BY JOHN SCHAFFNER, PUBLISHER

Are you tired of hearing that? Yeah, me too. Kind of like when we were kids and heard our parents say, “Look both ways before crossing the street!”

Things have definitely changed everywhere since last week’s Beacon appeared in your driveway. And here we are . . . schools closed, businesses shuttered, events canceled and postponed . . . and we’re all looking at each other wondering what’s next.

This is definitely an unprecedented situation. For me, this is one I haven’t dealt with since the Blizzard of ’78!

Those of us here at The Beacon are working hard to keep you informed and to give our readers assistance in this crisis. Information is power. For the last several days, I have been in continuous conversation with Editor D’Arcy Egan. We have also been working through this situation with our other management personnel.

The whole focus is boiling down this international crisis and providing readers with practical and usable local information.

First, we have made a commitment to continuously update our website, www.thebeacon.net, with the news and views we receive from state, county and local news sources, as well as from the community at large. Please check in with The Beacon online for updates, since this is an unbelievably fluid situation.

If you have an event to cancel, please send us an email to editor@thebeacon.net.

Second, our commitment to the local business community is to continue to encourage you, our readers, to support local businesses to help them in this crisis. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has shut down numerous local businesses, especially local food service business. Many have chosen not to advertise locally, just when it is critical for them to advertise their businesses.

They are local, they are our neighbors, and they need our support!
Finally, we have chosen to close our offices Wednesday through Friday for the foreseeable future, with many or our team members continuing to work from home. However, most of our basic services — editorial, advertising and classifieds — are accessible online or via telephone hookup. Members of our team will make themselves available at our office from time to time, in order to respond to the needs of our readers and customers.

This is a time for us to pull together locally. This is an international crisis, and we are but a small sampling of this problem. That is why it is so important to stick together now!