Were did everybody go? Marshall Chronicle Editorial

Many have talked to the family about this outstanding article. It has to be the best editorial ever published by any editor at the Marshall Chronicle. No management muzzle on this writer's opinion.
Great job Mr. Hendler!

Editor's Corner,
by John Hendler,
Marshall Chronicle,
December 20, 2008

Where did everybody go?
So, now City Manager Chris Olson is on the clock. Six months and 10 days (or maybe sooner) before he moves on and hopefully we'll have a new Police Chief in place by then or people might start to wonder who's running the city and keeping us safe.

Psst.

What?

People think that already.
Oh, sorry. Don't get me wrong; I like Mr. Olson and have enjoyed the opportunities when we've had the chance to talk and I know that he has been interviewing candidates for the position. It just seems as of late, however, too many people have left Marshall or are about to leave. It's been almost a year since Mike Olson left his position as Public Safety Director, leaving quietly into the night, never to be heard from again. like he was in the witness protection program, Actually, I ran in to Mr. Olson (Mike) at a U of M football game in August. When I turned and saw him, he gave me a look like I was in the witness protection program. We exchanged pleasantries and after watching a play, I turned to say something to him and he was gone like a phantom. So, we need a Police Chief, a City Manager and a new Superintendent for Marshall Public Schools (MPS). Oh, and also an Assistant Superintendent and a new Director of Finance and a new Director of Operations, Not to mention the 100 or so students who've left MPS in the past year. Instead of the pineapple as a symbol of Marshall, maybe the new symbol should be a U-Haul or a change of address card, It does seem like everyone is leaving. This is how it must have felt on "Happy Days" (if it weren't a fictitious television show, of course) when Fonzie. Ritchie and Ralph Malph were gone and we were reduced to watching a shell of a show with Potsie, Jenny Piccolo and that Ted McGinley character. Hopefully, 2009 will mean an influx of new blood. For one thing, we'll at least have new gamblers coming to town as the new casino is set to open next door, Hey, you've got to start somewhere. There'll be new blood on the Marshall City Council with Nick Metzger. Kathy Miller and Ryan Traver and of course, the new city manager. And over at MPS, we should have a new superintendent by the spring and that person will have a say in who becomes assistant superintendent. And maybe, just maybe, people will start to come back to Marshall and sit a spell and take their shoes off.
Hopefully, jobs will become available and those student enrollment numbers will start to increase. We've got to have faith and believe that Marshall can be what it used to be.Unlike "Happy Days" we can have Fonzie and Richie back.
You've just got to believe.
Y'all come back now, you hear?