Before we send 2019 to the dustbin and welcome in a new presidential election year, I’d like to look back at some of the accomplishments of my stellar staff here at The News over the past 12 months.

After spending a good chunk of the tail end of 2018 short-staffed, we were running on all cylinders by last Christmas, allowing us to start 2019 with reorganized reporter beats.

Before then, the four news reporters each were responsible for covering a whole county, including all governments, courts, schools, and feature stories in that county.

As we began 2019, I reorganized the beats to give some reporters subject-area focus. Julie Riddle is now in charge of cops and courts in all four counties we cover. Julie Goldberg covers all schools. Steve Schulwitz covers politics and Alpena County, with a focus on the city and Alpena Township. Crystal Nelson covers the governments in the out-counties, with a focus on regional issues.

We also implemented an enterprise rotation, through which each of the reporters is responsible for writing an enterprise story — journo-lingo for “in-depth story” — for a Saturday front page about every four weeks, with another front-page story for the following Monday.

As you saw in our review of some of the biggest stories of 2019 published on Thursday, that beat structure has allowed us to cover more of the issues affecting Northeast Michigan in greater depth, without missing the breaking news you need to know.

Our reporters were at the scene of the horrific Habitat for Humanity ReStore fire and standing outside Decorative Panels International after shots were fired at contractors on the roof. We’ve covered innumerable car crashes and ice rescue attempts and more.

But we’ve also dug deep into everything from the struggles of area farmers to the effects of record-high Lake Huron waters to telephone scams.

And our stories have had an impact.

In January, after police arrested former Alpena Public Schools teacher Heather Winfield and she was charged with sexually assaulting a former student, we dug into the records and found that Hillman Community Schools had hired Winfield as a long-term substitute after APS had fired her and the allegations against her should have been known. As a result, the Hillman school board changed its policies to prevent something similar from happening in the future.

In September, after we reported that a van used to transport veterans to downstate medical appointments had broken down unexpectedly, the community came through and raised more than enough money for the local Disabled American Veterans chapter to buy a new van and stash some cash aside for the next one.

In addition to the monthly individual enterprise rotation, we have made a concerted effort to accomplish a group enterprise package — in which all of the reporters contribute to a deep dive on a topic — every quarter.

We explored the shifting economy and changing way of life in Alpena through our “This Is Us” series, the challenges of providing health care in rural areas through “Caring for Northeast Michigan,” and examined the increasing diversity in our region through “The Changing Face of Alpena.”

When I led my first staff meeting at The News, I told the reporters — and they’ve probably heard me say it dozens of times since — that we will never say “we’re just the little ol’ Alpena News,” or “this is just a small town.” That we would strive first to be the best paper in northern Michigan, and then to be among the best in the state, and then we’ll just keep going.

Because journalism is important, and our community counts on us.

To that end, we hereby make the following New Year’s resolutions for 2020:

∫ We resolve to continue striving to be ever better, to never settle, and to always, always punch above our weight.

∫ We resolve to not only continue digging deep into the issues of the day through enterprise stories, but to do so in better and better ways.

∫ This year, we resolve to improve our storytelling and to look at new ways of doing so, such as more video, more interactive graphics, podcasts, and more.

∫ We resolve to do an even better job of listening to our community, so we might deliver the news you care about — not only what you need to know, but want to know

We can’t do it without you, Northeast Michigan, so we hope you’ll resolve to continue supporting your local paper.

Happy New Year.

Justin A. Hinkley can be reached at 989-358-5686 or jhinkley@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinHinkley.