Gunnison Country Times - 130 Years

APRIL 2010

1880

Fourteen different newspapers were established and merged over a 95 year period to create what has been known as the Gunnison Country Times since 1975.

ND FOU ER

(1880-81) — Established April 1880

CO

1826-1880

(1880-82) — Established May 1880

(1880-81) — Established August 1880

How eight became one (1881-91) — Created by merger of Gunnison News and Gunnison Democrat in June 1881

Start-ups and mergers, 1880-1975

(1881-82) — Established September 1881

by Larr y Jensen

The newspaper in your hands has a long and distinguished history dating back to the first paper printed in town, the Gunnison News of April 17, 1880. Between then and 1975, seven more newspapers were established and merged on what was a long and winding road toward creating the Gunnison Country Times.

Today, we will trace those start-ups and mergers. We won’t include other unrelated newspapers that came and went over the years. It would complicate the story beyond comprehension. As it is, pay close attention faithful readers, as this is a rather convoluted road.

The establishment of the Gunnison News was soon followed by the Gunnison Review, which began publishing in May 1880. A third paper, the Gunnison Democrat, began publishing in August 1880. And a fourth, the Gunnison Free Press, was established in September 1881.

Before the Free Press started, the News and the Democrat merged in June 1881 to form the Gunnison News-Democrat.

After only 11 months, the Free Press merged with the Review to form the Gunnison ReviewPress in August 1882. For those of you keeping score, the four newspapers have now become two.

Things remained relatively stable until 1891. The NewsDemocrat stopped publishing in March, only to resume in October as the second Gunnison News. Meanwhile, the ReviewPress was sold and renamed the Gunnison Tribune. Net total is still two.

A new Gunnison newspaper, the People’s Champion, was

(1882-91) — Created by merger of Gunnison Review and Gunnison Free Press in August 1882

(1891-1900) — Gunnison NewsDemocrat renamed in 1891

(1891-1904) — Gunnison Review-Press renamed in 1891

(1894-1901) — Established in 1894

(1901-1975) — Henry F Lake Jr. acquired Gunnison News in December 1900 and People’s Champion in January 1901, merging them; Gunnison Tribune acquired in 1904. Sold to Wally and Vesta Foster in 1948

(1901-32) — Established in 1901; merged into Gunnison NewsChampion in 1932

(1932-33) — Established in 1932.

(1933-1975) — The Echo was renamed in 1933; sold to Wally and Vesta Foster in 1955

2010

No one has been continuously practicing the trade of journalism in the Gunnison Valley longer than George Sibley. He started in the early ’70s by owning and editing the Crested Butte Chronicle. He taught journalism at Western State College for many years.

And to this day he remains an active freelance voice, offering stories and commentaries on life here in the Upper Gunnison Valley.

Gunnison: A newspaper town for 130 years ... and counting

by Chris Dickey

Henry F. Lake, Jr. 1873-1948

Wallace D. Foster 1920-1990

established in 1894 by supporters of People’s Party presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. Net total is now three.

The march toward the future began in December 1900, when Henry Freeman Lake, Jr., purchased the Gunnison News.

Lake was a Michigan native who relocated to the area in 1895. He would be a player in Gunnison newspaper circles for almost 50 years.

In January 1901, Lake purchased the People’s Champion and merged his two papers to become the Gunnison NewsChampion, a masthead that would survive for just under 75 years. Gunnison was briefly back down to two papers. But it didn’t last long. The Gunnison Republican began publishing shortly thereafter, apparently to offer a competing voice.

The Gunnison Tribune continued publishing until 1904, when Lake purchased it and folded it into his empire.

The News-Champion and the Republican remained competitors until 1932, when Lake purchased the Republican and it, too, became part of the empire. Briefly, there was only the News-Champion.

Another competing voice was

quickly established in 1932.

It was originally named The Gunnison Echo, but became the Gunnison Courier in January 1933. Again there were two.

Henry Lake passed away at the age of 74 on February 4, 1948. His family sold the Gunnison News-Champion to Wallace D. “Wally” and Vesta F o s t e r t h a t O c t o b e r. T h e Fosters purchased the Gunnison Courier in 1955, but kept it a separate paper and continued to publish both. Subscriptions included both papers. At the time, the Courier was published on Sundays and the NewsChampion on Wednesdays.

Another new paper, the Gunnison County Globe, began publishing in 1957. For the next 18 years things remained status quo. Gunnison was a three newspaper town representing two editorial voices.

In July 1975, Sams Communications purchased the two Foster papers and the Globe. All three were merged to create the Gunnison Country Times, effective August 18, 1975.

(This article first appeared in the “A Glance into History” column on April 16, 2009)

Independent in all things, neutral in none

(1957-75) — Established in 1957 to compete with the Foster-owned Gunnison News-Champion and Gunnison Courier.

(1975-present) — Created via an acquisition and merger of the Gunnison News-Champion, Gunnison Courier and Gunnison County Globe by Sams communications, effective August 18, 1975

L. W.H.F. HALL

A couple of years ago he prepared an insightful report on the history of journalism in the Upper Gunnison Basin.

But, in typical George fashion, this is hardly a bland account of the most basic facts — this paper started then, the other followed ... etc. His is an analysis not only of what it took to bring newspapers to the people, but what was going on around those establishments that made them happen, the

motives behind the people that brought them to life.

“Independent in All Things, Neutral in None: A History-inProgress of Newspapers in the Upper Gunnison Country.” It’s too long to publish here, but you can read all about it online, at www.gunnisontimes. com.

Once again, thank you, George, for being who you are, and doing what you do.

With this special section of the Gunnison Country Times that you hold in your hands (sorry on-line readers, this time it’s really not the same), we celebrate the history of newspapers in our beloved Gunnison community.

About a month after Gunnison’s founding fathers made it official and incorporated the town in March of 1880, along came a newspaper. And then another. And another.

And so on.

Suffice it to say, Gunnison has always been a newspaper kind of town. Amen to that.

This long and colorful lineage of newspapers — of newspaper men and women, of competing businesses and optimistic entrepreneurs, of sweeping technological changes, and, always, of journalists working frantically to get the next issue on the streets — unfolds into the product that you see today.

The Times hasn’t always been the Times, of course. Nor has it always been a weekly, greeting engaged citizens every Thursday morning.

Remarkably, however, with a couple of brief exceptions, Gunnison newspapers have always been locally owned and operated enterprises. That’s a fact we take pride in today.

As goes Gunnison, so goes its hometown newspaper — the way it should be.

So with this special section we thought it would be interesting and fun to not only take a quick look back at this Gunnison newspaper history (thanks to the Times’ Larry Jensen for doing a masterful job of condensing 130 years and countless operations into a manageable summation) but to hear from a variety of former Gunnison newspaper people.

