Your newest Oceanside/Island Park editor

As graduates in Oceanside and Island Park are getting ready to move on to bigger and better things, changes are coming to the local newspaper

as well.

The Oceanside/Island Park Herald has another new editor—me. Although, in this case, “new” is a somewhat misleading term, and I hope to assuage

your fears.

Yes, I am new to the position of editor, and I’m still learning the ins and outs of the job. However, the communities of Oceanside and Island Park are not new to me, since I’ve been covering them for two years now.

I started with the Herald back in June 2008 as a doe-eyed, wet behind the ears reporter. Some of you (hopefully) remember my name from bylines over the years. I’ve covered your school budgets, your village board meetings, your achievements, your heartaches, your anger and your calls to action.

I’ve been here to see the way concerned citizens in Island Park decided to take a stand in their community and formed the Island Park Civic Association, and have been working tirelessly to improve things for residents.

I marveled at the way hospital workers in Oceanside ran to Haiti after the country’s devastating earthquake to provide assistance to the people there in their time of greatest need.

But unfortunately, I can’t be everywhere at once. And because of that, I turn to you, the community. Some of our best stories come from members of the community that called us or sent us a letter to let us know about something that concerned them or just didn’t seem right.

I’m here for you. This is your newspaper. It’s a record of your trials, tribulations and triumphs.

Feel free to contact me at any time. I want to hear from you. You can give me a tip on a story, if you like, or just call to ask me a question. You can even call and tell me how much you liked or hated a story we ran (although I prefer the calls about how great the stories are).

I can be reached by phone at (516) 569-4000 ext. 269. I may not always be at my desk, but I always check my voicemail.

You can also reach me easily by e-mailing me at oceaneditor@liherald.com.

And, of course, we always accept written letters. You can send all letters to my attention at our office, which is located at 2 Endo Boulevard, Garden City, 11530.

I look forward to speaking to many of you in the future, and hope that I can do the great communities of Oceanside and Island Park proud.