Winter warriors

As we go to press with this issue of the News Letter Journal, we aren’t entirely sure when you will be receiving it. If the winter storm that is bearing down on us is half as bad as predicted, it may take a few extra hours to arrive on news racks on Wednesday or possibly an extra day or two to be delivered to your home.
But we are confident that this newspaper will find its way to our readers in short order, as it has every week throughout this long winter, and we owe our thanks to all of the people who have made it possible for that to happen in spite of the near-weekly snow storms that have resulted in a fair share of road and school closures and generally been accompanied by consistently freezing temperatures. From our delivery driver, Wayne Bergstrom, to the mail carriers who bring the NLJ to your door each week and all of the city, county and state workers in between who have cleared the roads, we give our thanks for going above and beyond this winter to keep our communities moving.
And we pray for your continued safety as you battle the wintry beast that threatened as we put this issue to bed on Tuesday night.
We also think it is important to recognize all of the individuals in our community who have continuously braved the elements for the past several weeks to beat back winter’s seemingly endless onslaught.
Some of those people have already been acknowledged in letters submitted by our readers, but we want to tip our hat to all of the folks who have shoveled sidewalks, plowed streets, cleared driveways and parking lots, thawed water and sewer lines, or performed any number of other chores that become a little more challenging and a lot less pleasant when the temperature plunges below zero or the snow starts piling above your ankles and heading towards your knees.
While we certainly have it easier than the pioneers who brought Newcastle and Weston County to life in the late 19th century (and who we celebrate in our History on Main series each week) winters in northest Wyoming still aren’t for the faint of heart, and we think you should all pat yourselves on the back for perservering through one as daunting as this. So stay warm and safe this week, and we will see you on the other side of the snowbank.