My apologies up front for the incompleteness of this collection. Not only would it have been nearly impossible to track down everyone who has ever worked here (and is still breathing), but we couldn’t afford all of the paper it would take to print all those stories.

Instead, we offer a tasty sampling of recollections and reflections from a handful of the fine folks who have brought you all the news they knew about over the years.

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Gunnison Country Times

What will they accomplish next?

Jim Smidl started as Henry Lake’s shop foreman; ended up building much more than this building

by Sandra Mark

April 16 this year would have been my Daddy’s 100th birthday.

He died in 1976, and is buried in the Gunnison Cemetery, close to many of his old friends — like Mason Light, Dan Thornton, Lewie Miller and Tony Mendez.

In fact, he is surrounded by friends out there, and he would like that. He loved people. He also loved Gunnison.

Born and raised in Chicago, Jim Smidl first came here in 1936 as a young printer who was fleeing the economics and the weather of Oklahoma. The wind and dust of the Oklahoma panhandle had clogged his lungs with dust pneumonia, so he was attracted to the Gunnison Valley because of its dry air; but also because of an advertisement in a trade journal stating that Henry F. Lake, Jr. of the Gunnison NewsChampion needed a shop foreman.

Upon arriving in Salida, he discovered he had missed the bus to Gunnison, but he met an accommodating couple at a service station there and they offered to bring him the rest of the way. Paul (Frosty) and Hazel Wright became the first

Gunnison friends he made.

Within a span of a few days he became Mr. Lake’s foreman, sent for Mama and me, made more new friends. He bought a little black cocker spaniel that he named Sally and gave his heart completely to Colorado — not necessarily in that order.

His love for the Gunnison Country was instantaneous and enduring. He left for four years during World War II to serve in the United States Army Air Corps, but returned in 1946 filled with the same enthusiasm he’d felt when he had first arrived 10 years earlier.

Satisfying a longtime desire to have his own newspaper, he and Ken Bundy bought the old pioneer newspaper, The Gunnison Courier, from Wayne Lickiss.

The two young publishers struggled and scraped with their new business. They worked long hours, doing everything from selling advertising and writing editorials, to running the jobprinting press and sweeping out.

Daddy bought a used press from a newspaper in Rifle, disassembled it, brought it to Gunnison and put all the pieces back together again. And they never missed a weekly edition.

In 1946, Jim Smidl (shown here) and his newspapering partner Ken Bundy built the building that houses the Gunnison Country Times today.

One week, during the usual last-minute rush to publish the Thursday paper, the ungrateful piece of machinery almost tore Daddy’s arm off when his smock sleeve caught in some gears. That particular week, the Courier contained more blood, sweat and tears than usual.

Gradually, very gradually, the pair started to realize a little money out of their enterprise, and Daddy, always optimistic about Gunnison’s future, decided they needed a new building. So, they went into debt again and built the brick building that now houses the Gunnison Country Times.

The day they moved in was

a very exciting day. But if you had talked to Daddy that day, his conversation would not have been of how far they had come, it would have been of what they were going to accomplish next.

He always had one foot firmly planted in hope for tomorrow.

Daddy saw Gunnison as an uncut diamond, and he was constantly polishing her and selling her. He served on the board of the Chamber of Commerce.

He was president of the School Board. He helped start the Gunnison Navy. To promote tourism, he organized fishing competitions for kids by flooding the second block of Main Street. He was a man of tremen-

dous wit and charm and vision — a dreamer who wasn’t afraid of a risk or of hard work.

I sometimes see his enthusiasm and imagination alive in the Gunnison planners and dreamers of today, and that makes me glad. I know he must be right in there helping!

(EPILOGUE: When the Korean War began my father was recalled to the Air Force. He kept his partnership in the paper for a period of time, but eventually sold it to Ken Bundy. He was stationed in Japan for a few years and mother joined him there. After the war they eventually returned to Chicago.)

A GLANCE INTO HISTORY

The story of our Times Community journalism is alive and well in Gunnison

by Larr y Jensen

On August 18, 1975, local newspaper readers were greeted with a new name at the top of the front page. The town’s three familiar papers — the Gunnison NewsChampion, the Gunnison Courier and the Gunnison County Globe — had all faded into history, merged into a single publication christened Gunnison Country Times.

Newspaper mergers and acquisitions were nothing new here. They began one year after the town’s first newspaper, the Gunnison News, was established on April 17, 1880. Ultimately, many papers would be established and combined on the way to creating the incarnation you now hold in your hands.

The 35-year saga of the Gunnison Country Times began when Perkins D. Sams and his wife Elizabeth Bradley Sams achieved their dream of owning a small town newspaper. They were Texans who began visiting the county in the 1950s and moved here full time in the 1960s, living along the Taylor River.

Their Sams Communications purchased all three Gunnison newspapers in July 1975. Initially, the Courier was published on Mondays and the combined News-Champion-Globe was published on Thursday. This only lasted for a few weeks before the Times name was adopted. Mrs. Sams served as publisher for the first year.

A single-car accident on Taylor River Road claimed her life on Aug. 1, 1976. Mr. Sams then stepped into the leadership role for the next 14 years.

On Dec. 1, 1990, he sold the Times

Perkins D. Sams

Mike and Susan Ritchey

to Jerry L. Brock, who had owned several small newspapers on the Front Range and truly loved the newspaper business, according to his friend Mike Ritchey. Brock formed Gunnison Communications, Inc., serving as its president and relying on local staff to produce the Times.

In 1993, Ritchey and his business partner Tony Daranyi started the Telluride Daily Planet newspaper in its namesake city. They also produced the Montrose County Shopper.

Printing for both was done primarily in Cortez. Over time, the distance became a burden. A conversation with Brock about purchasing a printing press to be centrally located in Montrose turned into an offer

by Brock to sell them the Times and the Mountain Sun newspaper in Crested Butte.

On March 8, 1995, the sale was completed.

The Ritchey-Daranyi team became co-publishers and during the years they owned the Times, changes were made. The paper had been expanded to five-days-aweek (Tuesdays through Saturdays) while Brock owned it. This was cut back to weekly. A renewed emphasis on reporters truly covering local news took root. Their idea of centrally printing all of their publications in Montrose also became reality in 1998.

The winds of change were blowing again, though. Jeremy L. Halbreich, who had been a major corporate player in Dallas-Fort Worth media for many years, decided he wanted to build his own news group. He formed American Consolidated Media, LP, in 1998 and the following spring made Ritchey and Daranyi an offer they

couldn’t refuse for all of their holdings. On April 28, 1999, Halbreich announced the acquisition.

Again, the paper was operated “remote control” by outside ownership interests.

Ritchey was disappointed with the direction the Times was going and began to regret selling it, believing that Gunnison deserved something better than what was being produced. An inquiry was made and, for whatever reason, Halbreich was willing to sell the Times back to Ritchey.

