One of the great bonding elements of a community is its local newspaper. We have been fortunate in Cibola County to have the Cibola Citizen, which hits the streets every Wednesday. Before that, several years ago, we had the Cibola Beacon.
There was a time, a few years ago, when our area was without a local paper for a period after the Beacon shut down. Boy, has it been a treat having the Citizen revive another paper in our community.
The Citizen gives county residents information it can only benefit from - stories covering local government, high school and youth sports, feature stories on people making an impact in the community, and obituaries, a difficult element of any paper but necessary in honoring the departed and allowing people to learn of the death of locals.
The Citizen also covers elections, as they are doing now, by introducing candidates with articles about their backgrounds and political intentions should they be elected. We read about crime that has taken place and what police authorities are doing to repel it. We get fiscal updates in the Citizen, a look at the arts, and excellent columns by various writers and community members. We get fiscal reports about our hospitals, news on our schools and their wonderful students, and stories on our area's vast, awesome history.
Our local paper even has a page dedicated to young readers, including puzzles, word finds (one dedicated to Halloween in a recent issue), and lighthearted, funny comics. The Citizen keeps on top of our business community, covers the holiday seasons with great stories, and a calendar of holiday events. Whether it is summer, fall, winter, or spring, the Citizen is right on top of community events, holidays, and locals being honored, such as police officers, academic leaders, athletes.
The Citizen has great, colorful photos and a oneof- a-kind page 1 photo banner at the top of the front page, usually a picture of the beautiful natural surroundings we have in this part of the state.
In my opinion, our blessed community would be a little bit lost without the Cibola Citizen. I, for one, am a subscriber and look forward to seeing the latest weekly edition. The Citizen, throughout the year, creates special inserts, giving readers even more information about our business community, coming elections, sports season previews, holiday editions, and even the Grants High School student newspaper, the Angry Jack Journal.
Thanks to publisher Brett Wesner, Chief of Staff Sylvia Anzures Gonzales, Reporter/Editorial Director Diego Lopez, reporter Kathryn Marmon, and all the others who help give our community the local - and even some statewide news - we long for.
Please support the Cibola Citizen by buying a subscription. It will result in a weekly treat giving you what you need to know about our great county. And don't forget reading the Citizen online as well.