I want to give a shout out to Kathy Wellington, longtime Park Press board member, who is stepping down after six years as wise counsel to this nonprofit community paper. Wellington was always a steady voice and I appreciate all the work she put into keeping the Bugle vital. I also want to welcome our new board member, Chris Guanera, a small-business loan officer at Sunrise Banks, and thank the rest of the volunteer board members — Josh Becerra, Ted Blank, Betsy Currie, Elizabeth Danielson, Michael Griffin, Gabrielle Lawrence, Beth Magistad, Joey McGarvey, Bob Milligan, Merry Rendahl, Steve Plagens and Matt Vierling — for continuing the work of promoting the exchange of ideas and reporting and analyzing community news.
As Gabrielle Lawrence wrote here, the Bugle relies on the community to continue to tell the stories of the folks who live and work here. And it relies on a dedicated barebones staff that works hard to give you a professional little paper each month. The Bugle’s story bears repeating again and again: the brainchild of the late Andrew Boss, who was president of St. Anthony Park Bank (now Sunrise Banks) in 1974 when the Bugle began, it’s been weathering economic booms and busts and the changing landscape of traditional print news for a long time. Boss saw how a local newspaper builds community and local businesses and neighbors thrive when they support each other. And he gave us the Bugle.
There has been a long line of editors who have helped steer the Bugle over its 44 years, a job that’s half labor of love (as one former editor once said to me) and half part-time job. Bear with me as I list the past editors who — believe this — worked their tails off to bring you the Bugle each month: Gail McClure (1975-1976), Mike Hazard (1976-1977), Peggy Mann Rinehart (1977-1980), Mollie Hoben (1980-1984), Kevin Reichard (1984-1985), Mary Mergenthal (1984-1992, Mary still has her hands in the Bugle as obituary editor, proofreader and good listener), Kathy Malchow (co-editor, 1990-1992), Winton Pitcoff (1992-1994), Julie Lehr (1994-1995), David Anger (1995-1998 and 1999-2000), Laura Pritchett (1998-1999) and Dave Healy (2000-2010). I walked in when Dave Healy retired and now I am about to add my name to this esteemed list.
My eight years as the managing editor of the Park Bugle will end Sept. 1, and the Park Press board of directors is working hard on a search for the new editor. My first Bugle editorial appeared in the August 2010 edition and I waxed a bit about Fourth of July, the St. Anthony Park parade and the idea that Independence Day should be called Interdependence Day. The businesses, schools, foundations, nonprofits, residents and, yes, community newspapers, are dependent on each other. And this community is fortunate to have a resource like the Bugle to help make sense of it all.
My hope is that the community will continue and maybe even increase its support of this community institution as it heads into its 45th year. — Kristal Leebrick
