MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY NEW YEAR,

“HAPPY HOLIDAYS!”

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and, oh yes, Happy Holidays to all of our readers, advertisers and contributors. It has been a fun year but not as fun as the year to come. I consider our new website to be our greatest accomplishment and I thank Marie Zanazanian for that. Her tenacity and tolerance for growth and new learning are classic.

It is said that a business that survives its first three years dramatically increases its chances for long-term survival. Well, with the publication of our December issue, Point of View has reached the three-year mark. January 2006 is the beginning of our fourth year.

Some readers may not recall our beginnings. Point of View started out as a quarterly, moved to a bi-monthly and then to a monthly. It started out with a circulation of 5,000 and moved to 7,500. Expressed annually, circulation increased from 20,000 to 90,000.

With major improvements in our distribution methods and our continued expansion into Hartford and Hampshire County, we expect to increase circulation to 10,000 a month by mid 2006.

Happy holidays to you all, including and, especially, Christmas!

SOME NOTES:

Ira Rubenzahl is the President of Springfield Technical Community College. To my chagrin, in the last issue of Point of View, I misspelled his name twice. Mea culpa.

For the New Year I predict:

Mayor Ryan will be preparing for a third term as mayor before the end of the year.

At least six potential Democratic candidates for mayor will change their minds about running after hearing news of Ryan’s intentions.

The Springfield City Council will continue to provide leadership as strong as it was before the Control Board and as strong as it has been since.

Springfield will avoid receivership but many of those who are laid off and who lose city services and pay more and higher fees will be mad at Tim Collins. n