Through his Rosebud of Gunnison, LLC, Ritchey reacquired the Gunnison Country Times on June 28, 2001, with the intention of making the “course correction” he believed was necessary and ultimately finding a new owner that would continue to produce a high-quality, locally-owned newspaper. He found two owners.

Which brings us to the present. When he reacquired the Times, Ritchey “inherited” Stephen J. Pierotti, who had joined the production team in 2000. Ritchey also encouraged former reporter Chris Dickey to return in the position of managing editor, which he did, effective Jan. 1, 2002.

Pierotti’s love of production and graphics and Dickey’s love of journalism — and the long hours and hard work both were willing to perform in the pursuit of excellence — impressed Ritchey.

On Jan. 6, 2006, Pierotti and Dickey bought Ritchey out, formed Gunnison Country Publications, LLC, and became co-owners of the Gunnison Country Times.

Ritchey and his wife, Susan, still live in Gunnison, pleased that community journalism continues to be alive and well here.

1 Gunnison Country Times

April 2010 •

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•3

Match the ad with the year A

B

C

F

D

E

G

H

1948 _____________

1959 _____________

1977 _____________

1958 _____________

1968 _____________

1991 _____________

1958 _____________

1977 _____________

1989 _____________

I

Answers: A = 1977; B = 1977; C = 1958; D = 1989; E = 1991; F = 1968; G = 1958; H = 1948; I = 1959

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• April 2010

Gunnison Country Times

Never a job, A lively place to begin a career but a privilege

by Stephen Woody

by Joanne Williams

I started in October 1971, hired as editor of the Gunnison County Globe, paid $60 a week. Had no car, rode a bike for all in-town stuff, which was impressively cold when there was a fire to cover at midnight. The Globe was operated by Jim and Sue Fink, printed on a sheet fed press that occasionally Joanne Williams’ first day on the caught fire; Michael beat, in the fall of 1971.

C. Callihan, later the state’s lieutenant gov., was the sports writer. Bill James bought the Globe in 1972, Bill King in 1973, and Perkins Sams in 1975, combining it with the News-Champion in 1975 to create the Gunnison Country Times.

We hired cartoonist Rob Pudim, who did political cartoons for several small newspapers in the state, to produce weekly cartoons about local issues for our editorial page.

We reported ambulance calls; a piece that listed driver’s licenses that would be due soon; Wilma Dunsmoor reported news from Sargents; Margaret Flick from Quartz Creek; Pauline Stadjuhar from Crested Butte; and Grant Houston from Lake City. Dennis Steckel’s “A Tip of the Hat” reported on Gunnison Farm Bureau News. The Gunnison Bank & Trust had a full-page weekly ad that honored a local student.

Photos were taken on film, developed and printed by the person who took them, often overnight, transferred to “halftones” (which created a series of dots, similar to current pixels). Articles, halftones and clip art (for ads) were typed, cut and pasted and laid out by hand on newspaper-sheet-sized grids, transferred to aluminum plates that wrapped around cylinders of a newspaper press. Ink was transferred from the plate image onto the individual sheets or rolls of paper.

Before Perkins Sams bought the Globe and the NewsChampion and combined the papers, the Globe was printed in Montrose, and we would drive the laid-out pages down late Wednesday, stay till it was printed and drive it back to Gunnison for distribution Thursday morning.

In the ’70s the communities of Gunnison and Crested Butte (and Gunnison County) were immersed in the controversies of: -land use planning (the County’s proposed “impact zoning,” downtown planning in Gunnison) -molybdenum and uranium mining -the high cost of housing -repeated elections to allow public television to be broadcast locally -rising sales taxes and property taxes -funding the development of a recreation center in Gunnison -the possibility of public transportation between Gunnison and Crested Butte and locations of terminal sites -proposed federal designations of national wilderness acreages -locations of batch plants and gravel pits -psychological profiling of police hires in Gunnison -concern about possible hyrdroelectric projects, and water siphoning from the Gunnison Valley to Wheatridge -remodeling of the courthouse and costs to do it -geothermal energy exploration -trash collection -disgruntlement about TV reception -conflicting opinions on development of a ski area (Marble’s) I got to be in the middle of it as a very young editor and reporter, in a community that was very forgiving as I learned the ropes. Whether it was writing obituaries about people I’d come to care for, or those of their children, “Cook-of-the-Week” columns, reports about potential developments, taking photos of 50th anniversaries, of the Cattlemen’s Days competitors from the press box above the chutes, high school wrestling, or the Cowbelles’ petting zoo, I got to be part of a community that was, and is, matched by no other. It never was a job; it was a privilege.

(Joanne Williams was hired by Gunnison County in 1979 to staff the Planning Commission, and has been director of the Community Development (formerly Planning) Department since 1983.)

I was the Gunnison Country Times’ first advertising manager. Frankly, I wasn’t much good at it.

I was fresh out of college and missing those friendships so much that it was difficult to concentrate on what we now call “revenue streams.”

Too many temptations from up the road in Crested Butte and too many “fishing streams” near Gunny. I was also the Times’ sports editor and did a middling job at that.

My father, William Woody, was a limited partner with James Allison, two newspaper publishing veterans who, with Perkins Sams, the majority owner, bought three Gunnison newspapers and formed the Country Times in 1975. (They also purchased Buena Vista’s newspaper.) All three men have passed, Mr. Sams most recently.

The Times’ publisher was Bradley Sams, one of the most charismatic people I’ve known. She tackled the job head on, usually with humor and a boisterous laugh. She enjoyed kicking back with the staff and on press days, there was always beer and food handy to culminate a week’s work of community journalism. It was a lively place to start a newspaper career.

The Sams’ invested a lot of money in the Country Times. They completely renovated the building, bought a new, right-out-of-the-crate six-unit Goss Community Press that my father selected — since his strength was on the production side of the newspaper business. We also enjoyed the very latest in typesetting equipment.

Those three weekly newspapers in Gunnison — the Courier, the News-Champion and the Globe — were consolidated into one flag.

For a time, there was some arcane rule that had to list all the names in the newspaper’s masthead and the poor lady who answered the phone said: “Good morning. The Gunnison Courier, News-Champion, Globe, Country Times. May I help you?” A

Stephen Woody, taking time out from hustling advertising accounts to check out a local fishing hole.

mouthful.

The name, Gunnison Country Times, was all Bradley. She wanted, as I recall, a community paper that represented the “Gunnison Country” and the times the citizens lived in.

It’s unique, and apt. I’m envious, too, of the clever Times’ modern-day slogan: “Printing all the news we know about.”

The only real difficulty I recall in my short stint there was how the Sams family had put a fence around their property, which included the Taylor River. It was within their rights and lawful, but it was hard to sell advertising to local merchants.

