Dear Editor,

I recently had the opportunity to visit your town in October. My daughter has started working at the Shelby County Reporter and I drove over on a very rainy afternoon to have lunch with her at Bernie&8217;s (yum).

What a splendid town you have! I just parked and we grabbed an umbrella and walked in the rain to the restaurant. It was fun to see a small town so loved and cared for. Your stores were dressed for fall, and I can tell that many people value their town with its neat streets.

With so many small towns dying out to large super stores, it was great to see that Columbiana supports and appreciates their town.

I took a wrong turn returning home and found my way to the Ace Hardware store. I had a long list and they took the time to talk me through some projects that I had planned. Now, that is service!

Residents of Columbiana, continue to cherish your town and fight to preserve it.

Joy Upton / Ocala, Fla.

Congratulations to the 2006 Shelby County Wildcat Football Team.

Thanks to Coach Herring and the coaching staff for all they do for our boys. Coach Herring has done more with our boys this year than expected.

No one expected Coach Herring to take our boys into the second round of playoffs the first year of his coaching career. This was his first year ever as a head coach and has moved to our community from another state.

Attending every game, we know that Coach Herring and staff are the reason we went as far as we did.

The boys were pushed to the max of their ability, but were rewarded. He took the blame for the losses and gave the boys credit for the wins. Coach Herring went to battle every week with the referees, when he thought calls were unjustified, he went to the field and battled the referees for what he thought the boys deserved.

Coach Herring has in just a few months become a mentor to our boys. He might have only known them a short a amount of time, but he considers them his boys and rightly so.

Being moms of freshmen, we look forward to working with Coach Herring and his staff for three more years.

We are certainly proud to have Coach Herring and his family in our community. We need to back him 100 percent and do everything that we can to keep Coach Herring, his staff and family with us for a long time.

Thank you Coach Herring and staff for a great year. Ya&8217;ll are the best.

Kim Joiner and Angee Tolleson / Columbian