See you next year — the Dad joke that never gets old

This is my last post of 2021. I’ll be enjoying college football, a beverage or two and my fireplace before the sun goes down.

The last three years have been such a roller coaster. Personally, our family has survived and thrived despite the many obstacles we have faced. The blessings far outweigh the disappointments.

Professionally, of course, the birth of Muddy River News/Sports tops the 2021 list. While our Top 10’s have focused on what our readers liked, there were a few other items that also deserved at least a mention:

The Quincy Mayor’s race: After winning a close GOP primary in February, Mike Troup soundly defeated Democrat Nora Baldner in April.

New chiefs: Joe Henning retired as Quincy Fire Chief and Rob Copley announced his pending retirement as Quincy Police Chief.

GREDF changing of the guard: Marcel Wagner retires as the local economic development czar and Kyle Moore moved from City Hall to the Oakley Lindsay Center to replace him. Fun Fact: I predicted this right after Moore announced he was not running for a third term as Quincy’s mayor.

Webb steps down: The Quincy School Superintendent faced the brunt of some parents who were dissatisfied with the way QPS handled much of its COVID protocols, then decided grabbing his second pension wasn’t such a bad idea. Thank you for your service.

Blessing/QMG: Two of the region’s largest employers and health care providers disagreed over whether QMG needed to build a small hospital of its own. Then they had to deal with federal mandates on how they had to handle COVID protocols regarding its employees.

Quincy media maneuvering: Along with the aforementioned Muddy River News/Sports coming aboard with a bang, solid backing and loading up the most experienced and talented journalism staff in the region (yeah, I said it — More to come in 2022), legacy media companies also made news with the Quincy Media Inc. sale of its properties, and the subsequent downsizing of the Quincy Herald-Whig and WGEM, coupled with a large scale cyber attack on KHQA that crippled its ability to run commercials for weeks. They are longing for the salad days before the Internet completely disrupted their business model and fat profit margins.

May you all have blessed and Happy 2022.

J. Robert Gough is the Publisher/GM of Muddy River News