News Progress

Photo by R.R. Best
Pictured are outgoing managing editor Keith Stewart (left) and his replacement Mike Brothers (right), who took over this week.

•August 12, 2015•

by Keith Stewart

Yes, I’m leaving. And soon it will be last week’s news.

After four years here at the News•Progress, I have decided to step away as managing editor, editor, sports reporter, designer, photographer, website manager, et al.

Replacing me (and as explained somewhere nearby), is Mike Brothers, who literally trumps me in experience 10-fold.

And I feel good about putting the paper in his hands.

Last week when he and I were in Findlay, Mike, spur of the moment, jumped out of the car and began delivering complimentary issues of our paper door to door in the 90 degree heat. That’s when I knew he was right for this paper and right for this area.

Because he cares.
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•August 12, 2015•

Mike Brothers is coming to the Sullivan News Progress to serve the community as managing editor.

With some 30 years of history in area newspapers, Brothers’ return is marked by the fact that once ink flows through a person’s veins they are never the same.

“It’s a business that gets under your skin,” he said. “I enjoy getting local news and taking pictures around the community.” Read More

•August 12, 2015•

By Derek Pope
Bethany Reporter

In July Bethany village officials welcomed a new eatery to town that promises to be significantly different than anything that has come before it. Scottie B’s, aptly named after the business’s founder, 14-year village resident Scott Buxton, will be Bethany’s first food truck.

Food trucks, which have been described as a new “revolution” in the dining experience by popular periodicals such as National Geographic Magazine, have become more prevalent in recent years because they buck the constraints of traditional restaurants in favor of a more cost effective model for giving customers the food they want. And it seems the craze has finally pervaded Bethany, as village officials granted Scott Buxton a seasonal permit to operate Scottie B’s and subsidized his future operations to the tune of $14,000 in forgivable TIF loans.

The new food truck, currently located at Buxton’s 214 North Street residence, officially opened for business July 13. Buxton first came to the village board with a proposal for an extension of his already existing catering business in May and has since worked with the village’s zoning committee and fellow village resident Dustin Miller to put together a plan for operating his business during the summer months for the rest of this year and expectantly in years to come. Buxton himself did not ask the village for any funding but entered into an agreement with Miller to potentially use the area behind the village’s downtown buildings currently a gravel parking lot enterable through Lincoln Street as the future permanent location for the food truck. Miller, who is the owner of the lot in question, was the one to undertake the $14,000 two-year forgivable TIF loan.  Read More