I’m enthused about the project, because in the five years I’ve worked at The Mirror I’ve photographed hundreds of events. At each event I’ve taken far more photographs than necessary, and of course we publish in the newspaper the photo or photos we like best. Usually at the most, five or six photos from an event are published. And the rest — nobody sees.

Now, thanks to Lawrence Journal-World’s David Ryan, who taught me how to build an online photo gallery, we can bring more photos to our readers.

The first try — a five-photo setup that focused on the high school art class — went together smoothly — after a few phone calls to Ryan. That was good practice for the next gallery — Tonganoxie High School’s homecoming parade and coronation.

The next photo gallery — a local house fire — showed area firefighters battling a grueling blaze. And, because Fire Prevention Week fell during the same week, we included a link to photos taken during fire department’s special events — a visit to the grade school, a pancake breakfast, a chili supper.

And this week, another photo gallery is in the works. It’s from Saturday’s parade at Baldwin City’s Maple Leaf Festival.

If you have access to the Internet, be sure to check out our photo galleries. While we can’t promise we’ll have an online photo gallery for every event, we’ll publish as many as time allows.

On the election front

The heat is on for elections, from the national down to the local level.

In Tonganoxie of course, the eye is on the $25.3 million question — the proposed school bond issue.

We at The Mirror thank everyone who agreed to be interviewed for this week’s stories about the bond issue.

There’s the student perspective, with an interview of four junior high students who hope to see the junior high and high school transformed into a 9-12 high school. And, they’d like to see something done about the overcrowding at the grade school.

According to the school district’s proposal, this would be remedied by building a new 5-8 middle school on the district’s 80 acres, and modifying the existing grade school to turn it into a K-4 facility.

And there were the adults interviewed who spoke out against the bond issue. They voiced concerns that the school plans to build more than is necessary and that, if the school bond election passes, their property taxes will be more than they can afford to pay. These sources said their property taxes have almost tripled in the last six years. They are concerned about the next 25 years — the life span of the proposed bond issue.

All the concerns, both of those who are for the bond issue and of those who are against it, are valid.

For the bond issue’s outcome to represent the opinion of the majority of those who live in the school district, people will have to go to the polls on Nov. 2.

This is not the time to say, “My single vote won’t make a difference.”

Because it could.