ton of optimism for the future. It also makes me wonder what will be on the list next year.

People wanting to explore how Washington has been doing could certainly do much worse than to fill out the top 10 stories of the year form. In today?s paper it is on Page 7. We are already working on our chronology special section at which time we will announce the top 10 stories of the year according to you, the reader.

Was the groundbreaking for the new high school auditorium or the expansion of Halcyon House the top story of the year? How about the return of fall cleanup? Does the announced closure of Modine rank higher on your list than the story of the students in Keota rallying to bring Hillary Clinton to their district? These are some of the questions our readers work to answer when they send in their ballots. Since our readers are the most important ones, we want them to have their say in choosing the top stories that shaped 2015 in Washington.

The top stories don?t even have to be on the list. There is a section on the ballot, or a piece of paper can be included when the ballot is turned in, for the reader to add a story that may not appear on the original list. If someone wants to vote for ?the Keota School District voted to terminate its superintendent sharing agreement? for example (it is not on the list because it happened after the list was made and already running) they can add the story to their ballot with an appropriate number ranking.

We in the newsroom are looking forward to having a huge pile of ballots to calculate the winners of the top 10 stories of the year. Please submit a ballot by Dec. 31 and make your voice heard.