If you took a gander at Alan’s column last week then you learned that his son, Brent Cruikshank, is taking a step up to become the paper’s assistant publisher. You can actually read a few words from Brent himself on the matter by turning to page 1B.

As for me, there’s a whole mix of thoughts and emotions when it comes to this transition.

For starters, I know that Brent (he doesn’t like it when I call him Mr. Cruikshank) is fully dedicated to this paper and the town we report on. He’s got a lot of great ideas that I’m sure he’ll be sharing with everyone in the coming months and years. Working and living in Fountain Hills for so long, Brent seems like the perfect candidate to eventually take the reins of this operation.

As for Alan, there’s no questioning his dedication to The Times and Fountain Hills and, if anyone deserves to take a breather, it’s him.

But that’s where the whole mix of emotions comes in. As happy as I am to see Alan take a step back and enjoy more time with his friends and family, I can’t pretend that he won’t be missed around the office.

To be clear, anyone who knows Alan realizes that his idea of “semi-retiring” will probably amount to business as usual for a good long while but, assuming he sticks by his plan and eventually takes some “me time,” things just won’t be the same around the office. He offers a tremendous guiding hand and a wealth of information and ideas, so I count us lucky that he’s still going to be working with Brent and the rest of the crew while we figure out what comes next.

Then again, this is a guy who was going over pages from a hospital bed and who calls the office to catch up with the whole team when he’s supposed to be in bed sick or enjoying vacation in a completely different state. In other words, even when Alan does start to pass more responsibilities onto Brent, I doubt we’ll go too many days before that phone rings and he’s right there to offer ideas, critiques or support.

But as you can see from this issue, the wheel keeps turning and we’re the same paper we’ve always been. We might throw some new ideas your way from time to time but, in the end, we’ll keep doing what we’ve always done; bring you Fountain Hills’ news.

*****

I was asked multiple times this past week how the move was going, so I suppose one more update can’t hurt.

I’m finally in my new place but, as we all know, that means the job is only partially over. A few rooms are set up at this point, but I suspect I’ll be unboxing, reorganizing and working on little projects for weeks to come.

It seems like I can’t go a day without finding something that needs to be built, fixed or tweaked. One gentleman at Ace Hardware asked if I was becoming addicted to the store. This was on my third visit in as many days.

I told him that I was happy to support a local business but, honestly, I was looking forward to the day when I could put a little more space between visits.