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Health & Fitness

Best wishes to Elaine

Thanks and best wishes to Elaine Van Develde for her coverage of Middletown and for starting the Middletown Patch site.

Late last week I was informed that our Middletown Patch editor Elaine Van Develde would no longer be covering Middletown and was heading to over to the Rumson-Fair Haven site as its editor. 

I would like to take moment to thank Elaine not only for her coverage of Middletown but for all of her efforts in making the Patch a viable news source for Middletown Township. 

In an age when newspapers are drastically scaling down their coverage of local issues and events, the Middletown Patch has stepped in to fill that void.  Over the past two years I have attended hundreds of meetings and community events that Elaine had covered for the Patch. 

Find out what's happening in Rumson-Fair Havenwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

If there was an event she missed, she would call me to ask about it so she could post a story. We could barely get the Asbury Park Press to cover a Township budget meeting let alone an event with a community group. Elaine was there.

Above all else, I along with many I have spoken to about Patch always found Elaine's reporting to be very fair and unbiased, her stories well-written and interesting. As Mayor there were some stories I may have liked and a few that I didn't but I can always say that they were fair and accurate. This is what I truly believe has helped Patch gain a tremendous amount of credibility.

Find out what's happening in Rumson-Fair Havenwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In closing I want to again wish Elaine best of luck in her new role at Patch and once again thank her for her contributions to making the Middletown Patch a viable news source for Middletown. Good luck, Elaine. Rumson-Fair Haven is very fortunate to have you.

I also would like to welcome our new reporter to Middletown and look forward to seeing her on the trail.

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