“Keep Your Distance and Wash Those Hands!” By Lani Gering This is the first time since I started “helping” David and Bob with the Old Town Crier in November of 1994 that I have felt the need to editorially contribute something other than my normal assignments – ie Profiles, the Harbor section, etc. I have gone from donating my time and “expertise”, whatever that is, to being the force behind getting this publication pulled together each month. While we have been through some rough times over these past 32 plus years, we have still maintained a pretty darn good publication both in print and online. Never before this “virus” situation had we ever contemplated not publishing an issue. So much of our ad revenue is dependent on the hospitality/food service business and we lost close to ½ of our monthly income basically overnight. We haven’t missed publishing an issue since the first one hit the streets in January of 1988 and we are doing everything we can to continue the trend. That includes reducing the number of pages (due to the loss of ads) and lowering the print run (due to the fact that a major portion of our distribution outlets are closed) in order to save some money. We have had to make some tough decisions and you will notice that this issue doesn’t have the glossy cover wrap that you are accustomed to – we have had that pretty wrap for over 20 years! On the upside, however, you might notice that the entire publication feels a little heftier. That is because we were able to upgrade the quality of the paper for the entire issue as a trade-off and still save a chunk of change at the same time. Who knows what the “New Normal” will be…