Count Me In: New year, new look, new content

Welcome back to Count Me In for 2011. You prbably can see we've tinkered with the appearance a bit. We hope you like it.

And we really hope you like the new content we have coming your way, starting this week. We'll be turning the blog over to some guest bloggers from time to time as a way to provide more information about our community and to hopefully provoke more thoughtful discussion.

And who are these guest bloggers? Some you might know, others you might not. But they all know what they're talking about, and they all are involved in work that is making York County a better place.

We'll have Eric Menzer, president and GM of the York Revolution, former YorkCounts board chairman and a fixture in York's civic life for close to 20 years. Eric will talk about his work in York and around the state related to reviving downtowns. We'll have Shanna Wiest, government affairs director for the Realtors Association of York & Adams Counties and a board member of the York Adams Smart Growth Coalition, talking about issues related to smart growth and suburban sprawl. We'll introduce others as we get into the year, talking about diversity, early childhood education and economic development, among other topics.

But first up among our guest bloggers is Leigh Dalton. Leigh is the director of the York County Truancy Prevention Initiative and the community mobilizer for the new York County Communities That Care. On Friday, she'll write about finding the right balance between creating a stronger support system for young kids over the long term and helping teens stay on track to graduate and become productive citizens right now.

We're excited about all of this, and we hope you find it useful enough to share with friends and co-workers. And, as always, feel free to comment and continue the conversation.

- Dan Fink