Congratulations to the three new members of the Auburn City Council. The challenges we face as a city are enormous, and I wish you well.

I’m very grateful for the support I’ve had from voters and to those of you who have worked with me on so many campaigns over the past 25 or more years.

If you volunteered at a school or church, if you served on the board of the food bank or some other worthy organization, if you gave a kid a ride home from basketball practice and gave him a pat on the back, even though they weren’t winning any games, or if you just remember to smile at someone who might appear to be less fortunate than many of us, thank you for being what Auburn has always meant to me,

Thanks mostly to the Haugens, who let me use their name.

– Virginia Haugen