[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 16072]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    CELEBRATING THE COMPLETED RENOVATION OF THE MONROE EVENING NEWS 
                                BUILDING

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                          HON. JOHN D. DINGELL

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 15, 2004

  Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge and celebrate 
The Monroe Evening News and its approximately 150 employees, who also 
own the newspaper, on the successful completion of a year-long 
renovation of their building.
  Serving the people of the Monroe County region for 179 years, this 
newspaper has advanced its values of integrity, community, and growth 
while remaining one of the few employee-owned newspapers in the 
country. The Evening News has been recognized for more than its 
longevity, winning several prestigious awards including the Annual 
Award for Communications Excellence in 1996.
  The Monroe Evening News has been published from its current location 
since 1910. Demonstrating an ongoing need to best serve their readers, 
this renovation, costing $3,000,000, will be the third renovation to 
this building. The renovation has reconfigured the entire interior of 
the building; creating an enhanced main entrance and expanding the 
customer-service area. While the interior has an updated, contemporary 
look, the exterior and additions will maintain the historic appearance 
of the long-standing building.
  As The Monroe Evening News opens its newly overhauled offices, I 
would ask that my colleagues rise and join with me in congratulating a 
thriving, employee-owned daily newspaper on a successful, fruitful 
renovation. As The Evening News approaches one hundred years in the 
same building, let us wish them the best of luck for the next hundred 
years and beyond.
  I ask for unanimous consent to include in the Record these remarks 
from celebrated political columnist Jack Germond, who started his 
legendary career at The Monroe Evening News:
       I am privileged to join John Dingell in congratulating The 
     Evening News, a newspaper that taught me many of the most 
     valuable lessons of journalism when I worked there as a young 
     reporter from 1951 through 1953. The newspaper had standards 
     that were a model, and the publisher, JS Gray, was impervious 
     to pressure. When you wrote a story that was accurate and 
     fair it went into the paper no matter who complained how 
     loudly. There were no sacred cows, not always the case 
     everywhere. Looking back on more than 50 years in the 
     business, I cherish the memories of my time in Monroe.

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