BLACK HAWK — The only thing constant is change, and this year is no exception.
I’m going to look a bit farther back to October 31, 2006. That was my first day at this newspaper. It was just under a year before I bought it. And I proudly owned and ran it for almost 16 years.
This week, I’m gonna share a few of my thoughts about how much the newspaper has changed over that time.
When I started at the paper, I had an infant that went to work with me, Hayden. I had a 3 year old, an 11 year old and a 13 year old. I started in classifieds. I worked my way up quickly to circulation. Then I learned display billing. After that, I took in each step of the process and completed every part of production, from reporting to sticking the labels on the paper when we mail them out, to delivering them to every outlet in the Peak to Peak.
It’s through all this work on the paper that I have met so many amazing people in all of the communities.
Among all the issues arising right now, I want to talk about letters to the editor.
This week was the last week to send an election letter until after the election. I sent that information out to the chair of each local party. I send it out when someone misses the deadline to submit and their letter doesn’t get printed, though we may still fit it online. We do this because the final week leading up to the election is a no-election-letter week for us.
During this time, we share links to all of the profiles we have done, our election guide, and letters we have held so we could fit all of the other letters in for the election. It’s a process, and as a small publication that cannot go beyond 32 pages (because of the printing press) we dedicate the entire month to getting the word out about your candidates and why you support them. Your voice matters.
I also want to talk about meeting a friend recently for breakfast. I think it’s important to share since it’s a hot topic in the current election.
About two or three times each year, I request a meeting with Sheriff Armstrong. We were lucky enough to squeeze in breakfast when both our schedules aligned before he had to head out to take care of some family concerns for a week.
After our normal catch-up as to what our kids, grandkids, and families are up to, we got down to some questions I wanted to ask. The questions are from me, a 39-year local resident (40 years on December 26), wanting to understand processes (my entire life is about processes).
The questions reflect my concerns about the heated arguments happening on local social media about the Sheriff’s office, as well as the candidates. (I hate dirty politics. I cannot stand when someone posts online anonymously and won’t stand behind their words. Unless there is a security threat, use your name.)
One of the first questions I asked was for details about how the Sheriff’s Department hiring process works. I was curious about the hiring of a jail employee, a Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) certified deputy, or a Public Information Officer (PIO).
As many of you know, the hot topic is the PIO position. We talked a bit about the position and how hard Cherokee worked over the years. And we talked about how awesome it was to have someone with so much experience come into the position.
We talked about the hiring process and how promotions work within the department. We also talked about how employee discipline works, staff retention and leadership. Rather than me giving you secondhand information, I gave Sheriff Armstrong information about how to submit a letter or FAQ sheet about the questions people have been asking online. Thankfully, he submitted it and it is in print this week for all of you to read.
The last thing I’m going to leave you with is my own words of wisdom as we near the upcoming election. I love my friends and family. And I love other people and their opinions (truly, it makes the world go round). But I will personally be so happy when this election is over!
Getting online at this point is disheartening. Watching the lies being propagated by people who are misinformed or completely oblivious is also disheartening.
I hope every single person reads in-depth, thorough information about every single ballot measure and every single candidate. In every single state. And votes accordingly. Not by party, but by belief that this specific measure or person can create what you believe is the future of our world.
I hope each of you vote with research and reason being foremost in your decision. And I thank every one of you who drops that ballot in the box, no matter what you believe. Simply for taking the time to cast a vote.
I’m thankful to still be here, loving my job, enjoying the news we round up each week, excited to work with such an incredible team of people. The Mountain-Ear is your community source for news, covering the Peak to Peak region for 50 years, and that’s pretty cool.
Reach me anytime by email at info@themountainear.com or 303-810-5409. Thanks for reading!
