“It’s the real news.”—Doug Stanton, New York Times best-selling author and cofounder of the National Writers Series
About the Elberta Alert
News of, by, and for Elbertians (and the Elberta curious)
The South Frankfort Alert, later the Elberta Alert after the village changed its name, in 1912, was first published in February of 1911, and had a brief run of several years until sometime before the end of World War I. In February of 2011, it rose again in the form of a free paper available at local businesses and distributed to residents on the fourth Friday of each month. The Alert operated in this way until the end of 2012, when it moved entirely to its Facebook page and website. In July of 2022, it became this Substack newsletter. Its mission is still to provide news, information, entertainment, and a forum for all voices in the community. Submit letters to the editor, rants, articles, images, cartoons, suggestions, stories, hearsay, and doggerel to emilyvotruba@yahoo.com.
Visit the Elberta Alert website and look at back print issues here.
Why subscribe?
Subscribe for easy access to the newsletter and other current and past content on the newsletter homepage. Never miss an update—alerts about new Alert articles go straight to your inbox.
Why pay for a subscription?
[This section updated 6/20/24]
As of June 2024, the Alert Substack now has some “premium” content available only to paid subscribers. For those of you paying subscribers who were doing so out of the kindness of your hearts and receiving nothing except good feels, you now have something to lord over your friends and neighbors! Who knows, there may soon be more and more stuff “behind the paywall.”
Paid subscriptions help cover the WordPress fee and other software costs (see below), plus the time and talent of contributors. Writers get $60 for every new paid subscription that comes in within one month after their story posts. (I just made that up and I have no idea if it’s fair?)
All council and other meeting reports, any safety info, and Village project updates will always be free—that’s the Elberta Alert guarantee!
or, as of July 2024, make a one-time donation of four bits or more …
Note that these donations are *not* tax deductible!
Join the human crew
The Elberta Alert is a hand-crafted, artisanal local digital publication made without the use of AI (except for spellcheck, internet searches, and the occasional manipulated photo [always noted]) and respects its own and others’ intellectual property. If you’d like to write or provide imagery for the Alert, email emilyvotruba@yahoo.com.
A note on editing (1/22/23)
I want to be transparent when a post is edited after initial publication. Unless it’s a spelling error, typeface change, or punctuation change that doesn’t alter the sense of a sentence, changes will be noted and dated. Deletions will be struck through rather than eliminated, and in some cases additions will be set in italics. If the font does not allow for italics, the addition will be made inside slash marks, thus: // …. //
Our Tremendous Paid Subscribers and Founding Members
I would like to acknowledge here all those of you who have decided to pony up for a paid subscription, and to the three of you who ponied even higher for a Founding Member contribution of $168 (one of you did it twice!). It all helps cover web-hosting, software (Adobe), and content management system fees (elbertaalert.com at WordPress will get a better design and more archived content this year) and equipment expenses (really hoping to upgrade from my iPhone SE to one with a better camera)[done! 6/20/24]—and just takes a bit of the edge off. Profit sharing with contributors (mainly Paula at this point) will also happen. And who knows, there’s always a chance I can slough off a few of these freelance editing jobs and devote more time and energy to this project. There’s so much more to cover!
A special thank-you gift is in the works for our Founding Members. Expect it in mid-spring 2024. Thank you, everybody!
