What seems new is really familiar

Published 10:09 am Monday, March 3, 2008

Twenty-nine years in Edmonds and I’m still the new kid on the block.

At least at The Enterprise, anyway.

I’m the latest addition to the newspaper’s editorial staff and the new Edmonds reporter.

Breaking news, on-going issues within City Hall and the business sector plus the state of the culture comprise my beat. With every story I hope to educate, enlighten and entertain readers without expecting them – or me – to earn a Ph.D. in a subject just to understand it.

A little about me: I’m a native of Vancouver, Wash., and a product of Washington State University’s School of Communications. I’ve worked at newspapers from Vancouver to Bellingham and for the past three years have covered Edmonds for another weekly paper.

I have three kids in college, a 30-year marriage to a guy who still makes my pulse race and I stay up ‘way too late reading everything from Wallace Stegner to “Sports Illustrated.”

Unrepentantly social, I love working a room and discovering who’s who and what’s what before the soup course is cleared.

Budget, technology and legal issues challenge me. But I’m willing to hunker down and study them as long as necessary.

You better believe if I don’t fathom something – whether it be how a tax is figured or implications of a Comprehensive Plan update – I won’t disrespect you by acting as if I do.

I admit to being a “homey” about this jaw-droppingly beautiful area of ours. Like you, I want it to prosper and grow in wise and graceful ways.

But that doesn’t mean I’ll be a cheerleader for city hall or press agent for rabble rousers. It does mean I’ll strive to report facts fairly and in ways that nudge readers toward understanding how people and events affect their lives.

So with your help in providing news tips, suggestions for profiles on interesting people and feedback to The Enterprise in the form of letters to the editor, we can be partners in shaping our community and sharing in the joy of living here.

Sue Waldburger is a writer at The Enterprise Newspapers.