“Oh yeah,” the refrain began, “you work for those Texans who fenced the river.” It was an objection that most advertising peddlers don’t have to overcome, but it did provide motivation.

One of my favorite stories is taking my college pals, when they came to visit, to the Bath House in Crested Butte, where everyone walked

around without clothes, typically after a full-bore day of skiing. I did this because I knew they would go back to Texas and tell our mutual friends: Woody lives in a place where he skis all day long and then goes to a place where everyone’s nekkid.

Every time I go through Gunnison en route to somewhere else I’m reminded of advertising accounts that I called upon. Like Peterson Hardware, my favorite account.

Charles Peterson ran a good business, used advertising wisely and his son, Dr. Craig Peterson, is a respected urologist in private practice here in Montrose. I see the old Klinkerhaus Building, which was at the time Gunnison’s leading store.

Leo Klinker was a hard guy to sell.

The Safeway store opened while I was there — brand new, with corporate big shots flying in for the ribbon cutting. Page one news.

I thought it peculiar at first, but later part of the community’s charm, how stores closed early on Friday afternoons so shopkeepers and citizens could watch the Gunnison Cowboys play football in the Western State College stadium. That year, the Cowboys didn’t have a very good team and went several games without scoring. When they did score — and it was on the wrong end of a 48-6 loss — the Times noted: “Cowboys Score Touchdown.” Big news, akin to a vaccine discovery.

I made friendships while there that have endured.

I believe Chris Dickey and Steve Pierotti do an outstanding job of publishing a community newspaper.

I’m flattered they would ask for a few thoughts from some of the Times’ “alumni.” And yes, I’m a paid subscriber.

(Stephen Woody is a journalist, newspaper publisher and cancer survivor who has published community daily and non-daily newspapers in Wyoming, Arizona, North Carolina and for the last 13 years, the Montrose Daily Press.)

P.D. Sams and objectivity: a volatile mix

by Steve Kinney

My short sojourn as a journalist in Gunnison taught me everything I needed to know about news — and about life, for that matter. Idealism, greed, truth, snobbery, romance, scenery and sports swirl around my memory like a whirlwind when I think back to the three years I experienced in the Gunnison Country 30 years ago.

It was my second stay in Gunnison and my second newspaper job when Joanne Williams hired me as a general assignment reporter for the Times in 1978. A decade had passed since my expulsion from Western State College, and I arrived intent on gaining a measure of redemption along with a regular paycheck.

Joanne was the finest editor a green reporter could hope to learn under. She was a brilliant intellect, fair to a fault, unbelievably industrious and a highly principled taskmaster.

Her principles put her sideways

with Perkins D. Sams, the oil tycoon who then owned the Times. Because Joanne was courageous as well as principled, she tangled frequently with the chauvinistic and irascible right-wing publisher.

When, inevitably, Joanne left the Times and I was thrust into the role of “interim editor,” P.D. informed me in no uncertain terms how the paper was going to cover any sort of news involving the U.S. Forest Service.

“Don’t you ever forget,” he seethed in his guttural West Texas drawl. “Those little men in the green suits are Public Enemy Number One!” This was an era of pitched battle between molybdenum mining giant Amax and anti-mining environmental forces centered in Crested Butte.

Government agencies like the Forest Service did their best to referee the conflict. The newspaper, of course, was supposed to remain neutral, accurately covering both sides of the public policy debate. At least that’s what I’d learned in Journalism 101.

It wasn’t long before I found out, as Joanne had, that objective news reporting could not possibly coexist with P.D. I left the newspaper, and Sams installed as editor a guy who previously wrote for “Drill Bit” magazine someplace in Texas. I went happily to work for P.D.’s competitor, Gil Hersch, at the Crested Butte Chronicle. A few months later I moved on to my next newspaper stop in Scottsbluff, Neb. While in Gunnison I loved the skiing, the golf at Dos Rios, fabulous scenery, genuine cowboys and wonderful nightspots like the Oasis Bar, River Inn and the Last Chance.

I’ll never forget the place, or the energetic people who live there.

I hereby raise a birthday toast to the Gunnison Country Times. Prost!

(Steve Kinney was an editor, writer and photographer for the Gunnison Country Times and the Crested Butte Chronicle from 1978-81. Now a resident of Duluth, Minn., he works in investor relations for an energy company.)

1 Gunnison Country Times

April 2010 •

Local: more important than ever

by Mike Ritchey

Every time I pick up a Country Times, see a Times front page staring out from a coin box, pass by the building on N. Wisconsin, well, I realize just how lucky I am — and how lucky this town is, too.

In this day and age, Ritchey when so much of the country’s news media seems to have abandoned its duty, our local newspaper continues standing tall.

Full disclosure: I have owned the Times twice, though I don’t anymore.

It’s the reason why Susan and I live in Gunnison today. The paper occupies a big place in my heart. It belongs very nearly front row-center in your heart as well.

Imagine — A hundred and thirty years! That may be even longer than Virginia Jones. While I may occasionally feel, and very often look, like I’ve been around all that time, I really didn’t get here until 1995. I am, and always will be, a newcomer; but a little different sort of newcomer. I don’t want to make Gunnison into something like the place I came here from. This is already God’s Hometown.

To paraphrase a line in, as I recall, “Jerry Maguire,” newspapers had me the first day I walked into a newsroom.

In one way and another, I’ve been loitering around in them ever since. It’s true that, like almost every other calling I can think of, newsrooms are different than they used to be, and for more reasons than just the computers.

The young people who fill newsrooms today are more professional, more career-oriented, less liable to hang out

in bars and pool halls all night, bless their hearts — a fact that makes an old guy wonder where do they find all the news?

Chris Dickey asked for a few reminiscences — an old war story or two, I guess. And, of course, I have some.

But what really interests me right now is emphasizing to Times readers the importance of a well-run, locally owned newspaper that is managed by smart and decent people who love their town.

We should all count our lucky stars.

The complaints about the media we hear all day every day are entirely deserved. For at least a century, newspapers in this country virtually minted money. Newspaper families more often than not were among the most wealthy families to be found. As time passed, though, and the blood thinned, the little heirs and heiresses spent so much of their time counting their money and going to cocktail parties with the rest of the rich and famous that they forgot to pay attention to the world. How could they not have noticed the Internet? The New York Times, asleep at the wheel, built a multi-billion-dollar PRINTING plant — and new headquarters — just a few years ago. Such mindless operation defies belief. And other big newspaper companies did much the same thing. When advertisers began following their customers, who were finding their information on the Web, newspapers responded not by rushing to cover their mistake, but by decimating their product.

Will they recover? I feel sure they will ... somehow.

Meanwhile, out in the hinterlands where The Denver Post either makes an appearance now and then or doesn’t, small-town papers kept on keeping on.

