'Witch hunt or inciting riot?'

Shelley Lawrence Editor

The only reason this country is different from any place else is that once in a great while, this huge, snobbish, generally untalented news reporting business stops covering stories of interest only to itself and actually serves the public."

- Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, Jimmy Breslin

One week ago, it was my intent to "serve the public" when I ran a front-page article on zoning.

As publicly pointed out by Commissioner Paddy Trusler in the Nov. 10 Lake County Commissioner's meeting, other Leader articles have been written on the Lake County Density Map and Regulations.

The four articles, which appeared on July 29, Aug. 19, Aug. 26 and Sept. 9, featured interviews only with Lake County Director of Planning, Dave DeGrandpre.

The subject of "zoning" never came up.

No landowners, either in favor of or opposed to the map and regulations, were quoted.

After the publication of last week's Leader, I received phone calls.

Only one was negative, but I'll get to that in a minute.

Two residents of the county called to thank me. Two wrote a letters of appreciation. Six residents said that they now would subscribe to the paper. One farmer from Ronan came to the Leader offices to say he'd known nothing of the map or regulations until he read the article.

He was upset and referenced an attempt to zone the county 20 years ago. He carried the density map with him and asked me to publish it in this week's paper.

I have (See Page A-2).

The Nov. 11 zoning article gave a voice to landowners who appeared before the Planning Board on October 13 and other landowners who either I contacted, or who contacted me.

Beyond quoting long time residents of Lake County, I sought to explain how some of the regulations would work.

I thought then, and now, that this was of service to the community. As we'd underserved the public in covering this important story in the past, I determined that it was in the public's interest to actually hear what their neighbors were thinking.

In previous articles we'd heard only from the planning board.

The negative call I received came from Dave DeGrandpre.

Any conversation I have as editor is on the record, unless I agree otherwise.

Mr. DeGrandpre was on the record when he said to me, "Are you trying to incite a riot?"

Referencing my article on zoning he continued that he found it "extremely biased" and then asked me, "is this a witch hunt?"

While I appreciate any and all opinions, I can only answer his questions with "no" and "no."

His accusation that I "am just trying to sell newspapers" is wrong.

The mission of the Leader is to accurately report all the news of Lake County. Clearly, there was a need for this story.

The Leader will continue to tackle the tough issues. An informed populace makes informed decisions.

The Leader is the newspaper of record for Lake County.