The sheriff in a rural county is always on the clock: At the grocery store, attending a high school game, even just trying to pick up a pizza at a restaurant, someone always wants a bit of your time.

Wallowa County Sheriff Joel Fish understood that, and it’s a burden that he bore well.

Fish will lay down his sheriff’s badge at the end of his shift on Friday. He’s resigning from his job to return to North Carolina to help care for his aging mother, a family obligation to which many of us can relate.

Ryan Moody, a sergeant in the Sheriff’s Office, has been appointed sheriff, effective Dec. 16. Moody also has filed as a candidate for the sheriff’s position in the 2024 election and will face at least one opponent, James E. Dickenson of Enterprise.

But all that is news for 2024. Now is the time to thank Fish for the work he’s done, not just for Wallowa County but also for the city of Enterprise, which he served as police chief before winning election to the sheriff’s position.

Fish has been a remarkably good fit for his law-enforcement role in Wallowa County: approachable, easygoing, visible throughout the county. Here’s hoping only the best for Fish and his family as they move on to the next stage of their lives.

Share your 2023 news with usAsk newspaper editors to list the things they dislike about their jobs, and chances are good that the discussion will turn quickly to special sections.

Oh, we understand the need for these publications, often sections that tie into some sort of major community event or guides for visitors to the region. These can mark high school graduations or preview the prep football season or offer readers gift-giving hints for the holiday season.

We understand that readers like these sections, and they give advertisers another opportunity to speak directly to customers and potential customers. All that is good.

The only hassle connected with these sections is hinted at in that word, “special,” which implies something extra — and, for editors, every special section is more thing added to our to-do lists, which already tend to the lengthy side.

The year’s last special section is headed our way — the Chieftain’s annual “Year in Review” section is due to be published in our Dec. 27 edition.

These “Year in Review” sections can be fun to work on: They give us a chance to update some of the year’s biggest stories and usually offer up a surprise or two, usually along the lines of “Wow; this year was busier than we remember.” And they help to offer context for the year to come.

But news comes in all shapes and sizes, and not all of the year’s big news showed up in the pages of the Chieftain.

That’s why we’re offering readers a chance to share their big news from 2023 with the Chieftain.

Was a marriage the big story from 2023 in your household? A new baby? A new pet? A new job? A family reunion? A retirement?

Did you face some sort of challenging situation during 2023 that you resolved?

If you’re willing to share the details, we’d like to publish them in our “Year in Review” section. Email us the details of your 2023 top news, and we’ll run as many stories as we can fit into the printed section. (All of them will appear online). The email address to use is editor@wallowa.com. Please try to hold your submission to 250 words or so.

We’d like to have all your submissions in hand by the end of the day on Wednesday, Dec. 20.

And happy holidays, from all of us at the Chieftain.