Dear 2009,

Welcome to the world. We hope you have a great year here. Garden City is a wonderful town, in spite of a few "issues" it has had recently.

Just to bring you up to speed on what's going on, here's a summary of what's been going on during your predecessor's term of office. The issue most discussed was what to do with a lovely historic building in town. While some people have come to call it a "white elephant," it was originally built to honor the founder of Garden City, and be the basis of his dream of a "college town." The building was bought by the Village with the best of intentions during 1993's time here. Unfortunately, as you years came and went, lots of plans were considered and discarded, and now it is being considered for demolition.

We don't know if this will happen during your time here, 2009. Because we're optimists, we have a hope that somehow, someone, will find a brilliant new plan for the building. More likely is that the electorate (who would have to approve the bonds to fund demolition) will be persuaded to let the building stand for a few more years.

Other issues which you will see, 2009, involve financing for the village and schools. Everyone all over the world is bracing for a tough year, and locally it will be the same. Many people here work in the financial services industry, and times are tough there. Taxpayers are tapped out, but so are governments. The village and school boards are going to have to make some tough budget decisions, and we don't envy them.

Maybe the housing market will finally come back on your watch, 2009, what with the low interest rates and pent up demand. We sure hope so.

We can't help but think that since the economy failed so quickly under your predecessor, that it might suddenly climb out of the mess during your time here (but as we said, we are optimists).

Well, welcome again, 2009.

Meg Morgan Norris

P.S. Good riddance, 2008