Hello

It is hard to believe it has been a week since I was announced as the Editor of the Mountain Home News. The opportunity came unexpectedly, but I can’t say it wasn’t something I had hoped would eventually happen as my career progressed.

Being in the journalism field is something I have dreamed about since I was a young child. I spent my young years on a ranch outside of town on Ditto Creek and had the world at the disposal of my imagination.

One of my favorite things to play was editor of the paper in a railroad camp or mining town and the old, unused bunkhouse would become my office and old machinery from the shop would become my press. I always got the paper to press, right in the nick of time, no matter what tragic events were unfolding in my imagination.

It is not just the job I am passionate for though, it is also this community.

As Brenda mentioned last week, in her editorial, I am homegrown. I am an-almost-lifelong resident of Elmore County, having lived here for all but seven of my 35 years. Five of those seven years came while I was in Boise, studying history and political science at Boise State University, before moving home to raise my family.

I spent my childhood on cattle ranches throughout the county while attending school in the closest district. I have been a Tiger and I have been a Pilot. I guess you could say I bleed orange and black when it comes to school sports. I participated in sports for Glenns Ferry, but I have spent time volunteering as a coach in Mountain Home.

This is the place where Jason and I have chosen to raise our children, surrounded by family and life long friends who might as well be family to us.

I care deeply about this community and as editor of the paper understand the great responsibility I now have to keep the citizens informed of what is newsworthy in our midst. It is something I take very seriously.

That is not to say I will not have the occasional bad day and make a mistake here or there. I am learning the layout process as we go, diving in with both feet I guess you could say and with that comes a learning curve.

Unfortunately, a mistake was made in my very first issue and in perhaps the worst section it could happen in, the obituaries. I want to take a moment to give my heartfelt apologizes to the family of the two men whose obituaries were involved in the mix up. I am very sorry for the mix up and for your loss and hope you feel that we righted our mistake.

As most of you know we are a very small staff who depends on partnerships with community members to get everything into the paper. Right now the editorial office is down to me and I will need to depend on people sending in photos and giving us information on events even more than usual.

I appreciate everyone who has already submitted photos and articles to me this week and all I can say is keep them coming, along with your comments on the website, facebook and in letters to the editor. There is nothing better, in my opinion, then an engaged readership.

Feel free to e-mail me with any questions, comments or story ideas at editor@mountainhomenews.com. I can't wait to hear from all of you.