By Cheryl Castile | Times Vedette

When something has been part of the Castile family’s life for more than 50 years and is now going into a new phase, it seems appropriate that a Castile would have something to say about this change. In 1966 my husband, Gordon, and I purchased The Guthrie County Vedette and owned it for 12 years. But that didn’t remove us from the operation of the paper. Gordon continued to be a part of the paper for 38 more years until he retired in 2020. In December of 2022, I retired from Panora Fiber. In April of 2023, I was given the opportunity to come to work for Big Green Umbrella Media in the Guthrie County division of this organization. So, when I was thinking about the changes that will redefine our weekly newspaper, I couldn’t help but reflect on Panora Fiber and my 40-plus years with that organization and the changes that evolved during that period of time. When I first became associated with Panora Fiber, it was called Panora Cooperative Telephone Assn., Inc., and the company provided telephone service to the Panora community. It was known a s POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) . When I left in 2022, the company was called Panora Fiber, and the POTS was a very small part of our company. Panora Fiber was now known as a Broadband Service Provider and no longer served just the Panora community. Residents in the cities of Panora, Guthrie Center and Yale, along with their rural populations and Lake Panorama, have a state-of-the-art fiber optic network for their broadband services. And it keeps growing, expanding that fiber footprint in Guthrie and Dallas counties. This gives not only residential subscribers everything they need to run their households, but it is an enormous benefit for the farm and business communities, too. Stating all this brings me to the changes you are going to experience in how we bring you the local news and events. I am excited to be part of another organization that is forward thinking in its efforts to benefit our communities. If you live in the ACGC and Panorama school districts, you are now receiving every month a free publication — either the Guthrie Center Times, Panora Times or the Lake Panorama Times. Here is where you will see the major change. As of Jan. 4, The Times Vedette will no longer be a paid subscription newspaper. It will be a FREE bi-weekly digital publication delivered by email, keeping you up to date on local news, weather, sports, obituaries and more. Go to www.gctimesnews.com and sign up now so you don’t miss a single story about the amazing people and events that happen in our communities. And much like having great broadband service in our communities, a major benefit, especially for our business community, is that the Times print publications are mailed to more than 6,000 addresses every month, which allows the members of our business community to grow their customer base as well. So, Happy New Year to all of you and enjoy the new way you will be receiving your local news!