Madison Daily Leader Top 10 Misses Big Stories

My neighbor Elisa writes up MDL's top local news stories of 2007:

1. Arctic Cat closes Madison plant
2. Voters approve new pool
3. Madison recognized as "Large Community of the Year" (that must be a short ruler: Madison has 6500 people)
4. DSU gets Fritz Krueger Trust money
5. Governor proposes research data center at DSU
6. Spring rains back up Madison sewer (and some Lake Herman residents want a sewer system?)
7. MHS suspends 14 student hackers
8. Chester students donate to homeless
9. Regents o.k. 4th master's degree for DSU
10. Neva Gist is oldest SD resident [Elisa Sand, "Arctic Cat Closure Tops Local News of 2007," Madison Daily Leader, 2007.01.05].

Surprisingly absent from the list:

1. The special election held in April, in which voters rejected both the city's proposal to transfer $100K in electric funds to the school district and a bond issue that would have spent almost $10M on a new gym for the school district. This story took up more ink and ad space in MDL (and on people's front lawns -- remember the Bulldog Pride signs?) than every one of the stories listed above.
2. Madison's new bike trail: after years of wrangling, Madison boosters finally turned the bike trail into a reality. This new recreation and transportation opportunity is the best infrastructure improvement the city made all year, something it can truly brag about.
3. Madison DQ best in the nation again: The Madison Dairy Queen had another record-setting performance on Miracle Treat Day, selling 7011 Blizzards in a single day to raise money for the Children's Miracle Network. The August 9 event brought Dairy Queen International CEO Charles Mooty to town, as well as news coverage from KELO and open-to-close live blog coverage from yours truly.
4. Madison approves TIF District for residential development: this policy story affects every taxpayer in the city and the school district. It marks a new direction in economic development policy, finally turning attention toward housing, a problem area LAIC director Dwaine Chapel was trying to get on our radar screens all year.
5. MHS loses two long-time coaches to Minnesota: we saw the coming crisis in education hit Madison, as coaches Jerome Garry and Chris Shaffer headed for Minnesota. Now note: Garry left because his wife got a better job in Rochester, MN. Shaffer didn't leave for pay so much as for more arts opporunities for his kids. We've also had trouble getting band directors to stick around, and we just lost another teacher and coach, Mike Lynch, who left mid-year to take a better-paying job as communications director at East River Electric. With our pay lagging $3000 behind the next lowest state in the country (ND) and $6000 behind the regional average, it's only going to get harder to replace the good teachers we lose.

And don't even get me started on MDL's neglect of the biggest local media story of the year, the phenomenal success of the Madville Times. With a worldwide audience (Los Angeles! Montreal! Great Britain! Switzerland! Denmark! And that's just this morning!) and cross-posting on South Dakota's biggest media outlet, KELOLand.com, the Madville Times is the predominant online source of Madison news and commentary (and the Madville Times hasn't spent a penny on virtual spokesmodels, either!). Advertisers, are you listening? ;-)

Year-end lists aren't that big of a deal. They fill the pages nicely before the Legislature gets to work filling the pages and airwaves with lots of important news (and probably some monkey business). But MDL's list misses a number of stories that got more press when they happened and hold more significance for Madison's long-term development.