Puslinch Today is One Year Old!

One year ago today Puslinch Today was launched. How time flies! As if it were days not months ago I remember sitting with Kevin at his kitchen table and brainstorming about all the things we hoped our online newspaper could do with and for the community.

It started out as a comprehensive Puslinch event calendar that would also share news on a daily(?) basis to keep Puslinch in the know about the happenings and goings on here.

I sometimes remind Kevin of his query just before we launched. He wondered if there would be enough news about Puslinch to maintain a relevant online presence. And he wondered if people would come. The answer to that later.

Over the past year with the support of the community and residents sharing their news and stories we have grown to far beyond what we ever dreamed it would be. We have published local upbeat stories like graduations, celebrations and community events. As well as the sad stories of the passings of former Mayor Whitcombe, current Councillor Stokley and many other long time residents who will be sadly missed.

With the amazing contributions from Marjorie Clark we have consistent content with her wonderful stories of our past and so the column Puslinch Yesterday was born thanks to her commitment to keep our history alive and well.

Holly Land, a local photographer, helped us start Photo of the Week and that has inspired many of you to send us your beautiful photos of our landscape and sometimes even the traffic backing up in Morriston!

Local resident Janice Marr suggested we include homes for sale in Puslinch and now Allison Bureau of Trillium West posts all of her listings in our real estate section. We thank her for her support. So please check the beautiful homes she has listed here.

I’m amazed at the content of our Letters to the Editor. Bill Knetsch often has compelling issues to talk about and is articulate in his passion for this community. We thank him for his contributions and helping us kick start a place where everyone can have their say and be heard.

Speaking of having your say, we are grateful to Ted Arnott and Michael Chong for sending us their monthly newsletters and press releases to keep the constituents up to date with as it happens news from the provincial and federal levels. And we also appreciate Mayor Dennis Lever sharing with us important information about our Township. Councillors you are welcome too!

Oh, and then there was the 2016 budget! We were absolutely in awe when Puslinch residents responded to our plea for a letter writing campaign to challenge council on items on the table for this budget. Sandra Solomon was instrumental in her letter to remind them to consider “wants” versus “needs” just as we all do on a daily basis in our own households. The public meeting to take questions from residents had to be moved from council quarters to the Puslinch Community Centre as so many people showed up. Puslinch, you have a voice! And we are here to make sure you are heard!

Last but not least ICE STORMS! The lack of information during the December 2013 ice storm was an impetus for us to start this online portal. Puslinch was a black hole of information then. No where to go to find out about where hydro was going out or coming back on again. Or where warming centres were or even where to get water. This Spring it happened again. An ice storm with multiple extended hydro outages. We stayed on top of it and gave you all the information you needed as it was available. And the people rallied and shared their experiences as well. As a community with accessible information we could feel like we were not alone. And there is comfort in that. You have our promise to always keep you up to date in those types of situations. What we find out we will share with you.

So now what is the answer to Kevin’s question? Would there be enough news to support our online newspaper? Barely a day has gone by in the last year where we haven’t had news, stories or events to post. Who knew there was so much happening here! And did you come? Yes you did. The response has been overwhelming with over 100,000 visitors viewing more than 160,000 pages on the site!

Are we blowing our horn here? Not really. We couldn’t have done this without you so we are blowing your horn Puslinch! We can’t wait to wait to see what happens this coming year in Puslinch. All thanks to YOU.

PuslinchToday would like to thank all the sponsors who have so graciously supported us over the last year. Without your help we would not be able to provide the consistently fast, reliable website we currently offer.

As you are reading our paper, please remember to support all our local businesses here in Puslinch and the surrounding area.