For our new readers...

Vinton Today was started back on March 11th of this year.

We are living in an office located in the back of Monkeytown, downtown Vinton,  who so graciously opened their doors to us, handed us a couple computers, and then said, "Oh if you need a website, we happen to have an extra one you are welcome to use!", well something like that. ;)

We have two full time staff, Dean Close our writer and sole reporter. Then there's me, the other half of the operation who does the bookkeeping, ad sales and design (and who has a greater appreciation for bookkeepers and Mary, my former ad design gal who worked at our last job, that I drove absolutely nuts and didn't realize just how badly until I had to do her job, I apologize again Mary!) I also go through the e-mail that comes in and post it on the website.

We have in our volunteer department, Jeff Holmes our esteemed sports writer, who goes to the games, writes a story, and takes pictures. At this point the only reward we can offer him is seeing his name in "print", thanks Jeff, our hats are off to you!

We also have to thank the people who gave us the technology to run a newspaper without a newspaper.

The guy who first dreamed up the idea of an online-newspaper and how to make it work in Vinton is Kurt Karr.

If you ever get bored and think your life is dull and you have no imagination, you have GOT to spend an hour listening to Kurt talk. The first days of planning this endeavor, we left feeling so exhausted from just listening to all the ideas that Kurt had about the possibilities of this site! :) I have never met someone that has the dreams of this guy, as well as the energy behind them. He was the motivation that made us feel like we could acrtually pull this off, thanks again Kurt.

Then there is the IT guy Wes, whom I have tagged  "Houston" he's the guy that knows how to make a computer do what you really wanted it to do.

IT, in office terms, refers to information technology -- computers.

Wes is the guy that when we have a problem, he gets an e-mail that is addressed, "Houston....we have a problem!"  He gets the ones when I THINK we have a problem and it's really just on this end of the computer, and there really ISN'T a problem! He's the guy that you hand an idea to and he figures out how to make it happen. He's the guy that can explain what a computer does, what the website is doing, and all without rolling his eyes at you, well at least he doesn't do it while I'm watching!  He's one of those wonderful Monkeytown employees!

On a side note, did you know Monkeytown sells office supplies, delivered right to your door? I didn't know a lot about them until a few years ago, since I wasn't in the office supply ordering department, but fyi, call them for your printer needs and anything else here's their website! http://www.mymonkeytown.com/index.php

Most importantly are all the people that send in their e-mail with stories, questions, news, events, comments, classifieds, pictures....they are you, our readers!  You are the ones that make this a true community project, and wow, you've done an excellent job of it!

Vinton Today is supported by the kind folks who advertise with us,  and the occassional donations that folks send in.

So if you are new to the website, "Welcome to our online neighborhood! We hope we have been a pleasant surprise!  Tell someone else in the area about us, you are our billboards!" 

A couple weeks ago I had asked everyone to send their e-mail out to someone else in their address book, and our hits jumped immediately, we now have new readers! The power of a forward!  Thanks!  (Can you do it again? :)

Still have questions?  Zap us a note in the comments under this article and we'll do our best to answer them!

Thanks again everyone!