Such packages fill a void in what is usually a slow news period. But they also remind us how quickly we forget what has happened. Big news last spring - the stuff that generated headlines and, sometimes, acrimony - is dim memory now.

But don't put too much emphasis on such articles, including the ones published in this week's issue of The Town Crier.

Almost any honest newsperson will admit that such pieces get the play they do because the time between Christmas and New Year's Day is the slowest time of the year for real news. It should be. It's a period of family and vacations and a slower pace.

The annual retrospectives are excellent space fillers, albeit ones with certain historic value.

But don't get bent out of shape if you disagree with what the reporters and editors decided were the "top" stories of 2002.

History will decide what the major events of 2002 are, and sometimes the decision won't be made for years or decades.

So it may be with area developments you don't find on our Stories of the Year list. We won't know for a long, long time what the year 2002 will be remembered for, if anything, in northern Otsego County.

And chances are very good that some of the stories we highlight today will be forgotten by this time next year.

The new year is also a time to reflect, and when we think about our paper we know we couldn't get the job done each week without the help of our columnists.

In her column on page 2 this week, Cathe Ellsworth says she is in her 20th year of writing a weekly column. That's tremendous dedication to the column and to Cooperstown, and we salute her for that.

Jim Atwell's "From Fly Creek" column has won numerous New York Press Association awards over the past few years, and is often singled out by our subscribers as their favorite part of the paper.

And, of course, Corrine Pollak, Carol Brodie and Ellamae Hanson keep us up to date on the comings and goings in the area and at the Thanksgiving Home.

Of course, there is always room for improvement, and our resolution, as it is every year, is to improve the paper in every possible way.

Happy New Year!