The Country Times, for example, is better now than it has ever been, and it

will be even better tomorrow. Just think about that.

In my day, as in Chris Dickey’s and Stephen J. Pierotti’s day, readers would grumble. The paper missed the point on that story, or the editorial was way off base. But, hey, other readers of that same story, that same editorial, gave ’em both a big thumbs-up. And next week?

The reactions will likely be reversed.

Advertisers now and then get mad and pull their advertising. Angry, they try to hurt the paper. By doing so, they only hurt themselves, and their community. By advertising in the paper — by spending half a dollar each week to read the paper — our award-winning Country Times keeps on getting better.

The newspaper has no axe to grind.

It covers the stories, and then, on the editorial page, agrees or disagrees, and maybe makes an alternative suggestion.

Every week! If I don’t like what I read there, I can call and talk to the person who wrote what I read. Or, guess what?

My Letter to the Editor will be published, just the way I wrote it. Anyone who thinks otherwise is simply wrong.

All these same points could be made about our local politicians. We are out of line when we bring D.C. home to Gunnison, and try to brand our elected officials — who are, after all, our friends and neighbors — as enemies.

They are to a person honest and hardworking, trying simply to do what, after diligent study, they believe will be best for the rest of us. I mean, tell me where else in this world you’ll find a mayor, who, if you’re sick or out of town, will continually shovel the snow off your driveway until you get better or get home?

As for war stories, say, did I ever tell you about the time ... what? No more space? Ah, well, it’ll hold for another 130 years.

common office call for assistance began with, “Paul Wayne, damnit, my computer won’t (fill in the blank).”

So, one production day I snuck in early and put a sticky note on everyone’s monitor: “FYI, my name isn’t Paul Wayne Dammit. Thank You.” Kinda smart-aleck, but hey, it’s me.

Next to be added to my list of “additional duties” was staff masseur. Yep, my duties included shoulder and neck massages for Steve and ad saleswoman Diane Folowell. This duty was NOT optional, and goodness, did each need some work. I also offered Jeff Kasper, who worked in the production department, my services.

Big, burly Jeff, 6’3”, 270 lbs., would watch my giving Steve a massage, and give us an “Is there anything I should know about this?” look. Cracked me up.

My tenure, 1995-2000, certainly wasn’t short on hot-button issues. The (perennial) Snodgrass ski area expansion, other ski area issues, building new schools up valley and down, the villainous Arapahoe County attempt to snatch away Gunnison Basin water to be sent over the Great Divide to Denver.

May God bless arch-foe and Union Park Reservoir conceptualizer Dave Miller. I disagreed with him totally, but man, did I ever respect his tenacity and his genteel manner.

Then the federal highway builders wanted to turn the picturesque Taylor River Road into an expressway. Really ... dumb ... idea. County Commissioner Fred Field, County Manager John DeVore and I would arrive at the meetings as a team. Collusion between government and the press? You bet!

Oh heck, I cannot possibly list all

the issues in the space Mr. Dickey has offered me, but, suffice to say, 19952000 at the GCT was non-stop action.

Fifty or 60-hour weeks were standard operating procedure. I tell ya, I didn’t notice nor mind much. It felt like we were doing what newspapers are supposed to do: keep a sharp eye on those in government or business with nefarious designs. The press is the Fourth Estate.

My days at the GCT ended sorta ignobly. The paper had been sold, and we had a new publisher, hands-on guy for sure. One Thursday afternoon he announced to the staff the results of a survey done somewhere in Michigan.

He told us that the top three things people want to read in a newspaper were sports, crime and local human interest stories. That’s our focus now, he said.

“Do you know what came in last out of 20 topics?” he asked. Nope. Government reporting.

I said, “Huh?” He said yep. “So are those priorities now our priorities?” Yes they are.

That afternoon, after everyone had gone home, I packed my stuff, never to return. Good grief, the primary role of a newspaper is to keep a critical eye on things, especially government. Sure, doing so means stepping on some toes.

Yeah, well, so be it ... it’s our job.

Other than that final episode, my days at the Gunnison Country Times were some of the best of my 60 years on Earth. And who knows? Maybe there’s a book lurking in the recesses of my mind.

If so, I’ll let everybody know when it hits the bookstores ... uh ... nationwide.

When ya dream, it’s always good to dream big.

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•5

It’s all about the experience

by Kym O’Connell-Todd

Back in the early ’90s, fresh diploma in hand, I hounded then editor Roger Morris so hard that he hired me just to get me off his back. I don’t think he regretted it, aside from the time I tried to kill him with a wooden statuette from Winnie Warren’s desk.

I never regretted taking the job, either.

I figured long hours and an undersized paycheck built character. Mostly I enjoyed getting out in the community and having the right to ask people their business. The job may even have been one of my favorites, regardless of the fact I’d been yelled at, chased by dogs, and sent to the principal’s office for writing an unfavorable editorial about a Gunnison school.

Five years as features editor for the former Highlights section of the paper brought me to a multitude of interesting people, professions and hobbies. Most of my news victims openly shared their pursuits. I helped a clock maker construct a grandfather face, dove off a picnic table at a leadership workshop (yes, they caught me), and nearly took out a group of school kids during a ski lesson in Crested Butte.

My memories of working there are countless, and most of them are good; many of my co-workers became lasting friends. I urge anyone remotely interested in news reporting to follow that path. As Ed Quillen says, “You can become a good reporter after a college degree or six week’s experience.”

Computer Massage, collusion and setting priorities era begins

by Paul Wayne Foreman

One-hundred-thirty years of journalism in Gunnison. My oh my.

Recently I’ve been corresponding with a true lady, Natasha, in Kiev, Ukraine, a city resplendent with structures and culture 1,000 and more years old, she has Foreman explained to me.

Still, in the Wild West, 130 years accounts for a considerable passage of time.

My days at the Gunnison Country Times began in 1995, when reporter Jan Badgley suggested that I submit a column to the Times. In the “daily days” of the GCT, filling those five newspapers presented a challenge. I must’ve caught editor Steve Reed’s eye (or maybe he was desperate ...), and owner Mike Ritchey hired me on as a reporter.

Heartfelt thanks, Steve and Mike, for the opportunity you offered me.

Well, reporting came easy. What I didn’t know about journalism, Steve taught me. Steve, what a stickler you were (and still are, I imagine) for proper form, for “telling the whole story,” for taking pride in a job well done.

It paid off. My very first entries to the Colorado Press Association awards contest, an editorial and a serious column, took a pair of first-place awards. I don’t know who was more astounded over that, me, Mike, or Steve.

Gradually, my duties increased. Our computer guru, Chris Kennedy, began working at the paper Mike owned in Montrose. Yep, now I’m the IT guy. A

by Dody Pusy

When I started for the Times as a photo tech in 1985, the stories were still all typeset by hand on strips of paper, which went through chemical development and were hung from wires all over the office to dry.

