Welcome to The Stow Advocate—the town’s first online magazine. With any kind of luck, it will be published weekly. Isn’t technology a wonderful thing? I am amazed how fast this electronic magazine, or e-zine, came together—from idea, to prototype, to publish in only a few days.

I want The Stow Advocate to become a place where citizens can exchange ideas. To the commuter driving through Stow, it is a seemingly peaceful one traffic light town with three donut shops. To those who know the town and are involved with town politics-- we know different. Stow is a beautiful place but we know there are issues that divide the town. I want the web pages of the Advocate to be informative and helpful, challenging and thought provoking. I want it to be amusing and funny. I welcome the submission of articles and letters—from all viewpoints.

Otto von Bismark, the German chancellor who created modern Germany, was supposed to have said, “Laws are like sausages. It is better not to see them made.” I could not agree less. I find it far better when the collective bed sheets are thrown off the process of town government so we can discover what’s happening and why.

I hope to “break” news. My panel of experts and I have been working on several stories that will be breaking news.

This issue of The Stow Advocate features “The Rockbottom Ramblings” poking into the selectman’s management style. A second feature, “Below the Fold,” takes a serio-comic look at what’s going on with the Snow property. Oh, you didn’t know about the Snow property and its $1,200,000 price tag? Click to the “Below the Fold” section and read “Is it Land Banking or is it Robbing the Piggybank?”

We have added a “Candid Camera” section where contributors are welcome to submit candid photos of themselves or the town. We have a “Mailbag” section which will hopefully not remain empty and a “Contact Page.” The “Interesting Links” section as a link to zillow.com—a site with surprisingly accurate information about your property. If you want to learn who’s the publisher, editor, and contributors—click “The Masthead.”


Anyway, welcome to the pages of The Stow Advocate.

Jim Dunlap
Publisher, editor, contributor

I hope you enjoy this e-zine. Be sure to send e-mail to let me know what you think (or to contribute articles or ideas). I'll be updating frequently, so check back often!