We're pleased to announce that Maplewood Patch editor Adam Bulger is heading south across Vauxhall to launch our new Springfield Patch, which should begin operation at the end of the month.

Adam is one of Patch's three founding editors, launching our Maplewood site last February. A graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, CT., he previously wrote for the Hartford Advocate, New York Press and RAMP magazine.

He has some parting thoughts, here.

But he'll leave Maplewood Patch in good hands. Regular Patch contributor and longtime Maplewood resident Mary Mann will become the new editor of Maplewood Patch, starting next week. Mary has been a contributor to Matters magazine and the www.glocallynewark.com blog. She's been a downtown development specialist, including three years working with the Springfield Avenue Partnership in Maplewood (including running the farmers' market in 2006).

You can read her introductory remarks, here.

Springfield Patch will be our 10th site in northern New Jersey, including Maplewood, South Orange, Millburn-Short Hills, Westfield, Scotch Plains, Summit, Cranford, Wyckoff and Ridgewood (which launches next week). We'll also add a Livingston site by the end of October. There are three Patch sites in Connecticut: New Canaan, Darien and Wilton, with Westport and Ridgefield coming by the end of October.