Time to renew our covenant with the local community

By Mark Anderson

Publisher

With a new location and new ownership, the Staples World will be forming a new covenant with our local communities.

We still plan to do all the things the newspaper has done for 136 years. As always, our entire business model revolves around the local people.

So our first and only place to look is to you, the reader. Let us know what you like about the Staples World and what it means to you. Tell us what you want to see more of or what you think we are missing.

Send any ideas to editor@staplesworld.com and also let us know if you will let us put your letter in the newspaper.

Secondly, think about what you can contribute to the community conversations. Did you read something in the newspaper and then follow up on it? Keep that dynamic going by letting us know what else is going on in town. We are not the only place to build community, but we are the only platform to put everything into one easy-to-read edition.

“Haunts of beauty”

On my way back to Staples after finalizing the sale of the newspaper, I stopped at a park dedicated to my favorite Minnesota author, Sinclair Lewis. His novel “Main Street” still resonates throughout small towns in Minnesota, 106 years after he wrote it.

The park is “Inspiration Peak,” south of Vining, and it is an uphill hike to get to the peak.

A sign at the trail entrance says Lewis would climb the hill to get a view of the 50 lakes in the distance. He once asked the Minnesota governor “if he has ever stood on Inspiration Peak,” both an invitation to promote the state’s natural landscapes and a subtle dig that the governor may be lacking inspiration.

The sign also says that Lewis “chided Minnesotans for not knowing about their own “haunts of beauty.”

After working and living in the area for 15 years, I can agree that there are thousands of “haunts of beauty” in the area, not just in the landscape, but in the people, the built environment, the art, music and activities that people here embrace.

I disagree with the notion that Minnesotans don’t know about their best places. Our people have a very good eye for unique local scenes, we get pulled in all the time. So that is another request to renew our covenant with the community, let us know your favorite “haunts of beauty.” Maybe it could be through the best photos you took this year or just tell us the things you like most about your neighborhood, so we know where to look for news and photos.

We have a new location and new ownership, but the biggest change is that we are now fully local, which is the only thing we have ever wanted to be.