Sept. 20, 2000 10 PM

Rice Publications, Inc., announced Wednesday that it will cease publication of The Pike County Citizen.

According to Bill Rice Jr., publisher of The Citizen, the move is based on financial considerations and on focusing attention on his publication, Pike’s Peek.

"We feel like we could do a better job focusing on this without the interruption of producing a weekly newspaper," Rice said. "Now we will be dedicated to Pike’s Peek and other publications such as our Reflections edition and our other special publications."

Rice calls the five years he spent publishing The Citizen "a great success," saying he has learned a lot from the experience.

"I would also like to thank those advertisers and readers who supported us over the years and who made it possible for us to publish The Citizen."