Corrections had to be redone in paragraph form, and then a whole bunch of corrections were printed out, processed, and pasted over the “offending” paragraphs.

A couple of months after I started, the first three computers were brought in. They were the tiny MacIntosh, and only one had a hard drive (the Editor got that one). Lee Ann Lee was in production in those days, too. She is in the assessor’s office now.

I worked for the Times under three owners — Mike Ritchey, Jerry Brock and Perkins Sams — and seemingly innumerable editors/managers.

I guess the only sort of funny story I know of is the one that floated around back in the Sams day about how Perkins came to buy the Times. One day, his wife Bradley asked Perkins to buy her a paper when he went into town, so he bought her the Times. Of course, Bradley ran the paper until her untimely death in the auto accident in Taylor Canyon.

Of course, Sams started the Mountain Sun in Crested Butte to politically counteract the Chronicle & Pilot. Sandra Cortner, who was Roger Morris’ trusty sidekick and photographer, is still in CB. Evan Lukassen, who wrote for the paper and edited the ill-fated daily, is a schoolteacher in Gunnison now.

(For many years, Dody Pusy was the advertising manager for the Times. She and her husband Chuck are now retired, but still spend summers in Gunnison.

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• April 2010

Gunnison Country Times

A God-given opportunity

by Steve Reed

My life changed on July 24, 1995, when my phone rang in Dallas and a voice with a stronger Texas twang than mine said: “Steve, this is Mike Ritchey up in Telluride. I’ve just bought a little daily over in Gunnison and I wondered if you might want to come up here and run it.”

It not being April 1, I took Mike at his word, didn’t ask how many other people might already have declined his offer, said “I do” and started packing.

By then, I’d survived 25 years of big-city journalism. I had prayed for change. Donna, Matthew and I had vacationed in and around Gunnison for eight summers. Colorado had been a dream, ephemeral, elusive. Suddenly, it was our new address.

Mr. Ritchey’s “little daily” was rooted in a vibrant, scenic community. But under previous ownership, the Times had depended heavily on Associated Press stories about the state, nation and world instead of filling the paper with local news that readers couldn’t get anywhere else.

Mike had ripped out the AP wire by the time I arrived in August. He was committed to making the Times all local.

But, perception lags reality. The newspaper had been out of touch for so long that the community didn’t put much stock in its usefulness. From my optimistic perspective, the Times had a new owner, a growing staff and a clear, local mission. The community had a different perspective: “Yeah, right. Talk’s cheap.

Walk the walk, Dude.”

I figured in a salt-of-the-earth place like Gunnison, the public schools might be the common thread. If we could get news from classrooms — as distinct from school board meetings — teachers and parents might notice. If one teacher would share a story about classroom success and if another teacher read that story and thought, “So

A turbulent beginning, but a treasured past

by Keith Hawkins

Reed and his sports editor, Keith Hawkins, talking shop out at the baseball diamond.

they think their accomplishments are special, wait till we tell the paper about our accomplishments,” we might generate a competition in print.

Schools reporter Jan Badgley created fliers introducing herself and inviting teachers to share their stories. Nobody responded.

I told her not to give up. She just needed one breakthrough.

It came, of course. We spent the next five years covering Gunnison County, with a heavy emphasis on public schools, water, conservation, health care, economic development, tourism, preservation of the ranching heritage and Western State College.

Mr. Ritchey sold the paper around 1999. Matthew graduated from Gunnison High School in 2000. When he headed off to college, I signed up for my next adventure as editor of the state capital daily in Juneau, Alaska. I don’t regret much in life and I’m grateful for the years spent in the Last Frontier. But I do feel like I squandered a Godgiven opportunity when I left Gunnison. I’m a subscriber to the Times these days. Matthew’s career has brought him back to Gunnison County. Donna and I read the real estate ads as retirement closes in.

I know the paper is better than ever. I believe I am correct when

I say it has maintained a local connection that was resurrected 15 years ago, thanks originally to Mr. Ritchey and a succession of great employees. Don’t take the “localness” of your paper for granted. Not every community has a paper like the Times.

My thanks to Chris Dickey for his invitation to share my thoughts. Thanks to Mike “Dude” Ritchey for redirecting my career and to Susan Ritchey for the inspiration she provides to Mike. Thanks to the people who made Donna’s and my Gunnison experience so meaningful, including Bill and Betsy Nesbitt, Chris and Julie Luekenga, Pat and Carol Kennedy, Rick and G-l-o-r-i-a Besecker, Jack and Amy Perry, Hap and Narcissa Channell, Linda Rees, Linda Spann, Dennis Steckel, Phoebe Cranor, Sally Gonser, Rick Murdie, John Roberts and the late J.W. Campbell.

Thanks to everyone who supported the Times by providing news, subscribing, advertising and just dropping by the office to say “hi.” Finally, my everlasting gratitude goes to every member of the staff who shared their talents and extended their patience, circa 1995-2000. You made my life so much richer.

A cup of coffee from The Bean, a loaded waffle at The Firebrand, reading the n e w s p a p e r.

That was how I started Hawkins many of my Saturdays in Gunnison. Whether it was the dead of winter or middle of July, you could always find a crowd outside those establishments and a friendly face who would say good morning.

Ten years later in Southington, Ct., I’m still doing the same thing — reading the Hartford Courant, drinking coffee out of The Bean coffee mug I cherish.

But it’s not the same.

That’s not to say the people here aren’t friendly (they are); but I bring The Bean coffee mug with me as a reminder of the town, the people, who helped shaped me into the person I am today.

Although after one of my first days at work, I thought my stay in Gunnison would be a short one.

“My daughter is a better player.”

That was the feedback I received from an anonymous caller after the first story I wrote was printed in the Gunnison Country Times — a story about Michelle Dorzweiler, who I had categorized as the best volleyball player at GHS. (Sorry anonymous caller, but she was the best player, and if some of her teammates had embraced her talents instead of been envious of them, the Cowboys would have fared

much better.) I remember taking pictures at a GHS gymnastics practice when one of the gymnasts asked me: “How come you don’t like us?” And after several run-ins with the Cowboys football coaching staff, I began to feel like Gene Hackman’s character, coach Norman Dale, in “Hoosiers” — an outsider in a small town who the locals couldn’t wait to see leave.

But two people quickly took me under their wings: Steve Reed and J.W. Campbell. Steve was my boss, my mentor, my friend who had moved to Gunnison a month after I had, and J.W. was, well, J.W. (I’ll need more than 500 words to describe J.W.) Steve and his family treated me like I was their son. J.W. taught me about Gunnison, the people and what life was like in this college town, one I had never heard of until my job interview.

