I’d like to share some good news with you: The Blue Mountain Eagle has just been named one of the best newspapers in the state.

On Friday, the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association announced that the Eagle had won the 2022 Elmo Smith Award of Excellence as the state’s best weekly in our circulation category.

The general excellence award is based on every aspect of a  newspaper’s performance, from the quality of local news and sports coverage to advertising expertise, reproduction excellence, editorial comment, general appearance, photos and graphics.

The award honors work published in 2021, for the first nine months of which this newspaper was in the highly capable hands of my predecessor, Sean Hart.

My hat is off to Sean and his team — reporter Steven Mitchell, former reporter Rudy Diaz, advertising consultant Kim Kell, office manager Alix Hand, page designer Randy Wrighthouse and ad designer Cheryl Christian — for their outstanding achievement. 

For this week’s paper we’re working on stories about the latest expansion of The Resort and Links at Silvies Valley Ranch, several major housing developments in John Day, how Blue Mountain Hospital is addressing its financial challenges, new ownership at Russell’s Meat Market and the Prairie City Fiber Fest, among others.

And in case you missed it, last week’s edition included stories on the Tyler Smith case, recent decisions by the John Day Planning Commission, a changing of the guard at an old line John Day business and Journey, our annual travel section, with articles on Grant County destinations such as Strawberry Lake, the Swick Old Growth Interpretive Site and a pair of fascinating ghost towns.

As always, I want to take this opportunity to thank our subscribers for their support. We can’t do this work without you!