To the editor:
 This is the first "letter to the editor" I have ever written, so I hope you realize the extent to which I am concerned.

The Hillsboro City Council has voted to allow Hillsboro Mayor Dick Zink and Safety Service Director Ralph Holt to negotiate with the unions of the city's police and fire department, with health insurance options accepted by the city last week.
       During Holt's report to council during its Nov. 8 regular session he said that negotiations could not continue unless the city had insurance figures to offer. Last week, the city opened bids for health insurance, with only one acceptable bid available. In what the city called the "worst case scenario," the health insurance would be 19 percent more than last year, which is 9 percent more than what the city had budgeted for 2011. A health savings account option would be an increase of just over 17 percent.

The Lady Patriots of Southern State dropped their home opener at the Patriot Center Sunday afternoon to OSU-Mansfield, 84-65.

The Southern State men's basketball team scored 50-plus points in the first half against OSU-Mansfield, leading to a dominating 100-69 win for the Patriots Sunday at the Patriot Center.

Southern State Community College now offers southwestern Ohio professionals access to sought-after non- degree workforce education programs developed by the nation’s leading universities. Delivered 100 percent online, these programs feature content developed by schools such as Villanova University, the University of San Francisco and Tulane University.

Larry Dean Luman, 59, of Hillsboro, passed away Sunday afternoon, Nov. 7, 2010 at Bethesda North Hospital in Cincinnati.

The October students of the month from Buckskin were:  Ella Osborne, Brooklyn Bond, Shayna Beatty, Makayla Bennett, Ava Calhoun, Holly Badgley, Seth Harris and Zach Anderson, Dakota Irvin, Ariana Schroeder and Kyle Wyatt. They were treated to lunch at McDonald¹s with the principal, Mr. Shumate.

The October students of the month from Buckskin were:  Ella Osborne, Brooklyn Bond, Shayna Beatty, Makayla Bennett, Ava Calhoun, Holly Badgley, Seth Harris and Zach Anderson, Dakota Irvin, Ariana Schroeder and Kyle Wyatt. They were treated to lunch at McDonald¹s with the principal, Mr. Shumate.