By Sharna Fulton

We’re making a couple of changes around here that I wanted to talk to you about.

1) Annexation page

So clearly the annexation issue – and its consequences – will be on our radar for about, oh, the next two years. I’ve decided that we need a category for all annexation and new city-related news. Behold! Our new annexation section. Here you’ll find every one of our stories about the annexation issue. You’ll also find stories about the creation of new cities, including the proposed cities of Lakeside, Briarcliff, Briarside, Lavista, Newcitystan and Gerrymanderville. Decaturish has published 105 annexation and new-city related stories. I know a lot of you were searching for this content, so I hope this will make it easier for you to keep track of and understand this issue.

2) The Decaturish Database

I’ve always liked the idea of a news website having a shelf-life beyond the day-to-day news cycle. I also spend a lot of time searching through online databases compiled by other sources, like ProPublica.

The Decaturish Database is like our local Wikipedia, but with better fact-checking. Here you’ll find information about how to look up various public records, like court documents and professional licenses. You’ll also have pages dedicated to each city we cover. You’ll be able to see who your state representatives are, or what County Commission district you live in. You’ll find contact info for your elected officials. It’s bare bones right now, but we will add more to it on a regular basis. It’s like our ball of string.

You can make suggestions, too by sending them to [email protected]. I’m planning to add a section on education and an archive of all the records we’ve published in our stories. I also want to add photos to our directories as well.

I hope you’ll find these resources useful. One of my goals in creating Decaturish was to empower people to make informed decisions. There are a lot of tough calls ahead for all of our communities. Our job is to help you cut through the BS and give you the information you need. There’s tons of information out there. Everyone’s busy and staying on top of this stuff is difficult even for someone who reports news for a living.  I’m trying to bring it all under one roof and save people some time.

Enjoy and please let us know if you have any suggestions about how to make these resources better.

To see the annexation page, click here. It is linked from the menu at the top of the homepage screen, to the right of the D’ish section.

To see the database, click here. It is linked in the menu at the very top of the screen, next to the “About” page.