By Matt Lit.
Some of you like the idea of burning issues of The Crestone Eagle and do so regularly on social media. And some of you have been wondering why there haven’t been boxes of newspapers at The Crestone Eagle offices for fire starter. To that burning issue, I can respond. We simply didn’t print as many during our lean months to help save on costs. To those who continue throwing stones at us for not covering other burning issues, we’re trying.
The Crestone Eagle has made many changes and we want to make more. With a limited number of writers it’s tough to cover fires as they pop up around town, the county and the San Luis Valley (SLV). As the managing editor, I would love to hear from writers interested and capable of covering news with fact-based, vetted news — not the hearsay-I-heard-said rumors on Facebook. Send me an email and resumé and tell me why you want to write for The Crestone Eagle.
Regular beats I’ve been wanting to include are Saguache County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), Baca Water and Sanitation District (BGWSD), the Baca Grande Property Owners Association (BGPOA) and San Luis Valley Rural Electric Cooperative (SLVREC) among others.
Here are some changes you have seen. We’ve upped our game with stronger and broader news coverage throughout the SLV thanks to Anya Kaats, Nancy Telos, Kim Black and Eden Elderberry. Our abilty to also share stories from The Colorado Sun has been a great help.
And, of course, we’re continuing our regular columns with new additions from Chantelle Pence, Gina Barrett, Karina Wetherbee and Bruce Becker. And I’m thankful to Matie Belle Lakish for her monthly recipes. Be sure to look at the staff box to see all our contributors. I could not do what I’m doing without them.
We woke up The Crestone Eagle website to bring you breaking news — essentially giving us the ability to be a daily. Thanks to Anya for writing on deadline, the community for getting us details on short notice and (especially) Uma Jolicoeur, for her teamwork in getting breaking stories posted and pushed to our social media on Facebook and Instagram.
We’ve brought back Spotlight on Business with the help of Lori Nagel writing (and photographing) about businesses in Crestone and the SLV.
Last month I added Music in the SLV with a cool new “hedder” created by Uma (Uma also updated the other hedder art for our regular columns and sections). I’ve been reaching out to music peeps in the SLV to broaden coverage. This month, I added a short essay by Marcus Daniels, of the band CresTown. I’d like to make that a regular feature. To all you musicians, consider writing a brief piece on what music means to you and to the community.
I also love what Zaylah Khundmiri has done with section B stories. She has broadened our reach into the valley with its many voices. I love designing B each month with the stories and photography she brings. This month is no exception.
And finally, you’ll notice this month I moved the obituaries to section B, across from Gussie’s, Notes from the Pyre. It’s called Passages now. A sincere apology to those of you upset with the small font I used for the obits in the February issue. I chose to do that to make sure I could fit the obits bumped from the January issue (due to space limitations of a smaller page count). Trust me that that will not happen again! And Janet Woodman for making sure I don’t! She does our proofing and is now doing cartoons.
And none of us could do any of it without Director Jenn Eytcheson and her amazing team with Angie Geis and Shoshannah Asha.
Reach me at: editor@crestoneeagle.com. Visit the website regularly. Visit our Facebook page and Instagram.