decorahnews.com announces Letters to the Editor guidelines

Dear readers:

Remember when local news in Decorah used to be calm and quiet?  I hardly do, either.  But then came the municipal electric utility referendum, followed by the Menards application, followed by the Iowa House 55 election dispute, followed by the possibility of a new grocery chain coming to town, followed by the possibility of a city/county law enforcement merger.  Whew!

Through all of that time, decorahnews.com has welcomed your Letters to the Editor.  We feel it's an important part of reflecting what's happening in our community.

But all these controversies have raised questions we never considered before about how to handle Letters to the Editor, so we're creating guidelines for how to handle submissions:

Letters to decorahnews.com guidelines:
--Letters must be about local issues only—we leave it to other media to publish letters about national politics.
--Letters to the Editor have a limit of 300 words.
--Letter writers are limited to being published once every 21 days.
--Letters may be edited for fact, clarity, tone and grammar--please keep it civil!
--We verify the authorship of Letters to the Editor, so please include your first and last name and city, which will be posted.  Also include your phone number so we can reach you with any questions.

As always, we welcome your e-mails at news@decorahnews.com.