It’s been three weeks since I moved to Whidbey Island and started as editor of the Whidbey News-Times.

I moved here not really knowing much about the island or the communities that inhabit it. In these three weeks I have done as much “sight seeing” as I possibly can, seeing what there is to offer.

What I found are communities with passion.

Whether it’s for the arts, environment or politics, people on Whidbey Island care. It’s great to see these communities thriving and all the different projects coming out of them. I also found people who care enough to be actively involved in public dialogue.

On my first day I had roughly 30 letters to the editor waiting in my email. There were another 20 or 30 waiting on the News-Times’ server. I have to admit, I was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of letters we were getting.

But what I read in those letters, were people who care enough to voice their opinions. I spent a lot of time editing those and reading what this community has to say.

I look forward to reading more letters each week on whatever issue pops up. Right now, we’re seeing a lot of letters concerning the termination of Neil Romney, a swim coach for North Whidbey Park and Recreation.

Not all the details have come out concerning this issue, but what your letters tell me is that there are a lot of people who care and are impacted by the situation.

That is why we, as a newspaper, care and will continue to report information as we find it.

Whidbey News Group is community. We’re here to capture the voices and people and leave a historic record.

Without the people and their contribution, community newspapers wouldn’t exist.

I encourage all our readers to voice their opinions if they feel passionately about something happening in the community. Letters to the editor are a great way to do that.

If you’re submitting a letter, please remember to try and keep it to a maximum of 250 words.  Deadlines to submit letter are noon Monday for our Wednesday publication and noon Wednesday for Saturday paper.

Remember that letters are printed as space allows and if we receive a large number, sometimes we have to hold them. Letters can be submitted on all three of Whidbey News Group’s websites. When submitting a letter, please remember to include your full name, address and phone number. We will not print letters sent anonymously.

– Megan Hansen, editor