Dear Editor,
I would like to comment on Barry Kerton’s column Time to Reexamine the Need for The Woodlands Express. An interesting column but, as a professional reporter, I feel some research should have gone into it. He begins by saying, “Just what community groups should a municipality provide funding for?” I would think that is up to each municipality and its residents. He goes on to ask, “What about community groups not attached to the county’s infrastructure?” and uses the community paper The Woodlands Express as an example.
At one time this paper was based in Fort Assiniboine and, in the beginning 40 years ago, one of the main objectives of the paper was as a liaison between the then ID council and its residents. Since then it has become a county paper, funded by Woodlands County and free to all residents at the county’s request. The paper can be produced anywhere in the county and, at present, the two staff members happen to live at Lone Pine.
Mr. Kerton says there are other ways to let people know of local events with one way being The Barrhead Leader. True but only a small fraction of Woodlands County reads The Leader. True, as Mr. Kerton goes on to say, there is the county’s newsletter Woodlands Communicator which now comes out twice a year. However, you have to wonder, why does the county produce a glossy newsletter when they already have a paper in which any of the information could go. A community paper also contains stories about local people and events and is an outlet for opinions through letters to the editor.
I agree it is time to question the funding and the need and the resident’s desire for a paper. That is a question for Woodlands county council and its residents to answer.
Dorothy Mack
Lone Pine, AB.
