Hail the new year: A clean slate starts on Monday, time to pull everything out of the closets and act on all other resolutions.

As one day ticks over to the next, we try to start fresh every morning. Changing the calendar provides a whole new year, if we can get a good start.We look back on the year just gone by, and wonder how the time flew by so quickly. Then we remember the seemingly endless and sometimes fractious local election campaigns. Now all the public officials, new and old, are ready to embark on new terms, and most of the bitterness has faded. Time has a way of healing.

Looking ahead to 2024, it is unfortunate, but true, that a national election looms that promises to be more bitterly fought than any that have come before. Our country seems so very divided: we yearn for a fresh face and unifying figure to emerge as a leader.

This newspaper concludes another year of publication having weathered many of the same stormy economic conditions that the entire country ha...