From the Editor’s Desk

Hello, Caribou County!  My name is Brandon Hall, and over the last three years it has been my absolute pleasure to edit and write for the Idaho Enterprise in Oneida County.  When my boss Bryan Scott raised the possibility of doing something similar in Caribou County, I was both daunted and thrilled at the same time, which strained my multitasking abilities to their limits.

Getting to know a whole new community can certainly be a challenge, I’ve learned.  Communities are built over time, and the connections that many of you have to the area, its history, and each other have been hard earned over that time.  Coming into it fresh can definitely cause one (in this case, me) to feel that the amount there is to learn is insurmountable.  That doesn’t mean it isn’t worth the effort, of course.  And I certainly intend to establish a decent base camp and then keep climbing as far as this metaphor will take me.

The upside of coming into a situation without any preconceptions is that we might end up trying things that present new approaches to local news, and new sources of information. Sometimes those approaches will work, and sometimes they won’t.  And if you’re okay with that, then so am I.

While early on you’ll be seeing a lot of me, I’ve already been reached out to by a number of amazing folks with roots here and a strong desire to see their communities well represented in our coverage.  As we establish the basic tentpoles that we know people look for and expect in a paper in the tradition of the Sun, we will expand outward from there with the input, advice, and collaboration of those who would like to share their voices with us on this project moving forward.  Once we have finalized a location in town, I look forward to meeting with everyone who wants to stop by and talk about issues that are important to them, and ways we can work to cover them.  In the meantime, if you see me walking around town with a notebook looking lost feel free to stop me for a chat, help me figure out where the heck some street or other is, or tell me where to eat lunch.

If the first several weeks are any indicator, people in Caribou County are unfailingly nice, and quick to laugh.  Thank you to everyone for their support and assistance so far, and I hope we’ll be around for many years to come!