We are now squarely in awards season, which is lucky for me, because I missed a fairly big story last fall, and it’s finally almost timely again.

It’s us, the staff at the Valley Record, and the awards we received in October from the annual Washington Newspaper Publishers’ Association’s Better Newspaper Contest.

Bragging, even when it’s for a real honor, does not come easy for me. It’s one of the reasons I kept this announcement far down my list of priorities for so long, but I really want to acknowledge the accomplishments of my past coworkers, too.

The contest is run and judged by our peers — reporters, editors, publishers and designers in other states — so these awards are meaningful.

Here, at last, are the awards we won for the Valley Record in 2015.

We had two third-place honors, one for my series of reports on the $244 million bond issue for Snoqualmie Valley School District (Comprehensive Coverage of a Single Issue), the other for former editor Seth Truscott’s and my initial coverage of the unforgettable explosion that rocked North Bend Way on April 25, 2014.

I was at first a little surprised about that one; only third place for an exploding city? I had to wonder what disaster befell the first-place winners in that category, Best News Story, Long.

Then I looked at the first-place spot. That was us, too.

Former reporter Allyce Andrew, did her first police ride-along, complete with a drug house visit, to give life and color to our collaborative report on the one-year anniversary of North Bend’s contract with Snoqualmie for Police Services.

If you missed any of these stories in the paper, you can still find them on our website:

First place, One-year mark,www.valleyrecord.com/news/295970981.html;

Third place, Shattered Calm,www.valleyrecord.com/news/256783751.html;

Third place, bond stories included

What will $244 million buy? www.valleyrecord.com/news/287957711.html; and

Bond appetite, www.valleyrecord.com/news/260851451.html.