Valley has made many changes, and so must I

Published 12:43 am Friday, October 3, 2008

According to a former journalism instructor, the story goes like this:

The Civil War was among the first major events in this country’s history where newspapers could take advantage of a new technology called the telegraph.

Reporters, following the armies of the North and South from battle to battle, would trasmit home their depictions of what they saw over miles and miles of telegraph wires.

Those telegraph wires were easily cut – and often were so – abruptly ending any transmission that might be in progress. So reporters and their editors devised a simple way to signal when stories had come to an end. They settled on the notation “-33-“.

If editors saw the “-33-“, they knew they had received the entire story. If not, they knew they had the most vital information concering that day’s battle, since the Civil War also saw the rise of the inverted-pyramid style of writing that is still common to this day.

These are the last words I will write for the Snoqualmie Valley Record. You see, I’ve been promoted, becoming the managing editor of the Renton, Kent and Auburn Reporter newspapers. Like us, they are part of the King County Journal Newspapers family.

I will miss this place, this newspaper. I will miss Mount Si in the late afternoon sunlight; I will miss the Falls roaring in the winter.

I will miss the people I’ve worked with here at the paper and the people I’ve worked with on stories that have appeared in the paper. It was my priviledge to be a part of your lives.

In my more than two years here, the Valley has been witness to changes too numerous to count. It’s evident in the faces of the people moving here, in the development that is ongoing, in the issues affecting the community, in our remodeled office in Snoqualmie, even on the actual pages of the newspaper itself.

The news generated by this Valley has been momentus; just take a look at today’s front page. There’s Weyerhaeuser Co. closing the mill and possibly selling the Snoqualmie Tree Farm.

There’s the Snoqualmie Preservation Initiative and North Bend’s triumph in saving Tollgate Farm. There’s the recognition, or re-recognition to be precise, of the Snoqualmie Tribe and its work to improve the lives of members.

With these tremendous changes, the Snoqualmie Valley is doing the best it can to stave off the pressures that come with them.

There is always the chance for change to divide the community. But in my opinion – if I may express one after covering this area – everyone, regardless of how long they’ve lived here, knows the beauty of the Valley and is willing to work hard to protect it.

And I applaud you for that.

-33-