The beginning of a new year is always so exciting to me. I’m never sorry to see an old year go, sometimes I am sentimental about it, other times I’ve been ready to put the year behind me without so much as a small glance back, but I have never felt the need to hold onto a year so much that I don’t look forward to the promise of what the bright shine new one holds. I always enter the New Year with all of the excitement of a 6-year-old on Christmas morning.

2016 holds much promise. In spite of what many would like us all to believe, violent crime is down 16.2% since the 2005 level, according to the FBI’s Crime in the United States data. It is easy, in an election year especially, to start feeling as if our world is falling apart. Yes, bad things are going to happen, but I plan to keep marching on, without listening to much of the rhetoric, as I try to make a difference in our business community.

I live in a small town, so the police, the firemen and the emergency medical personnel are more than the heroes that keep us safe, they are my friends and I would like to express my most sincere appreciation for the work they volunteer to do. For more than 60 years the Elgin Fire Department has given Santa a ride through the streets of Elgin, so he can stop in at each house and pay a quick visit to all the little people in town. It is a very special tradition and I appreciate those that still make this happen year after year.

I hope that 2016 finds each and every one of you with a new sense of excitement on what the New Year holds for you. May your friends be many and your troubles be few. May your business prosper and your life be full of all the things you love, whether that be travel, fishing, camping, socializing, or just relaxing. I hope our paths cross along the way and until then Happy New Year.