Thumbs up to the Norwich Police Department for not seeking to refill of a position left vacant by an officer who left the department earlier this week. Given the city’s current financial situation, I applaud NPD’s decision to go short-handed instead of asking to pay salary and benefits for an employee the city simply can’t afford to keep. Norwich officials undoubtedly have tough decisions they’ll have to confront in the coming weeks, including the possibility of eliminating employees, services, or maybe even entire departments (albeit as a last resort, I’m sure). I understand that not refilling one police officer position hardly scratches the surface of the city’s financial woes, but I think it’s a good first step nonetheless. Now if we could just move City Hall to the third floor of the fire house...

– SM

On Thursday, I had the pleasure of serving as a “Celebrity Waiter” for the Chenango County Hospice's annual dinner that was held at the Canasawacta Country Club. Thumbs up to all of our community members who stepped up to the plate and reached into their wallets to be a part of a fundraising effort of such a worthy organization. My relationship with Hospice stems back to my both grandfather and father's passing, and I'm proud to be able to offer my time and service as a thank-you gesture; and I know that many of my fellow celebrity wait staff felt the same way.

—MSW

It wasn’t even 24 hours after Halloween that I began to see Christmas ads this year. Thumbs down to what is known as the “Christmas Creep”. Every year the Christmas season “creeps” a little earlier in the year and takes over our lives with the constant ads and Christmas movies. Don’t get me wrong, I love the holiday season, but not when its early November and still 60 degrees outside. I’m a firm believer of celebrating once Thanksgiving is all said and done and not a moment sooner. There is no real need to celebrate one holiday for two straight months, so this year let’s give Thanksgiving its time in the spotlight and put Christmas back in December where it belongs.

-JT

Thumbs up to Thanksgiving coming up. As sad as it is that time is flying by so fast, as well as having pretty much all fall sports being done or finishing up another season, this month marks the start of high school wrestling season, and I couldn’t be more excited. However, wrestlers have never been a big fan of Thanksgiving, due to the fact that they are constantly trying to monitor their weight and get ready for the season. Thanksgiving was always a holiday of temptations for me, and I am sure many others too. However, looking in from the outside now, Thanksgiving has become a much better holiday I can fully enjoy. I also wanna give a shout out to the new Head Coach Bobby Hagenbuch for stepping up to coach the Norwich Wrestling team this year, as well as his new Assistant Coach Tanner Cummings. Good luck guys, don’t eat too much turkey, or the practice the day after won't be very fun.

–CT

Thumbs up to the folks who are attempting to remove the stigma as it relates to the words ‘addict’ and ‘addiction.’ I attended an event in Greene on Monday, which I’ll be turning into five parts this weekend. It was there when I realized that at least that audience was receptive to the idea that an addict can be your brother, your uncle, your best friend, your mail delivery person, your dental hygenist. It’s a nationwide problem, and it’s one small positive step to view the addicts as people with a disease, rather than assume they’re just the ‘junkie under the bridge.’ As someone said to me, “No child tells their parents that they want to be an addict when they grow up.”

–ARB