So after a turbulent first year, attending GHS sporting events no longer felt like work — it was something I looked forward to doing. It was a chance to connect with the community, the parents of the students I was covering.

Gunnison, and the Country Times, is a part of my past that, at the time, I thought would have been just a line on my resume. Instead, it’s been a part of my life — one that I’m thankful and fortunate to have every day since I left 10 years ago.

(Hawkins was the sports editor from 1995-98. After the Times, he served as the sports information director for Western State College. Since leaving Gunnison, he has worked at ESPN in the Stats and Information Department for the past 10 years.)

Meetings, and more meetings Where else but a

by Toni M. Todd

Meeting, meetings, meetings!

There were marathon meetings, boring meetings, lively meetings, contentious meetings.

County commissioners, city council, school board, Todd planning commissions.

The work of small-community government is never done, and therefore neither is that of the humble GCT reporter. Water. Wal-Mart.

Annexation. Land Use Resolution.

Snodgrass. Red Lady. (Some things never change.) There were often several perspectives on every issue, so the challenge to cover all sides loomed large.

There were times when I wished, like Rodney King, that we could all just get along. It might have been nice, just once, if everyone could agree, hold hands and sing Kumbaya.

It was those impassioned battles,

those fervent arguments over the most important issues, however, that assured me the Gunnison Country was in good hands. Individuals on either side of any debate appreciated the need to protect what was, and still is, so special about the place, while encouraging valley communities to thrive.

I remember typing with frigid, stinging fingers in the reporters’ back room of that historic, drafty building.

Chris and I took turns hogging the space heater on the coldest mornings.

In time, our enclave would grow toasty enough that we might remove some fleece, only to receive a surly visit from Debra Goodman, our receptionist. The thermostat was located on our wall, and once we became comfortable, it clicked off. With the front door swinging open every few minutes, it wasn’t long before poor Debra transformed from cheery, smiling, front-desk human to angry popsicle, sitting at her desk in full parka and sometimes gloves, shivering.

She’d put up with it for so long, then stomp to our cave, give us her best scowl, ask us to please turn off

the space heaters for awhile, then crank up the temperature. Chris and I would look at each other and shrug.

I have fond memories of production day. Susan Noble was a proofreading Godsend. Her primary job was to sell ads, which she also did with aplomb, but it was on production day when I especially appreciated her keen eye. She caught my boo-boos. Production day was a flurry of brainstorming clever headlines, cutting, pasting and running around town for last minute photos and quotes; an atmosphere of controlled craziness. It was on production day when the words and images finally landed on pages, in the proper order, mostly accurate. I also enjoyed the free lunch.

One more GCT memory: muffin day. Ya gotta love muffin day.

Frozen digits and contentious issues aside, it was a blast working at The Times. I miss you guys. Aloha!

(Toni Todd left Gunnison a few years ago so her husband could buy a tractor and grow stuff in Hawaii.)

hometown paper?

by Alan War tes

In the years since I stopped writing for the Gunnison Country Times I have continued to make my living with words; but I’ve discovered that not all writing is the same.

Sure, it is fun to speak to large numbers of people, but it was also satisfying to write for a smaller audience — so small we were sure to be in line together at the grocery store, or have lunch at the Wartes Firebrand at the same time. Under those conditions, feedback to what I wrote was instantaneous; sometimes positive and sometimes, well, less positive. But it was always real and relevant to our collective efforts to make Gunnison the best home it could be.

Where else but a small town paper can a writer cover the 100th birthday party of a community matriarch, an award-winning middle school science project, heated debate about sweeping changes in county land use regulations, landmark efforts to protect a unique endangered species, and a forest fire threatening homes at the edge of town — all in the same week?

I heartily celebrate the 130th anniversary of the Gunnison Country Times — and treasure the opportunity I had to contribute to that history.

1 Gunnison Country Times

April 2010 •

A fun A place for hardy souls place to work

by Michelle Burkhar t

by Susan Noble

I’ve got a few favorite stories, among many.

One took place about a year after Mike Ritchey bought the Times back and brought you, Chris, Noble on board. A woman stormed through the front door of the office, clearly annoyed. She slammed her purse down on the front counter and announced through clenched teeth, “I guess I have to subscribe to this ... this ... newspaper! I canceled my subscription years ago, but now, every time I turn around somebody is saying to me, ‘Oh, you didn’t know that? Didn’t you read the paper this week?’” She then paid for her subscription and stormed back out the door.

Another happened about three years after we started our “Thanks for Shopping Locally” campaign. I walked into a Main Street business during the holidays in time to hear a shopper chatting with a woman who had walked in just ahead of me: “I am having the BEST time shopping this year. I’m finding all kinds of wonderful gifts and every time I buy something they wrap it for me! I used to always go to Grand Junction and I’d come home exhausted — and still with all the gifts to wrap. This year I’ve saved time and a ton of money and I’m actually having FUN!” Then there were staff meetings: Hearing Stephen stop suddenly, part-way through a rather colorful explanation and announce, “I swear too much,” before proceeding with the obvious intention of rectifying that.

I remember watching Stephen explaining one of his new and quite brilliant ideas, after which he paused, signaled toward his head and deadpanned, “This is my excited face.”

I always loved watching Madeline and Spencer walking back through the office for a bit of Daddy time.

And Mike Ritchey. ... Do you know how many times I had to explain to novice advertising reps that, no, Mike was not serious when he said that.

Whatever ‘that’ was at the time.

I used to love seeing Phoebe Cranor walk into the front office every Thursday morning, always in a perfectly color-coordinated outfit, from dress, to shoes, to purse, as she stopped by to pick up a dozen copies of the paper.

It was fun.

(Susan Noble worked in advertising at the Times from 2000 till 2006, when she and her husband, Glen, moved to Cortez. These days, she’s substitute teaching, working with horses and doing a “bit of writing.”)

Whether shivering in the drafty brick building of the Times or jogging through sage-brush covered hills outside of town, I always had thoughts buzzing in my head about stories I researched for the paper while living in Gunnison between 2006 and ’09.

Prominent themes included the countyimposed linkage fees, draw-only elk hunting licenses, water wars, Snodgrass geology reports and sage-grouse tussles.

Certain characters also made cameo appearances in my dreams, such as CEOs of mining companies who pledged to mine Mt. Emmons (U.S. Energy, Kobex and Thompson Creek, during my tenure) and the Gunnison County Commissioners (Hap, Paula and Jim, with whom I spent many hours in the commissioners’ room).

The investigative stories at the paper kept me passionate about the job, whether it was looking into the professional background of Clyde Gillespie (a community liaison of mining company U.S. Energy) or tackling a local tax snafu (the county unknowingly taxing groceries for decades).

When I began working at the Times — on the heels of Chris Dickey and Stephen Pierotti taking over the paper

— my workload ebbed and flowed.

