Visitors venture out well past what used to be the deep end of the swimming area at Barton Springs on Normandy Lake, showing just how low the level of the reservoir has fallen. (T-G File Photo by Brian Mosely) [Click to enlarge]

Readers of the Shelbyville Times-Gazette web site, in a non-scientific poll, picked the drought, and the water use restrictions which it creates, as the top local news story of 2007.

Between Christmas and New Year's, the Times-Gazette revealed the top 10 stories as selected by a poll of 10 staff members. After that list was announced, our top 10 choices, plus two which just missed inclusion, were offered to web site readers as a poll. There were 142 participants, with the following results:

1) Drought / water restrictions: 26.1 percent (37 votes) -- ranked #5 by Times-Gazette staff

2) Darryl Holton executed in electric chair: 20.4 percent (29 votes) -- ranked #2 by Times-Gazette staff

3) Ron Thomas fired as Celebration CEO: 12.0 percent (17 votes) -- ranked #1 by Times-Gazette staff

"I chose the Ron Thomas firing," wrote one respondent, "because the TWH as a breed may well disapear with time unless the leaders and breeders who truly love the Tennesse Walking Horse pull together, exchange information, ideas and work to save the breed....as one voice. Nothing else should matter. I care because this breed is a part of American History and should never be lost."

4) Bob McLean takes own life behind Shelbyville church: 10.6 percent (15 votes) -- ranked #3 by Times-Gazette staff

"A tragedy that shows how the love of money can ruin a life," wrote one poll respondent.

5) Valentine's Day murder of Bill Ross: 9.9 percent (14 votes) -- ranked #11 (tie) by Times-Gazette staff

6) Heat wave in August: 6.3 percent (9 votes) -- ranked #11 (tie) by Times-Gazette staff

7) Standardized School Attire proposed: 5.6 percent (8 votes) -- ranked #10 by Times-Gazette staff

8) SCHS expansion / $44M school building program: 2.8 percent (4 votes) -- ranked #7 (tie) by Times-Gazette staff

9) County observes Bicentennial: 2.1 percent (3 votes) -- ranked #7 (tie) by Times-Gazette staff

10 - tie) Cartwright elected mayor of Shelbyville: 1.4 percent (2 votes) -- ranked #6 by Times-Gazette staff

10 - tie) BCMC builds new hospital / CEO resigns: 1.4 percent (2 votes) -- ranked #4 by Times-Gazette staff

10 - tie) 2007 Celebration runs smoothly, but numbers down: 1.4 percent (2 votes) -- ranked #9 by Times-Gazette staff

The poll software allows participants to leave comments, but unfortunately it does not tell the T-G which vote is attached to a particular comment.

"I thought it was a very scary situation and that people did need to know about it!" wrote one commenter, but the T-G has no way of knowing for sure to which story the commenter was referring -- the heat wave in August? The ongoing drought?

"I beleive this has been the top story because people like to express their feelings about this topic! (so do I)," wrote another commenter. That could refer to any number of choices on the list.

When the T-G published its own staff-selected list, the stories mentioned that a ballot of 22 potential top stories was used. One commenter asked why the public had not been allowed to pick from that original list of 22. Our web site poll software, by default, allows up to 12 choices. There's a way to tweak the software to make it allow more, but it seemed simpler to offer a shorter list -- especially since web site voters were only asked to pick their top story, unlike the T-G staff participants, each of whom was asked to rank their top 10 selections. Too many options might have made some readers less likely to take the time to wade through all of them and participate in the poll.

Any voluntary, self-selected poll, like those offered on web sites, is non-scientific, because there's no way to guarantee that the people who choose to participate represent a true cross-section of the population.