Welcome...I have a suggestion as your first duties....please delete Sparta from the Hopatcong Patch...not that Sparta is a bad town, but it has NOTHING to due with Hopatcong and not even close to us in terms of location, sports, schools, social-economic status....it was such a bad idea to add Sparta to a successful Hopatcong Patch. Sparta is a big town, maybe they should have their own! Thanks!

Congratulations, Lauren, on taking over these sites! You're going to do a terrific job, and we'll all be here (including the community members) to help make these sites the best they can be!

Couldn't be happier to see all of your hard work pay off Lauren. I know picking up two already established sites with a new town added on is not easy, but you have adapted so well to everything thrown at you I have no doubt you are going to make it work here as well.
And yes, I have faith that your communities will work with you to make your sites as vibrant and engaging as they can be.
Of course, like Jason said, we'll be here when you need us too.

Welcome.
Hopefully now we will get faster updates and will actually know what's going on in our town.
Apparently there was a Halloween thing at Modic park yesterday (there may have even been a parade earlier, I have no idea)... Couldn't find ANYTHING about this on the patch website. You know if Brendan had still been editor he would have personally been there and would have had an article about it by the end of the day.
But I guess a story about speed bumps and banana boat sunscreen is more important...

Welcome aboard Lauren. Without having an editor we have been sorely lacking on local news and upcoming events. We don't know about things until after they happen. I for one look at the patch 4 to 5 a day a least and used to love knowing about the goings on in Hopatcong, So welcome aboard and I look forward to seeing your articles.

Hey, guys. I worked with Lauren while I was at Patch. She's going to work as hard as she can to do a great job. Keep in mind, though, her attention will be pulled in three directions — Hopatcong, Sparta, Jefferson. That's her job, and she has no say over it. So help get her up to speed the best you can, and please show her the same respect and patience you showed me. As you'll soon learn, she deserves it.

Hi Brendan! It's good to see you here for a visit.

Can only go North from the low point we've been in since Brendan left - so good luck to you. As to the coupling with Sparta, I'd have thought THEY would be the ones complaining over the association - perhaps their property values will suffer as a result.

As a fellow 'Po alum (BA. Theater '04) I just wanted to say congrats on the gig! -E-

I think you'll all be quite happy once Lauren gets rolling. She did a marvelous job running the MorrisTownship-MorrisPlains site, and now she's bringing her talents to Sussex. When you are dropped into a new beat, there is definitely a learning/adjustment period, but I've no doubt that Lauren will excel.

Hopatcong is a great site, with some of the most engaged and loyal users we have in all of New Jersey, and we want this site (and all of the others) to be around for a long, long, long time. Your participation on the site is absolutely key.

Please don't think Lauren is out there alone. She has a team behind her that includes Regional Editor Mike Pignataro and Associate Regional Editor Rick Burchfield, who work with the Morris/Somerset/Sussex (and now Warren) editors day after day. We have a photographer who spends all weekend running from event to event, and we have a few freelancers.

If anything, we are more team focused now than we have been. And you are, honestly, part of that team. So if you take pictures at a game, shoot video of a bear in a tree, or have inside information about the alien plan to occupy Raccoon Island, please share them with us. Lauren is good, but she can't be omnipresent.

Thanks! And break a leg, Lauren!

It's great to see Lauren move up from her time working as an Assistant Editor over in the Morristown area for several sites. Congratulations!

Welcome, Lauren!! I'm sure you're going to do a great job!

Lauren: Lots of luck with your new job on the Patch. You know, local news is so very important to each of us yet unless it involves sensationalism, the TV and other media never cover it. Patch is a vital source for everyone in town. You have a responsibility to report objectively and I am sure you are up to the task. I am following the Hopatcong Patch from far away but my heart is still with our great little town. Best wishes. Rich.

Congrats Lauren. No offense but Patch is setting you up to fail. There is no feasible way that on editor can take in these 3 towns. They apparently eliminated two editors and added a town and now you are doing the job of 3 people and they get the benefit of one salary. Good thing you're young because you are going to work your butt off. Good luck, sincerely. Boo to Patch for having a good idea but are unwilling or unable to support it properly.

Congrats Lauren! I miss our little Patch "community" we had here when Brenden was our editor. Sure we all at times have agreed to disagree with one another, but I happen to know for the most part we all love our little town and we like to know what is going on around us as residents. I am looking forward to a new start and I wish you all the best.

Welcome Lauren! I can understand the need to combine several "Patches" however, why not combine towns that have some commonality? We should be combined with towns that we share the lake with. Why Sparta? I don't get it. While people are piping up about what should be covered may I also make a suggestion.............How about a weekly article about a fantastic kid? A kid who doesn't plays sports. A kid who makes average grades. How about the kid that walks their elderly neighbors dog for them because they no longer can? What about that kid who comes home from school and watches their younger siblings and makes dinner while their parents are at work? The kids who play sports and make great grades get enough notice. How about we share some of those pats on the back with the kids that quietly go about just being decent, caring, selfless humans? There could be a place on our Patch to nominate these kids and than Lauren could pick a monthly "star".

Good luck to you. Looks like it's going to be a tough beat to try to cover 4 municipalities.

It looks like Patch downsized. Editors covering multiple towns now. I don't understand how coverage will not deminish. One of the things I wish Patch would stop doing it trying to shove regional and state news down my throat. I come here for local news and then get bombarded w/ slider windows for news in other town etc. That and often it tries to get me to click on stories that are months old. That and I wish there was a way to filter the discussion groups by only my local patch. I really don't care to have people from Parsippany, Long Valley or further in my feed. Patch seems to be losing it's hyper-local feel.

Jefferson had a Fall Festival and a Haunted House this past weekend and no local coverage :(

Nah Tammy...we like sports stars...(: