Late yesterday afternoon, I looked at the Belleville City Council's meeting agenda for 7:30 p.m. that evening, and I saw a single item for general business: valve replacement.
Valve replacement? How am I supposed to write a story about valve replacement? I mean, it's pretty mundane. I wondered what my angle would be. How would valve replacement affect Belleville residents' lives?
I'm being a bit facetious - there is an angle, and I knew it would become clear during the meeting. But I had to laugh.
I began to imagine that I would call Belleville Clerk Lisa Long and harangue her for the paucity of the agenda. How, pray tell, does she expect me to make a living writing stories about valve replacement?
And I thought no, that kind of humor can unintentionally be hurtful or at least a little odd, and I like Lisa too much, and she takes her job seriously, to have a little joke at her expense. Although I still rather like the idea. Valve replacement?
And I thought about Lisa, and how helpful she's been over the last couple years, after the Belleville City Council became one of my reporting beats in since 2011. And Diana Kollmeyer.
And I decided to write this column in lieu of covering the meeting, step back, take stock and say thank you.
Sharing information is the journalist's stock-in-trade. And drafting stories may beg questions in the reader's mind that yearn to be answered. And newswriting has deadlines. So it's gotta work quickly in most cases.
So prompt, helpful responses to my questions are a must, a big factor in doing my job effectively. I can't do it without their prompt assistance - a response within 24 hours is normal, but the sooner the better.
And I have to say, that I am so pleased with the responsiveness of government officials to me throughout the tri-community, some for almost a decade now: Lisa Long and Diana Kollmeyer are just a start. Kerreen Conley, Carl McClanahan, Darwin Loyer, Dan Besson, Greg Laurain, Kathleen Cline, Linda Combs, Cindy King, Sharry Budd, Paul White, Leon Wright, Todd Knepper, Richard Smith, Debra Greene, MJ Dawson, Tom MacDonald, Dan Swallow, Bryce Kelley, Terry Carroll, Johnny Vawters, Mary Jo Suchy, Rick Dawson, Esther Hurst, Jim Glahn, Mike Van Tassel, Karen Moffitt, Kathy Kovach, Martha Toth, Angela Stroud.
And other journalists. We help each other from time to time, confirming what we thought we heard someone say during a meeting, snaring extra copies of documents for each other, chatting about stories, joking with each other: Richard Jenkins, Rosemary Otzman.
The best thing about this job is taking a story, writing it so that it's clear to the reader, and ensuring the reader grasps how the story may affect her or him. And maybe get them to think about that.
But the second-best thing is the people with whom you work to get that done, without whom it's impossible to do your job effectively. A brief list is above, and I apologize to anyone I may have missed mentioning. Thank you so much.
Good stuff bud.
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