Nearly four years ago my wife and I moved to Machesney Park, Illinois after living for over 30 years in Celina and Mercer County. That is when I started the Mercer County Outlook. The Outlook allows me to keep up with all of the happenings from all of the people I knew and had worked with. The process was very slow, getting readership was quite tough since I lived in Illinois. But since that time (nearly 4 years ago) we have now had some real success with the readership. The reason it works so well is because of the readers and those in the community. I have truly appreciated law enforcement in Mercer County as they have been great in providing us information on all aspects of what is happening. Many of our readers have responded over this time with great digital photos and information. Many civic groups have been sending us releases as well, letting you know what is going on with there events. One thing we strive to do is post information that is sent to us and we do not editorialize statements that are sent to us on our front page or change the content. This is important to us. Yes we do editorials, but you have to click the link to read them, they are not posted on the front page.

The information continues to grow because of you, we at the Outlook appreciate everyone who helps us give you the “reader” this information.

A funny story, I last visited Celina in September of 2007 and was pleasantly surprised to hear folks say how much they enjoyed the Outlook and read it loyally. The funny part was that most of them said we enjoy the Outlook but we haven’t seen you around town much, where have you been? With a laugh and a smile I say I live in Illinois, they didn’t even know I had moved! We also find that many of our readers of the MC Outlook also do not live in the area but enjoy keeping up on the old hometown.

We want to provide you with information you might not see in any other local media coverage and sending us information is easy to do. Does it work, yep, but we still need all of you to help. The great part about the Outlook is that it is free and you can read it whenever you want.

Thanks Mercer County for helping the Outlook work!!!!!