By Graham Column / Staff Writer

The holidays are behind us and my hope for 2015 is that Shelby County will continue to grow and keep a reputation as being one of the best counties in Alabama.

Here at the Reporter, we made some new additions to our editorial staff, and with that came some shifting of who would cover certain areas of Shelby County.

Mine stayed the same for the most part, but I will now be spending a lot more time in the city of Helena.

I will cover anything happening within the city limits of Helena, and this also includes sports.

Last week I had the opportunity to meet some of the city leaders who were very welcoming and glad I was there to cover their city.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Jeff Oetting, owner of the soon-to-open Coal Yard Bar and Grill, which looks to be a great unique addition to Old Town Helena.

I have already covered a couple of the Helena High School basketball games and all I can say is that the future looks bright for Helena athletics.

The HHS football team finished a great season this past fall making the playoffs in just its first year of existence, and now the basketball teams are trying to build off that same success.

Boy’s basketball Coach Chris Laatsch has brought the boy’s record to 11-9 overall and a 3-1 record in the area in the program’s first season. Coach Laatsch and his family have been great to me and helped me get everything I need when it comes to covering the games.

I look forward to covering more games, and am excited to cover the upcoming baseball, softball and football seasons that are just around the corner.

I can already tell just by meeting the people of Helena that there is a reason why it is one of the top places to live in America.

I want to encourage all the residents and business owners to give me a call anytime you have a story idea or event happening in Helena. I look forward to getting to know you, Helena.