Starting in January 2007, Coolville and Tuppers Plains will have a newsletter called the Route 7 Report,  formed in partnership between residents of Coolville and Tuppers Plains area and the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. The project received a $12,000 startup grant from the New Voices program at the Institute of Interactive Journalism at the University of Maryland.  

The Route 7 Report is an all volunteer newsletter that will be mailed to all households in the Coolville and Tuppers Plains postal districts. The newsletter will be bulk mailed to the two ZIP codes in the region (45723 and 45783). Residents not covered by those ZIP codes can obtain complimentary copies at The Coolville Public Library and other public locations yet to be determined. We hope that, over time, the community will provide financial support to sustain the printing and mailing costs, which will total about $12,000 per year.

The newsletter will focus on basic information about local government, businesses and individuals, economic news and persistent issues in the community.  A calendar will list meetings of community groups and public social and cultural events.  That's just for starters: Ultimately the content will be decided by the communities.

The goal of the Route 7 Report is to fill a need for coverage of local news and events in Coolville and Tuppers Plains.  Our community has an active base of volunteers who organize all manner of public events, from car shows and church suppers to harvest festivals and dinner theater.  Much of the local news is relayed via word-of-mouth in the community and goes unheard by relatives living away. The Route 7 Report will fill this need for coverage of local news and events which are seldom covered by the regional newspapers.

-- Written by Patty Conrad, associate editor