Over the past few months The Gazette’s opinion page has been dominated by reflections on the county’s budget process.

Our editorials and your letters have raised many questions about the county’s use of its resources: Where does the money come from, where does it go, and why?

And many of you have shared your sense of whether those questions are being answered appropriately.

As the county has now passed its approved budget, and is waiting to see changes that will have to be made by the county and its schools to accomodate reduced revenues, we have reached a point in the process where we can pause to catch a quick breath before we start learning more about the countywide audit.

So, considering a few of the letters and phone calls I have received, I believe that using this respite to ask a fiscally unrelated question might be a good idea.

What is the role of a community newspaper?

Especially in a society where information is now hurled at readers via a printed page, a flickering television screen and a scrolling blog, what can a local paper offer its readers?

Unlike news that comes to you from around the world and around the clock, The Gazette is based here in your county, where you live and work, where you raise your families and build your lives.

Reporter Ken Odor and I venture throughout the county, to its board meetings and court hearings, and its festivals and celebrations.  And at those events you can walk up to either of us and tell us what you think about the county and how we cover it.

And many of you do exactly that! That is one of the greatest privileges of being a community journalist, at a weekly newspaper in a rural county: The ability to really get to know our readers.

That familiarity breeds respect, because it’s harder to let down someone you’ll run into the day after a board meeting, say, than it is some anonymous member of an audience you may never meet face-to-face.

I have recently received a lot of messages from people offering information and insight regarding our county, which I greatly appreciate and encourage.

One supervisor recently recommended that I print my e-mail information here in my editorial, and to that I will also add a few other ways to get in touch with me:
By e-mail at acondra@goochlandgazette.com; by Twitter at GazetteEditor; and on our Facebook Fan Page, at www.facebook.com/goochlandgazette.

Hearing from our readers ensures access, accountability and balanced coverage, which is how The Gazette can best serve the people of Goochland.