Welcome to the Bonney Lake & Lake Tapps Courier-Herald. This weekly newspaper will be centered around the events that happen - and will be happening - in your neighborhoods. We will feature local government, city and county issues, school information, editorials, local sports, a weekly calendar of events, arts on the Plateau and a regional classified section that will bring buyers and sellers together from Black Diamond to Bonney Lake. Most importantly, The Courier-Herald will provide a voice for our community.

The goal of this newspaper will be to provide accurate, timely information about our communities, to be the watchdog concerning local government and to provide the citizens of this area a voice, to sound off about issues that they feel are unjust and need to be challenged - or to pat someone on the back for a job well done. The other fundemental goal of this newspaper is to provide the business community with an affordable vehicle to reach its neighbors and potential customers.

Reporters Dennis Box and Teresa Herriman will be the lifeline of the newspaper to the community. Both of these two fine reporters live on the Plateau and are busy gathering information that will be both interesting and informative. Curt Patera, who resides in Orting, is our distribution manager. Curt is currently working on moving our distribution from the mail to carrier delivery. The goal is to give more than 150 youth and adults an income opportunity and deliver your community newspaper to your door. We also have hired two salespeople to contact local businesses and provide them with an opportunity to reach potential customers who live within minutes of their businesses. Bernard Metzger, an Orting resident who has worked in the newspaper business for more than 35 years and Katrina Minton, a Bonney Lake resident who has been working for a daily newspaper for the past three years, are very excited to be living and working close to home. Editor Kevin Hanson, Business Manager Rhonda Madison and I will be overseeing the administrative operations of both newspapers.

The Bonney Lake & Lake Tapps Courier-Herald is owned by the Courier-Herald L.L.C., which also owns and operates the Enumclaw Courier-Herald, a weekly newspaper with more than 100 years of community publishing experience. What that means to you is local people getting involved in the community.

All of us at the Bonney Lake & Lake Tapps Courier-Herald look forward to hearing your reviews of the newspaper and hope you will play an active roll in the development and design of the paper. Direct your questions, letters to the editor, comments and suggestions to: letters@courierherald.com. Or, reach me directly by e-mailing: bmarcum@courierherald.com

And don't forget to check us out at our Web site: www.courierherald.com