Is it just me or does it seem like the election was a lifetime ago? Hard to believe it’s only been a few weeks since we went to the polls to select our favorite candidates at the local, state and national levels. Two election-related articles were among the most popular stories for November on Lowell’s First Look, and they were joined by city news, restaurant news and the obituary of someone who leaves behind a legacy.
Here are the top five stories from November 2024, based on website views.
5. Preliminary Results for School Board Race Show Incumbents, Whitlock in Lead
Reporting the results of local elections has become a little trickier now that early voting and no-reason absentee voting have been added to the mix. It used to be that you could show up at City Hall five minutes after the polls closed and they would have the results printed and taped to the door. Now, it can take an hour or more to get everything squared away and the many result tapes printed and posted.
There are separate tallies for each precinct and each voting option within each precinct (the photo above shows the results for Vergennes Township). We could sit at home and wait for the totals to be posted electronically to the county’s election website, but we still prefer the old-fashioned method of checking the vote results in person.
This article, which was initially published on election night and then updated as results from outlying areas came in, was the fifth most read story for the month.
4. LAS School Board Election Recap
In the No. 4 spot is this article from October which recapped all our Board of Education coverage. We published profiles of all the candidates as well as Q&As on various issues facing Lowell Area Schools. In the past, we would schedule these profiles and Q&As through the week before election day. However, this year, we tried to time our coverage so we could get this recap up at about the same time early voting began.
3. Leah Groves Announces Resignation from Lowell City Council
Life is taking Leah Groves in a new direction, and she announced last month that she would be resigning from Lowell City Council. The councilmember made the announcement at a meeting and then provided a longer explanation to be published on Lowell’s First Look. Her letter to the community was the third most-read article on the site last month.
Her successor – Mark Ritzema – was chosen by the remaining members of Lowell City Council on Monday. We’ll have a future article outlining who else applied for the position and how councilmembers made their decision.
2. Obituary: Shannon Hanley
Shannon Hanley was an amazing advocate for good in our community. Among other things, she helped found Lowell’s Open Table, which provides free community meals every Thursday, and played a role in creating Lowell’s first skate park. I briefly served on the Lowell Planning Commission with Shannon and found her to be smart, compassionate and open-minded – all those qualities you’d hope to see in a leader.
We lost Shannon to cancer last month. While she is physically gone, her presence remains in the legacy of the organizations she helped create and in the hearts of the people her life touched.
1. Bobbie Sue’s Roadhouse Offers Home-Cooking Vibe
Our previous Bobbie Sue’s article was a hit, making the top five list again and again and again. But we told you last month that we were fairly sure it would be replaced by a new article, and here it is. One of our writers, Michelle Smith, took a trip to see if the food lived up to the hype and found it hit all the right notes for a homestyle meal. I haven’t visited myself yet, but it’s definitely on my to-do list.
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