If you’re a subscriber, chances are you received the paper you are currently reading along with Wednesday’s edition. We had to make the difficult decision on Tuesday to delay delivery of Wednesday’s paper until today because of the treacherous roads throughout the county. Our carriers were given discretion about which roads they could deliver Friday's paper to as well. So I hope you are reading this paper on Friday but, if not, I hope you'll understand.

Our carriers have jobs I do not envy. I’ve ridden along on a few routes with three different friends who were carriers in the past, and some of the roads they have to traverse seem a little sketchy in the most perfect conditions. I can’t fathom having to negotiate some of those narrow, washed out gravel roads and driveways they have to travel during -4 temperatures with 5 inches of snow on the ground as we had Tuesday night. 

Decisions like that aren’t easy ones to make because we certainly don't want to let down our customers, but safety is the priority. Putting together Wednesday’s (and even Friday's) paper was not without its risks however. Some employees were simply unable to get out of their driveways. Others had family members drive them in and others dug their vehicles out of the heavy snowfall and slowly and carefully made their way into work. 

What we do is by no means as important as the work of police officers, sheriff’s deputies, linemen, firefighters, EMS workers, hospital workers, mail carriers and other vital employees, but we take our responsibility to keep the public informed and to not miss a paper seriously and we don’t give ourselves the luxury of taking a day off when situations are difficult. 

On the contrary, difficult times are often when people most look to us for information. We take pride in being a source people turn to and trust and we don’t take that for granted. So, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, our employees who could, came into work and those who couldn’t did all they could to work from home. Adding to those obstacles was the recent death of Vickie Scott, who was a key person in our circulation process, and a printing issue which required our pressmen to drive to Tullahoma on the hazardous roads to get printing plates made to help us print the newspaper.

As far as I know the Standard has rarely, if ever, missed a scheduled issue since 1879, apart from some issues around the holidays when there was a predetermined decision to skip an issue.

I’m proud of my co-workers and our dedication to doing the best we can to not simply get a newspaper out but also to put together quality editions under difficult circumstances. So consider this column my little salute to my co-workers and also to all of those whose jobs require sacrificing the luxury of sitting at home on a snow day.

Standard Managing Editor Seth Wright can be reached at editor@southernstandard.com