We are alerted, once again, to a movement in the state legislature to allow municipalities to post their legal notices and public notices on their own websites.
Currently the state requires notices to be posted in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the municipality is located.
When a notice is published in a newspaper, that is permanent. The print on the paper doesn’t change. There are no computer glitches and there can be no intentional changes to it.
Our Independent is in the archives of the Belleville Area District Library from its first issue on Jan. 5, 1995. At the beginning, the Rotary Club paid for the local newspapers to be digitized and archived in the library and the Clark Historical Library, where they keep newspapers from across the state. Now, the library has this covered in its budget. There now is just one local newspaper. There will never come a time where you can’t find somewhere an Independent and an important legal notice the way it was when printed.
Those who want to “save money” by not printing notices in the paper, neglect the people who do not have access to digital communications. Some do not wish to have cell phones or internet and they would not be able to see their municipalities’ notices.
It’s important to know where your tax dollars are going. Keep the legal notices where the public notices.
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