Thursdays were a sweet reward after the big push on Tuesday and Wednesday to get the paper out. Some Thursdays I found time to ski trails and recalibrate before Burkhart starting the next paper cycle.

But those slower days disappeared when the Times took on a new project: Putting our local news on the airwaves of KBUT. This new frontier of radio reporting came with lots of trial and error. One NPR reporter recommended we record our stories under down comforters on our beds for better sound quality.

While we may have tried that once or twice, reporter Will Shoemaker and Pierotti opted for creating our own little radio studio. They padded “Scary Closet II” (a former photo dark room in the back of the unheated Times building) with foam and towels to create an echoless chamber. I thought my desk area was frigid, but I quickly learned Scary Closet II takes the cake when it comes to proving Gunnison is, truly, only a place for hardy souls.

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•7

Don’t minimize the ‘Air Ninja’

by Delaney Keating

Working at newspapers over the years, under strict deadlines has made me a very efficient designer. Learning design from the inside out really gave me a different perspective than someone coming from the academic setting.

I was able to work with a wider variety of businesses Keating and to learn and assess style preferences. I also really know how to watch that bottom line!

In addition, it may be where I originally incorporated the “Air Ninja” into my routine. When something (or many things) goes wrong in day, especially technologically speaking, sometimes you just have to break down, assume position and kick the air like any good ninja. I don’t actually remember doing this at the paper, but it likely drove me to it ... eventually. I do recommend trying it sometime. It is better relief than a four letter word.

(Delaney Keating worked at the Times twice; once in 2001 and then again a couple years later. Today she owns and operates RoShamBo, a graphic design and print shop in Gunnison.)

It’s the community’s newspaper

by Chris Dickey

All local, all the time. That’s pretty much our motto here at the Gunnison Country Times.

In today’s age of sweeping changes to the state of the newspaper industry, our niche is more clearly defined than ever.

Want to read about the Denver Broncos? Go on-line. Interested in the latest flaps over healthcare reform? Go on-line. Want to see how the Gunnison Cowboys are doing, or learn what the city council or county commissioners are up to? Better pick up the Times.

The past decade has been a relatively stable period for the local newspaper. We’ve had local ownership, consistent leadership and a committed, singular focus on providing the community with the best darn hometown newspaper we could. Week in, week out.

The Times hasn’t been printed in-house since 1998. No local news-print publications are.

Printing presses are expensive — to own, operate and maintain.

They better be running an awful lot to pay for themselves, and the Gunnison Valley just doesn’t have that type of volume to make it work.

For the past several years, the Times (along with the Crested Butte News and the Top o’ the World and a whole slew of other newspapers) has been printed in Salida by Merle Baranczyk’s Arkansas Valley Publishing.

Merle runs a top-shelf shop and we couldn’t be happier with the service they provide.

The real story of the Times, however, is with the people who work here. A more dedicated, talented and hard-working group of individuals a boss could not ask for.

Outside of Stephen J. Pierotti and then myself, Jennie Wren

leads in the longevity category.

She’s been contributing her enormous skills and steady, cheerful demeanor to the production department since the fall of 2005.

Design is a huge part of successful newspaper. When it comes to creating attractive advertisements and paginating pages that are interesting and easy to read, nobody does it better than Jennie.

Larry Jensen is our resident historian, though the bulk of his “day job” duties consist of handling the legal and classified advertisements, postage reports, office management and other front desk duties. His weekly “A Glance into History” column has been one of my favorite additions to the paper in recent times. I encourage you to take a look at it if you haven’t already become a dedicated reader.

Drew Nelson has been at the helm of advertising sales now for a couple of years. He brings an energetic and business-minded approach to that position that is invaluable. Recently, the multitalented and personable Leia Morrison re-joined our staff as a part-time salesperson to give Drew a hand.

Handling the bulk of the reporting duties these days are Will Shoemaker and Matt Smith, both of whom have been associated with the Times since their days as students at Western State College dating back several years.

Matt started out as the sports guy, and since coming on board full time a year ago has continued to branch out into other areas, including covering feature and news story.

Will dives into news topics with the gusto that would make Woodward and Bernstein proud.

His ability to speak intelligently about the diversity of topics that come across his plate is truly

impressive.

Both Matt and Will also are skilled photographers, and they both regularly contribute audio stories to KBUT — as if they didn’t have enough to do.

Also helping out with photography on a consistent basis is Chris Rourke. Her keen eye and willingness to be in the right place at the right time contribute immensely to the product we’re able to put before you every week.

Last but certainly not least, all of this work would be for naught if we weren’t able to actually get the paper out on the streets.

We’re almost as lucky to have Frank Vader handling our distribution needs as is the community in having him serve as so much more than its coroner.

I know there’s a long, long line of Vaders in this community, but Frank is one-of-a-kind.

In addition to the weekly Times, we publish a slew of specialty publications – such as a hunting guide, Cattlemen’s Days supplement, summer magazine and more. We do it all in house, and none of it would be possible without the support from our advertisers. If you’re not shopping locally, well, you just don’t get it.

I said this the first week I was back in the saddle here, and the sentiment has only grown stronger over time. This is a community newspaper. It’s about all of us, and it belongs to all of us.

My hope is that everyone feels a sense of ownership in the product that hits the streets every Thursday.

Want something to appear in the paper, have an idea you think is worth sharing? My door is always open. Or call anytime, 641.1414 or 596.1832.

Here’s to another 130 years of being a good, old-fashioned newspaper town.

Publisher/Co-Owner: Stephen J. Pierotti publisher@gunnisontimes.com Managing Editor/Co-Owner: Chris Dickey editor@gunnisontimes.com Staff Writers: Will Shoemaker will@gunnisontimes.com Sports: Matt Smith mattsmith@gunnisontimes.com Advertising: Drew Nelson drew@gunnisontimes.com Leia Morrison leia@gunnisontimes.com Production Manager: Jennie Wren adbuilder@gunnisontimes.com Billing: Sandy Ayers billing@gunnisontimes.com Office Manager: Larry Jensen legals@gunnisontimes.com Distribution: Frank Vader THE GUNNISON COUNTRY TIMES (ISSN 0892-1113) is published weekly

by Gunnison Country Publications, LLC., 218 N. Wisconsin St., Gunnison, Colorado 81230. Periodical postage paid at Gunnison, Colorado. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Gunnison Country Times, 218 N. Wisconsin Street Gunnison, CO 81230-0240 Office hours: 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Monday through Friday Tel 970.641-1414 - Fax 970.641.6515 Copyright© No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publishers. Copyright© 2010. No part may be transmitted in any form by any means including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without permission of the publisher. Any work (written, photographic or graphic) which the publishers “hired-out” becomes the property of the publisher. Publisher accepts no liability for solicited or unsolicited materials lost, damaged or otherwise.

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• April 2010

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