If I ever had the funding and the commitment from people like the Santino's did to the newspaper I would like to keep it going even underground just for the community, plus a local location where all the Progress's could be digitized into PDF so future people could read them or use them for research. The voice of this great little city has been quieted for now.
End of an era comes with this issue
By Progress Staff
The staff at the Progress has been looking toward this issue with bittersweet thoughts - we are sad knowing the community will now be forced to get their news in other ways, but happy that now we won't be facing that deadline every Monday.
Over the past 25 years, we - Joe and Arlene Santino - have worked sometimes overtime to get the news to you our faithful readers.
Our work with local newspapers began with submitting news items for the church page and then evolved to that of a stringer doing little league and then meetings as a stringer for the Record.
We sat at a computer much of the day on May 3, 1983 at the Coalinga Record only to lose all our work when the brick wall fell in as the 6.7 magnitude earthquake hit, just as we were leaving town.
Over the years, we have covered meetings in both Avenal and Coalinga - city council, school boards, planning commission and even recreation. Arlene did the meetings and Joe covered sports.
Many photos have also been taken of students receiving honors, scholarships, on the field and in the gymnasium.
There were wins and losses and championship games, we were there to cheer them on and cry with them.
Many graduations - pre-school, middle school, high and adult school. We were there for each of you.
We tried to bring you the good news and temper the bad news.
There was the curb and gutter project, that tried many a person's soul, as it seemed to never end, and work to get the landfill permitted to allow for the city to make money and residents a less costly means of refuse pickup, we were there with you.
The fun times - Old Timer's Day, what has become Avenal's annual celebration, and now the great Independence Day celebrations.
Avenal is young as a city, but mature as a community. It continues to change day by day. With those daily changes, support for the newspaper waned leaving the owners little choice but to discontinue printing.
Many are angry, sad and disappointed. This will all get easier as time goes by.
As time goes by newspapers, sadly, are becoming a thing of the past. It isn't a good thing, because as the newsprint goes, so will our freedom of speech go.
We will be here as residents, but no longer writing the history of Avenal as a newspaper. We will join you in other endeavors free of that weekly deadline.
Good-bye for now.
(Sept. 26, 2007)
